PUSH: Ultra Alpha MMA Badboy Mafia Romance (Southside Brotherhood Book 2) (49 page)

Lilly felt her heart stop. It was just a split-second glimpse, but did she really just see what she thought she saw?

With a gulp, she slipped the card into her lock and made her way inside the luxury of her own suite. She looked at the suitcase on the floor, then she saw the bright red ribbon tied to a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black sitting on the table in the sitting room next to an enormous bouquet of white lilies.

There was an unshakable tension that wrapped around her from her bones to her blood to her skin. Was Flynn that person both he and Gideon described? Could she be so naive to think a man like him wouldn’t have other women? She toyed with the ribbon on the bottle and drew the white card from in the flowers.

Lilly, here’s to you and to our family May we forever be mended. Thank you, Colin.

Everything about Flynn told her to trust. And everything about Colin told her to doubt. She looked around the suite, threw the hand written card into the trash and took a deep breath.

***

“What the fuck is going on?” Colin slammed the door to his suite, cell phone at his ear.

“I snapped his fucking neck, like you told me. They jumped on me and threw me out as soon as I did it. Took his ass away on a stretcher. He’s in the fucking morgue by now. I got the fuck out before they called any cops. But, if he’s dead, they’re coming for me.” Gideon sounded worried.

“Who the fuck do you think I am? You don’t think I can pay off a few fucking cops to look the other way about a family matter?”

“Fuck, I know. I’m just—”

“Don’t you start doubting. You did what needed to be done, brother or no brother. Flynn has been off the rails for far too long. I’ve been too soft on him. So, if this is anyone’s fault, it’s mine. Now, we move on. I’ve got Lilly’s head right where it needs to be. She falls in line so easily, it’s not even a challenge. Now, go back to the house. Don’t call anyone or talk to anyone. Where are you now?”

“I’m still here down at the fights, in the back rooms.”

“No one else there?”

“Nope.”

“Good, you never know. Sometimes Topher comes around for big fights. I don’t need his fat ass fucking things up for us. So, get out of there before anyone else sees you.”

“All right.”

“Lilly’s locked in for the night. I told her Flynn was out getting laid — fucked with her head. She’s not going anywhere. Got her a fresh bottle and poked some holes in her fragile ego. She’ll be in bed with Johnnie Walker all night.”

Chapter Thirty-eight

If there was blood moving through Flynn’s veins, he couldn’t feel it. It didn’t warm him or make him feel human.

The tips of his fingers were numb as he stood outside the suite door. His new best friend had managed to get Flynn through the hotel, even paying off a desk attendant with a few blunts to look up her room number before getting him up the elevator.

Now, he was 150 pounds of carved mahogany door away from the one person he couldn’t face.

But still, here he stood ready to — what, he wasn’t sure.

The compulsion to look her in the eye one more time dragged his broken and battered body and soul to light here. He didn’t know what he was going to say.

Or what he was going to do.

He knew he wouldn’t lay a hand on her, not in anger.

But, he needed to see her. Maybe not even say a word, just look at her before he decided once again whether living was of any interest. He was just a pile of flesh, no more than a butchered cow hanging in a meat locker.

He meant nothing.

But, she did.

He needed to be sure she was safe. Still.

His bones ached, and his brain was flooded with black thoughts.

He was still a jealous and possessive predator, circling to ensure no harm came to her.

The sound of his knuckles on the door surprised even him. No thought came before, no plan, no consciousness behind it.

“Oh my god!” Lilly’s eyes lit up, the green from the gown only making them glow brighter. Her arms came up to take Flynn around the neck, but he shifted and took his entry without being asked.

“You alone?” Flynn’s voice was emotionless as he scanned the suite, opulent enough for Donald Trump.

“Yes. God, you look terrible. What happened at the fight? God, I tried to call—” Her shaking hand reached up, trying to touch his cheek. Flynn could see the horror in her eyes as she took in his battered, swollen, bleeding face.

“You. Lied.”

That was it. Flynn stepped forward, turned to stare at her with his dead green eyes.

“What?” Her shock didn’t register any sympathy in him. In fact, there was nothing about her emotions that would ever register again.

“Nice dress.”

“What’s wrong? Colin said he told you, got in touch with you before the fight, let you know—”

Flynn swallowed the spit and blood in his mouth, staring at her. Even through his indifference, she still pulled at him like gravity.

Every cell in his body told him to take her.

To give her what he always did, his soul.

“What’s wrong?
” He mocked her question.

“Yes, what is wrong?” Lilly stepped forward, her hand trying to touch his face, but he turned. “Flynn,
talk to me
.”

“What’s wrong, what’s wrong, what’s wrong?” He walked the enormous living room, his fingers tracing over the tabletop with flowers. He picked up the bottle of scotch, looked at her and smiled, then fingered the stacks of books.

“You’re scaring me.” Lilly wrapped herself in her arms, her eyes darting from Flynn to the door.

“Am I? Good.”

“Just please tell me what’s going on. Did you win the fight? Is everything okay?”

“Everything is amazing, Lilly. I mean, look at you. All dressed up like a princess. What could possibly be wrong?”

“You’re being an ass. Either tell me what’s wrong or—”

“Or? Or what? Leave? Don’t worry, I won’t be staying.”

The sirens were blaring inside his head. He got this same feeling whenever he was sent to instruct someone on repaying their debts or staying out of family business. Thunder shook his bones. Blood rushed into every organ, leaving his hands cold and ready for battle.

Only, he could never do to her what he did to all the others. She was still precious to him, if only now as a memory.

“You kissed him.” Flynn couldn’t believe when the words came out, the catch in his throat as he spoke. “As if you were available for that shit.”

“I
had
to. We had to play the part, you know, the happy couple. For the business — it didn’t mean anything.”

“You fucking belong to me. What didn’t you understand!”

Lilly winced as Flynn’s voice cracked and hitched with each word. His struggle to speak widening her eyes.

“You are not available to be touched by anyone! Ever!”
The last words out of his mouth barely audible as he ran out of air, his exhaustion hitting him like a train.

Flynn knew they were done, but his heart still compelled him to call her his.

“
Stop it!
You’re scaring me!”

“You need to be scared! You have no fucking idea how to live in this world.
I do!
You
promised
.” Flynn shook his head until he thought his neck would really break, his fists balling and slamming into the closest wall as Lilly screamed.

“What? I did what I did for us!
He
said he would let us be together, I just had to play along until the money was invested and the launch was ready. I did it for us, too!”

“I know what you thought you did. I get that — but, you didn’t make promises to him.
You made them to ME!”

His gut ached, his head spun, and he wanted to die. He couldn’t process it all. He wasn’t equipped for feelings and caring and giving a shit. It wasn’t part of his program, his DNA.

He could see the tremble in her fingertips, the blush rising over her chest, up her neck, the terror in her eyes as he stepped to within an inch of her, staring down, taking in everything that could have been.

“It’s me.” Her eyes overflowed, he felt the riot of fear coming from her.

He realized, she wasn’t afraid that he would touch her.
She was afraid he wouldn’t, that this was really the end. And, he felt the life drain out of her.

What had he always promised her? The one thing she needed from him.

To feel safe.

And now, here she stood. As beautiful as the day he helped her off the steps of their mansion, as frightened and unsure right now as that day.

I failed her.

There was a hurricane blowing inside him, turning until he felt himself take a deep breath. But, he couldn’t get any air.

There was no more pain, just a black hole of his need for her — a giant sucking vortex that told him all of the things that silence tells you.

You can’t do this to her. You made that promise.

Lilly’s eyes widened. Something changed in the tension between them, her look of fear changing to something else.

“Flynn? Say something — please, what’s wrong?
Oh my God
!”

***

“Sure, send him up.” Colin slammed down the receiver before his gaze shifted to the floor. “Stay right fucking there. This won’t take long. Oh, never mind. You’re not going anywhere.”

The two dark-skinned girls sat wide-eyed, bound, one of them gagged on the floor of the suite bedroom. The bottoms of their feet were already weeping with streaks of red as Colin pulled his cock from one poor girl’s sobbing mouth and shoved it back into his tuxedo pants.

“What the fuck does this asshole want?” Colin left the girls in the suite bedroom, sure to latch the door behind him as he strode toward the door.

By the time Topher knocked, Colin wore his game face.

“Well, this is a pleasant surprise. So sorry you missed the gala tonight. Kind of late for a social visit.”

“Yeah?” Topher walked through the open door, his head bobbing to the side with a sarcastic smile. “My invitation musta been lost in the mail.”

His part-Bronx, part-Detroit ghetto accent set Colin’s teeth on edge. He hated the bullshit Bowery Boys routine. Topher’s low-brow lifestyle inflamed his false sense of superiority.

“Maybe so. But, let’s not waste time. What are you doing here?”

“Well, I heard about the little dinner and dancing you had. Not sure why I wouldn’t be invited. After all, I am about to be your father-in-law, and it’s my fucking daughter who is making all this happen. So, a little respect wouldn’t hurt.”

“My apologies. I didn’t realize you wished to be so involved in her life.”

“I don’t. But, I do have some interest in her safety.”

“Her safety? Of course I will keep her safe.”

“Uh huh. I heard something that makes me wonder.”

“What’s that?”

“Something you should know better.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. So, I’m telling you, if it’s true, we got a problem.”

“We do have a problem. You cannot come here and show me this kind of disrespect. I run my business; you run yours.”

A shuffle and a loud bang from the other bedroom snapped both men’s heads around.

“You got company?” Topher smiled.

“That is none of your business. I am keeping up my end of our contract. Whatever this little visit is, it’s over.”

“Uh huh.” Topher took a step toward the closed bedroom door.

“Don’t,” Colin ordered blocking his path.

“I don’t care where you dip your wick, but we got standards. You don’t mess with kids. If I find out it’s true, our deal is off. I may not have been there for Lilly her whole life, but the fuck if I’ll let her marry a sick fuck. That’s all.” Topher turned around with a smile, squeezed the butt of a cigar between his yellow teeth, tipped his hat and made his way back toward the door.

“Oh, and by the way. Nice fight between your two boys. Too bad he wouldn’t die. That kid’s a tough son of a bitch. Anyone else would have been dead right there in the ring. Looked like the one snapped his neck… but guess not. Kid’s beat to shit, though. ‘Course, looked like he was that way when he got in the ring. Why you think that is?”

Colin's head began to hurt as Topher stood belly out with his round, bloated face grinning.

“Took him out dead on a stretcher,” Topher carried on, “then he just popped back up. Strangest thing I ever saw.” He moved his cigar to the other side of his grin as he turned toward the suite door.
“Have a good evening. I’ll let myself out.”

Colin was reaching for the phone before Topher’s backside disappeared as the door closed.

“Find him,” he said into the cell before opening the bedroom doors. “Now, who was a naughty slut in here, making all that noise?”