Page 37 of Spark
“I heard the change in your breathing pattern. Now, go back to sleep.”
“Where are you going now?” I asked sleepily, ignoring his order for the second time.
Darren sighed in annoyance. “You know I won’t answer that,” he replied and zipped up the bag.
I rolled over and pulled the sheet up to my shoulder. “Obviously some place where automatic weapons will be needed,” I replied, closing my eyes. “I’d wish you luck, but…”
But I’m hoping you’ll end up eating all those bullets for breakfast.
“You probably should,” he replied casually as he dropped his bag off at the door. “Have you never wondered what would happen to you should I ever perish?”
Now, this piqued my interest. I had thought about it many times, but I figured if he was dead and it was obviously not my doing, it would be easier for me to escape. His empire and brothers would likely be too busy trying to take control and avenge him to care about me, and I’d be long gone before they even remembered my name. Hopefully.
“I guess that would depend on how you died, and whether your organization thought I did it,” I said slyly. “But either way, I doubt I’d be kept around for long.”
I could hear his smile long before I even saw it. I felt Darren’s large hands grip my ankles and tug me to him toward the end of the bed, allowing him to lean over me. He placed his hands on either side of my head, so all I could see was the sinister look on his face. I guess we weren’t laughing anymore because my stomach immediately shriveled up in knots.
“You will be well cared for, Jaden. If by some miracle, some lucky bastard was able to take me down, you will be looked after for the rest of your life. But if you continue to push, if you continue to misbehave and cause trouble for my brothers, you will find your life with me was much happier in comparison to the confinement they will subject you to. Understand?”
I furrowed my brows in suspicion. “You expect me to trust that? How do you know they won’t go against your wishes and kill me? Or worse, sell me off?”
“Because if anything happens to them, I will honor their final wishes just the same. My middle brother and his wife are about to have their first child in the next couple of months, and if something were to happen to him, he has my word that his family will be well cared for in his absence. Just as they will honor me and do the same for you. That is our code. ‘Honor the dead by way of the living.’”
What the hell did he know of honor? He’d certainly taken mine and made it his to defend, but where did he get the nerve to say there was honor in his lifestyle? Nothing was honorable about the way he killed people, about the way he used them, sold them… fucked them. He was a monster and monsters had no honor.
“Couldn’t you just let me go?” I asked softly. “If you’re gone, there’s no need for me to be here anymore. I’d just be an inconvenience for everyone else.”
Darren rose from my body, his jaw clenched and his eyes intense as he scowled down at me. “No, Jaden. The moment you’re free, you’d go running to the authorities, and I won’t have you putting my organization or my family in jeopardy,” he said sharply. And then his eyes settled on the amber of mine, a slow devious smile curving at his lips, and I felt a twinge of despair run through me “Even in death, princess, you will always belong to me.”
Even in death, you will always belong to me…
I felt my heart give out.
15
Traitor
* * *
After fucking Jaden one last time, I finally left her in my bed to sleep off her exhaustion. I grabbed my bag and left Hank and Preston to wait by the door for Jaden to wake. Scott met up with me in the hallway, carrying his own black bag full of automatic guns and ammunition. Someone had attacked one of my warehouses in Florida last night and left the biggest fucking calling card imaginable.
Apparently, Boris Weldimer, the fat fuck who blabbed about my lovely redheaded purchase at the auction, had a twenty-three-year-old son, Edmund, and he obviously didn’t like the fact that I’d beaten his father into a vegetative coma a few months ago. Boris had it coming, though. He’d been talking a lot of shit lately, blabbing secrets and starting shit with other syndicates. And now, it looked like his meddling son wanted some attention. Granted.
The only issue was that the warehouse he’d hit was well hidden within my organization, and the only way that little fucker could have found the location was if someone on my side had given it up. A snitch existed somewhere within my ranks, and I was going to find him and gut him for the rest to see. I fucking hated rats.
At four a.m., Scott and I wordlessly boarded the plane, sitting at opposite ends, and discussed the strategy for the thirtieth fucking time. Boris owned a string of strip clubs, all the while hosting private poker parties in the back, a setup I had secured for him a long ass time ago. Triguard had been receiving ten percent of their profits for my investment, and now, it looked like our contract was going to require a little… tweaking.
Edmund Weldimer lived alone in his father’s house in Naples, Florida, and though the mansion was guarded well throughout all hours of the day, Weldimer’s security had nothing on my men. It would be as easy as popping balloons on a dartboard. And then I was going to show the little prick what happened when you fucked with Darren Davis.
When the plane landed, Scott and I exited; we swung our bags over our shoulders as a black van pulled up. The two in the front got out, trading Scott for the driver’s side and me in the passenger seat. The two got in the back with the remaining two already there and slid the door shut. Four of my best men sat calmly in the backseat, dressed in black and combat gear, ready for anything. They had already been scouting the place for a few days, counting ten armed men on the grounds and five inside the house. I rolled my shoulders in anticipation. This was going to be fun.
As we drove, images of Jaden’s beautiful naked body kept plaguing my mind. Wrapped in those silky dark green sheets—which emphasized the creaminess of her skin and the lush red in her hair—it just made me want to crawl back in and lose myself with her all over again. I could kick the shit out of myself for hurting her the way I had. I would never deprive myself of her body again.
About an hour later, Scott finally pulled the car off on a dirt road and parked us well hidden in the trees. All six of us exited the vehicle and began to load up. After strapping on black Kevlar vests, we equipped ourselves with as much ammunition and as many firearms as possible. I checked every one of my guns, making sure a bullet was in each chamber and adjusting my silencers before sliding them back into their holsters. A knife was also in each one of my boots and one at my hip. After checking the connection on our earpiece headsets, we were finally ready to roll.
“Let’s go,” I said, my voice unable to hide my excitement.
It was still dark out as we silently headed through the trees, but dawn would be approaching soon, and I wanted this to be over by the time the sun hit the house.