Her rivals touch, p.13
Her Rival's Touch, page 13
He crossed his arms over his chest. “What about the other one—Pestilence?”
“Ryu.”
He didn’t blink. “He’s the computer guy.”
“He’s the backbone of this entire thing,” she corrected as she went to work with primer on her skin. She didn’t use it most of the time on the island, but there were faint circles under her eyes, and she looked exhausted. Not the kind of girl their contact would want to send up to Milo. No, she had to be flawless—or at least appear that way. “Ryu and Amarante are blood siblings. They were in that camp longer that either me or Luca. A lot longer. Ryu is the one who used his affinity with computers to get us the funding we needed for the island.”
It had taken him years to get that good. Years of them doing small time hustles and pickpocketing in order to survive. Years when there were times she got so hungry, she actually considered bargaining her body again. Even if it would break her. Better broken than starving.
Amarante wouldn’t hear of it. Every time it got that bad, every time Kenzie brought up that option, Amarante would disappear for several hours and when she came back, she’d bring enough food to last them days.
Kenzie still didn’t know what her sister had done to accomplish that.
“Luca is Famine,” Liam mused. “He’s a dick.”
“He’s overprotective.” Truth be told, they all were.
Liam watched her apply her contouring and eye shadow. “Family is complicated.”
“Yes.” She carefully blended the browns of the eyeshadow into a subtle smoky eye look. Intense enough to pass for evening, but a more natural version of it. “You would know.”
“Only by proxy. The O’Malleys are…” He gave a small smile. “Complicated. Aiden might be my best friend, but there’s a power dynamic there that neither of us can escape. I will never be family, and so we’ll never quite be equal.”
She paused and met his gaze in the mirror. “He cares about you. That’s not a lie.”
“No, it’s not a lie. We’re friends. We’ll just never…” Liam shook his head. “This is stupid. I have a good life. Yeah, I skate on the wrong side of the law, but it’s a good life.”
He sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her. “But?”
“But there’s something missing, and I can’t—won’t settle until I’ve found that missing piece.” He deliberately turned away and walked into the room.
Her.
He was talking about her.
The fluttering in her stomach had nothing to do with what came later that night and everything to do with the realization that Liam wasn’t going to walk after their allotted time was up. For better or worse, he’d set his sights on her and he’d stay until she was forced to make a decision.
Kenzie took a slow breath to steady the hand holding her mascara wand. She didn’t know what the future held. She couldn’t think about it now, not with what came next hanging over her head.
But maybe…
Maybe they could find a way.
Maybe.
Chapter 13
Liam did not want to send Kenzie alone with the skeezy motherfucker who would deliver her to Milo. The man didn’t look skeezy, naturally. He was a thin Mexican guy who wore a suit and smiled charmingly at Kenzie in a way designed to disarm. It might have worked if Liam couldn’t practically see him adding up the bonus he’d get for delivering her to that suite upstairs.
She’d dressed to impress tonight, and it showed. Her tight black dress barely covered the essentials, leaving her breasts pressing against the top as if one deep breath would show nipple and the lower curve of her ass flashing every time she bent the slightest bit forward. Her sky-high heels made the most of her legs and her blond hair was styled in a way that looked like she’d just been thoroughly fucked.
He was torn between wanting to drag her to some shady corner and show her how much he appreciated the look and wanting to wrap her in his coat and bundle her away from this club and this city and this fucking country.
Their contact, Marco, gave Kenzie another smile. “Be a good girl and go get us a drink.” He pressed cash into her hand, missing the way her amber eyes flared in fury before she masked the response.
The slip in her mask worried Liam more than anything else. She was smiling and flirting and acting the part of a clueless pretty girl, but he knew her well enough by now to see the underlying tension.
Kenzie was in danger of shattering.
Again, Liam cursed himself for not finding a way around this. She’d never forgive him if he stepped in and took care of that piece of shit they needed to extract. Kenzie wouldn’t see it as him saving her. Liam would become an obstacle, and he already knew how Kenzie—how the Horsemen—dealt with obstacles.
In trying to protect her, he’d lose her forever.
As soon as she bounced off to the bar, Marco turned to Liam. “I’ll give you twenty grand for her.”
It took every ounce of self-control to keep his rage off his face. As if Kenzie was worth such a pittance. As if she wasn’t fucking priceless. He raised his brows. “We both know your guy would pay a hundred for her without blinking. She’s prime cut, so don’t fuck with me.”
Marco studied him as if trying to gauge whether he was bluffing or not. “She better be worth the promise that ass makes for that kind of money.”
“She’s worth more.” That, at least, was the truth.
Another beat of hesitation and Marco shrugged. “Sure, man. Just don’t expect her to thank you for this. My man doesn’t break his toys as often as he used to, but it happens.”
Christ.
“He breaks her, I come looking for you.”
Marco held up his hands. “It was just a word of warning. She’ll be fine. Bombshell like that? He’ll treat her real nice.”
Fuck, Liam was going to be sick. “Then we have a deal?” he ground out.
“Sure, man, sure.” Marco typed the information he’d already gotten from Ryu into his phone and pressed a button. He flipped the phone around to show the transfer in progress. Seconds later, Liam’s phone pinged a notification that it had gone through.
I don’t want to do this.
He didn’t have a choice.
She trusted him to hold up his end of the bargain, and he had to do it.
He nodded at Marco. “Pleasure doing business with you.” He looked across the lounge and found Kenzie watching him. An almost imperceptible nod and he turned on his heel and walked out the front door.
She could take care of herself. He knew that.
She shouldn’t have to.
Liam walked around the corner and down the block to the back entrance to the building. He pulled his coat up around his ears and dialed the number Kenzie programmed into his phone. Seconds later, a low male voice answered. “Yeah?”
“Transfer went through.”
“We saw.”
“I’m at the back door now.”
A soft click and he was able to push it open and step inside. It was early enough that he could run into someone, so he kept his pace even and his gaze up as if he knew exactly where he was headed.
“Take the stairs up. Tenth floor.”
He followed Ryu’s directions to an apartment door one floor down from the one where Kenzie would be. “I’d rather be on the same floor.”
“You don’t have a choice. This is the only vacant one right now.” The lock on the door clicked green and Liam pushed inside and shut it softly behind him. A quick glance around the place told him that it was an identical layout to Milo’s place the next floor up. A minimalist style left him plenty of room to pace between the fragile-looking furniture.
“She shouldn’t be in there,” he muttered.
“She can handle herself.”
Should he tell Ryu about the way Kenzie cracked today? It felt like tattling, like he thought she wasn’t up to it. The truth was that she shouldn’t have to be up to it. “I know she can handle herself. That’s not even a question.”
Ryu was quiet for so long, Liam thought he might have hung up. “There are a lot of things going forward that will be uncomfortable for various reasons. Trust that she knows what she’s doing. I’ll call when it’s time to move.” He hung, up, leaving Liam alone with his thoughts.
Not the best place to be on a night like this.
He kept seeing Kenzie’s face when she climbed into the ring. Too-wide amber eyes. Mouth drawn tight with fear and anger. Body shaking despite her obvious effort to get herself under control. In the short time he’d known her, she’d never hesitated, never shown an inkling of fear even when the average person would have.
Then again, the average person didn’t spend years being hurt as a child and then have to willingly put themselves in their abuser’s control again.
It was only for an hour. She should be able to accomplish what she needed to in that time so he could come in and deal with the rest.
An hour too long from where he stood.
Liam opened the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the balcony. The chilly temperatures of the day had descended into downright frigid with the night. He tilted his head back, looking at the floor of the balcony overhead. Too far to climb, but he still felt closer to Kenzie here. He checked to ensure his phone still got plenty of service and inhaled slowly.
Waiting was always the hardest part.
His phone buzzed and for one heart-stopping second, he thought Ryu was calling with an SOS for Kenzie. Then Liam process the name on his screen. Not Ryu. Aiden.
He sighed. He’d been avoiding his friend’s calls for days. Might as well allow himself this distraction and answer now. He moved back into the apartment and answered. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Aiden said slowly. “That’s all you’ve got? You said you’d be gone ten days, Liam. It’s been nearly a month.”
Guilt flared, but he tamped it down. “I haven’t had a vacation in seventeen years. I’m due.”
“No one is questioning whether you’re due a vacation. But you fly off with my sister and the Russian and, next thing I know, they’re back in New York and no one can reach you.”
Now Aiden was just being dramatic. Liam bit back a sigh. “You did reach me. I told you myself over the phone I needed longer.”
“That was two weeks ago.”
He glanced out the sliding glass door, but nothing appeared to save him from this conversation. “Did something happen while I was gone? Something where you needed me specifically and I wasn’t there?” It wasn’t fair to put all his frustration on his friend. He knew that. He still couldn’t stop.
“You’re always there when I need you.” The quiet reply took his legs out from beneath him.
Liam slumped onto one of the weird-ass chairs with no backs and sighed. “I found her, Aiden. I just need a little more time.”
“Is she coming back to Boston with you?”
He gave himself five full seconds to picture the hell Kenzie would unleash in Boston if she paired up with various members of the O’Malleys. Carrigan or Keira or Charlie. They’d start a fucking riot. His smiled died with the knowledge that it would never happen. “No.”
Aiden hesitated. “So what happens now?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have the answers I need yet.”
Another hesitation, longer this time. “Come home, Liam.”
“Is that an order?”
Aiden cursed. “No, it’s not a fucking order. In all the time I’ve known you, you’ve never asked me for shit. You took a bullet for my wife. You’ve done more than that for the family. Don’t you think I know how much we owe you? More than that, you’re my fucking friend and I’m worried about you. You’ve been chasing this specter for years. There’s no way for this to end that doesn’t rip someone’s heart out of their chest.”
Liam knew that better than anyone.
He still wouldn’t walk away from Kenzie.
He wasn’t capable of it. Not anymore.
“I have to see this through,” he said quietly.
Aiden sighed. “How much time do you need?”
“I don’t know. More.” His phone buzzed with an incoming call and Liam cursed. “I have to go. We’ll talk later.”
“Liam—”
He hung up and clicked over. “Yeah?”
“Get up there. Kenzie’s in trouble.”
Kenzie wasn’t sure where it all went so wrong. Probably the second she walked through the door. This wasn’t a party like Ryu told her. There were no other girls to help distract the men from her.
Kenzie was the only one.
Four men and Milo.
Shit.
The black guy who opened the door, a big man with a ring through his bottom lip and two handguns in a shoulder holster, grinned down at her. “Cheer up, boys. Marco delivered us something special tonight.”
When I get out of this, I’m going to shoot Marco’s knees out.
The guy looked at her like she was already naked. “Damn, he’s really upped his game, hasn’t he?”
Fear spiraled through her, sinking vicious claws into her stomach and chest. She made a habit of taking on fights she wasn’t sure she could win, but the only thing she risked with those was bruises and maybe a broken bone or two. These men would do so much worse.
She smiled brightly, clinging to her clueless mask with everything she had. “Hi, handsome.”
He pulled her into the apartment, his big hands roving all over her body. Kenzie made herself relax into it. She had to get Milo alone so Liam could take care of the rest. That meant she couldn’t start a goddamn brawl the second she walked through the door. From the number of guns in the place, she’d be riddled with bullets before she took three steps.
Not how she was going out of this world.
Not tonight. Not like this.
The guy kept pawing at her as he guided her deeper into the apartment. The open floor concept had worked well when they spied on the place, but she wished for a few more walls with five sets of hungry eyes roving her body.
And there he was. Her own personal nightmare.
Milo sat back from the rest, a cigar in his big hands. He looked much the same as he had before. His face a little weathered. His dark hair thinning up top. His gut pressing harder against his tacky graphic T-shirt. Somehow, it didn’t matter.
Just like that, she was nine years old again and shaking in her skin.
Fuck that. I am not back there. I am in charge.
Except Kenzie didn’t feel in charge as the big guy behind her gave her a shove that sent her sprawling across the lap of a thin white guy who had the look of someone with a deep relationship with some kind of drug. From the pock marks marring his skin, probably meth. He slapped her ass and laughed. “Fuck yeah.”
She had to get control of the situation. Now.
“Boys, behave.” She put a little sultry into her tone as she wiggled off the tweaker’s lap and straightened her dress. The leather of the couch stuck to her bare skin as she moved. “Give a girl some time to adjust.
Milo laughed. “You really don’t know how this works, do you?”
God, even his voice was the same. Gravelly as if he’d just spent an hour chewing rocks. She twisted her hair around a finger and gave him a long look. “What are you talking about?”
“This isn’t about what you want. It’s about what we want.” He grinned, revealing stained teeth. “My boy Henry wants to fuck you on the coffee table. Then he’s going to give the rest of us a turn. And once you’ve screamed yourself hoarse, you’re going to suck my cock like a good little girl.”
Like a good little girl.
She’d kill him.
Fuck the plan and fuck playing this out. Kenzie was going to kill him right here and now. She shoved to her feet, but an arm hooked around her waist and towed her back. Kenzie drove her spike heel into the big guy’s foot and used his surprise and pain to slip free. She kneed him in the balls and yanked his head down to give his face the same treatment. Something crunched, probably his nose.
Good.
“Jesus!” someone behind her said.
You’ll be calling for him again before I’m through with you.
She spun—and pulled up short as something cold and metal pressed against her forehead. In the seconds it took her to dispatch her target, Milo had crossed the distance and pulled his gun.
Shit.
He glared at her. “You just fucked up.”
“What’s wrong, baby? You don’t want to put your dick in my mouth now?”
He pistol-whipped her. Even as she saw the strike coming, he moved too fast for her to dodge. Kenzie barely kept her feet as the force of the blow sent her staggering away from him. Damn it. One of these days, she’d figure out how to keep her mouth shut.
Not today, though.
Milo grabbed her by her hair and hauled her to the coffee table. He pinned her by her throat, gun still entirely too close to her face. “Who the fuck are you?”
She glanced around. The guy whose nose she broke was still on his knees and groaning, one of the men at his side. That left the tweaker and the other black guy in the room, both of who had their guns out now, too. Too close to risk her next move.
The door clicked and everyone went still as if holding their breath. Liam burst in like a fucking tornado. He shot the tweaker and the other black guy without hesitation and then turned to Broken Nose and the other.
Kenzie dug into her cleavage for the drug she’d intended to dose Milo’s drink with. Beggars couldn’t be choosers. She jabbed him in the throat and, when he gasped, dumped the vial into his mouth and shoved his mouth shut.
He went down like a fallen tree, his eyes rolling back in his head.
The problem was he collapsed on top of her, pinning her in place.
Panic flared, hot and thick in her throat. “Get off me, you son of a bitch.”
“I’m here, Kenzie. Give me a second.” Liam gripped Milo under his armpits and dragged him off her. He unceremoniously dropped the guy on the floor and yanked Kenzie into his arms. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
