New York Crime Kings Box Set: Books 1-4 (17 page)

Invasion

Emily

I drag my feet, not wanting to get back to the room too quickly. I clench the sock filled with goodies in my hand while running my tongue over smooth, minty teeth. The toothpaste couldn’t have come at a better time.

I keep my head down, allowing my wet hair to hang in my face and I inhale it. I don’t know what kind of scent ‘for long, oily hair’ is, but it smells amazing. A small smile tugs at the corners of my lips as the fresh smell inflates my lungs. It was awfully nice of Jai to buy me toiletries, but I can’t help but wonder what persuaded him to do it. He said it was a peace offering, but I’m not so sure. I shake my head. I could be reading too much into it. Either he likes me, or my smell was becoming too overbearing for our little nook.

I glance up and push my hair out of my face. Seven feet ahead of me is the entrance to my room. My stomach drops and I slow even more.

Guilt?

Yep
.

I’m pretty sure that heavy, sick-inducing feeling in my tummy is guilt. Why couldn’t I’ve kept my mouth shut? Why’d I have to insinuate his brother is dead? His brother, Joel, obviously means a lot to him. He can’t bear the thought of his death. It’s interesting to witness. I’ve never been that attached to anyone. I don’t know what love for a sibling feels like. It’s always been me. Just me.

Alone.

I suck in the warm, stale air then exhale it. What if he doesn’t want me back yet? What if he’s not ready to talk? The least I can do is offer an ear, and if he doesn’t want it, then he doesn’t want it. Simple. I’d be a shitty friend if I pretend his breakdown didn’t happen at all.

I peer around the cracked, blackened concrete of the entrance. When I see him sitting against the wall, his head on his knees, shielded by his arms I almost pull back and turn around. Even at his most vulnerable he’s intimidating.

“Hey.” The word tumbles from my mouth before my brain has a chance to think it.

It’s too late to back down now.

He doesn’t look up. He doesn’t say a word. With a sigh, I dump the sock on the bed and sit down beside him. My brain still throbs in my skull and my stomach continues to churn, but I ignore it. I don’t know how long we sit in silence for. Countless people walk by, judging and whispering, but Jai doesn’t budge. Like stone, he remains still.

“Sorry.” He murmurs after a small while passes.

I pull my knees into my chest and rest the side of my head on my knees. “Sorry? What for?”

“For freaking out.” He turns his head so I can see his face.

His eyes aren’t red and his skin isn’t blotchy. He’s the perfect picture of calm. When I cry, it takes hours for my puffiness to go away. I wonder if Jai even cries at all.

“I’ve never...I’m not...I don’t usually...”

“It’s okay,” I tell him, my lips twitching. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”

Relief lights his eyes, right before they plummet back into darkness. He shakes his head. “No, I do. We’re in this together, right?”

Are we? If we weren’t ten seconds ago, we definitely are now. “Right.”

Jai inhales and blows the air out of his cheeks. “Skull is responsible for the death of Jacqueline, my older sister.”

I frown. “Jacqueline? Wait. I thought this whole thing is about Joel?”

He nods, raking his fingers through his hair. “It is, but it begins with Jacqueline.”

And it does. He starts at the beginning, with Jacqueline, and finishes with him and his little sister, Jessica. He doesn’t make eye contact as he explains the details that forced him down here, but our eyes don’t have to meet for me to see his pain. It’s on his face, in the way his eyebrows draw together and his teeth grit. It’s in the way his fists clench and unclench, the way his voice changes in pitch. He’s hurting, and he has been for a very long time.

“I had no idea...” I whisper when he’s finished.

No wonder he’s so hung up on Skull. Though he didn’t force Jai’s sister to take the drug, he had offered it, and it resulted in not only the death of his sister, but it created the events that led to his parent’s car accident, and Joel leaving them to enact his revenge.

Jai’s lost so much. His sister, his parents, his brother...I guess, in the grand scheme of things, I’m lucky I have no one. I can’t hurt over something I’ve never had.

He lifts his stare to mine, slightly angling his face. I don’t realize how close I’m leaning toward him until then. His blue irises flick over my face.

“How was your shower?”

“You tell me.” I lean in, pulling my hair to the side and offering him my neck. “Do I still smell like a Russian cab?”

I don’t remember much about last night, but the Russian cab line I do remember. I’d have taken offense, too, if he wasn’t so right. In the next heartbeat, his warm breath skitters over the surface of my throat, freezing me in place and sending shivers vibrating down my spine. He inhales and a long, painful second later, he pulls back an inch, but the inch isn’t enough space. My heart still pumps painfully in my chest.

I swallow. “Well?”

His gaze drops to my lips and lightning shoots up my veins. I’m spellbound by the way his pupils have darkened, and the way he’s staring at me. If he doesn’t kiss me to ease the tension building inside me I will implode.

“You smell good.”

A sentence like that shouldn’t sound as good as it does. His words are music to my ears and crack to my hormones. It’s no secret I’m sexually attracted to Jai. What woman wouldn’t be? He’s six or so feet of thick muscle with calming ocean blue eyes, and a head of soft, jet black hair. He’s fresh from the front page of a men’s fitness magazine—the kind of good-looking reserved only for celebrities.

“I should hope so. It’d be an extreme waste of your money otherwise.”

A beautiful smile cracks his lips, but he doesn’t distance them from mine. I like it when he smiles. I like it more when he kisses me.

“Also, that’s a creepy thing to say,” I lie, my voice unconvincingly low.

His smile deepens, flashing his white teeth. “Says little Miss Stare-at-you-while-you’re-sleeping.”

I laugh and I’m shocked it’s a genuine laugh. In total, I’ve probably only heard it three or four times throughout my life. It sounds completely different in comparison to my fake laugh. It feels different too. Who knew laughing could be so therapeutic?

Jai lets his head rest against the uneven wall, taking my hopes for a kiss with him. “You’re not so bad, you know.”

I scoff. “Not so bad? Gee thanks.”

He nudges me with his shoulder. “I’m not talking about your looks. You’re beautiful, obviously. You don’t need me to tell you that. I’m referring to your personality. I thought it was going to suck being stuck down here with you—especially when you started crying the first few minutes in—but it turned out okay. I like having you around.”

I smile and glance at my hands as I nervously thread my fingers together. “Thanks. Though I do wonder if we’d be friends if we had met under different circumstances…”

He laughs once. “Not a chance.”

I look at him. “Why?”

Jai looks me dead in the eyes, his face serious. “Because I’m not friends with women I’m attracted to. It creates too many problems.”

I open my mouth to ask him what exactly he finds attractive about me, but a distinct clear of a throat stops me. It’s probably a good thing. I’d only deny everything he said anyway. I’m a girl. It’s what we do.

When I look up, I regret feeling relieved for the intrusion. My heart skips a beat. My smile drops from my face. It’s one of Skull’s men, looking smug as he dips his hands into the pockets of his pressed black slacks.

“Busy?” he asks, though I know it’s not a question.

Beside me Jai tenses, his hatred billowing off him in fretful waves. I shake my head.

“Good. Skull wants to see you.”

***

I hate it. Everything. I hate the feel of the concrete beneath my feet as I stand outside Skull’s little service door. I hate the way my heart slams into my ribcage in fear of a single man, and I hate that I know everything he did to Jai and his family. Ignorance was bliss…but now I can’t detach myself. I can’t ignore it. Come hell or high water, Skull won’t receive my help. By the end of round two, what will it matter? He’ll see I’m a fake. Then I’m dead anyway.

The brute adjusts his emerald green tie and pushes open the door. I pause for a moment and suck in a deep breath.
I can do this
. I break my plan down into dot points that my scared brain can understand. Just smile and nod. Agree to anything he wants you to do. Lie through your teeth. Get back to Jai.

The air I inhale is forcefully expelled as the brute shoves me in my back and through the door. I stumble in and only just manage to regain my footing before I fall flat on my face. Anger, white and hot, ignites in my veins. I grit my teeth and whip around to face the ass with the heavy hands. He stares down at me with a smug grin on his scarred lips.
Oh, if could just crush his bald effing head with my bare hands I’d—

“Easy, Kitty-Cat.”

I freeze. Then shudder. Straightening my posture and brushing off my jeans, I turn around. The lighting sucks, but I still see him sitting at a small, round dining table looking all high and mighty. He offers me a sinister grin and so does the black skull inked onto his face.

“Feeling feisty today, Kitten?”

“That’s not my na—” A heavy hand slaps me on the back of the head and I almost bite my tongue. I might as well give up correcting people. Oh, Jesus. I’m going to die as ‘
Kitten No-name’
instead of Emily Sheppard. Where’s the dignity in that?

Slowly, I glance over my shoulder, ignoring the headache that brews in the nape of my neck. If I were bigger and not trapped underground, I’d kick this asshole hard in the nuts.

“You must feel so strong,” I sneer, “hitting a woman.”

He bares his teeth and lifts a second monstrously large hand, exposing the back of his palm. I tense, bracing my poor face.

“Jim, go find something to do, will you? Kitten and I have some catching up to do.”

I flash him a smug smile before looking back to Skull. I really hope I don’t run into Jim alone. That would not end well.

Skull waits patiently for Jim to leave the room, his hands resting on the table on either side of his plate. The smells from it hit me then. Sausage. Egg. Buttered toast. My mouth waters. I haven’t had anything but stale bread and broth for a while now. What I wouldn’t give for a hot meal and ice cold water. Hell, I’d even settle for clean water at the very least.

“Hungry?” he asks, still beaming.

I shake my head and lie. “No.”

I imagine the butter on the toast melting over my tongue. It’d be delicious, perfect, euphoric, but not worth the weight Skull would undoubtedly hold over my head. When I get out of here—if I get out of here—Jai owes me breakfast.

Beside him, Skull kicks out the wooden chair, and its metal legs skid out with a howl against the concrete.

“Sit.”

I don’t hesitate. Gripping the edges of the wood, I pull it under my ass and shuffle forward, until my legs are underneath the table.

He picks up his knife and fork, and holds them over his plate, resting his elbows on the table. A thick, gold watch peeks out from the sleeve of his black, leather jacket and I glance at its face. Eleven a.m. What I wouldn’t give to feel the morning sun on my skin again.

“My boys tell me you and Jai Stone aren’t on good terms.” He pushes egg onto his slice of toast and cuts through it with ease.

“We weren’t.”

“Weren’t?” He jabs his fork through the food and lifts it to his mouth.

I try not to watch as he opens his mouth and fills it with delicious breakfast foods, but it’s impossible. To see the skull on his face moving the way it does...is creepy.

“We had a falling out. We’re fine now.”

“Good. I’d hate for a silly little quarrel to ruin our…
agreement
.”

My collarbone burns and I swallow hard. “Agreement?”