The Salvation of Vengeance (Wanted Men #2) (25 page)

This wasn’t the way he wanted shit between them to go down. He should have kept his fucking distance.

His teeth ground together as he was stopped by yet another red light. She could hate him all she wanted, but that wouldn’t change anything. Not now. Not when her ex had gotten close enough to touch her. The reminder had him screeching the tires when he stomped on the gas too hard as the light flashed green.

No matter what means he had to use, he was going to make things right and safe for that woman. If it was the last thing he ever did.

Anxiety rode him hard as he floored it down the freeway and was still on his ass when, thirty-eight minutes later, he stood with his shoulder leaning against the jamb in the opened bay of his garage. His stomach was killing him, the pit nothing but a grinding knot of nerves as he watched Eva pace the same circle she’d been doing for the past fifteen minutes.

“Gabriel’s gonna yell at you doin’ that nervous habit,” he commented idly, attempting to settle her when he couldn’t settle himself.

She stilled her clicking fingernails and looked over. “Nika called forever ago, Vincente. Where could she be?” She sat down on the edge of a large cement urn filled with summer flowers. “God, I feel sick,” she added, looking sick.

“She’ll be here any second,” he assured her. Fuck, he wanted to pace but wouldn’t. Didn’t want Eva and Caleb, who’d arrived a few minutes ago, to have a visual of his nerves. Where the fuck was the cab?

What if she’d changed her mind halfway here and decided to go somewhere else? He stiffened. Were they standing there like chumps while she headed . . . where? To Vex, maybe?

Fuck.
If the biker touched her, he’d have to kill him. No matter what kind of war it would cause between their people. Vincente didn’t care. It wouldn’t be the first time two organized crime factions went head-to-head. And it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

You don’t have the right, asshole
, Fan Boy reminded him.
You gave it up when you crushed her under your heel two hours ago.

“Seriously. What the fuck is the cabbie doing? Circling a random block somewhere to crank up the meter?” Caleb ran a hand over his short hair in a fast swipe. He was perched on the front fender of Alek’s Range Rover.

“Where’s Vex?” Vincente couldn’t help it. Had to ask.

“Don’t know.” Caleb took out his phone and punched in a quick text. “He’s at Lucian Fane’s place,” he said when he got a response. “You need him for something?”

“Nope.”
The biker would live another day
, he thought around his relief.

Gabriel came out from the garage and ran his palm over Eva’s hair in a gentle caress before going over to the Range Rover and grabbing Nollan’s note, which Vincente had thrown onto the hood a few minutes ago. He read it for what had to be the tenth time. “Tell me how this prick keeps slipping through everyone’s fingers.”

Vincente cracked his jaw before answering. “No close connects here. If we were in Seattle, we’d know who to shake down. In New York, we don’t know who he knows or where he’s hanging.”

“Have you asked Nika about friends he might have around town?”

No, he hadn’t. He turned to Caleb. “Have you?”

“Fuck. No. I’ve been so worried about her—trying so hard
not
to bring that bastard up—I didn’t think to ask her,” the biker admitted, like a man. An embarrassed man but a man nonetheless.

Vincente ground his teeth and slugged him in the shoulder. “Join the idiot parade—my float’s not full. It didn’t cross my mind to question her either.”
Shit.
He’d been too distracted.

He filled them in on Lore’s text and made a mental note to get the footage from the security cameras placed around the apartment building. He wanted to know how close Nollan had been.

The front door to the house swung open to reveal Maks. He shaded his eyes against the August sunshine and called down, “Cab just dropped a lone female off at the end of the drive. At the rate she’s walking, her ETA is about twenty minutes. She looks like she can use a friend.”

Eva was on her feet and grabbing Gabriel’s hand before Maks even finished, yanking her husband toward his truck. “We’ll go.”

“I’ll come with.” Caleb stood but didn’t get the chance to take a step before Eva was hopping into the passenger seat and slamming the door.

“We’ll be right back, Paynne,” Gabriel reassured him as he climbed in and headed around the circle.

Never had Vincente been more jealous of the pecking order.

CHAPTER 15

Nika slowly walked alongside the paved drive leading to Eva’s house, the detachment that had settled over her at the apartment had faded bit by bit during the trip and was now almost gone. Her lip trembled, and she bit down on it in an effort to smother the emotion trying to rise in her chest.

She’d never been so exhausted in all her life. Who’d have thought simply surviving would be so trying, and for such little gain? The toe of her sandal caught on a chunk of raised asphalt and she stumbled, probably looking as if she were attempting to dance.

She glanced back to where she’d had the taxi drop her and then scanned the area. It was really lovely here. Peaceful. Quiet, with just the sound of the wind in the trees lining the drive and the odd bird chirping. With a ragged sigh, she veered to the side and flopped down onto the grass.

Was there something wrong with her that she couldn’t see?

She pulled some grass out and brought it to her nose. Inhaling the fresh scent of nature brought her back to Seattle. She was a young girl again, sitting on the picnic table in her backyard, playing with Barbie dolls while her dad mowed the lawn. Her whole life was ahead of her, but never in her dreams, or her worst nightmares, had she foreseen where she was today.

She looked up at the sound of an approaching vehicle. She didn’t panic since it was coming from the house and not the main road. The black Escalade stopped on the opposite side of where she sat and the passenger door opened. Eva hopped out, and Nika managed the barest of smiles as her best friend came over and dropped down beside her. They sat in silence for a while, Nika not sure what to say. Maybe “I’m overwhelmed and floundering and I don’t know how to get a grip on this”?

She didn’t want to admit that. Had tried so hard to deny it. She didn’t want to be broken.

But she was.

“I’m not doing so well,” she confessed quietly.

Eva joined their arms and snuggled up until they were hip to hip, the canary diamond from her ring twinkling in the sunlight coming through the trees. “Not many people in your position would be.” The empathy in her tone was just enough to make Nika feel understood but not pitied. “Do you think it might help to talk to someone about it? I know it helped me after the time I spent in that cabin with Stefano and Furio. I don’t mean a shrink,” she said quickly. “Unless that’s what you want. But I talked to Gabriel’s friend Michael. He’s the priest who married us. Really nice. Doesn’t act all self-righteous.”

“How did talking to him help?” Nika believed talking about it would do nothing more than bring all the bad feelings she’d experienced during the past year to the forefront again. Why would she volunteer for that?

“The best thing, I find, is that he listens. He doesn’t try to talk me out of feeling what I’m feeling.” She lowered her voice as if it might carry across the road. “I’d talk to Gabriel, but it just makes him furious, and I want him and Stefano to patch things up, not get into a fight the minute they see each other again.” She shrugged. “I know our situations are different. I mean, I was only taken for one night, whereas you . . .” She paused and swallowed audibly before saying, “I guess I do understand Gabriel’s anger, because if the chance ever presented itself, I would kill Kevin without a second thought.”

“Get in line, sista,” Nika murmured. She let her head fall to Eva’s shoulder. “I know it doesn’t mean much, but I’m really sorry all of this is happening during what should be one of the best times of your life. First your wedding night, and now, weeks later, it’s still going on. You and Gabriel haven’t even gone on a proper honeymoon. Please tell me that isn’t because of my situation.”

Eva nudged her with her elbow. “It isn’t, but what if it was? Wouldn’t you do the same for me?”

Without a doubt.
She nodded.

“Of course you would,” Eva said. She straightened her tanned legs, which looked endless in the shorts she was wearing, and wriggled her toes in her sandals. Nika did the same, thinking idly that she had to change her polish.

“Before you guys drove up,” Nika said, “I was smelling the grass, and it reminded me of when I was little. Did you play with Barbies?”

“Barbies?”

Nika lifted her head. “Yeah. My favorite was the family set with the Volvo. Remember?”

Eva looked sheepish. “I wasn’t a Barbie fan.”

“No, you wouldn’t have been. You were more the fake broom, dustpan, and nonworking vacuum cleaner,” she teased.

“I totally had that whole set,” Eva admitted. “It was pink and turquoise.”

They laughed in a soft burst, but the humor didn’t last.

“So was it something that happened today that upset you?” Eva asked. “Or have you been feeling like this all along? When I called this morning, aside from your hangover, things seemed fine. Especially when you said you were in bed with Vincente . . . ?”

Nika sighed and felt no shame in talking about something so personal with her best friend. “I found out I’m not as messed up from Kevin as I thought. Sexually, I mean,” she clarified. “Vincente and I fooled around and, well, it was wonderful. Until he ended it because I wasn’t doing it for him.”

Eva seemed to freeze; she even stopped breathing for a few seconds. Her fingers clasped Nika’s knee. “He
said
that?”

“Not those exact words, but that was the gist of it.”

“I’m coming to love Vincente, but what a dick move. If you didn’t do it for him, then why did he come on to you? I think maybe he’s lying. Do you see the way he looks at you?” She nodded. “I’m pretty sure he totally lied to you today. But why?”

Nika snorted, remembering the look on his face that morning.
I usually get off just fine.
“I’m pretty sure he didn’t lie, Eva.”

“He did.”

She changed the subject. “We should go. Who’s driving?” She squinted in an attempt to see through the tint on the Escalade’s windows but couldn’t.

“Gabriel. And there’s no rush,” Eva offered. “If we want to sit out here all afternoon, we can. I can tell him to come back later.”

“I love you.”

Eva hugged her. “I love you, too,” she whispered in an unsteady voice.

Nika looked at her closely when they drew apart. “You’re very emotional lately. Not as committable as I am, but still.”

“I’m worried for you.”

Nika tried to smile as Eva got to her feet and pulled her up by the hand. They walked to the Escalade and both climbed into the back.

“Hi, Gabriel,” she greeted their patiently waiting chauffeur.

“Hey, honey. You okay?”

She nodded and looked out the window as he did a U-turn and headed for the house.

“Vincente and Caleb are waiting for us,” he let her know.

“I kinda figured they would be.”

And they were, both of them wearing identical frowns as they watched the three of them climb from the SUV a few minutes later. Nika hugged her brother, trying to draw strength from him. She looked at Vincente once she extracted herself and took the high road.

“I apologize for walking out on you, and for anything hurtful I might have said. I was upset, but that’s no excuse.” She’d implied he was capable of slapping her around the same way Kevin had. The two men couldn’t be more different. She went over and offered him the same type of hug she would have given Vex. Even though she felt more, she ignored it quite easily in her mentally and emotionally drained state. “I’m sorry, Vincente,” she whispered as exhaustion ate at her. “I was cruel and unnecessarily harsh. That’s not who I am.”

His touch was almost tender as he returned the embrace. “Red—”

She pulled back with a shake of her head, not expecting a response. Not wanting one. “So everyone knows about the note?” she asked as Eva and Gabriel led the way into the house.

They ended up around the table in the kitchen, with Samnang placing steaming mugs of coffee before them.

“Does Kevin have any friends in New York, Nik?” Caleb asked quietly. “None of us thought to ask, or we assumed someone else did.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. He has a cousin, but he never mentioned his name.”

Vincente withdrew his phone from his pocket when a buzzing noise sounded. He cursed when he read the text. “Finally.”

“What?” Gabriel and Caleb said in unison.

“Alesio and Vito got a hit with Nollan’s pic.”

Fear bit into her as Nika looked around the massive granite and stainless-steel kitchen; her gaze settled on the housekeeper at the counter chopping vegetables. He scraped a cutting board full of celery pieces into a large stockpot.
Making soup?
She used to love to cook.

As she turned and looked out the bay window at the swimming pool in the back, she distantly heard Vincente say a variety store owner had recognized Kevin’s photo. Her chest constricted as she stared at the surface of the nearly still water. No troubles to be had under there. Just peace and quiet.

Peace.

Quiet.

“I love you. Please be careful.”

Eva’s voice and the sound of a kiss forced Nika’s attention to what was happening around her. She balked at what she saw.

She was the only one left sitting at the table. Caleb, Gabriel, and Vincente were leaving. Rapid little clicks had her looking to see Eva off to the side, nails tapping together a mile a minute. Something she’d always done when she was really nervous or scared.

“Wait. What’s—Where are you going?” Nika demanded.

Vincente was the one to answer. “We’re going to go see if we can end this for you, Red.” He was looking at her with concern. They all were. Shouldn’t that be the other way around?
They
were the ones heading into God only knew what.

“Please be careful,” she said, her vision warping oddly. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
Or worse.

Without warning, a deluge of panic crashed over her. She grasped at her throat and shoved at her chair with the backs of her knees. After stumbling to her feet, she stepped away from everyone’s surprised expressions and squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to breathe through the horrors screaming through her mind. Her lungs seized up, burning as she tried to inflate them.

What if something happens to Gabriel because of me?
What would Eva do without him?
What if Kevin does something to my brother?

“F-forget it,” she rasped through the full-blown panic attack. “N-never mind. I—I’ll t-take care of th-this myself. Someplace else.” Her voice shook so badly she barely understood her own words. “I’ll go b-back to S-Seattle. He can’t hurt you g-guys there. You should f-forget about this and let me go—”

Strong, supporting arms enveloped her, and a big hand cupped the back of her head to press her cheek gently into a soft-leather-covered chest. “Shh, shh, shh. It’s okay, babe,” Vincente murmured.

But it wasn’t okay. It wasn’t ever going to be okay, she realized as the suffocation level in her chest rose until she was nothing more than a raw, terror-filled shell.

What if Kevin does something to Vincente?

What would she do if she didn’t even have the comfort of knowing he was somewhere in the world, even if it wasn’t with her? She tried to breathe around her fading vision and weakening limbs. “He’s coming, Vincente,” she wheezed. “He won’t stop. He’s coming . . . for . . . me.”

Her final words were soundless as darkness took her.

Cursing, Vincente swung Nika into his arms and swept out of the kitchen, ignoring a frowning Quan, who was just coming through the front door. He hit the stairs, taking them two at a time, and steamrolled down the hallway to his room, the fear and certainty that had been in Nika’s voice all he could hear. She was expecting death. At the hands of her abuser. No matter that it seemed she was handling things—until today, at least—she was fearing for her life. She thought Nollan getting to her was an indisputable conclusion to her story.

She was wrong. There was no possible way that guy could get within miles of this house without them knowing about it.
No. Possible. Way.

After striding over to his bed, he pulled the duvet back and gently laid Nika down in the very place he slept every night. Her flaming hair was a brilliant contrast to the white of his pillowcase. His chest felt tight in helpless sympathy for what she was going through, his treatment of her notwithstanding. If he included that, he might as well just eat a bullet and get it over with.

He pulled the cover over her as Eva rushed in. Caleb stood just inside the door, head bowed, face like a rock.

“You should have brought her to our room, Vincente.” Eva went over to the other side of the bed and crawled over to sit on her knees. He didn’t bother responding. He watched one shaking hand wipe at the tears on her cheeks while the other ran lovingly over the top of her friend’s head. “She can’t take much more.” The anger and quiet alarm in her voice was apparent as she stated the obvious. “Fucking men,” she cursed under her breath.

He was taken aback by that, didn’t expect it from Eva—especially the plural. He shook it off and asked, “Do you know where Tegan is? She working?”

“She’s on her way,” she said shortly as she bent forward. “Nika? Come on, hon,” she whispered. “Wake up. Please.” She rolled onto her hip and then sat cross-legged, Nika’s hand firmly clasped between hers. “Have you ever seen her faint before, Caleb? I haven’t.” The biker didn’t even look up, instead keeping his gaze on his sister. “I’ve never seen her like this. Not even when your dad died, but then, it was like she’d kind of expected that to happen. She breezed through it without seeming to take in what it meant. Remember? She fell apart two years after the fact. We were watching a movie where the guy’s parents were killed, and she lost it. Said she knew your dad was going to leave her even before we knew he had cancer.”