Magnificent Ruin (Everlasting Series Book 2) (18 page)

Grace and Nathan settle Tomas down on the couch in the living room. Nathan turns on the big chandelier which floods the room with light.

Blood everywhere. I stagger down onto a coffee table. Blood on his face and arms and shirt, blood on his knuckles. Blood flooding my heart.

“What happened?” Nathan asks Tomas like a doctor as he slowly examines the damage on his face.

These two have served as each other’s doctor time and again. It’s all clear to me now. This is like seeing into their past together. The dark years.

“A slight miscalculation,” Tomas says, through a severely pained expression. The slightest muscle shift causes him anguish.

“You just missed it by THAT much, huh?” Nathan says, like some old joke they both know, a joke they bring out whenever one of them nearly gets themselves killed from some blown scam or other.

“I’ll go get some clean towels and ice,” Grace says. “Taylor, is there a medical kit here?”

I nod and head for the bathroom. I actually feel nothing. I swear my throat does not take in air. Silence rings in my ears like some ghost is screaming at me, but I can’t hear a thing.

Nathan and Grace are in charge of everything. I have nothing to offer. I am shrinking away from everything. Soon I will disappear completely.

When I return to the living room, Tomas is in nothing but his boxer briefs. There’s so much bruising all over him. I choke on the air I didn’t think I was breathing. He locks his eyes on mine.

The deep hurt in my heart reflects back onto his face. Our last conversation finds its way to my head. He told me I could not handle this. Tomas Keller got that one right.

Nathan slowly begins cleaning the cuts on Tomas’s face with a wet cloth. “There were more than three of them,” Nathan says like some anthropologist trying to decipher ancient clues.

“How can you tell?” Grace asks him.

“See the variety of wound areas,” he says proudly, “but also, no three men could better this man in a fight.”

“I’ll live,” Tomas says, still looking at me.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I say suddenly, angrily, to all of them. “If you make him out a hero for this I am going to lose it.”

“Well, there’s a bit of good news,” Grace says. “Nothing’s broken.”

“God damn it, Grace,” I say. “You’re unbearably positive sometimes.”

Tomas glares at me. “Don’t yell at your friend,” he says, pained.

“You’re right,” I say. “I should be yelling at you. Sorry, Grace.”

Grace holds up her hands and backs away.

Oh, screw it, I have to deal with this. I sit next to Tomas on the couch, warming his cold skin up with my warm hands. “You don’t deserve any of this,” I say to him. “Nathan. Grace. Me.”

“Your hands are magic,” he grunts through his swollen lips.

“Shut up, you fool,” I say. “Just shut up. We ran into Adrian earlier in Kalloni.”

“Motherfucker’s everywhere,” Tomas grunts out.

I glare down at him. “Didn’t I just tell you to shut up?”

He uses his battered fingers to pretend to zip his lips.

“He said you kidnapped a girl,” I say with a sarcastic, almost sadistic smile on my face. “None other than pretty Amelia from the beach.”

Tomas clenches his teeth, darting his eyes from Nathan to Grace and back to me. “That part’s true,” he says.

Chapter 22

W
hat stunt does he think he’s pulling? Does he really expect us to believe that he walked into De Luca’s heavily-armed villa and took Amelia without her consent? To be honest, his crazy life makes me weary.

“You did it?” I say, doing my best not to snap at him. The only thing that’s keeping me in check is the fact his face is already a bruised mess. It’s hard to yell at someone who’s in so much pain. “Care to explain?”

“Taylor,” Nathan says, pulling me off the couch, “we need to get some clothes on him to keep him warm.”

“Here,” Grace says, offering Tomas a clean T-shirt and a pair of shorts. I haven’t seen him wear those before. They must be Nathan’s. They’re about the same size.

Tomas takes the clothes, wincing as he raises his arms to get them through the sleeves. Grace glances my way. When she reads my blank expression she knows I’m not going to help. She reaches over to help Tomas get the shirt on.

“TK,” Nathan says as soon as Tomas is dressed, “you’d better start talking.”

Tomas nods and takes a deep breath that causes him some discomfort.

“Do you want an extra cushion?” Grace asks him. Grace and her eternal caretaking mode. Someone gets hurt and a switch is flipped in her brain. She hasn’t even flinched at the news that Tomas could be a kidnapper. All she cares about is to make sure he’s comfortable which pisses me off somehow.

Tomas refuses the offer with a shake of his head. “It sounds bad, I know,” he says, “but it’s even worse.”

“Let’s start with the basics. Who’s Amelia?” Nathan says. “I mean, besides the fact she’s supposedly De Luca’s girlfriend.”

“She’s not his girlfriend,” Tomas says, anger popping up on his face. “He bought her as he did many other girls before her.”

“He bought her?” I repeat the words, almost robotically. “What does that even mean? If she’s a prostitute, you didn’t have to kidnap her, genius. You could have just paid her.”

He throws an irritated glance at me. I meet his eyes in a similar fashion and I win—he’s the one to look away first.

“When De Luca travels to countries in Eastern Europe, he finds poor families with beautiful young daughters. He manages to convince the families the girls will have a bright future. He pays them what could be a small fortune for them, enough to support them for a whole year, maybe two. Then he sends the girls to the island as a first stop, gives them fake ID’s and passports.”

“Flesh market,” Grace says, covering her mouth.

Tomas nods. “Then he ships them off to business partners back in the States but mostly South America as presents or for a very handsome fee. Legally, those girls don’t really exist. Their masters can make them do whatever they want, always promising that if they’re good, they’ll be sent back home with a shitload of cash.”

I glance at Nathan. Right now, what
he
thinks seems to be of the utmost importance to me. He understands it all better than I ever will.

“So Amelia was meant to be a present?” Nathan says.

“Eventually. But she caught De Luca’s eye in a bad, bad way. He decided to keep her for himself for as long as she pleased him. He planned to take her to Brooklyn with him when he returned in the fall and keep her there guarded twenty-four seven.”

“So, you wanted to be a hero,” I say, as if speaking to myself.

Tomas looks at me, exhausted. “She’s a slave, Taylor. Forced to fulfill each and every of a sick man’s desires. Pressured into a series of depraved acts beyond her worst nightmares. No human should be treated like that.”

That can be easily agreed on by any decent person, but it makes no sense that he took it upon himself to save one girl. Why not go to the police? There are many more girls who need saving than just this one.

“How do you play into that?” Nathan says, taking the million-dollar question from my lips.

Tomas lowers his eyes, examining his battered knuckles. “Because she looked into my eyes and asked for my help.”

“She asked you to kidnap her?” Grace says.

“That part was my idea. I had to get her out of there any way I could.”

“At the beach that day,” I say. “She would not look at you. Every girl looks at you, Tomas. You already knew then. Both of you. Fucking unbelievable. I thought that was strange. She treated you like you were invisible.”

Tomas looks away and sighs. It’s as good as a confession.

“If Taylor noticed,” Nathan says, “you can be damn sure De Luca noticed that as well. He might not have known for sure what it meant, but the second that girl disappeared, he made you suspect number one.”

“The whole thing’s absurd,” I say. “De Luca knew and you knew he knew and you just kept telling him you had nothing that belonged to him. You have a death wish or you’re in love with this Amelia.”

“I told the truth,” Tomas says. “I had nothing that belonged to him or any other man. Amelia belongs only to herself.”

“Then you love her,” I say.

“Taylor,” he says quietly. “Amelia is not the woman I love.”

“Don’t even start,” I say, defiantly, even though a rush of energy floods my heart. I like the way he said that, but I’ll never let him know.

“Everyone chill. De Luca won’t kill me,” he says.

“Of what interest is your life to him?” Nathan asks.

“Because he’s beyond obsessed with this girl. Maybe she reminds him of some girl who broke his heart when he was a boy. I don’t know. She’s very delicate, like a child, only she has very womanly attributes as well. As long as he doesn’t have her, he won’t kill me. He needs me.”

“Sounds like a couple of men are crazy about Miss Delicate,” I say.

Grace takes my hand trying to calm me.

“She’s not my type,” Tomas says. “Unfortunately, I like mean girls who are too stubborn and too smart for their own good.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” I say. “I like suicidal idiots who are too heroic and too reckless to stay alive.”

“Tomas, Taylor, can we postpone your fight a little?” Nathan asks. “I need to communicate with Tomas now for his own good. Life and death stuff.”

“Don’t say that,” Grace says, shooting a disapproving look at Nathan.

“Where is Amelia?” Nathan says ignoring Grace.

“I can’t tell you that.”

“You’re going to tell me,” Nathan says in a voice as menacing as any I’ve ever heard. “Because we need Tomas to get through this in one piece.”

“It’s all good,” Tomas says, fighting against his various pains.

“Dude, you know there’s only one logical thing to do,” Nathan says.

“Logic is for people who talk about shit,” Tomas says. “Instinct is all I’ve ever needed.”

“I know another thing you could use,” I offer, aggressively sarcastic. “A brain in your head.”

“Be nice, honey,” Grace says as she rubs my back.

“Easy for you to say, your boyfriend has a brain.”

Tomas laughs and I immediately glare at him. “I’m going to kick your ass so bad, Keller.”

“I look forward to it,” he says.

“Just stop,” I command but, if I’m being honest, I’ve never wanted to have rough sex more with someone in my whole life. Infuriating.

“There’s no end game here, TK,” Nathan begins. “Vigilantes mostly end up dead before they can save anyone. This isn’t the movies. This is the world where guys like De Luca kill every loose end in their territories. You taught me this. Where do you have her stashed?”

“Okay, this is bullshit,” Grace says. She gets up, pulling at Tomas’s shirt so he looks her in the eye. “When are you going to take some responsibility? When are you going to say,
This is me fucking up my life and I need to change
?”

Tomas looks to Nathan for help. No luck. Nathan just shakes his head and opens his hands helplessly. Grace sighs so hard and pushes Nathan’s shoulder as if he is partially to blame for everything Tomas does.

“Really, Keller,” she says. “You need to stop being a fucking martyr and grow up. Haven’t you hurt Taylor enough already?”

To my surprise, Tomas nods. “I have,” he says. “I’ve hurt more than enough and more than I can stand. I’ve begged her to forget me.”

Grace rolls her eyes in his face. “Yeah, because asking someone to forget you always works. Fucking lame. Your gorgeous face is not forgettable and you know it. Don’t play at being naïve. It doesn’t suit you.”

Tomas opens his hands as helplessly as Nathan. “Fine,” he says. “I guess we are beyond that now. I just don’t want Taylor hurt.”

“Then act like it,” Grace says and sits down. “Now that we are all free of our delusions we should call the police.”

She walks over to the table where she has left her purse. She takes out her phone, staring at it for a second. “What’s the emergency number here?”

Tomas walks to her and snatches the phone from her hands. “We can’t do that,” he says, dead serious.

“It’s the only thing we can do,” she says, looking to Nathan for support.

“No,” Tomas says. “Do you all think I’m that dense? Don’t you think I’d have gone to the authorities if it was a remote possibility?”

“If you want to stop hearing our ideas,” Nathan says, “tell us the whole fucking story and we’ll all understand.”

“We can’t go to the police because De Luca is keeping Amelia’s younger sister as a prisoner. I’ve been trying to figure out where. That’s why I’m gone all the time.” He says that last part looking at me as if giving me a long delayed explanation. “If we go to the police, her sister will never be seen again. As far as paperwork, she doesn’t even exist. Until I find the girl, my hands are tied.”

Nobody says a thing. There’s a new gravity to the situation that we try to process. Hostility lingers on my face even though I know Tomas is a prince in his own fucked way.

“Why do you think I staged the kidnapping?” Tomas goes on, lowering his voice. “De Luca is known as the vindictive Don. He’s more violent than any Mafioso in the world. He would kill Irina just as a tip of the cap to Amelia for betraying him.”

A strange, unrelated thought occurs to me. Sophia was lying. The images of her and Tomas are a lie. If they were authentic, then Tomas should have had a bruised, swollen face in those pictures. Supposedly she met with him the day after he was punched on the nose. He should have a terrible bruise on his face in those pictures. But he didn’t. He was honest and I gave him hell.

Unable to see what was under my nose. What else is new? I find myself battling so many conflicting emotions. I feel terrible about doubting Tomas, yet, I still find it hard to forgive him.

“Have you made any progress searching for Irina?” Nathan says. Thank God for Nathan and his calm logic.

“I’m still at square one despite all my efforts.”

“What happened tonight, Tomas?” I ask him, my voice finally returning to a rational tone. I have accepted a few things as self-evident. Most importantly, Tomas is trying to be a good man, albeit in a misguided fashion.

“I had this lead… well, I thought I did, about Irina. It was an ambush.” He grins and then rubs his temples. “They came two by two at me. Four of De Luca’s inner circle security team. They delivered a warning. Next time they won’t be so nice. The old man is running out of patience. All that shit. Anyway, as they walked away, one of them let it slip that Irina was being moved. I’m afraid it will be out of Greece and then she will be forever lost. There would be no way of knowing where in the world they sent her.”

“Where’s Amelia?” Nathan says.

“A small village on Chios, the closest island to Lesbos. It won’t be long before they figure it out. I have to move her,” Tomas says, standing up.

“Not tonight, you’re not,” Grace says, gently nudging him back on the couch. “You have to rest. Give your body some time to recover.”

“I’m good,” he says.

“The hell you are,” Nathan says. “You can barely walk. You’re not going anywhere, brother. I’ll make sure of it.”

Tomas turns to me, defeated. “Can I talk to you?”

I nod and follow him upstairs trying not to think about what he wants to tell me. If it’s another lecture about how I’m better off without him, I might actually cause him a little more pain.

We step inside his room. He closes the door behind us. We’re in the dark. I try to reach behind his back to switch on the light. He grabs my hand and then the other one. He spins around pinning me to the wall. That might be a problem if I decide he needs some bitch-slapping.

“If you had any common sense,” he says, “you’d have run all the way to the airport, gotten on the first plane to Athens and kept running until you were back in one of your shops sniffing Eucalyptus.”

“You don’t really sniff Eucalyptus,” I say softly, “but I get it.”

“Why must you drive me crazy when I hurt all over?” he says with a whimper.

“Actually, koalas sniff Eucalyptus,” I say breathlessly as his lips hover above mine.

“You insufferable girl,” he says. “Kiss me.”

I sigh and kiss him softly trying not to hurt his face. “There,” I say when I stop. His sweet saliva flavors my mouth and I am so madly in love with him that my whole body and soul start to react to his rugged smell, the almost sexy vulnerability of his many injuries and the robust life I feel returning to his thick, mouth-watering cock.