His Contract, page 5
My eyes widen as I spot Cason, his voice now recognizable to my ears. What’s he doing here? At this time of night, with Sacha of all people? I’ve always gotten the feeling that they don’t like each other. I assumed it was because Sacha could tell my father if Cason was flirting with me. I’m sure Sacha was told of the promise my great grandfather made with the Bancrofts. Now, I’m not so sure.
My eyes widen as I notice the gun in Cason’s hand that he’s pointing at Sacha’s head. What the hell is he doing with that? What is he thinking?
Cason’s voice meets my ears. “Undercover cop with a taste for crime. Did you do it so you could get away with doing drugs and other things? If you’re undercover it’s okay, right? Or did you start out wanting to do some good in the world and then you joined Vice?”
Sacha is an undercover cop? Why would he get a job working for my father? He’s not a criminal.
“If you know I’m a cop, you know you can’t kill me, there will be a whole force looking for you. My death won’t go unnoticed. Kotov needs to be taken down. He has too much power.”
What is he talking about? Power?
“So you got a position guarding his daughter who knows nothing of what her father really does? You sick fuck!” His voice echoes off the brick.
I grip at the wall, leaning into it. My head swarms. What does my father really do? It has to be something bad if the cops are interested in him. My heart hammers. I should’ve stayed home.
Sacha laughs. “Like you’re any better, if he saw the way you look at his daughter, you would be dead, too.”
“No one is going to know you’re dead. I’m that good.”
I don’t even have time to comprehend his words as the gun fires, making an odd noise in the alley before Sacha collapses back against the wall and slides down it. I can’t help it as a gasp leaves my mouth and I step closer to him. What did he just do? Why were they talking about me and my father? He just killed a cop. He’s dead, he has to be.
Cason’s brown eyes turn on me. “Josie.” My name leaves him like a gasp.
I’m frozen. I need to move. I just saw him kill someone. This isn’t the Cason I know. I don’t know what’s happened to him, but I do know one thing, he’s dangerous.
He moves to put his gun away and holds up his hands as he steps in my line of sight of Sacha’s body. “This isn’t what this looks like.”
Bullshit it isn’t. I just watched him shoot a man―who said he was a cop―in cold blood. I make a run for my scooter, fumbling with my keys as I do so. Why do I have to have so many damn keys? I can’t seem to get a grip on any of them.
The memories end there, but obviously, I didn’t get away.
His nose looks swollen, good. I hope I did that to him. I can’t believe I ever trusted him, fell in love with him. I was so stupid. He’s a killer, he probably had me next on his list. I should’ve gone with Ensley to the club the other night and met some guy. That would’ve been the smarter move. Maybe I would’ve been with him and this would’ve never happened. I had no idea Cason was crazy, he never showed any signs, but maybe psychopaths don’t.
Slowly, he walks over to me with his hands raised. “Easy, I’m not going to hurt you. The binds are just to make sure you don’t run, so we can talk.
I glare at him and try to say something, but the tape over my mouth won’t let me.
Cason stops at the head of the bed. “No one can hear you if you scream. We’re in the middle of the woods outside of New York. There’s not a person for miles.” He leans over and rips the tape from my mouth. I let out a yelp as it stings.
He winces and raises his hand up to rub at my stinging skin with his thumb. Before last night I would’ve loved this moment, wanting more, but now I don’t want him to touch me. I flinch away as much as I can from him.
With a heavy sigh, he lets his hand drop before he reaches behind him and pulls over a wooden chair. He moves it in front of him and straddles it. “I’m sorry, Joie, I really am. I don’t want to be doing any of this, but until I know you’re not a risk to my family’s business this is how it has to be. I wish there could be another way.”
Tears brim my eyes as I mourn the loss of the man I loved. His body might be in front of me, sounding and smelling like him, but he’s not my Cason. He’s not the man I’ve been in love with for as long as I can remember. “You’re a killer,” I choke out. Hot tears slide down the side of my face and into my left ear, tickling it. “A killer, Cason! Why?”
He runs a hand over his face and then winces as he hits his swollen nose. “That’s a long story, Joie, one I’m not certain you’re ready to hear.”
“He was a cop, Cason! I heard him tell you that. You killed a cop!”
A growl moves up his throat. “A corrupt one, Josie! He was a corrupt cop. He was trying to hurt your father, would you rather he do that?”
I frown. “My father? What are you talking about? Why would a cop want to hurt him?”
His lips form a line and he looks away from me. “There’s so much you don’t know and it makes this all that much harder.”
I tug at my binds until the rope digs into my flesh. “Then tell me! What don’t I know?”
In an instant, his brown eyes look back at me. “Josie, your father is the head of a syndicate, just like my father is, except we deal in being hitmen, and your father deals in everything else. Our great grandfathers started it. The Bancrofts and the Kotov’s. They saw a way they could help each other out instead of going to war. That’s why they made the promise. So that our families would never mix in ways that could cause a problem. It’s a give-and-take relationship. We do what we need to to get our business done and we make sure to stay out of each other’s way.”
My mind swirls with all the information. He runs a syndicate? “Like the mafia?” I can hardly get the words to come out of my mouth.
He nods. “Yes.”
A laugh comes from deep inside of me. “You’re insane if you think I’m going to believe that, Cason. My father would never do something like that. I’ve known the man twenty-two years and I’ve never noticed anything like that. Fuck you!”
He points a finger at me. “You watch your mouth, you can be angry, but you can’t speak to me like that.”
More tears course down my cheeks and a sharper laugh comes out, I’m scared, but the words still pass my lips. “Or what? You’re going to kill me? You sure as hell made it look like it was easy for you last night. Go die in a shit pile! I can’t believe I ever trusted you! You’re a psychopath, probably a delusional serial killer.”
In one motion, he stands and moves the chair to the side. “Fine, you can lay in here until you’re willing to listen. When you are, you can be let out of your binds for a little while.” He shoves the tape back over my mouth, and turns on his heel to stride out of the room and slam the old door behind him.
I scream through the tape, arching my back off the bed as I try to free myself. I catch a glimpse outside the window on the other side of the room and spot trees, a lot of them. He wasn’t lying about one thing, it does look like we’re in the woods. No one can hear me, and no one is going to come and help me.
His words turn over in my head. My father is a criminal. Cason is a criminal and a killer. There’s no way any of it can be true. I would’ve figured it out by now. There’s no way they could’ve kept it all a secret from me for so long. My mind can’t handle any of this. How can my entire life be a lie? From my father legitimately owning so many businesses to my love for Cason. I guess the last one isn’t a lie. I did have feelings for him, but the version of him I fell in love with was a lie. How did I not see any of it?
* * *
I have no way of knowing how long it has been since he left me in the room gagged and tied up. The sun has shifted and it looks like it’s getting darker. My arms and legs have pins and needles moving through them from not being able to shift and move them. I have to pee and my bladder is about to burst, the pulse inside it is going to give way at any moment and I’m going to piss myself and this bed.
Footfalls thud outside the door and it opens. I look toward it. Porter, Cason’s younger brother pokes his head in followed by Beckett, and Silas, his other brothers. I scream and try to reach out to them to signal for help, but they just blink at me and whisper something to each other that’s so low I can’t make it out. They close the door and tears return to my eyes as I sob. They’re just as nuts as he is.
My bladder gives and I sob harder as the hot liquid pools in my sweats and I can’t stop it.
Chapter Seven
Cason
Porter shakes his head as he sits down at the table with Beckett, and Silas. “You’ve seriously fucked the dog on this one, Cason.”
My father sits across from me rubbing at his temple. “Shut it, Port. This is a special case. Had she’d been anyone else he would’ve taken care of it the right way. Killing the daughter of Michail Kotov would’ve fucked all of us.”
Porter grounds his jaw. “This wouldn’t have happened if he would’ve been paying closer attention to his surroundings. He should’ve sensed her there.”
My dad growls at him. “That’s enough, Porter!”
Porter stands from the table and moves to pace around the small room, running his hands through his hair. He has so much of our mother in him, including her short fuse.
I look at Silas. “Did you get some clothes from Rosalie for her to wear while she’s here? Where is Ros anyway?” It’s strange not to have our little sister here. She’s the same age as Josie. The two practically grew up together. They didn’t get along much after a certain age. Ros turned tomboyish and cut-throat and Josie remains sweet and innocent.
At least she was until last night. I’m afraid I might’ve tainted her forever. I can’t get the look of hatred she gave me out of my head. She’s never looked at me like that. I want her to smile at me and offer me something sweet to eat.
Silas nods, his light blond hair falling into his eyes. “She wasn’t happy about it but gave mostly PJs and comfortable clothes. I doubt Josie is going to have to dress to impress while she’s here, right?” He puts a duffle bag on the table.
Dad sighs. “As for where she is, she’s in Texas on a job. Trying to get intel on a kingpin there and get into his inner circle so she can get close enough to kill him.”
Ros and Josie really are night and day. Would Josie be more like her if she’d grown up knowing the truth about her family? It had been Michail’s choice to shelter her from all things that he dealt in and went to great lengths to make her believe the lies he told her. Then again, she had no reason to not believe him, and if someone doesn’t know crime is happening around them, they won’t question odd things.
“Even if she wasn’t Michail’s daughter, I wouldn’t be able to kill her. I fucking watched her grow up, that would be like if someone ordered me to kill Ros.” Not entirely the same, I can’t let on to him how I feel about Josie. As far as he’s concerned I view her as a little sister still and nothing has changed about that over the past year.
He nods. “I know, son. I don’t think any of us would be able to do the job.”
Porter scoffs. “Speak for yourself. I’ll go do it right now.” He pulls his gun from his holster.
We all stand and I pull my gun. “Fucking take one step, Porter, and I’ll shoot you in the foot!”
He points his gun toward my side. “Go ahead, I’ll put one right back in you.”
Dad slams his fists on the table “Both of you knock it off, or so help me I’ll make you sorry! Guns on the table, now! All of you!”
Porter glances over at him, with his stormy blue eyes before he huffs and stomps over to slam it on the table.
Dad picks it up and disarms it, removing the sleeve before placing them on the table. We all do the same until all our guns lay dismantled on the table.
With that out of the way, he clears his throat. “This is what we’re going to do. As of right now, she’s missing and so is your hit, Sacha. We’ll let Michail think she was kidnapped by him, when he calls to find out what happened, you’ll tell him that he never showed and you’ve been trying to track him down. You tell him you haven’t heard from Josie and that you’ll work on finding them both. I figure we have a week maybe two tops before he gets impatient.” His brown eyes meet mine. “That means you have to convert her to our side within that time. You must be absolutely certain she has come to an understanding before you return her to her father with proof the man is dead. We’ll take care of the photos in another location, so he doesn’t happen to connect his death happening at the bakery. We’ve already taken care of his car. It’s been crushed into a cube and set on fire, no one will be able to ID it. I’ll take care of his body personally to make sure it’s never discovered even a hundred years from now.”
I run my hand through my hair. “I don’t know how to get her to believe me. She thinks I’m full of shit and a serial killer, I tried to tell her the truth.”
He shakes his head. “Of course she doesn’t believe you, you killed a man in front of her. I’m certain that girl idolizes you. When you did that it shook the foundation she has with you. You’re going to have to get that back. I’ll bring something over as proof for her about our families’ histories. But you have to get her to trust you again. It’s not going to be easy, but you have to do it fast.”
My heart hammers. I’m normally the cool and collected type, but when it comes to Josie I feel like I no longer know which way is up. “Okay. Yes, sir.”
He looks at Beckett and Silas. “You two can go. Get your jobs done and report back. Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone.” His gaze then goes to Porter, who paces like a caged panther. “And you, come with me. We need to have a talk.”
He picks up his gun and Porter’s putting them back together. “We have a plan in place. It should work. Michail is a genius when it comes to business and deals, but an idiot with everything else. This should play into our hand just fine.” His gaze meets mine again. “As long as you don’t let anything slip about what has actually happened. And, Cason, if she can’t be turned, we have no choice but to kill her and blame it on the bodyguard. Do you understand?”
My blood runs cold at the mere thought. I nod. “Yes, sir.”
They all leave through the front door of the small cabin. It’s a safe house, one of many, used for various reasons. We also torture and interrogate when it’s needed. I didn’t bring her to one of the houses where that happens. This one is for if we’ve been caught and have to lay low while records and other things are scrubbed. It’s a one-bedroom, but I’ve reversed the lock on the bedroom door. Eventually, I have to let her out of the binds, but I can’t let her leave the room. Not until I’m certain that I can trust her.
I don’t want to see her hateful look again, but I can’t leave her in the binds forever. I need to set her free of them and let her use the bathroom. I’ll keep using the binds off and on until I’m certain she’s not going to fight me at every turn. I can take her on, but it’s exhausting fighting her when I’m trying to not hurt her in the process. I’ll just have to make her see that I’m not the bad guy. That she can trust me. That I’m still the man who would do anything for her.
With a sigh, I take off my holster and leave it on the table before pushing up the sleeves of the black shirt I wore to kill Sacha. The less intimidating I look, the better. It would help if I didn’t also have a busted nose.
Making my way down the short hall, I open the door. It’s almost dusk at this point, and hardly any light makes it through the trees outside to shine through the window.
She turns her head to look at me, it’s clear she hasn’t stopped crying. I switch on the light and make my way over to her. My eyes widen at the wet dark mark in her sweats. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry! I should’ve come in here sooner.”
I pull the tape off her mouth and she whimpers, “Don’t look at me.”
I gulp and I run my hand over her hair. “Don’t be embarrassed, this is my fault. I should’ve taken you to the bathroom sooner, but I wasn’t thinking.”
I move to untie her wrists and ankles, all her movement caused the ropes to get tighter. Her hands and feet are bright pink. I hadn’t expected the meeting with my family to take so long. I have to use a different binding method on her from now on. Get some chain and chain her to the bed so she can’t go further than the bathroom which is across the room from the entrance.
She moves her arm but it flops at her side. “I don’t think I can move.”
I shake my head. “Don’t worry, I’ll help you.”
Placing one arm under her knees and the other under her back, I lift her and she gasps. “It hurts.”
I nod. “I know. I won’t tie you like that again, but this is what happens if you run, keep that in mind.” It pains me to be slightly cold with her. She doesn’t deserve any of this, but there’s so much at stake. Not just for me, but her as well. If she says something to her father about what she saw, he’ll have me killed, but on top of that, she’ll get the nasty reality that everything I told her was true and she should’ve trusted me.
Turning, I carry her into the bathroom and use my foot to flip up the lid. I then set her down on it before helping her get off her soiled pants and underwear, all the while trying to avert my gaze to her face to give her some bit of modesty, even though every part of me wants to look down and perhaps get a glimpse of the pussy I’ve been dying to taste for a year. Some of the feelings must’ve come back in her arms because she tries to move them in front of herself. “Don’t look.”
I toss her soiled clothes out the door so I can wash them later with the bedding. Reaching over to the deep clawed tub, I plug the hole and turn on the hot water. It will take a moment for the hot water to kick in. We try to keep our safe houses up to date, at least we do with the ones that are meant for living in, but I don’t know the last time the water heater got a tune-up and it hasn’t been used in a while.
