ALEXANDER“Who was that?” I asked again, watching the man in the gold suit take his sweet time before turning to stare at me dumbly, a light smirk playing on the full line of his lips.I hadn't seen my wife since the night of our rendezvous, rushing into the party like I was freaking Lara croft raiding a gold-encrusted catacomb.I had gotten sidetracked, in my search for who had invited Kayla Storm to the party, wading in the avalanche of files and employee records I had scattered across the marble-finished floor of my office study.It was unbelievable, there were no records of the buxom dark-haired woman anywhere, not at the head office and not in the study! There were no records of her anywhere, even after I’d cross-referenced her ID pictures on the web.“Fucking hell,” I’d gasped, the mouse stiff under my palm as I sat, blanched as a washed-out olive skin, the plastic of the mouse cold under my palm as I looked at the white screen of the search engine.The pressure that had built
DARLENEI watched the woman’s hands reach out to settle on the lapel of his suit for the second time that night, unable to tear my eyes away from the look of what I was certain was faux innocence on her face.“Dar love? Are you okay? You seem a bit cold,” Laura whispered, breaking away from the circle of giggling women. I snapped my eyes from the handsome man’s profile to meet my best friend’s worried face, her large silver earrings catching my eye as they slapped against her cheeks when she leaned in.Ugh! I hated this, the feel of my heart racing so fast it threatened to break from my chest.Everyone was having fun at the party, drinking, and gossiping, even the occasional fist-throwing I'd been surprised to see at one of the elite’s tables, but here I was freaking lovesick and unable to get as much as two flutes of Bailey’s past the lump in my gullet.”Yeah, Yeah I’m fine, just thinking,” I whispered, managing to arrange my face into a somewhat grateful smile, but it must not have
Alexander McKenzie“W-what do you mean? Your father invited me here,” The dark-haired buxom woman whispered, her lip quivering in just the slightest fashion and my ears started to ring.Why would my father do that? Just what was wrong with the mafia lord?I gave the wide-eyed woman a look of disbelief, feeling the corners of my lips turn down with irritation.“He did! I swear on it! Here, I- I have proof,” She muttered, her voice cracking at the confrontation as she dug hastily in her purse, fishing out the gold-embossed invitation letter my mother had made sure to deliver personally to the invitees.”We’ll goddammit Xander, you are one mighty prick,” Fredrick droned beside me as I tried to reach for the card, my hand stilling at the wonder in his voice before I retracted it.“I can leave if you want me to, I-I really would hate to impose,” Kayla whispered and I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking my head, my hand snaking out to grip her wrist faster than I could think to stop it.She paus
DARLENE BERNARDOThe noise of the siren faded around us as I stood in silence with my husband, what felt like minutes since I’d told him his mother had been poisoned.I watched emotions play across his face, the thick black of his eyebrows scrunching together before his lips twitched violently and he let out a loud, reverberating laugh, keeping over and gripping his stomach like he had been kicked in the shin.What the hell was so funny? I hadn't wanted to admit it, but something about the way he was behaving seemed different.It was almost as though he was disconnected, in a different reality, one where I wasn't his wife.Instead, a stranger who had just told him I had a pet fish who I fancied was Whitney Houston reincarnated.“My god Darlene! Have you gone mad?” He boomed, and I felt the whip of shame land heavily in the middle of my back as I turned to see a few heads angled our way, their searching eyes snapping away quickly when they saw I had caught them looking, but the tilt of
AlexanderI was fucked. Fucked in three different languages.So knee-deep in shit that I might as well have been a shit mausoleum humanoid for all I cared.How could I have hurt my wife so? What had come over me?I remembered the first time it had happened, the lapse. Our first night in the heat of the ring’s operations.My father had introduced us to the roguish-looking men, their dark eyes and thin lips lifting slightly with appraisal before settling back into a blank canvas.It had frightened Fredrick, more than it had frightened me when the killings started. Round-eyed men tortured so badly their skin was hanging on to the sinew of minced muscle by a thread.“Where’s the shipment Quavo?” My father grinned at the muscle man shaking his head wildly, but we had all known it was just a formality. The man couldn't very well speak when his tongue had been seared off.I hadn't even been certain he could hear us until the exposed balls of his red-rimmed eyes rested on me.”Dear God!” Fred
FREDRICK“Stay with me Ma! Stay with me!” I needled, feeling the sting of tears pooling under my eyelids as I jogged along the gurney where my mother tossed and turned mutely.The ride in the ambulance had been hell, sitting stiff-legged like a fucking vegetable unable to do anything!I fisted my hands beside me, my suit hanging limply off my frame as I willed my hands to stop shaking.“That's it, Mr. McKenzie, We’ll take it from here,” The sonorous voice of the doctor came behind eager-looking bright eyes, piercing eyes, and the blue cotton of a face mask.I nodded exasperatedly, feeling beads of sweat gather in my armpits as I watched the statuesque line of my father’s frame still beside me as he inhaled sharply, the ball of cotton in my throat turning to steel.“You were supposed to be watching her Fredrick! What were you thinking?” My father’s hard baritone gritted beside me and I felt my heart bottom out from the seams of my goddamn trousers.“She isn't MY wife, is she? Where the
DARLENEMy hands were still shaking when I got out of the silver Royce Phantom I’d parked hastily on the sidewalk overlooking the private hospital where my husband’s mother was no doubt being looked at.I couldn't stay in the McKenzie mansion a minute longer. I didn't know what I’d do if I saw my husband again, after what he had done, I just couldn't think clearly.I needed space to think!He’d said he was sorry, looked it. But I'd seen the passion in his eyes, If he couldn't control that part of him, his rage, I didn't think there was a future for us.I couldn't think about that though, I had to find out if it was true, if the madam really was poisoned.“Dammit Darlene, don't think like that!” My mother’s voice echoed in my head, making me wince as a stab of guilt twisted in my gut. I had no idea what I would have done if it were her that was poisoned.I’d have lost my marbles too wouldn't I?I sighed, brushing the bush of hair that had fallen from my updo back behind my ears as I
ALEXANDERDennis Lucas sat in my office study with his head bowed and his eyes closed as I told him the whole story.I watched as the hanger of his shoulders shook with what I took to be subdued laughs before his fierce black eyes snapped open and I saw a hint of the rage swimming underneath before he killed it.“What do you mean gripped her?” He whispered hauntingly, the tenor of his baritone echoing in the empty study as he straightened from the marble desktop to pace the space.I stuttered, pressing my hands into my eyes so that all I saw was red, instead of the man’s broad back and auburn shoulder-length hair.Dennis Lucas had been best friends with us since I could remember, but lately, I had the feeling he was more best friends with me than with my twin brother.It was why I had called him over, the fall of my disjointed voice on the telephone had him here faster than I could pour myself the sweet poison of opium from the wine rack.We were just too much alike, too much of the s
DARLENE“Rise and shine sleepy heads! Breakfast’s ready!” Prince Charles’ booming baritone cracked through my skull before a wash of yellow light bored through my closed eyelids so that I groaned, breaking into a chuckle when Alexander groaned beside me.“Fucking hell Charles, did your parents not teach you to knock?” My husband hissed, throwing the soft white duvet away from his hard body and stretching to his feet to snatch the coffee mug the purple-eyed man held out like a peace offering in one hand, his gaze sliding over to me and darkening a shade before he smirked.“I don't believe they did,” He whispered breathlessly, nodding his head to the door where the strawberry blonde-haired man was leaning against the doorframe in brown capri pants, a pearly grin stretched across his smooth face.“Have some decency Frederick, my wife’s in the room,” Alexander whispered, scoffing loudly and sipping his tea as I stretched a yawn and shimmyed away from the bed to rest my head on my husband’
FREDERICK“Die motherfucker,” I gritted, pressing my finger into the claw of the trigger and feeling the gun jerk in my hands, the impact pulling me forward so that I tumbled into the stone flooring.“Come on! Go go go!” I screamed through gritted teeth, waving my hands wildly at Darlene and pushing her around the car as she surged through the barrage of shots pummeling us and firing off a few more rounds as the Umbrella man roared with pain, tearing the knife from his eye with an impossibly loud sucking sound.“I need to get closer,” I hissed through my teeth as I rounded the bend of the car to meet Alwxander’s tense body where he was hunched, hiding from the rain of bullets with Darlene curled in his arms.I swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat, jabbing my fingers into my palms to battle the wooziness that stabbed the sides of my head and peering through the rim of black sedan to see that the man now had a gaping hole in one eye that still spurted blood as he glared around
STEFAN MCCOYMy knuckles were white on the trigger as I watched the man’s hard body as he walked slowly into the room, his eyes never leaving the gun I had pressed dutifully against his wife’s empty ass head.“No sudden moves Alexander or I’ll have the woman’s brains plastered across the floor,” I growled through clenched teeth as Alexander staggered into the room with his father and more of my men surrounding them.I had known something was off the minute I left the penthouse, even before the sound of gunshots echoed out behind us and I asked Markov to turn the car around.The white penthouse with its flashing lights and tall pine trees loomed as ghastly as ever, as I motioned the men every which way, feeling adrenaline rush through my veins when the sounds of gunfire exploded around the sides of the house as my men sniffed the bastards out like the rats that they were.“Please, McCoy, don't do this, My wife has nothing to do with this okay? I’ll, I’ll give you whatever it is you wan
DARLENE“Something’s wrong,” I whispered breathlessly, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight as I watched the man with the Jerry curls stride away from the large lattice silver gates, a gun held tightly in his right hand.“What the fuck do you mean something’s wrong? McCoy’s going with most of his men! This is our cue to go in, grab the twins, plant the bombs, and hightail the fuck out of here in time for Mrs. McKenzie’s dinner special,” Erwin snapped blithely from his crouch beside me, the rim of a sniper rifle held tightly in his hands, as he peered through the scope.“Lassie’s right, this seems too easy, they must have found out about the decoy car approaching already, that's the only reason for him to leave...and yet,” Williams McKenzie growled on my right flank, raising the tight hulk of his frame into a low squat and inching to slap himself against the tree, the burnt orange blackness of the forest blending perfectly with our camo gear.“We should-” Erwin start
ALEXANDERThe bright fluorescent lights tore through my eyelids to fry my eyeballs before I had even opened my eyes. I groaned, the soreness in my arms and stiff legs making me groan louder as I let my head fall back into my chest.What the hell did the bastard hit me with? Fucking hulk?“Ugh!” I groaned, screwing one eye open to lock gazes with my brother’s blanched face and watching him sag with relief when he saw that I had opened my eyes.“Alexander? Fuck! Thank saints you're okay,” He rasped breathlessly and I felt the scowl deepen between my eyebrows as I glared at the swollen purple bruises on his face that had left the skin of his face puffy and red.“Your buddy didn't take too kindly to you I reckon, stabbed you in the fucking balls just like you did to me you piece of shit!” I barked acidly, watching my brother rear back on the chair that he was strapped to like he had been slapped.I looked down to see I was lying on some makeshift gurney table, feeling my heart pound wildl
DARLENE“Where is he? Where’s my husband?” I whizzed when I caught up to the ring chief scowling in the middle of the road, his hands fixed patiently on his narrow hips.“He’s gone Dar, that McCoy took him,” Prince Charles gritted, eyeing me carefully before I noticed his hand cupping the large gash on his chest, the trickle of blood pooling on the purple suit staining the area black.“Here, let’s get you to the car,” I gritted through clenched teeth, managing to push the words past the lump that had grown in my throat and tugging the man’s hand free when he resisted before hooking it over one shoulder, grunting when he leaned his weight on me a little.I could hear the whirl of sirens in the distance as they got closer and I yelped, slamming to a stop when the purple-eyed man stopped suddenly in his tracks.What the hell was it with mafia men and having death wishes? I tried not to look at the nasty knife wound on his abdomen or the purple and red bruises on his chin and focused inst
FREDERICK“Did you have to do it that hard?” I whispered, feeling tears gather in my eyes as I watched the Umbrella Man tower over my brother’s limp body, his brown eyes almost luminescent in the dark.“Quiet Frederick, you're ruining my groove, take him.” Stefan McCoy growled and I felt my heart hammer in my ribs as the masked ninjas dropped from the trees like banana monkeys, hooking my brother’s hard body onto the stretcher as I watched on with widened eyes.“Is he dead?” I rasped breathlessly, feeling panic burn in my chest as I trotted after the men, the crunch of dried leaves under my feet sounding loud in the silence as the masked men marched my brother to the large white van that had been parked off to the side of the highway.“Not yet,“ The Umbrella man whispered, rubbing his hands together in glee as they loaded him into the van and I felt a flicker of doubt spark in my chest.“So it’s all good now right? Everything will go as planned now?” I coughed, scarcely trusting mysel
ALEXANDERIt took longer than I would have liked for my eyes to adjust to the near blackness as I entered the forest.“Where are you? You son of a bitch,” I ground through clenched teeth, waving the gun this way and that and aware of the way I was panting loudly, carefully placing one foot in front of the other.My arms were starting to get sore from holding the gun up and high, my knuckles white on the trigger as I crept along the line of trees, freezing when I thought I had heard the distinct sound of a tree branch snapping.Could this get any fucking worse? Did the motherfucker have to pick the shittiest forest in the whole of New York to make his dramatic comeback?“Go on and run away like the coward that you fucking are McCoy, I can smell that cheap perfume from a mile away,” I jeered loudly, feeling goosebumps rise on my skin when my distorted voice echoed back to me in the blackness.I tried to focus past the hum that had started in my ears but my mind was not following my eyes
DARLENEMy husband hadn't made any sense when he got off the phone with the purple-eyed man and it made even less sense now as we sped toward the edge of town with his knuckles white on the steering wheel.I braced myself against the cool leather of the dashboard, trying to calm the staccato beating of my heart in my chest as we sped through the stretch of asphalt and felt a wave of nausea press insistently against the roof of my mouth.“Are you sure about the address?” I wheezed, unable to bear the silence any longer and risking a glance at the chiseled line of Alexander’s jaw, the way his piercing green eyes were starting dead ahead, his flock of obsidian black hair falling over his face as the muscles of his shoulder and bicep flexed when he fishtailed the steering wheel.“White Villa at Maple Street, I didn't know he lived there, there's only one of the kind, you can't miss it,” He whispered, and even though I knew the steel in his voice couldn't have been meant for me, it made sh