Chapter Four

Spade

I’d avoided the scrutiny of others because I was a meticulous planner. Dead bodies could stack up in the morgue as long as I avoided the complication of intimate connections. No close friends. No social outings with colleagues. I blended in. An average-looking guy who was a respected member of the community.

Taking out Madden’s underlings hadn’t been difficult. Their arrogance was their weakness. I’d found mine.

A beautiful junkie with haunting eyes and a darkness that matched my own.

I trailed my fingers over the soft contour of her thin arm. She curled onto her side. My cum still streaked her flesh. I palmed her ass, tugged her flush against me, and plundered her mouth with a filthy kiss.

I wanted to taste betrayal. Trusting was dangerous. But she arched into me, weakening my resolve. For months, I’d looked for an opportunity to get to Madden. Outside of gunning him down in a public display of violence, he was untouchable.

Governments couldn’t take down a cartel. But perhaps this petite woman with a scorching need for penance held the key to unlock my need for retribution.

“You won’t get to Madden,” she said against my lips. “But I can.”

I leaned up on my elbow. “You want to kill Madden?” I asked. “Why?”

“I don’t care about your reasons,” she said. “I have reasons of my own for wanting him dead.”

“You’re not a killer. All I need from you is a way in.”

“It won’t be that simple. I can give you the code to the gate, but the property is under surveillance. You don’t just need a way in, but you’ll also need a distraction.” She lifted her hand to my face. “Whether I’m there or not, I’m helping you. That makes me an accomplice.”

“I took you by force. You’re just another one of my victims.”

“Eric, I need to be there.”

“I’m trying to find a way to be the good guy here.” I didn’t want to involve her in murder, but that didn’t mean I’d let her go either.

“You are the good guy. The only good guy I’ve met in a long time.” She dropped her hand and lowered her gaze. “I met Ayla about three years ago. We’d been hanging out for a few weeks. I was a typical struggling college student, living off ramen and mac and cheese.”

I remembered those days from medical school, living on coffee, five-dollar pizzas, and sex. Everything changed when Ella needed something more to keep up with her classes. Neither of us slept much. Then she had her first overdose…

Nalini’s voice broke through my memory.

“Ayla always had money, but she never worked. She had a great apartment.”

With her fingertip, she traced the trail of hair bisecting my abdominals. The slightest touch had my heart at a gallop. My instincts were to hold her closer, but I didn’t want to disrupt her from her story.

“She promised it was a simple exchange. Spring break in Cancun with thousands of other American college students. She paid for our trip. All-inclusive. We drank on the beach, and then just before we left, we picked up several packages and mixed them in with our souvenirs. She’d made the drop before. We were cute, young, and above suspicion.”

Her voice lowered.

“I didn’t know she smuggled for Madden Kyng. I guess I didn’t look as innocent as she thought. We were detained. I was scared. Ayla said Madden would take care of me. The way she said it, I didn’t know if she meant take care of me and the drug charges or if take care of me meant something more drastic and fatal. I didn’t really have a choice. Prison or Madden? Either way, I was in trouble.”

“You could’ve been locked up for decades.”

A slight shrug lifted her shoulder. “I was so stupid.” A tear slipped onto her cheek. “I had no idea Madden was leader of a cartel. I should have let him kill me. Most days I know I’d be better off dead.”

“Fuck.” I wrapped my hand around the nape of her neck and pulled her into me. Nothing about her fit with what I’d believed about her. If everything she told me was true, she was another victim.

“I want him dead. I want him to see my eyes while your drugs twist painfully inside him.” Her fingers curled into a fist against my chest. “I want to watch him die.”

“You don’t want that on your conscience.”

She propped up, leaned over me, and rested her chin on my chest. “You don’t get to decide for me. My conscience will be clear.”

I couldn’t deny her the opportunity to face her tormentor. But her body was abused and tired from the drugs. “You need a couple of days.”

She lunged up. “No. I can’t do it anymore,” she said and pushed her hair from her face. “I don’t even know what he’s injected into me. Most of the time I’m so out of it, I barely remember what he’s done to me.” She lowered her head. “You didn’t wear a condom.”

“I ran a full scope on your bloodwork. He pumped you full of shit. Methamphetamine, MDMA, Rohypnol, but also a dozen other chemicals. Trace amounts of opioids. Weed.” I lifted her chin. “You don’t have any STD’s or other diseases, but there’s no test for birth control.”

She averted her gaze. “You don’t need to pull out next time. I can’t get pregnant. Not anymore.”

A heaviness settled over her, and she visibly swallowed. Watching the torment cross her eyes, I could taste the bitterness of her pain. “I’m sorry,” I softly said.

“Yeah, me, too.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “So, doctor, did you perform any other procedures on me?”

“I gave you an immune booster with the first injection.”

“The injections? How long do they last?”

“Nalini, I can take care of the withdrawals, but the only way to slay your addiction is to deal with the cause.”

“You don’t know me. Maybe you don’t believe me. I know I have addictions, but I fight them every day. Madden doesn’t give me a choice. If you want him, we only have one chance.” She scooted off the bed. “To get to him, we have to go now.”

Her vehemence convinced me to listen.

My plan was to draw him out. But if she was right, Madden might not fall for the bait.

“I’m listening.” I laced my fingers with hers and led her into the bathroom for a shower. She could tell me her plan as I washed my cum from her body.

Once the water heated, Nalini stepped beneath the hot spray. She moaned and tipped her face. We were strangers, but perhaps fate had put us on a collision course, destined to meet at this moment to slay both of our dragons.

“You wanted to know how long the injection will last? The first dose lasted a few hours. The second dose may last longer since the formula is building up in your system.”

She wiped water from her face and stared into my eyes. “The only way you can even get close to him would be going to his home.”

I’d followed him for months. The man was a snake. I was a predator, stalking my prey in the open, yet I couldn’t get close enough to strike.

“We need to get into the estate, but the perimeter is heavily guarded and under surveillance.” She tasted droplets of water from her lips. “Madden is too suspicious.” She subconsciously rubbed her wrists. “There’s only one reason I’d return to him.” Her mouth softened into a small smile. “I’m an addict, and he’s my source.”

Nalini

Back in Spade’s examination room, I dressed in my dirty clothes from the club. After he gave me another injection, I stood at the counter as he described the drugs. “I don’t want you touching the clear nanofiber patches. If the fentanyl gets onto your skin, you will absorb it. The patch dissolves. When the body arrives at the morgue, the medical examiner isn’t going to discover anything but another dead drug user. There’s no trace of the patch.”

“There are usually two guards at the gate.”

“Nalini, everyone involved dies. No witnesses. Are you sure about this?”

“No. Yes. Maybe?”

He smiled at my answer and handed me several patches. “These are anesthetizing patches. They’ll work quickly to incapacitate but won’t result in death.”

How was I supposed to put a patch on the guards without their knowing? I stared at the small strips.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said.

I slipped the patches into the front pocket of my pants. “I’ll figure it out.” I drew in a deep inhale and slowly exhaled my fear. “Show me how to use the fentanyl patches.”

He shook his head. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” With a palm around my neck, he pulled me closer. “Do you feel it?”

My chest was tight, my tummy tumbled, and I wondered how he could be a stranger. He was a twisting kaleidoscope of color better than any drug I’d ever taken. I wasn’t supposed to crave him. I didn’t need another addiction. Yet, I couldn’t resist the pull he’d had on me from that first moment. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t care. He felt good. Maybe this feeling would only last a moment, but I wanted him. I wanted to feel safe in his arms. Even if only while he touched me. “I feel you.”

His breath warmed my lips, and then his mouth was on mine. A soft whimper slipped from my lips, and his tongue slid against mine. His hand fisted in my hair, angling my head where he needed me to devour my mouth in a hot, wet tangle of tongue and teeth. He sucked my lip, gently biting then licking his way back into my mouth.

I pressed closer, lost in the intoxication. “More.” I rocked against the hard ridge of his cock pressing into my abdomen. “In case anything happens, I want to remember this.”

“You’re going to have a thousand more tomorrows.”

“Just promise me we can have one more.” I wanted a night without the specter of Madden haunting me.

Eric ran his fingers through my hair, rubbing the strands between his thumb and fingers. “You’re so beautiful.”

Only to someone who was as broken as I was. I hated what I’d become. When he looked at me with those blue eyes, I didn’t feel like Madden’s whore or a dope sick junkie. Maybe we could be broken together.

When Madden took his last breath, would I feel like a killer? “Do their deaths haunt you?”

“No. They got what they deserved and so will Madden Kyng.” He released me and took a step back. “You shouldn’t be in this fight, Nalini. I don’t want Madden’s blood on your hands.”

“I’m not scared. My blood is already on his hands.” My body bore the bruises of his power. My veins bled from his poison, and my choice had been bent to his will. I had a mental list of justifications for killing him. “It’s my turn.”

Eric gathered supplies into a duffel bag.

“Should we wait until nightfall?” I asked and followed him from the examination room and out to the garage.

He paused at the biometric reader and placed his palm on the pad. Once the system recognized him, he pressed a series of buttons on the touch screen. “Place your hand on the pad.”

I flattened my palm and fingers on the pad. Red lights surrounded my hand and heat radiated into my skin. The system turned green.

Eric released a heavy breath. “Ready?”

He pulled open the side door of the nondescript, unmarked van, placed his bag inside, and slid it closed. “People are less observant during the day.” Then he popped open the passenger door. “You’re up front this time.”

I smiled and climbed into the seat. Once he was behind the wheel, the automatic door opened. He turned to me. “You’re the only other person with access to the house. Once inside, you’ll be safe.”

I already felt safe with him.

Eric started the van and pulled out of the garage. He drove down a long, steep driveway. “There are sensors around the property to alert the security system if any vehicle or person breaches the perimeter. The garage will open for the van, but no other vehicle.” He shifted between watching the road and glancing at me.

I focused on the landmarks and street signs to keep my mind from spiraling into the what ifs.

“Nalini, are you listening to me?”

I snapped my gaze to Eric.

“We’ll leave the van a few houses down. The property is on the market, and it’s vacant. For the last month, I’ve used it to surveil Madden’s comings and goings.” His jaw clenched as he checked his side mirror, changed lanes, then glanced over again. “If something happens, get to the van. Get the fuck out.”

My brows pinched. “And leave you there?”

“Baby, I can’t watch you hurt.” He grazed his thumb over my cheek. “This—us—we weren’t supposed to happen. One fucking touch and you crawled under my skin.”

“One touch and you made me feel.” I lowered my head, not wanting to see disgust in his eyes. “I stopped fighting Madden on the drugs. I wanted to be numb.”

A few moments of silence stretched between us. Finally, I turned to him.

“He didn’t break you. I’m going to kill him, Nalini. You’re going to watch him break, watch him beg for his life, then watch it drain from his eyes. Your nightmare will be over.”

But would a new one take its place? I wanted Madden dead, but he wasn’t the only one I wanted dead.

Nervous energy buzzed through me as Eric backed into the circular driveway of the vacant mansion and parked just out of view of the street. He popped open the sun visor, tucked the keys against the mirror, and closed it again.

He climbed out of the driver’s seat, and I followed him into the back of the van. He squatted next to the open duffel with his forearms resting on his thighs. “You don’t have to do this. It’s my fight.”

“Then why did you kidnap me?” I cocked a brow. “You need me, right?”

He stared into my eyes. “I need you.”

His words warmed me because I could feel the heat in them. He wasn’t just talking about this moment. I needed him, too. “This isn’t your fight. It’s our fight.”

I still didn’t know his reasons for wanting Madden dead. I didn’t care. My reasons were enough.

“You need to give me time to take care of the guards at the gate. I’ll cause a distraction to give you time to get to the house.” A nervous smile found my lips. “But don’t wait too long.”

“I’m right behind you.” He ran his fingers through my hair, gripped me tight, and pulled me into a kiss that made my toes curl and sent a riot of butterflies free inside me. “I’m like your shadow, Nalini. Even in the dark, I’m there. You just can’t see me.”

Tears flooded into my eyes. “Okay.”

I took a fortifying breath and described the mansion. “Madden’s office is on the second floor. He’s usually at his desk during the day. A guard is always stationed outside the door.” I smiled at him. “I’m going to be throwing patches on bodies like stickers on fruit in the grocery store.”

A soft smile curled his lips as he snapped a satchel of syringes and patches over his shoulder and across his chest and stuffed a gun into the waistband of his jeans. He pulled a pair of leather gloves from the duffel and handed them to me.

I shook my head. “The guards will know something is wrong. Nothing suspicious.” I slipped off my shoes and ran my fingers through my hair, tangling the strands. The fresh injuries on my wrists would also give credibility to my story of escaping my captor.

“We’re going to be seen on the security cameras,” Eric said. “We keep them disoriented by being unpredictable. I just need inside. Once I’m in, you’ll be the distraction. In the moment it takes for someone to realize I shouldn’t be there, I’ll already have them injected.”

“What if we get caught?”

“Then the guards will take us to Kyng. Either way, he dies today. I’ll get a patch on him if it’s with my last breath.” Eric slid open the side door.

I glanced across the manicured lawns, fences, and trees. “I can do this.” Just saying the words had my stomach in knots. I was afraid to be alone with Madden.

Rocks bit into my bare feet as I crossed the property. I fisted my hands at my side to calm the trembles vibrating through me. I could do this. I imagined the scene like a movie in my mind. With each step closer to the guard station, more adrenaline fired through my veins. Breaths came fast and shallow.

I slid my hand into my pocket and carefully pulled out one of the anesthetizing patches. My heart raced so hard I had no idea how much time had passed. One of the guards noticed my approach. I crossed my arms over my chest and embraced the shivers breaking along my flesh. Because I’d gone through withdrawals enough times, I easily faked my cravings.

“Call Kyng,” one guard said to the other as he rushed out of the small bulletproof glass and brick building. “She’s back.”

As he reached me, I collapsed into his arms. “I hurt,” I whispered as I snuggled against his chest.

The guard scooped me into his arms. Feigning withdrawals from one of Madden’s sex inducing drugs, I draped a limp arm over his shoulder and curled my palm around his neck. The patch made contact with his skin as he carried me into the building.

“What is that?” He shrugged to remove my hand from his neck, but with me in his arms, he couldn’t pull the patch from his skin.

“I need a little something,” I said. “Just to take the edge off.” I opened my mouth over his neck, licking and sucking his skin.

“She’s on Kyng’s shit,” he said as he lowered me, but I kept my arms around his neck, holding the patch to his flesh.

“Fuck,” he slumped into a chair, his eyes rolled back, and his head lolled to the side.

A spark of pleasure twitched within me. How did it feel to be the one with no choice?

“Are you okay?” the other guard asked. Not me, but the slumping guard.

No, he wasn’t okay. He was incapacitated. A powerful single-mindedness took root. Retaliation. I could do whatever I wanted to him. I could use his body the way mine had been abused, inject him with drugs, or get my doctor to use a scalpel to carve him into pieces.

However, I had one more task.

The other guard leaned over him and tapped his cheek. He fell out of the chair and crumbled to the floor. “What the fuck did you do to him?”

I carefully pulled another patch from my pocket. “I had to touch him.” I pressed close to the second guard. “I need you, too…” I slipped my hand under his shirt. “I need you to sleep.” I slapped my hand to his back, sticking the patch to his flesh between his shoulder blades.

“Bitch,” he roared, spinning around, and throwing me against the wall.

Oomph. My left side crashed against the metal shelving unit, tearing a gash along my biceps. A jarring force reverberated through me. Pain exploded in my body as my bare skin raked against the metal. Red gushed from the torn flesh. I covered the wound with my palm. Blood slicked my skin and seeped between my fingers.

The guard ripped off his shirt to remove the patch, but his massive muscles kept him from reaching behind to his back. His gaze locked with mine. Veins in his thick neck swelled, and his brows cut an angry furrow into his forehead. Saliva dripped from his mouth as he crossed the room.

“Get it off.” Spittle flew from his mouth.

“Go to sleep,” I screamed as I scampered backward on my ass, toward the corner of the room.

“Fucking, bitch.” He gripped my hair, dragging me up to my knees.

I clawed at his arms and clutched the top of my head. Pain seared across my scalp as he yanked hard on my hair. Fear blazed through me. I had to do this. I let go with one hand, grabbed another patch from my pocket, and peeled off the backing. Shit. No. No. It stuck to my hand.

Oh god, I was going to get dosed. I ripped it off, reached over my head, and grabbed the guard’s wrist. I could only hope the medicine side was stuck to him and not me. Blood flowed down my arm and soaked into the fabric of my corset.

With my arm going numb, I continued to squeeze his wrist, and then finally, after what felt like a fucking lifetime of nightmares, monsters, and comedowns, he loosened his hold, stumbled back two steps, slammed against the door, and crashed to the ground.

Panicked, I scrambled over his body and ran toward the house. The plan was already going to shit. I was supposed to be inside when I created the distraction.

I landed with a thud against the door. Blood rubbed onto the elaborate white and gold finish.

Seconds later, a guard swung the door open. “Fuck, get her in the house,” he said to his partner. Madden always had his guards working in pairs.

“Nalini? What the fuck happened to her?” He wrapped an arm around my waist. Blood from the gash had slowed to a trickle but had smeared across my chest. Everywhere I touched left a stripe of blood, including his arm, where I pressed a drugging strip to his forearm.

“I need Madden.” I braced my hand on the wall, leaving a bloody handprint, a crimson trail, and a collection of unconscious men for Eric to follow.

Spade

Less than two minutes in and regret had me by the balls. This was a mistake. I could feel it. Generally, I trusted my instincts, but they’d been shit since I’d become obsessed with Nalini.

And I was obsessed. I’d just let her walk through the gates of the Kyngdom. I couldn’t let her take this risk. When I’d decided to take his queen, I hadn’t known how soft her skin would feel beneath my fingertips or the way her eyes would plead with me to make her come.

I didn’t know the way she’d affect me. I’d watched her with Kyng, hated that sick bastard could have something so beautiful. But then I was a monster, and I wanted her, too.

The woman was nothing like what I’d expected. After living under the control of a king, she should fear him. She hadn’t cowered but donned armor, trusting me to inject her with my serum after Madden had spent three years pumping her full of poison and pawning her off as his whore.

Once tangled with him, she hadn’t needed to go to prison. His fucking cartel had enslaved her.

And now I wanted her. I strode down the sidewalk as if I owned the fucking block.

When I’d taken her, I hadn’t realized our roles would reverse. I’d wanted her for information, but she needed me. I’d shown her a way to fight back. I’d cleared her mind, at least temporarily. She had the opportunity, but did she have the strength to fight him?

My skin prickled with the bite of Laf’s gun wedged in the waistband of my jeans. I wanted her to have her revenge, but no way should she be walking into Madden’s fortress of horror alone. Hopefully, she was thinking clearly with the blockers, because she was in this with me. And once she had her revenge, I wasn’t going to let her go.

The door to the guard shack was wedged open. One of the guards sprawled out on the ground, halfway out the door. The other was just inside.

I took in the scene all at once. Two men down. My girl was gone, but there was blood on the wall and on the floor.

She was hurt, or she’d taken justice into her own hands. “This is too easy for you,” I said to the unconscious men as I grabbed a syringe, turned over his arm, and slipped the needle into his vein. They weren’t dead yet, but they would be. I injected the second man and crushed the syringes under my boot.

Without waiting for their last breaths, I rushed out of the building. I needed to get to Nalini.

No way did we keep this from becoming a crime scene. With my gloved hand, I pulled the gun. Drops of blood led the way to the house.

Gravel crunched beneath my boots as I rushed to the front door. Tension slipped along my spine. My hearing tuned to the commotion on the other side of the entrance. I slowed my breathing, listening as footfalls rushed past.

“What the fuck happened to Vic?” someone yelled on the other side.

I pulled a syringe from my bag and flattened myself against the wall. The door swung open. As the guard turned, I stabbed the needle into his neck and pressed the plunger. The toxin immediately paralyzed the vocal cords. No whisper, no gasp, just wild eyes, filling with fear as the drug spread down his throat, numbing, making it impossible to swallow.

He stumbled toward me, but I stepped back as he fell to his knees. His hands wrapped around his throat as he fought for air.

“Four minutes,” I said to him. That was how long the brain could survive without oxygen. “Make peace with your god.”

I held the gun as I entered the house. Blood splatter peppered the marble foyer. A perfect handprint marred the wall leading up to the second floor. She’d told me she’d have their blood on her hands, but nausea roiled in my gut because the blood had to be hers.

“Drop the gun.”

The voice sounded behind me. A gun pressed against the back of my head. I’d been ninety seconds behind her. Time had run out…at least for me.