House of Paine - A Full Length Bad Boy Novel (10 page)

“I don’t. I was just making conversation. Just pick one to tell me about, like the one on your arm that says, PAINE.”

He looked down at it, like he didn’t remember what it looked like. Then he looked back up at her with that same crazy intense gaze and said, “It’s a family crest. We all have them.”

“Nice, so it’s like a stamp that says, “I’m the direct descendent of a drug lord…”

Damien almost spat out his coffee and his eyes narrowed in annoyance. “Don’t start.”

“Don’t start what? I’m just stating a fact. You wear your family “crest” so proudly that one might actually think you were a model family.”

“You don’t know a fucking thing about me or my family.”

“Really? I think I do. My mother was married to IT. I lived in IT. My brother died for IT.” She said with venom rolling from her tongue.

“Let’s not go there.”

“Why? Because you know that your father knows more than he’s saying about my brother’s murder? You wear that crest like you’re royalty when the truth is no matter how nice you live or dress or look…you’re just a criminal underneath, the same as any other street thug.”

“And you have a big fucking mouth. If your brother’s mouth was as big as yours it’s no wonder he’s dead.”

Paige could instantly feel the blood rush to her head at his words. “Don’t you fucking dare talk about my brother. He had more integrity in his pinky finger than your entire family has all put together. You’re not fit to let his name roll off your lips.”

He stood up, pushing his chair back hard. He dropped his fork onto his plate. Paige made herself sit tight and not jump at the sound. She didn’t want him to have the satisfaction of knowing that he startled her. He stood there for a second with his chest rising and falling, looking at her like he had something else to say. He must have decided against it because he took his plate over and tossed it into the sink and then headed for the kitchen door.

“Damien…”

He stopped, but he didn’t turn around. “What?”

“Does your father know who killed my brother?”

Damien turned to look at her then. Something swirled deep within his eyes but she wasn’t sure what it was.

“You’ll need to ask my father. I’m not his keeper.”

“Fine, how about this, do you know who killed my brother?”

“No. I have no idea.”

He turned and left the room then. Appetite gone, Paige got up and emptied her plate in the garbage disposal and rinsed it off. As she finished putting hers…and his into the dishwasher, she heard a knock on the front door. She peeked out the kitchen door in time to see Damien rush down the hall and open it. Kelsey Kramer was standing there…looking as fresh and gorgeous as ever. Damien propelled her back with his body and closed the door behind him. He didn’t want her to see Paige. Paige wondered if it was about keeping her safe…or not making Kelsey jealous.

She slipped quickly down the hall to “her” room before Damien opened the door again. She closed the door behind her in case Kelsey came inside and she grabbed her phone.

She had a text from Tommy.

It simply said, “Bronx Zoo at noon, by the alligator exhibit.”

Paige was surprised. She thought Tommy was long gone by now. She hoped that meant he wasn’t still in danger. She sat down on the bed trying to decide if it would be better to ditch Damien and sneak off on her own or just tell him and let him drive her…but stay away when she meets with Tommy. The question was really whether or not she trusted him and the answer was that she trusted him as much as she did any of the rest of these people…which amounted to zero.

She heard Damien come back inside a few minutes later. She looked at the clock. It was almost ten-thirty. If she was going to meet Tommy, she needed to go soon. She pulled open her door a crack and looked out. She saw Damien move across the foyer; he was alone. She stepped out and went into the living room. He was slumped on the couch flipping through the channels on the television. She was pretty sure this wasn’t what he was used to doing. She wondered what he would be doing if she wasn’t remanded into his custody, then she decided that she’d probably rather not know.

“What did Kelsey want?”

He didn’t answer her; instead he gave her a look that said ‘don’t ask’. He went back to his channel surfing and she said, “I’m going to meet my brother’s old partner at the Bronx Zoo at noon.”

That got his attention. He sat up straight on the couch and said, “Not alone you’re not.”

“That’s fine. You can come with me. You just need to keep your distance while I talk to him.” He smirked and she asked, “What’s so funny?”

“You.”

“I’m funny?”

“Sometimes…when you try and act like you’re in charge.”

Paige narrowed her eyes at him as he got up and walked towards his bedroom. She let that go, but what he obviously didn’t know was that she is in charge. These controlling, angry, tough-guy, wise guy, assholes just think that they are. She went and changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and when she came back out he was waiting for her. He had on jeans too and a N.Y. Mets jersey with a backwards baseball cap. He was ridiculously sexy in it. He looked good in a suit and tie, jeans and a ball cap…and absolutely nothing. It’s too bad he didn’t have an attitude to match.

They drove out to the Bronx in silence. When they got to the zoo it was about eleven forty-five. “I’m meeting him near the alligator exhibit. Please stay out of sight, okay? I don’t think he’d be happy about me bringing you.”

Damien snorted like he didn’t give a shit what Tommy was happy about or not, but he found a bench near the front entrance and sat down. Satisfied, Paige made her way to where she was meeting Tommy.

He was already there.

“Hey! I thought you were leaving town.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Tommy looked like shit. He had big bags underneath his eyes and he looked like he’d lost ten pounds since the funeral.

“Are you okay?”

“As okay as I can be,” he said, vaguely. He had a package in his hand. He handed it to her. “That’s what Greg wanted you to find. I took it from the crime scene before they could take it into evidence.”

Paige wondered why he was waiting until now to give it to her, but she didn’t ask. Instead she said, “Do you know what’s in it?”

“I have an idea,” he said. “I need to go Paige. Be careful…please.”

“Okay. Thank you, Tommy.”

“Don’t thank me. I should be discouraging you from doing this instead of helping you. Keep yourself safe Paige and whatever you do, do not get sucked into their world.” Tommy hugged her then and took off towards the backside of the zoo. Paige looked down at the package in her hand. She wanted to see what was inside of it…without Damien looking over her shoulder. She tucked it into her backpack and went the way Tommy had. As she suspected, there was a small gate at the rear of the zoo where you couldn’t enter, but you could exit. She slipped out and took off jogging. She jogged about two blocks before she stopped and hailed a cab….to Greg’s apartment leaving Damien waiting.

Once Paige was inside Greg’s apartment she opened the envelope Tommy gave her. There was a USB thumb drive and a small audio drive. She pulled out her notebook and plugged in the USB. When she brought it up there was a list of files on it in chronological order. She clicked on one of them and a manifest opened up.

The manifest read, “Trans Paine Inc.” at the top as the shipper. Under the area that read, “Port” New York was listed. The name of a ship was listed as well and the name of the captain and where the shipment was coming from…and Kramer Construction was listed as the receivers. There were over twelve of these manifests, different dates, but otherwise very similar. One notable was that the shipments all came in on the same ship under the authority of the same captain. The captain’s name was Seth Vickers. Paige made a mental note to call Tommy and see if they had any background on him.

The USB also held a list of names. The names were all Columbian and Greg had put in parenthesis at the bottom: Cartel.

Paige wasn’t sure yet what to do with all of this, but she knew that this was good information to have. She had to wonder however why it would be enough to kill for. Surely Lucas Kramer and Jackson Paine had a safety net in place in case their manifests ever went public. Surely they had a legitimate shipment come in as a cover for whatever else…likely drugs, was brought in along with it.

Paige took out the USB and put in the audio. She waited for it to load and pressed play.

“Do we have a deal?” The voice was male and heavily accented. Paige would say Columbian, considering the source.

“Yes, I’ve already given you my word. What more do you want?”

That voice didn’t sound familiar to her. “I want what Jackson Paine has, Mr. Kramer.” Lucas Kramer!

“This will be our start. The July shipment is one of his biggest yet. If this goes south for him, he’ll lose customers and he’ll lose respect and he’ll lose millions…”

“And that’s your reward. My reward will be that I’ll have the product waiting for me out on the island. I’ll move it back to Columbia and sell it and I will make the millions he loses. It will make a very happy man to see him suffer for it.”

“Mine as well,” Kramer said. “It’s all set. The captain is set to run the ship aground. You’re men will need to be there and ready to unload it as quickly as they can. The ship will then sink and the captain will be assumed dead.”

“What about the crew?”

“They will do what the captain tells them to do.”

“You’re sure? We can’t afford any wild cards.”

“Do you think I don’t know that? I don’t do wild cards. I wrap up my loose ends and tie them up in a bow.”

“Like the two DEA agents last year?”

“That was Jackson’s doing…mostly, but yes, like that.”

“That was…”

Paige heard a noise that sounded like the door opening. She pulled the file out and shoved it into her pants. She turned toward the sound and saw Damien standing behind her. It was the first time that he actually looked scary to her. She looked up at his large frame and his eyes had that cold hard edge to them that his brother’s held all the time.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I needed to pick up some more things…”

He reached down and pulled her up out of the chair. He held her up off the floor, close to his face. Paige felt her breath catch in her throat. She was torn between “How dare he touch me?” and “Oh my God his lips are so close.”

“You took off on me at the zoo. I had no fucking clue where you were…”

“Obviously you found me, so put me down and calm down.”

He let her down on her feet but he still didn’t let go of her arms. She felt dizzy being so close to him. She wanted to touch him so badly that she had to ball her hands into fists to keep herself from doing it.

“Do you know what he would do to me if I let anything happen to you?”

“He? Your own father? Don’t you think your well-being would be more important to him than mine?”

“You would think,” he said, letting go of her. She fell back into the table, losing her balance and sliding down into the floor.

“Jesus, fuck Damien!”

He reached his hand down to her and she hit it away. A murderous look crossed his face and for a second she thought maybe she had gone too far. She was pissed at this point and didn’t care.

“Get away from me.” She pulled herself up and said, “Why do you and your father want to keep me away from here so badly? Is there something here that you’re afraid I’ll find? Do you know something about my brother’s death?”

“I’m supposed to watch you, period. I don’t know shit! Now get your stuff and let’s go.”

“No! Stop telling me what to do!”

“I should just leave you here then and let you end up dead like the cop.”

She stepped back up close to him. She was seeing red now. She pushed her hands into his chest and said, “That cop was my brother! He was my big brother and now he’s dead and I’m the only one who gives a shit!”

She pushed him again and he grabbed her wrists. She was breathing heavy, fighting off the tears again. She was well aware that this man could kill her right now for putting her hands on him, but she was so pissed she couldn’t think clearly and right now she just didn’t care.

“Let go of me,” she said through gritted teeth.

Damien let go and when she looked up at his face she saw his eyes had softened.

“I’m sorry about your brother.”

Paige was shocked. An apology? From a Paine? Hell must have frozen over. She didn’t know what to say at that point and she was afraid if she tried that she would lose it completely and start to cry. So instead of saying anything, she grabbed her pack off the table and said, “Let’s go.”

Damien followed her out. When he turned to lock the door, she fished the USB out of her pants and stuffed it back into her pack. She would have to look at it later.

*****

Damien alternated between being pissed at Paige and feeling sorry for her. If anyone else had put their hands on him like that…there would have been hell to pay. As it were, his blood was still roaring from the heat of her touch. It had aroused him for her to touch him at all and his cock twitched in his pants even now at the memory of it. She’s such a pain in the ass. He can’t begin to imagine why she affects him the way that she does, but he felt powerless to control it. This morning when he’d been naked and he knew she was watching him… the weight of her stare shot heat through his veins and he had been right on the verge of taking her. He knew that he had to keep himself in check. Paige was not part of their world no matter how tough she liked to pretend that she was, or how much she wanted to believe she was in control. She didn’t belong here and Damien could never leave…so taking this damned attraction anywhere would be a mistake. She was destined to be a doctor and have a family in some nice little suburb of New Jersey and he was destined for a life with someone like Kelsey…a hot fuck whenever he wanted it, but nothing beyond that.