House of Paine - (A Romantic Suspense - Book 2) (13 page)

“He betrayed me.”

“Then why didn’t you kill him yourself?”

Jackson started laughing then and Alex and Damien waited. Sometimes his laugh was more dangerous than anything else he did...it usually meant that he had the upper hand already. “Don’t worry; it won’t be an issue for much longer. Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

Damien swallowed hard. He wasn’t so much afraid of Jackson as he was afraid that Jackson would refuse to help him. “Kramer has Paige.” Jackson didn’t say anything and the expression on his face didn’t change at all. Alex was right, he already knew. “I need your help.” Jackson threw his head back this time and laughed heartily. He was still holding the gun. Alex looked at it and then gave his brother a look that said, “He’s lost his mind.”

“You might not be my son, but you have my balls. It took quite a few for you to come here and ask me that after everything that has gone down lately.”

“So, will you help me?”

“What do I get in return?”

“Whatever you want...as long as you get her out of there alive.”

Jackson smirked again. “Ballsy and demanding...maybe you are mine after-all. You know what I want. I want what Greg left Paige, I want whatever you thought you were slyly keeping over the years and I want your absolute loyalty.”

“Okay, you’ve got it.”

Jackson raised an eyebrow and said, “That was quick.”

“I don’t care what I have to do as long as Paige comes out of this alive and unharmed.”

“I’m warning you...when she does come out of this, I’m sending her away. This family has been involved in one drama after the other since she showed up.”

Damien wanted to tell Jackson this family always was nothing but drama...but he checked his tongue. Instead, he told Jackson, “I just want her to be safe.” He pulled out his phone and said, “I got a text...”

“Tonight, at the docks, 6:30, right?”

“Yes...you did know...?”

“I’m not sure why that surprises you. Some of my men are still loyal to me. Two of them are on their way down there now. They’ll help Paige if they hear from me. It will start a war with Lucas...one that is likely to spill a lot of blood and change the whole face of the city. It’s a lot of grief to be brought down on me and my men because of an out of control girl running around thinking that she can take on seasoned business men and a boy who is letting his dick do his thinking.”

Calling him a “boy” was Jackson’s stab at the ultimate insult. Damien couldn’t care two shits what Jackson thought of him any longer, as long as he helped Paige. He did have to control his facial features when Jackson said, “Business men.” He waited, but Jackson was finished with that tirade. He sat the gun down on the desk in front of him instead and he turned to Alex and said, “You have a job to finish. Brad will be waiting for you at the front gate...I need a witness this time.”

Damien’s stomach fell. He was ordering Alex to go back and kill Kevin. Alex remained expressionless and Jackson went on to say, “I want proof as well. You call me when it’s finished. Meanwhile, your brother will get on the phone to that attorney he gave the evidence to.”

This fucker knows everything, Damien thought. He had sweat rolling down the side of his face as Alex who still hadn’t flinched was already walking towards the door. Jackson was forcing him to choose between Paige and Kevin. It took everything inside of him not to call after his brother or lunge for that gun on Jackson’s desk and kill him with it. Neither of those options would help Paige, and God help him as much as he loved Kevin...he couldn’t let Kramer kill her.

When Alex was gone Jackson turned to Damien and said, “Have him deliver the files here within the hour.” It was like he was ordering pizza. Damien took out his phone and called Jake.

“Hey Damien, I’m here with Kevin. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m doing okay. I need a big favor....”

“Of course. What do you need?”

“I need the files you’re holding for us...I need them brought to Jackson’s house ASAP.”

“Okay, I can do that. Are you sure about this?”

“I have to be,” Damien said.

“Alright then, give me about an hour to get Roxi over here with Kevin...”

“No, I don’t know if Roxi knows the address or not.”

“No...you don’t want Roxi here?”

“No, that’s not a good idea. I’ll just text you the address.”

“Okay, gotcha!” Jake said.

Jackson was listening to every word Damien was saying. Damien disconnected the call and then text the address to Jake. At the end of the message he said, “Tell my brother to remember what day this is.”  He sent and then deleted it before sticking the phone into his pocket and turning to Jackson.

“Now what?” he asked.

“Now, we wait,” Jackson said. Damien sat down, reluctantly. The silence was uncomfortable but Damien preferred it to having conversation with Jackson. Unfortunately, Jackson loved to hear himself talk... “I really had high hopes for both you and your brother. I’m so disappointed...and to be honest with you, I’m hurt.”   Damien knew that he was goading him...testing him. He kept his mouth shut at the cost of a few blood vessels popping off in his head. “I honestly wasn’t too shocked when you turned your back on your family...but Alex...he’s always been more like me. Not that it’s really your fault. Out of all of my siblings, Sylvie included, Kevin was always the softest one. Your mother had a bleeding heart as well. Your DNA didn’t allow for you to be tough-skinned.”

Damien had to take a deep breath. Jackson wasn’t only insulting him now, he was branching out. Damien had to give him credit. The man could push his buttons harder and faster than anyone he’d ever met. He changed the subject then suddenly and said, “I’m going to kill Lucas, but once that happens we’ll have to deal with his five brothers at the least. Can I trust you to be on board with that?

“Yes.” Damien was going to do whatever it took to make sure Paige was safe. One Kramer left standing would be too many. He was already thinking about Kelsey...they would need to find her. “Do you know where he hid Kelsey?”

“He sent her out of the country. She’s in Columbia with one of his cohorts. Once the family is gone, there won’t be a reason for her to come back.” That was a relief at least.   They sat in silence again until Jackson’s phone beeped. He looked at it and raised an eyebrow, and then he sent a few messages. Damien was curious about what was going on, but he once again decided that keeping his mouth shut was the best option. After a few minutes he looked up at Damien and said, “Okay, let’s go.”

As they stood and headed for the door Jackson said, “You’re not even going to ask?” Damien could tell that he wanted him to. The sadistic bastard wanted him to know what had been done to his father. He only looked at him and waited. He knew Jackson would show him or tell him whether he asked or not. It was all part of his punishment.   He watched as Jackson pulled something up on his phone and then held it up for Damien to look at. It was Kevin, or at least it looked a lot like him. It was hard to tell with a hole in the side of his face and one in his chest, but the hair and the build matched.

Damien looked at the number it was sent from. It was Brad’s phone. Two brothers and neither of them bat an eye at killing the third. This family is so incredibly fucked up. Now, his father and Roxi’s father is dead. Fuck! He could feel his blood pressure rising and his heart rate accelerating...but he still didn’t say a word. A trickle of sweat rolling down the side of his face was the only outward sign of his torment. Jackson saw it and smiled. “I have to say again...maybe you’re more like me than you think.”

Damien swallowed the bile in his throat. The only peace he could draw at the moment was that Jackson was wrong. It didn’t faze Jackson that was his brother he was looking at. Damien wanted to puke his guts out and then kill Jackson with his bare hands. Jackson’s phone rang again and he listened for a second and then with a tight smile he handed the phone to Damien.

“Your attorney would like to know you’re alive before he leaves the files.”

Damien took the phone and put it to his ear. “Jake?”

“Yeah, I have the files. They’ll be at the gates. Are you okay?”

“As much as I can be.”

“Should I call anyone?” By “anyone” Damien assumed he meant F.B.I. If they showed up there would be a bloody battle and it would be weeks or months before it was sorted out.

“No. Thanks, Jake.” He ended the call and handed the phone back to Jackson. Jackson smiled and said,

“Soon now, son.” Damien bit the inside of his cheek and his stomach churned once more.

––––––––

P
aige could barely move. She woke up slowly with every muscle in her body screaming out in pain. It took her several seconds to process where she was. She was in a warehouse with two of the Kramer brothers. She had to assume these two are the ones who taught Caine everything he needed to know about how to treat a woman.

She was lying on her side on the cold floor, hog-tied with her arms behind her back and pulled down low to include both of her ankles as well. Her head was pounding...that was likely because the last open-handed slap she’d received from one of the big son of a bitch’s meaty palms had knocked her out of the chair they had her in and onto the floor. Her head bounced twice when she hit and everything had gone dark. They wanted to kill her...as badly as she had wanted to kill Caine.

Lucas Kramer had given them orders not to...yet. She wasn’t stupid however. She knew for certain that the first opportunity they got after they had what they wanted...they would put her lights out for good. She tried to move...her body was screaming for some kind of relief from the position they had her in. She grunted involuntarily...alerting her captors that she was awake.

“There she is,” one of the large apes said. Paige gave him a defiant look and he laughed. “She’s a little spit-fire, this one. Too bad you murdered my nephew; I might like to have some fun with you otherwise.” Paige continued to glare at him. “You want up off the floor?” She did...worse than anything at that moment, but she wasn’t going to ask these assholes for anything. He waited a few beats before saying, “I guess she’s comfortable,” to the other ape. That one wasn’t a big talker. He just shrugged. Paige lay on the cold, wooden floor with nothing to do but think. She thought back over the events of the day....

The morning had started out amazing. She’d woke up in Damien’s arms, a place she was getting used to being. He was still asleep, so she just lay there for a while and watched him. His long dark lashes fanned out and his curly hair was messy in his face. His features softened when he slept and he looked young and vulnerable. She knew that he wouldn’t like to hear that...but she liked it. It was like she was able to get glimpses of the kid he was before Jackson came into his life. Close to an hour passed while she looked at him and imagined what their lives might be like if they had met under different circumstances.

“Are you watching me sleep again?” Damien asked, sleepily. He hadn’t opened his eyes, but he’d told her just the day before that he could “feel” her looking at him.

“Mm hmm,” she said, giving him a light kiss on the lips. “I like watching you.”

Damien cracked one eye open and looked at her through the hair that was in his eyes. “Voyeur,” he said with a grin.

Paige kissed him again. “Yep,” she said, “That’s me. I was thinking about sitting on the counter and watching you shower this morning too. I bet that would be sexy.” She giggled. Kevin was in the room next to theirs and Paige had been self-conscious about making love to Damien the past couple of days. They’d still done it...but she hadn’t been able to let herself go the way she liked to with Damien.

Roxi came and went from the penthouse a lot, checking in on her father, and sometimes Jake would show up. Paige wasn’t used to having so many people in and out and around. She was afraid Kevin or one of them would hear her. She was pretty vocal when she and Damien had sex. When she was with him and he was doing the things to her that he did...it was impossible not to be. Damien grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in tight up against his naked chest.

“I have a strict no watchers policy when I’m in the shower,” he told her with his lips so close to hers that she could feel the vibrations.

“You do...even for me?” her breaths were already beginning to become erratic.

“Especially for you,” he said, at last letting their lips meet. He kissed her and Paige felt herself getting hot all over and her panties growing wet. He’s the sexiest man that she’s ever met...and resisting him in any way is futile for her. When he broke the kiss she whimpered and said,

“Well, if I can’t watch you shower...”

“You can’t,” he said again. “But you can join me in there.”

A slow grin spread across her face. “The water will cover up the noise...and we could turn on the music in there...”

“I don’t know why we haven’t thought of it before. I was actually going to suggest we visit the tree again today. But, I like this idea much better,” Damien told her. He startled her by jumping up quickly out of bed and grabbing her hand. She followed him into the bathroom. When they got there, he tapped a button and music began to flow out of the speakers in the walls. Then he slipped his arms around her waist in front of the sink. She wrapped her arms around his neck. She loved the way his hard body felt against hers.   He ran his fingers lightly down her spine, tickling and tantalizing at the same time. She shivered and turned so that she could see his face in the mirror. He was watching himself touch her. It was sexy. He reached down and grabbed a cheek in each hand and began to massage her. She could feel herself getting wetter and almost subconsciously she began grinding her hips forward into his leg. She felt him grin against her face before letting go of her and turning to start the shower.

He let it run for a few moments with his hand underneath. When the temperature was right, he stepped in and took her hand to guide her in behind him. For a few seconds Paige just stood back and watched the water cascade across his skin, rolling across the muscles and tattoos. He closed his eyes and backed up into it and then took her hand again and pulled her under the spray with him.