Arranged love

CROSS

WE STAND AT the bar getting the girls drinks. It’s a weekday, so it’s not as packed as the usual weekend crowd. Thank God. I really wasn’t in the mood to go out at all tonight. I wanted to spend my evening in bed with Alexa, but I needed to be here for Grave however I can. Even if that means looking for Ethan.

“He’s got about thirty minutes!” Titan shouts over the song “Raging on a Sunday” by Bohnes.

“Gives us plenty of time.” I sip on my rum and Coke, pulling my cell out with my free hand. Setting the glass on the bar, I send a quick text.

Me: We’re here.

He reads it immediately, and I look up at the black domes hanging from the ceiling, knowing they’re watching us. We’re here to kill two birds with one stone tonight.

My phone vibrates, and I read the incoming text.

Turner: Come on down.

Pocketing my cell, I lean into Titan. “They’re ready.” He walks over to get Bones and Grave while I grab Derek’s neck, yanking him to me.

“Hey …”

“Don’t leave your sister’s side,” I growl.

He nods quickly. “I know the plan.”

I lied to Alexa. We are here for Ethan, but we’re also here for other reasons. We didn’t want to leave the girls at home, so I made sure Derek came along to be the babysitter. “We won’t be long.” I shove him away. Just because he’s decided to kiss our asses doesn’t mean I have to like him. I love his sister, not him, but I might as well make him useful. He’ll be family one day since I’m going to marry Alexa. If I have it my way, someday soon.

“Let’s go,” I say, throwing what’s left of my drink back.

“Cross …?”

“I’ll be right back,” I tell Alexa. “Do not leave this bar. You understand?”

She nods. “Of course.” Leaning up on her tiptoes, she kisses my lips, and a growl forms deep in my throat at the reminder this is the last place I want to be tonight, but business calls.

“Hurry back.” She smiles up at me. “I’ll be waiting for you.”

The Airport sits on two-hundred-and-fifty acres, has five stories of the original airport, and turned the Mason Towers-what was once a hotel next to it-into apartments they rent out. But underneath the airport is where the Mason brothers play.

The Kings and I make our way downstairs to the underground tunnels. The existing, functional airport had a bomb shelter back in the seventies.

They have safe rooms that the Masons use as prison cells. They have their own law enforcement at the Airport. Like the Kings, they don’t put up with shit. They even hung four guys once for trying to steal from them. Made them an example. I can appreciate a man who takes action. Words are meaningless in our businesses.

We make our way down through the brightly lit tunnels and take a right at the end. Turner stands there dressed in a three-piece suit in front of a black metal door. “Kings.”

“You have something for us?” Bones asks, getting to the point. He hates them but understands they can be useful at times. Now is one of them.Content © NôvelDrama.Org 2024.

“The Masons always deliver,” he states before unlocking the door and pushing it open. The joints creak so loud it makes my teeth hurt.

We step inside, where cages line either side of a single aisle. It smells like rotten eggs and sour milk. The first two jail cells are empty on either side but the third on the right has a man in it. He’s lying on the concrete floor, naked and shivering in the fetal position with his back to us.

We pass a few more empty ones and come to another door at the end. Turner pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocks the padlock, pushing it open.

We step inside a large room. It’s not lit up like the cell block was. It’s darker with a musty smell. Inside the room is a much bigger cell than the others we passed to get here.

Solitude! Some just don’t play well with others, even while in a cage.

A man is standing in the middle of it with his back to us.

At the sound of us entering, he turns around. “The Kings.” He gives an evil smile, making his face look like the Grinch. If he grew a full beard and hadn’t washed in a month.

We say nothing.

He walks over to the door to his cage and sticks his hands through the bars so he can grip them. “What do I owe this pleasure?”

“Kale, it’s been a while,” Bones states.

He snorts. “Last time I saw you, you were still sucking on your mother’s tit. Can’t say I blame you; she had a nice rack.”

Grave goes to step forward, but Bones stops him with a hand on his chest.

Kale laughs. “Grave, still so sensitive.”

His chest heaves with deep breaths. It’s taking everything he has not to kill him right here, right now.

“Cross.” His dark eyes turn to me. “I never thought you’d have the balls to kill that son of a bitch father of yours. But good for you. That paid me five grand, ya know?”

Kale Freeman was a friend of our father’s. He wanted to be a Wisemen, but there was no place for a fourth. Our fathers pissed him off, so he went out on his own. Diamonds were his niche. Rare, expensive diamonds. I have to give it to him; he’s made himself known in Sin City and is worth billions of dollars. Too bad he fucked over the wrong people.

“And Titan-”

“I don’t need to go down memory lane,” Titan interrupts him. “I’m very well aware what I’ve done in my life.”

“I bet you enjoy fucking that wife of yours.” He licks his lips, ignoring him.

Titan fists his hands, taking in a deep breath.

“Let’s talk about you.” I smile, knowing that going to the Mason brothers was the best thing to do. I knew they’d bring him to us. He’s been hiding. Knowing the connection we have with our client. But running will get you nowhere. “You’ve been fucking over some very important clients.”

He snorts. “I haven’t fucked over anyone. It was a misunderstanding.”

“Ten million dollars is more than a misunderstanding,” Bones adds.

“What are you going to do, Bones?” He arches a brow. “Make me apologize?” Throwing his head back, he laughs at himself. I think he’s forgetting he’s the one in the cage.

“The only thing our client wants to hear is you choking on your own blood as it spills from your throat,” I state.

His eyes narrow on me as he straightens in his cell. For a man with limited mobility, he seems to think he’s God. “He could never touch me!” he hisses. “I have men who would destroy him.”

“You don’t own an army, Kale,” Grave tells him. “You have puppets that do as you tell them. Anyone can take control of those strings at any time.”

“Is that why you’re here?” He starts yanking on the bars. “Huh? To take what’s mine?” He bares his teeth like a rabid dog.

He knows he’s fucked.

“My men will destroy you and everyone you fucking love if anything happens to me,” Kale warns. “Fucking bury you with all those other bodies you hide out in the desert.”

“That’s a chance we’re willing to take,” Bones informs him. “Turner.”

He pulls a new set of keys from his pocket and walks over to the cell. He unlocks it, pulling the door open wide.

Kale steps farther into his cell until his back is hitting the concrete wall. “I had a deal … I’ll get him the diamonds. If he goes back on it …”

“We made a better one,” I say, stepping into the cell. “We get half the shipment just for killing you.”

“No …”

“We already gutted one of your men. He had six.” We returned those to the client. We won’t be keeping the other half-our payment. That’s what we owe the Mason brothers. They held up their end, so we’ll hold up ours. That’s how business works. We don’t need the rest of the shipment promised to us by our client. We’ll kill this sick bastard for free.