PUSH: Ultra Alpha MMA Badboy Mafia Romance (Southside Brotherhood Book 2) (14 page)

Before he could stop himself, Flynn let the words go, feathers out of a pillow that can never all be returned.

“Why do you want her? Wait — I know you don’t want her, so what the fuck? Why marry her? She’ll do the damn work; she just wants her mom to be well. Why can’t you just be a human and give her what she wants? She’ll finish the project. But don’t marry her. What’s the fucking point?”

Colin stopped mid-signature, his face frozen as Flynn felt his heart slamming against the cage of his chest.

“It still surprises me that I raised you.” Colin finished the last signature and put down the pen. “Because, that is the bargain. The agreement. Topher MacGuire’s father and my father fought each other for years. Armies from both sides bled in the gutters until both families were in shambles. Back then, when your name sake, Flynn MacGuire, came to my father with an offer of truce, our family was in a far more precarious position than theirs. Our accounts were almost empty, our businesses barely functioning. We decided to agree to split up the ‘specialties’, shall we say, of each family. They took the book making and the bars—we took the whores and the drugs. Only, there were strings. Agreements, debts attached. We’ve prospered, become stronger, more financially successful than the MacGuires over the years. Drugs became the new world; prostitution grew under my hand. I opened new avenues for both. Now, they’re calling in their marker. Marry Topher’s daughter, bring the families together, and they get a piece of our newfound treasure. Legitimacy. Lilly is more than just a brain, she’s the pivot point, the key that holds us to our word. Without honor, without loyalty, the entire house of cards would fall.”

Flynn felt his chest tighten. For the millionth time, he wished he’d never been born, not into this.

“She doesn’t get a choice?”

“What makes you think she hasn’t?” Colin got up from his desk, came around and leaned on the front edge, just inches from Flynn. “If you think for one second that little innocent act doesn’t hide a skilled strategist, you’re fooling yourself. You want her? Get her father’s blessing. I’ll gladly abdicate the marriage. I don’t need a wife, but I do need to play within the rules of our world and uphold my obligation to repay the debt. It’s her father who wants this marriage, not me. And, you, my son, are the dog tied out back. Topher would never accept you as fulfillment of the agreement. Lilly needs to be at the top of the food chain, not the bottom.”

“This family is fucked. He didn’t give a shit about her until a few years ago.” Flynn sniffed, cracked his neck and rose to his full height inches from Colin.

“You just don’t know how to enjoy yourself.” Colin broke into a smile as he gave Flynn’s shoulder a squeeze. “Go ahead, you get Topher’s blessing, I’ll step aside.”

Flynn couldn’t stomach the way his father’s laugh told him just how much of a game this was to him.

Suddenly, a crack of thunder shook the room, and a flash of lightning snapped their heads toward the windows.

“You see, even God thinks that’s a bad idea. Stay away from her, son. Don’t take my jokes as gospel. Lilly is exactly where she needs to be, and we are approaching a very critical time in our new venture. She does not need distractions, understand?” The laughter was gone; the room darkened as rain began to spray against the windows. “Besides, I think she may just be warming up to me.”

Flynn gritted his teeth until his jaw popped as he shoved the chair back from behind his legs, turning and making his way to the door.

The sound of Mozart drifted in as Colin chuckled behind Flynn.

Something is warming up tonight, I can tell you that, but it doesn’t have anything to do with your sorry ass. This fucking world is beyond hope; I should have snapped your damn neck a long time ago. You’ll never touch her; she’ll never belong to you.

The thunder drowned out the sound of the piano for a moment as Flynn slammed the door, his blood flowing like a race down from his heart.

He took the serpentine hallways to the back of the music room. When he finally caught sight of her leaning to and fro as her dove-white fingers danced on the keys, he felt like the lightning had touched him.

Wanting her had become like taking a breath. Natural, without thought, every part of his body needed her, planned and dreamed of how she would feel. The noises she would make.

The hinge on the French door creaked, and Lilly’s hair flung over her shoulder and he saw her eyes acknowledge him.

The golden green softened from fear to sadness, yet she didn’t miss a note as she played.

She shook her head softly, the hint of a smile curving the shimmering pink of her lips. Flynn almost doubled over remembering how she tasted.

That’s right. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. That’s all I need to see, that smile. You know. It’s coming; I’m bringing everything you need. Things you don’t even realize you need. I’m fucking awake for the first time in my life, and no way am I leaving this undone. I’m coming, Lilly.

She closed her eyes, tilted her head to the side, and the crescendo of the music overtook the room as her fingers flew on the keys, and her body swayed.

When she looked again, Flynn was gone.

Chapter Fourteen

Order.

There was always order.

Flynn knew the routine of this place. It echoed in every memory of his childhood. His father was a man of singular purpose. In his mind, without the mandates and control of a North Korean General, his grasp on power might slip.

Over the years, the young man he’d underestimated for too long learned to use what his father thought to be his greatest strength as a weakness to be exploited.

Flynn knew how and when he would move in the late hours and in exactly what order his steps would take as he made his final placement of each pen and key in his office as the clock struck midnight.

Lilly would have found it by now.

Flynn’s nerves were raw, imagining her slipping into the crisp white sheets, feeling the scrape of the envelope he’d left there on the velvet softness of her leg.

She would look around the room as she pulled the note from between the sheets, thinking he would come out of the shadows as she held the paper in her hands. Then, slowly, her vision would adjust to the darkness and the words would come to her eyes as much as to her heart.

At least, that was his plan.

Now, was just the waiting.

They stopped locking her in two nights ago when she’d bargained for more freedom. Some truce had come to pass because Lilly also drove herself off the grounds that morning in a compact Nissan that Colin once reserved for staff to run errands.

Something has fucking changed and whatever it is means no more damn waiting. The god damn sick marionette show around her is going to have the curtain come down, and I’m fucking hacking the strings from us both. Tonight.

The winds shifted and branches scraped the roof of the boathouse as Flynn paced, staring into the dark patch of grass between the strip of forest and the stone entry to the small waterside structure.

There is a strange phenomenon when you are looking for something in the darkness. It comes into the corners of your eyes, the periphery. If you struggle to hard to look directly for something, you will miss it.

You must trust that it will appear.

Flynn paced.

His fists balled and released.

The moon held only a silver sliver of the night. Stars fought their way out from behind a sky giving in to the heavy rolling clouds

12:45 am

Jesus, fuck. Lilly, come on. Where the fuck are you? Don’t think, just come. It’s me, you know you are mine. Stop fighting. I’ll make you safe. I promise this is us. Our beginning.

1:25 am

The pounding in Flynn’s head became an unbearable pressure. His eyes felt like they were coming out of their sockets. His chest puffed and his fingertips dug into his palms.

She’s not fucking coming. Jesus, fuck what do I do now. Did they catch her? No, I told her exactly what to do. She should be here.

Flynn bolted out the door of the boathouse, running from some invisible attack.

He ran to what he knew was his. To save her or steal her, it didn’t matter.

His skin felt cold, the muscles in his back turned to a knot as he hit the path in the woods, branches scratching his cheeks as he ran blind toward the glow of the lights from the house.

Twigs snapped under the pounding of his feet; his body did his bidding without question as it had been taught to do since the first time he took his place on the mat and learned what it meant to fight.

He loved the pain. From the first punch, a flame lit inside him. He felt awake and alive more than he ever had before.

When he tasted the first blood from his broken, seven-year old nose as it dripped over his lips, he came alive. A vibration started deep inside, and he felt for the first time in his short life something as close to joy as he could remember. All because he’d tasted his own blood.

Clouds laughed as they covered even the sliver of light from the crescent shape against the nothingness of the sky. Flynn pushed harder, a branch catching him in the left chest, searing a jab into the still tender scar.

What a fucking life. All this beauty, all this fucking prosperity and I feel like a damn pauper. Sick fucking game someone upstairs is playing. But, it’s over. If I have to tear down this fucking house of cards to get to her, that’s fine by me. Where the fuck are you? Why didn’t you come?

The lights in the house dotted only a few windows. Flynn felt the fire in his lungs as his body caught on another branch. He swung around and jerked at his T-shirt to tear it from what held him, breath coming in and out of his mouth like a dragon.

He yanked at the fabric, only twisting it tighter. He growled in the darkness, a deep primal sound unlike anything human, he pulled, splitting his T-shirt from neck to hem.

The little moonlight cast a glow across his skin. The deep ink, haunting the valleys and bulges of each muscle. His gut felt empty, hollow like a man starved. Only, it wasn’t food he craved.

He spun, unhooking the last shred of his shirt from the black fingers of the tree, his legs shaking as they prepared to restart his deadly pace toward the house and before his next step his body hit hers in a
thump.

Lilly screamed.

All his senses lit up at once. Her softness, her smell, the glow of her hair, the sweet puff of her breath on his bare chest.

“God! Where are you going? I thought your note said to come —”

The words died on her lips as Flynn took her mouth.

Her body flowed against his, every soft curve, the hardness of his muscle taking her over.

He spun his tongue over her lips, not giving her a moment to decide, and pushed passed and into the soft warmth of her mouth.

Flynn dug his fingertips into the sides of her head, clutching and tangling into the mass of crazy waves and silky curls.

The sound of her soft moan set off a chain reaction that led to his cock standing to full height in a split second.

Fuck yes, she was coming, thank you, thank you.

Flynn tasted her, and then, in a glorious moment, she moved against him, her mouth following his, her breath coming deep and fast.

Jesus, fuck yes. She’s making those little noises. Those little past-the-point-of-no-return noises. We shared more with each other in the last half a year than we had with anyone ever before. Now, it is time we shared something more. All of us, all of her.

She smelled like roses and spice. The woods smelled cool and damp; like the air before a storm.

Her hair was pulled back in a long tail, but rebel curls still fell around her face as her eyes opened. Flynn listened to the hitches in her breath as his tongue wound its way over hers, discovering the slick essence of her flavor again.

“Ummmm.” She drew out a low moan as he pulled back and bit on her lower lip.

Flynn’s eyes locked on hers as he held her head, his teeth tightening just enough to give her a stab of pain… but not break the skin.

He needed her to know who they would be together, like this. She lit something in him, something Flynn knew simmered deep, but no one before was worth bringing it out. But his need to dominate her overwhelmed him.

Her eyelids fluttered, and a flash of fear passed through the green of her irises as Flynn let her lip fall from between his teeth.

“Come on.”

He needed her, and if he allowed beast-mode to take over, he would be more than ready to ravage her up against a tree. But, no. Not that way. Not tonight. She was here, and that was her commitment.

His note left no doubt what he needed from her and what he would give. And still, here she was, just like a moth to a flame.

He took her hand, leading her back on the path, the boathouse outlined but dark against the shimmering water. The sound of waves hitting the metal bulkhead and the wind picking up and rustling the leaves over their heads only partially drowned out the sound of Flynn’s heart racing.

In the purest part of him, a part he long ago realized would have no purpose in his life, she existed. She held sway over him, a part of him so neglected, it was a miracle anyone or anything could resurrect it from the darkness into which he was born.