Redeemed (The Dark Redemption Series Book 2) (2 page)

Aden

Knowing my brother was an assassin, and seeing it firsthand, are two entirely different things.

Brede looks murderous, driving like a maniac in the SUV that we stole. The DA’s neighbors shouldn’t have left the keys inside it.

“Head for the highway,” I tell him. “She’s a smart girl. She was probably trying to leave Davidson County.”

Brede doesn’t reply, which means he’s really upset. Otherwise, he’d probably be swearing up a storm.

We make it to the highway exit a few seconds later, and it doesn’t take us long to find the blue lights. There are at least three police cars but no ambulance yet, because that’s how fast Brede was driving.

“Let me handle this,” I tell him when we both jump out of the parked car and head toward the uniforms casually standing around. They’re not in a hurry, so that’s a good sign, right?

As we approach them, Brede’s cracking his knuckles like he’s gonna beat the shit out of someone. I quickly scan the area, looking for the stolen Audi but don’t see it. Maybe Blair wasn’t in a wreck…maybe it was someone else and we jumped to the wrong conclusion.

When Brede’s shoulders relax, I know he’s thinking the same thing. We overreacted and thought the worst. He still approaches the group of officers, intent on making sure she wasn’t involved.

“What the fuck’s going on?” he barks, stopping the uniformed men’s conversation in mid-sentence. I jump in front of Brede, pull out my badge and hold it up for the officers to see.

“FBI, Special Agent Aaron Burroughs,” I say trying to ignore Brede’s eyes burning into my skull after hearing the alias. “I’m looking for a young girl, dirty blonde hair –”

“Butterscotch,” Brede interrupts, now standing next to me.

I raise an eyebrow in question.

“Her hair’s butterscotch,” he mutters quietly before shoving his fingers through his own hair and giving it a tug.

“Right.
Butterscotch
hair. Tall and lean. Driving a red Audi. Have you gentlemen seen her?”

When the three men exchange silent but loud looks with each other, I, unfortunately, know that they have.

Fuck.

“Where is she?” Brede asks, trying to get closer to them. I throw my arm out in front of his chest to hold him back. If he beats them to death, we won’t get any answers.

“She’s gone,” one of the younger, light haired guys finally says.

Thank fuck, she got away. Brede exhales beside me, apparently thinking the same thing.

“We’re just waiting for the ambulance to remove her body,” he says, nodding to the right side of the shoulder. In the darkness it looks like a car is sitting at the bottom of the embankment, the front end caved in thanks to the rows of trees. 

Ah, fuck.

“No!” Brede shouts before he hurdles over the guardrail and takes off running.

“Stop him!” one of the officers shouts, but I pull out my piece from the back of my pants and cock it, pointing it in a two-hand grip at the one giving the orders.

“You might want to reconsider that order,” I tell him. It’s stupid, I know, since I’m outnumbered three to one. “If any of you goes down there or tries to pull out your own weapon, I will shoot to kill.”

Jeez, Brede is a bad influence on me. We just reunited half an hour or so ago, and here I am ready to kill three uniforms for his dumbass.

“Hands up,” I tell them just to be safe when their twitching fingers linger near their holsters.

Fucking Brede. I can’t even spare a glance at him without giving these men a chance to take me down. My teeth grind together as I imagine him pulling Blair’s lifeless body from the car. I was wrong. He actually cares about her, and now he’s gonna be crushed…

“Where the
fuck
is she?” Brede suddenly bellows from less than five feet away, making my finger nearly twitch on the trigger.

So she’s not here? She’s not dead?

Thank fuck.

I lower my gun a smidge to look at Brede, who’s holding a big book or maybe a photo album underneath one of his arms.

“There wasn’t any blood. She’s alive…or was,” he tells me before attacking one of the uniforms, grabbing him up by the collar of his shirt. “Now tell me where she is!” My brother has balls, I’ll give him that.

“Um, on the way…to the hospital,” the cop tells him, right as the sirens of an ambulance can be heard off in the distance, coming this way.

“He’s lying,” I tell Brede. “We beat the ambulance.”

“I-I don’t know where she is!” the cop stammers when Brede shakes him. “We were told to make it look like she’s dead.”

“Who told you to do that?” I ask.

“Roger Lemons.”

“Fuck!” Brede shouts before pushing the cop away from him. “Let’s go,” he tells me, already on the way to the car.

“Ah, a little help here,” I say to him, still holding my gun on the cops as I start to walk backwards. Brede takes out his own gun and turns around, shooting one round after another, nearly making me jump out of my skin.

I let out an exhale and a thank you, Jesus, when I realize he blew out their tires and not their heads.

We both slip into the SUV; and after Brede tosses the book onto the floorboard beside my feet, he burns rubber out of there. Once we’re in the clear, I put my gun down and pull out my phone to load up the live audio feed from Roger’s house, hoping he hasn’t yet figured out he’s been bugged. He’s a known accomplice to the DA and a huge drug dealer for the entire state. It’s how I kept an eye on Brede and Blair without having to bust in to see if she needed help. I knew by the sounds she made that day with Brede that she was just fine. More than fine as he ate her out. My binoculars showed me that much, and with the sound accompaniment, well, I couldn’t wait to see her that night and get my hands on her.

Now, as the audio feeds through, hearing what’s going on is both a blessing and a curse. We at least know she’s alive.

“
Good morning, sleeping beauty…no, you should rest
,” Roger says.

“
Brede
?” Blair asks, sounding so small and delicate. My brother glances over at the phone in my hand when she says his name; then his grip tightens on the steering wheel.

“Now that he’s finished with you, it’s my turn
.”

“W-what?”
Blair asks.

“Brede had a job to do for your father. And since he didn’t do it, now I will.”

“A job?”

“To take care of you.”

“We’re gonna be too fucking late!” Brede exclaims before flooring the gas even harder. At least the road is mostly empty this time of night with no traffic to get in the way.

“Just a few more minutes and we’ll be there,” I assure him, hoping I’m right.

The longer we listen to the live feed, the more apparent it becomes that Blair is a smart girl. “She’s playing along, buying us more time.”

“She shouldn’t have to…no telling what he’s…” Brede can’t finish the sentence, and his knuckles are so white on the steering wheel it may break off soon.

“You love her,” I say in understanding and surprise.

“I’m gonna kill him,” he replies coolly as we take a sharp right, turning off for the empty highway that leads to Roger’s dirt road. No more than five minutes at this speed. Hang in there, Blair.

“
Suck me good. Oh God, yes,”
comes over the feed. Brede growls and drives even faster, maxing out the speed on the SUV.

“He definitely deserves to die,” I agree. In less than a minute, we’re pulling onto the final dirt road. “But slow down,” I warn my brother. “You’ll spin out on the gravel.”

“No, I won’t,” he grumbles, right as a scream comes over the feed. Brede even slows down a smidge when he glances over at the phone in my hands.

“I don’t think that was her,” I tell him proudly with a smile. “I’m pretty sure she just –”

“
Fucking bitch!
I’m bleeding! My cock…my cock’s bleeding!
” Roger exclaims followed by a loud
whomp
.

Maybe hurting Roger did her more harm than good, especially when Blair yells out
Stop!
so agonizingly painful that Brede and I both wince. But then the house is in sight, getting closer and closer, until Brede slams on the brakes and throws the SUV into park.

He opens his car door and runs toward a window before I can get out. Not wasting time bothering to see if the front door is unlocked, his boot slams up through the glass. And then he’s climbing inside while I call for backup. I ask for two ambulances before I even hear the gunshot go off. I know one of the ambulances will be unnecessary. Roger is definitely dead. Now we just have to hope we were quick enough to save Blair.

Brede

It takes me less than a second to take in the scene after I burst through the bedroom window – Roger is naked straddling Blair, his hands wrapped tightly around her throat, choking the life out of her.

Until he looks up and sees me. She’s on the ground, out of my line of sight, and that’s all that matters when I pull the trigger. Instead of the usual calm I feel before a kill, there’s nothing but chaos raging inside me, that I’m too late.

Roger’s body falls forward, and I rush over to push his bleeding, lifeless body from Blair so she can breathe. Quickly examining her, her eyes are closed, lips parted, with bruising around her neck in the shape of his hands, making me want to kill him all over again. When I put my ear to her mouth, I thankfully feel the warmth of her breath. I practically collapse in relief that we actually made it in time. Halle-fucking-lujah.

Seeing Blair stripped almost naked by yet another man in the same goddamn night gets me moving again. I find her dress that was tossed away on the floor and slip it over her head. Then I pull her panties back up her legs before cradling her body and lifting her up in my arms. When I turn around, Aden is standing in the doorway.

“Ambulances are on the way,” he says, his eyes on Blair’s limp form.

I look over my shoulder where Roger lays unmoving. “Too late,” I tell him.

“For her,” he replies. Glancing down he adds, “And your leg’s bleeding.”

“Hell no,” I tell him with an adamant shake of my head, barely noticing the pain from where the glass scrapped my calf when I broke the window. “I don’t trust anyone in this fucking town, not even emergency responders. Do you know how easy it would be for them to kill her?”

“We’ll ride with her,” he says with a sigh. “She needs to get checked out.”

“We need to get her out of this place!”

“Fine,” he eventually agrees with his hands braced on his hips. “Agents are on the way. We can leave after they –”

“No,” I interrupt. “We’re leaving
now
.”

“You just killed a man, Brede! A no-good, rapist, drug dealer, but you can’t just walk out the fucking door. Your DNA is all over the place,” he points out.

“Fuck. You’re right. Grab that asshole off the floor and take him with us,” I tell him as I take another step forward, but Aden continues to block the doorway as I approach him, his jaw tight and stubborn. “Move.”

“Dammit, this is my career! It took me
years
to get here, and I can’t just walk away. My contacts are the best chance of freeing Dad,” he argues.

“Make up an excuse. That I left, and you’re tailing me. Whatever it takes, but you and I both know damn well that she’s not gonna be safe in this state. Besides, as soon as they ID me and pull up my driver’s license photo, your career is gonna be fucked. They’ll know who you really are,
Aaron Burroughs
.”

“Goddamn…motherfuck…son of a
bitch
!” he exclaims before spinning around and punching his right fist through the wall.

Aden obviously hadn’t considered the implications of my involvement here. And on a side note, it’s good to see he hasn’t ever forgotten our father’s favorite swear phrase when he was angry. Not that our dad was often angry; but when he got pissed off working on his motorcycle or hammered his thumb while doing carpentry work, it was his go-to curse. Afterward, once he calmed down, he would look at Aden and me through narrowed blue eyes and tell us the same thing every time,
“I better not ever hear those words out of either of your identical mouths, unless you want me to scrub them with soap.”

“Get that fucker up and throw him in the trunk,” I tell Aden. “If they don’t know he’s dead that should buy us a little time.”

My brother doesn’t move, still unconvinced that running is the best option. I know the clock is ticking for us to actually get off the property, and Blair’s not gonna be safe until that happens. Why I feel responsible for her, I don’t know. It’s not even a conscious thought but more of an automatic bodily function to take care of her. She’s been through enough shit, and I refuse to let anyone else hurt her, even myself.

“Please,” I beg Aden. Then I try to appeal to his ulterior motive. “Do what’s best for her now, because if we lose her, we lose Dad’s chance, right?”

“I hope you’re happy,” he grumbles as he goes over and hefts Roger’s naked body up over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold on the first try. My brother’s stronger than he looks. His fancy suit is deceiving. “Thanks to you, Dad’s probably fucked.”

“No, he’s not. We’ve still got Blair’s testimony and mine, if it comes to it,” I assure him.

“You would do that? Go to prison so Dad could get out?” he asks, sounding shocked.

“Of course I would, now that I know he’s innocent.”

“So, what are you gonna do? Where are you planning to take her?” he asks, hefting Roger further up his shoulder.

“I’m gonna dump him in the river, and then we’re heading to Louisville,” I say.

“Back home to your new mom and pop, huh?” he sneers.

“The people in that town are trustworthy, unlike here where everyone’s paid by DA Lockhart or so scared of him so they do his bidding. And, yeah, I need to see Paula and make sure she’s still hanging in there. If Lockhart traces the money he gave me back to them, they’ll be in danger, too.”

A cell phone rings from across the room, telling us that someone is trying to contact Roger to warn him. They’re too late, but that gives me a great idea. I walk toward the ringing and realize it’s coming from Roger’s discarded jeans. Kneeling down beside them, I let go of Blair with one hand to use it to fish the device out and drop it into my back pocket.

“What are you doing?” Aden asks. “If we’re going, we need to get the fuck out of here!”

“I want to take his phone with us, go through and see if we can use it to find the fucking DA.”

“That shit will only lead him right to us,” he objects.

“Which is how we’ll kill that motherfucker and end this,” I tell him.

Aden tilts his head, considering it for several more long silent seconds before he sighs. “Fine. Let’s go.”

“You’re coming with Blair and me too?” I ask.

“Fuck, yes,” he answers as he turns and starts for the front door with me on his heels.

“Good,” I tell his backside and Roger’s flopping upper torso that’s leaving a trail of blood. “Because you’re driving.”

“What about your bike?” he asks when we walk past where I parked it earlier tonight when I got back into town.

“Gotta leave it.” I glance at my baby one last time, the 1981 Wide Glide Harley I worked two years stocking grocery store shelves to buy when I was seventeen because it was just like the one our dad had. Yeah, I may have hated him at the time, but the bike reminded me of the happy family I once had and lost.

“The police will probably seize it. But maybe we can come back for it after the dust settles,” Aden says as he pops open the trunk and dumps Roger inside. Good thing we stole an SUV with extra cargo space.

Once Aden jumps into the front seat and I slide into the back with Blair, he cranks the engine; and then we’re driving down the gravel. He barely turns onto the main road before the sirens and lights of an ambulance can be seen barreling down the dark highway, taking the right onto Roger’s road. So close.

When they don’t see Roger, they’ll be suspicious, but hopefully they’ll just think he’s run off somewhere with Blair.

“We’ve got to find another car,” Aden says, eying me from the rearview mirror.

“Yeah, probably several times to be safe,” I agree. “We’ve got a long drive.”

“I think we should stop at a motel, let me try to smooth things over and get some rest,” he suggests.

“Fine,” I agree, knowing Blair needs to rest in a real bed. “But not until we’re out of this state.”

“Okay, so at the Tennessee border?” he asks.

“No. First, pull over on the Tinkers Creek Bridge so I can toss this asshole over, and then we’re gonna go up to Virginia in case we’re being followed. Tomorrow we’ll go through Tennessee so we can watch our asses in the daylight.”

Looking down at Blair, she’s hardly moved, which has me on edge. At least I know she’s breathing. I wipe the tears that are still dampening her cheeks and notice a raised knot on her forehead. When my fingertips brush over the abrasion, she cringes in my arms like it’s still tender. I wonder if she got that in the wreck or from Roger.

God, if we had been just another minute later…

“Blair,” I say while caressing her cheek with my knuckle to try and rouse her awake. “Blair, baby, wake up.”

She may have a concussion; and, if so, she shouldn’t be sleeping. Also, I just want her to look at me and say something so that I know she’s all right. Not that she’ll likely speak, but still…

“Blair,” I call her name again, louder this time and move my fingertips down her jaw to her bruised neck before lowering them to smooth along the neckline of her dress, just over the swells of her breasts.

That wakes her up, but not the way I wanted.

Weakly, she grabs my hand and pushes it away before her eyes start to blink awake. When she can hold them open, they roam over me in the darkness, the interior of the SUV only lit by passing lamp posts.

“Brede?” she asks barely above a whisper, reminding me her throat is likely still sore. Is there any part of my angel that isn’t damaged?

“Yeah, baby, it’s me,” I tell her and wait for her reaction, hoping she won’t flinch away. After all, she ran from me just half an hour ago when she found out why I was really here.

Instead of trying to get away, Blair grabs two fists full of my leather jacket and t-shirt and then buries her face in the fabric, seeking comfort in me, the man her father paid to kill her. How fucked up is that? I’m all she’s got, along with Aden, who is also using her in as many ways, if not more, than I am.

Hearing her sniffles nearly breaks my heart. What do you know? I may still actually have one of those organs after all.

“Why does everyone…wanna…hurt me?” she asks. My gaze flicks to the front seat where Aden flinches because he knows he also hurt her. Not that I haven’t, but what he did, tying her up was seriously fucked up. That sort of shit probably messed Blair up more than anything else since she’s been in a mental hospital for years where they probably restrained her.

I want to be pissed, to hate Aden for what he did to her, and for taking her virginity from me, but I can’t after what he told me about his past. I’m starting to think that he’s not entirely mentally stable. In some moments he seems completely normal, like the Aden I grew up with who never left my side. But other times, there’s a strange flash of rage, as if he’s a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode. I’m not sure I want Blair to be around him if or when that happens. She’s been through enough shit because of the two of us.    

“I’m sorry, baby,” I tell Blair, wrapping my arms tightly around her since she didn’t push me away. “Your father doesn’t want you to rat him out. He’s scared of you bringing him down. But Aden and I are not gonna hurt you again. That’s a promise, okay?”

And if my brother does, I’ll kick his ass. I’m sure he got that message loud and clear.

Lifting her head, Blair brushes her damp lips over the exposed skin at my collarbone, one of the few places on my body not covered in ink. “I know,” she whispers, her mouth moving higher up my neck. “You saved me.”

Her warm, wet tongue laps at my throat, and between that and her words of gratitude, I’m a goner. She makes me feel like I’m ten feet tall and bulletproof, instead of a no-good killer. And those gentle kisses are all it takes for me to take a nose dive into desire, losing any semblance of control or rational thought. I hoist Blair up so that she’s straddling my lap. As my palm grasps her face to crush her lips to mine, she hisses, definitely a sound of pain, not pleasure.

Fuck.

So much for me keeping a promise not to hurt her again.

“Sorry,” I tell her, dropping both of my hands from her. “You’re in pain and I shouldn’t–”

Her lips cover mine. And then she’s devouring me, her tongue thrusting into my mouth while her sexy little body rocks over the bulge of my jeans.

“Touch me,” she pleads, weaving her fingers through the back of my hair and giving a sharp, insistent tug.

My palms glide up the outsides of both her smooth thighs, easing underneath the cotton of her dress. Once my hands cup her ass cheeks, my cock takes over again, grinding her on my swollen shaft. Without pausing in her nibbling on my earlobe, she reaches down between us and unzips my jeans, fisting my cock and freeing him.

“Mmm,” she moans as she strokes my hard length. I can’t stop thinking about what we heard, what he was doing to her. I want to rip Roger’s dick off for going near any part of my angel with it.

“Did he…” I start, unable to say the words needed to ask if he got inside her.

“No,” she answers in understanding, causing my exhale of relief. “But I…I, um –”

“Shh, baby,” I interrupt, putting a finger to her lips when she starts to explain what happened. “Forget it. Forget him. Don’t ever think about it again.”