Maybe Always (Maybe Series Book 3) (7 page)

I close my eyes and wait for the trigger to be pulled. At least the pain in my head will be gone when he pulls the trigger. And at least Killian will be safe.
 

I wait one…two…three seconds, but nothing happens. The trigger isn’t pulled, and the gun isn’t lowered.
 

Maybe I’m already dead? Maybe this is an illusion?
 

I open my eyes, expecting to be floating above my body that must be broken and bloody on the floor. Instead, I’m sitting in the same position. I glance up at Nacio, who is grinning wildly at me. He’s won, and he knows it. I gave him a drop of fear, and he ignited it. He had no intention of killing me—at least, not yet—but he’s just proven he has the upper hand here. Not me.
 

He laughs, and then all the men in the room are laughing along with him. My cheeks flush in embarrassment.
 

I push the gun away from my head and stand, finally able to breathe again. I walk over to Nacio with a tight glare on my face, showing that I don’t appreciate his games. I can’t let him win this fight, not when my life and the lives of those I love are on the line.
 

He stops laughing and smugly looks up at me.
 

“I didn’t come here to play games. I came here to take my father’s place in the company.”
 

Nacio grabs the neck of my shirt and jerks me forward until my face is inches from his. His grip around my shirt tightens making it hard for me to breathe.
 

“I don’t play games either. Don’t threaten my life, and I won’t threaten yours.”

He releases me, and I can breathe again. My heartbeat has just gone through a roller coaster of ups and downs in a matter of minutes, and I’m not sure it can survive much more without suffering a heart attack. It’s no wonder my dad died from a heart attack if he had to deal with people like this on a daily basis.
 

He begins walking to the door before he turns and looks me up and down. His eyes lust over the curves of my chest then ass in the tight clothing. “Follow me, princess.” His voice is harsh.

I don’t react when he says princess. At least I do everything in my power not to react when I want to cringe in disgust. I don’t want it to become his pet name for me.
 

I walk toward him as confidently as I can in my heels as I toss my grungy hair behind my shoulders. I feel every man’s eyes in the room on my ass. If it wasn’t for my time modeling, I would be completely disgusted by the thought. Now though, I know it’s my greatest power to control these men, and I’m going to use it.
 

I pause for just a second when I reach Nacio. “It’s Kinsley. Not princess. Not sweetheart. Not baby. I am none of those things to you.”
 

I strut past him out the door and into the hallway. I don’t wait for him. I just keep walking down the hallway, hoping that I will be able to find my grandfather or find out more information about the operation.
 

I hear Nacio yell at his men to get back to packing.
 

And then he is right at my side. “Slow down, sweetheart,” he says in his slick voice.
 

I roll my eyes at his childish games. “I thought we weren’t playing games with each other.”
 

His grin widens until it covers his face. It’s a grin that might usually make my knees weak if I didn’t know what kind of monster lies beneath the wicked grin. And if my heart didn’t still long for another grin. A grin that puts Nacio’s grin to shame. A grin that only I cause. Not like Nacio’s that is probably given out to every girl he sees.
 

Just thinking about Killian makes me want to run out the door and forget why I even came here, but I can’t.
 

“Not games, but if we are going to work together, I think we should be on friendlier terms than first names, sweetheart.”
 

He touches my neck, and I freeze. He’s flirting. He’s known me all of five minutes, and he’s already flirting. He doesn’t even know if he can trust me yet. I suck in a breath, trying to decide if I should let him flirt or if I should flirt back. It might make it easier to get him to tell me everything, to get him to trust me. But, as his slimly hand strokes my neck, I know I can’t. I can’t fake attraction for him. I’m not a good enough actress. So, instead, I go for controlling bitch.
 

I slap his face as hard as I can. I watch as his face turns away from me, and his hand goes from my neck to his cheek. He turns back to me. But his face doesn’t wear a surprised look. Instead, he’s grinning like he was expecting that reaction all along, and somehow, being hit makes him more attracted to me.
 

“I think you and I will get along well, sweetheart.”
 

“Show me around, and take me to my grandfather. And don’t touch me again without asking, or I will cut your balls off in your sleep.”
 

His grin widens. “This way, sweetheart.”
 

I sigh. At least he decided to settle on sweetheart instead of princess. It still sounds disgusting falling from his twisted lips, but at least he doesn’t get to taint the name that is Killian’s and my father’s name for me. At least I can still have that.
 

“These rooms serve as our offices. At least the men who are high enough to need an office and aren’t just doing the grunt work.”

“Should I be introduced to the other men in charge?”
 

Nacio stops walking and sternly looks at me. “No. I’m in charge. You’ve already met my right hand, Seth. And my younger brother will be here soon. Other than that, you don’t need to worry about getting to know the other men.”
 

I nod although I don’t like it. I need to know the name of every man who has any power in this company. If not, when I call the police to move in, some of the men could run and start this over again somewhere else. I won’t let that happen.
 

“Still, if I’m going to be running the company, don’t you think I should know all the names of our employees?”
 

He shrugs. “Not really. I don’t even know most of their names. The less we know about each other, the better. Most don’t stay long anyway.”
 

I pause at a cracked door as chills roll through my body. I feel a connection to this room. I don’t ask Nacio for permission as I push the door open. He doesn’t say anything as I walk into the large office. I flick the light on and watch as it flickers to life.
 

A desk sits across the way, just like in Nacio’s office. Several chairs sit in front of it. I look to my left and find a nice leather couch against that wall. I hesitantly walk over to the desk, afraid of what I’m going to find, as every nerve in my body ignites.

I pause when I get to the desk and run my hand along the solid wood surface. A computer and two picture frames are all that sit on the desk. I reach out and touch one of the frames. I know whose office this used to belong to before I glance at the photo.
 

I turn the frame so that I can see the photo of me riding on my father’s shoulders. It is the same frame that is sitting in my father’s office in the casino in Las Vegas.
 

This office was my father’s. I immediately want to scream and cry. I hate that my father has an office in such an awful place. I want to destroy this office, just like I did to his office in Las Vegas. I can’t though, not without letting Nacio know that I hate my father instead of love him.
 

Nacio puts a hand on my shoulder in what is meant to be a comforting manner, but it just creeps me out. I haven’t even seen the man do anything horrible yet, but it still gives me the creeps.
 

“Your father was a good man. He’s been missed. I hope you can fill his place. I would hate to lose you, too.”
 

I suck in a breath at his threat. “You won’t be disappointed.”
 

“Good.”
 

“Will this be my office now?”

“No.”
 

He walks out the door without another word, leaving me confused. I follow him out and try to keep pace as he picks up speed until we reach the staircase.
 

“Where will my office be?”
 

He shakes his head. “You haven’t earned an office yet. Nobody gets to the top without doing the grunt work first. Nobody, not even if they have the last name of Felton.”

He begins up the stairs two at a time, and I follow at a more leisurely pace, not liking what he just said.

“Where is my grandfather?”
 

“He’s not here.”
 

I narrow my eyes. “What do you mean? Where else would he be? He’s not in Las Vegas.”

“They are at a different location.”
 

“They?” I stop in my tracks, wondering if my father isn’t really dead.
 

“Your grandfather and mother.”
 

I try not to react, but I know my eyes widen just a little. I didn’t think my mother was involved. I thought she might have been the most moral person in our family. But nothing truly surprises me anymore about my family. My father and grandfather are rotten, horrible, vile people. So, why not my mother, too?
 

I nod, as if I remember now. “And where is the other location?”
 

He shakes his head. “You haven’t earned that information yet.”
 

I frown.
 

Nacio turns from me and begins walking again. “These are the men’s barracks.” He gestures to the rooms on either side.
 

“We haven’t had a girl stay with us in quite a while.” He stops and smirks. “Well, not one we didn’t plan on torturing, raping, or killing anyway.”
 

I frown in horror.
God, I’m not going to be able to keep this up.
He is going to find out that I’m not up for this. That I’m only here to destroy him. He doesn’t seem to notice my reaction. Instead, he turns back and walks to the door on the far end.
 

“But since we have already started moving several of our men to the other location, this room is empty. It’s yours while you are here.”
 

The door is already open, so I step inside the large room that contains six sets of bunk beds. They don’t appear to have been occupied for a while. But there is a stench that hovers about the room. The sheets on the beds don’t look like they have ever been laundered, and dirt and mud cover the floor. At least I will have my own room though. At least I won’t have to worry about one of the men getting too friendly in the middle of the night. I doubt Nacio sleeps in anything this bad. From the looks of him, he is accustomed to nicer things.
 

“If it isn’t up to your standards, you can always sleep in my bed, sweetheart.”
 

I shudder at that thought. “I’ll make do.”
 

“Good. Now, let’s get down to business.”
 

I nod. The sooner we get down to business, the sooner I’ll be done.
 

He gestures for me to follow him, and we begin walking again.
 

“As you probably already know, our operation has been compromised. The FBI found out about the money laundering, and there is a good chance they know about our operation as well.”
 

I nod.
 

“We are working to put a stop to the FBI coming after us.”
 

“How?”
 

He ignores me and walks back to the staircase. He begins walking higher and higher up the stairs until I’m sure we can’t climb any higher in this rickety building and still be safe. He leads me down another dark hallway that has men standing outside each of the doors.
 

“We need to fake your deaths.”
 

I twist my hair as we walk. I hate this hallway. Chills inch over my body with every step we take. I don’t understand why, but I know something dark is here. Something that brings more pain than I can even understand.
 

“Why?” I ask, turning my attention from the hallway and back to Nacio.
 

“So that the FBI will stop investigating. We will give them bodies. We will lead them to this place where they will catch some lowlifes we have left behind, whom they’ll think were in charge. But then it will lead to a dead end. Meanwhile, we will be safe to move our operations elsewhere.”
 

My mind is spinning as he talks. I’m trying to understand why we need to fake our deaths. “How is it even possible? Even if we give them bodies, won’t they know with DNA testing that those bodies aren’t us?”
 

Nacio sighs, like he has been explaining something very simple to a three-year-old. “No.”
 

He turns his attention away from me. The man guarding the door we have stopped outside of moves to the side as Nacio grabs ahold of the doorknob.
 

Everything inside of me is screaming not to go through that door. To run. To go anywhere but here.
 

Instead, I watch as Nacio pushes the door open, and I force my legs to walk in after him.
 

The first thing I notice is the stench. It’s not the same as the one I smelled in what will be my room for the next few nights. This room smells worse, if that is possible. It smells of urine, vomit, and…blood.

It’s a dark, small room, much like the room that I was held in earlier. It just makes me even more nervous.
 

Nacio stops just a step or two inside the room. I stop just behind him, too scared to look around him, at what I’m sure is on the other side of him.
 

Nacio looks from the floor to me and then back to the floor. “Yes, you will do perfectly,” he says to the floor.
 

He looks back at me, and I can see it. I can see excitement and lust in his eyes. I don’t understand what has gotten him so excited, and I have to know. I have to understand what I’m really dealing with.