Run This Town 03 - (Watch Me) Unmask You (17 page)

Lucky walked past him to the front door and pulled it open before facing Elias again. “Show me you love me.”

Elias’s Adam’s apple shifted. “There’s no way I can do this.” He gazed down at Maddie. “I need you. I need our daughter. I can protect you. Please. I’ll stay in one of the other bedrooms. I won’t touch you, won’t look at you. Lucky, please.”

“I can’t.” Being near him, listening to him made that awful night seem like a dance. And yet, looking at Elias brought those memories right to the forefront of Lucky’s mind. He couldn’t escape it. He couldn’t forget that he’d been duped, that he’d fallen in love with the man who’d killed his parents, destroyed Lucky’s entire world. He couldn’t forget that he’d spent ten years lying next to this man, this killer, this man he’d married. How could he not have seen this? Had he really been that blind? “You had ten years, and you didn’t fucking protect me. Not when I needed you.”

“Don’t leave me.” A muscle in Elias’s jaw leapt. “Don’t take my family away. You’re my everything, Lucky.”

“Give her to me.” Lucky licked his lip, felt it tremble under his tongue. “Give her to me.” He stretched out a hand and Elias stepped back.

“I can’t.” Elias’s eyes were red, his nose too. The last time Lucky had seen him like this they’d been in the room with the surrogate. She’d just given birth to Maddie and they’d clung to each other, Elias and Lucky, giving each other strength. Then the doctor had handed the tiny pink bundle to Elias and he’d cried, in front of a room full of people, he held their daughter in one hand, Lucky in the other, and he’d cried.

“You’re my life.” Elias touched Maddie’s forehead and Lucky watched his hand tremble. “Madeline.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead while looking at Lucky. “You and your daddy, you’re my life.”

He held her so gently, touched her so sweetly. This man, this killer Lucky married. Seeing him so weak, so battered, something in Lucky wanted to help, wanted to reach out. He looked away, to the wall at his left, filled with pictures. Their pictures. Their life. And with every one Lucky knew he couldn’t stay.

“Mijn schat.”

He jerked his head up even though a part of him didn’t want to acknowledge Elias, a bigger part of him could never not respond to the endearment.

“I’ve only ever wanted you,” Elias rasped. He cleared his throat and bunched a fist at Maddie’s back. “I’ve only ever loved you. Don’t walk away from me, Lucky, I won’t survive it.”

And Lucky might never survive the separation either, but he couldn’t stay. “I can’t be near you,” he said hoarsely. “I can’t look at you. I can’t.”

“You want to hurt me like I hurt you. Destroy me like I destroyed you.” Elias shook his head and made a sound, like a rattling laugh in the back of his throat. “When you hurt I hurt, Lucky. When you bleed I bleed.”

Lucky didn’t want to hear this. “I have to go.” He reached out, grasped Maddie, and for a moment they were holding her together. “Elias, please. Let me go.”

Elias pushed his face into Lucky’s shoulder. “I will never let you go, Lucky.” But he released Maddie and took a step back.

Lucky stood there with their daughter in his arms, the door opened behind him, his husband in front of him, shattered. The both of them, shattered. They stared at each other, emotions arching between them then Lucky spun away and hurried down the steps and to his car. He didn’t look to see if Elias was watching him buckle Maddie into her car seat. He didn’t have to look. He felt Elias’s stare on the back of his neck.

The pressure on his nape remained as he got behind the wheel and started the car and when he touched the rear view mirror and glanced at it, his gaze clashed with Elias’s. Lucky drove off, blinking the burning from his eyes as the mechanical gate opened for him.

He went through that gate.

Elias stood in the open doorway, unable to move. Lucky was gone. Just gone, taking their daughter with him. And what was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to function with a part of himself missing?

He sagged against the door, throat working as he tried unsuccessfully to swallow the emotions. To bury them. He couldn’t think with them bombarding him and he needed that. Needed to think. But there was a hollow in his chest, an intense ache that didn’t go away no matter how much he rubbed at it.

“Elias.”

He looked up, found Israel staring at him from the driveway, concern on his friend’s face.

Something gave inside Elias and he slid down to the floor. “He left me. I need to be with them. I need to protect them.” Jesus. He couldn’t just let Lucky be out there when his enemies were gunning for him. Elias needed to protect his family.

Israel nodded as he walked over. “Did you think he’d stay?” He squatted next to Elias and put a hand on his shoulder. “The best way to protect them is to eliminate the threat.” Israel squeezed his shoulder. “Reggie is following him and he will protect them with his life, you know that.” His serious gaze lightened. “Plus he’s with the FBI.”

Elias stared at the security gate. He’d had it put in thinking it would keep his family safe, but that safety had been an illusion. Men like him should know that. 
He
 should have known that. “I thought he’d let me explain. I thought he’d hear me out. You told me,” he said to Israel without looking at him. “From the start, you told me this would fall apart.” But he didn’t listen. He’d wanted that life. He’d been starved for it. For Lucky.

“He’s hurting,” Israel told him quietly. “He’s not interested in anything you have to say.”

Elias pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Dane.

“Elias.”

“You have people with him?”

“Yeah. My guys will keep them safe.”

Something Elias couldn’t do. “Protect them, Dane. I need to handle the threat.”

“Do what you have to.” Dane cut off the call, and Elias pursed his lips as he tried to get his mind right.

“You need to figure out who did this and why, and deal with them,” Israel said. “That’s the only way you will protect your family.”

“I already know who.”

Israel gazed at him. “You think so?”

“Stavros. It can only ever be Stavros.” He’d deliberately sent Elias on a job on the West Coast then sent those men after his family. But how had he found out about Donovan Cintron?

Israel made a sound. He’d never liked nor trusted Stavros. “Why now? Why send them now?”

“That’s a question I’ll ask him when I get the chance. In the meantime…” He took a deep breath and held out a hand for Israel to haul him upright. “I’ve got some hunting to do.”

“My man.” Is grinned and pulled him into a loose hug when he was on his feet. “I’m right there with you.”

Elias shook his head as he extricated himself from Israel’s embrace. “No. You’re staying here.”

Israel frowned. “You sidelining me?”

“I need to do this by myself. I work better alone.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to. Not when you have me offering up my services for free.” Israel winked. “And you know I’m expensive.”

Elias had to smile. “Is.” A chuckle escaped him and he blinked. “Thank you.” He hugged his friend again. “I love you, you know that.”

Israel pulled back to squint at him. “Is this the part where you tell me this is for my own good?”

“Stay here, please. I need someone I can trust here, watching out for Lucky and Maddie.”

The frown gave way to understanding on Israel’s face. “You saying you don’t trust the Feds?”

He had an unsteady alliance with Dane, but Elias couldn’t say he trusted the guy. He knew better than that. “I trust you. You’re family,” he said. “I trust Reggie, because he’s your family. Dane has an agenda, he always does, and I’m not willing to fully trust that when push comes to shove he’ll put my family above whatever game he’s playing this week.”

Israel made a disgusted sound. “That’s why I don’t deal with those fuckers. Can’t believe you and Reg even look at that bastard with a straight face.” He heaved a sigh. “Aight. I’ll be here, but you call me if you need backup. You know I’ve got a ready clip.”

“I know.” Elias patted his shoulder and stepped back. He glanced over his shoulder as he walked into the house. “How’s Tek?”

Something flashed in Israel’s eyes, there one moment gone the next. “Last time I saw him he was his usual self.”

“The last time? Where is he?”

“Dunno.” Is shrugged. “He’s been ghost these past few days. Unreachable.”

Fuck. That couldn’t be good.

“His time is running out,” Israel said gravely. “Think he’s gone into hiding.”

“Fuck.”

“Yep.” Israel nodded.

“We need to find him. Help him.” Tek meant too much for Elias to let him destroy himself.

“We can try.” Israel’s mouth twisted. “Tek is a different breed of fucked up, you of all people should know that.”

Elias did know, which was why they couldn’t let Tek deal with his shit himself. “The instant I’ve got my shit handled and Lucky and I are better, we’re finding Tek,” he vowed firmly. “He can’t do this shit alone.” They’d lose him for sure.

“I’m with you.”

“Good.” Elias pushed aside the couch in the living room and pulled back the area rug to reveal the safe he’d installed in the floor. “Help me pack.”

****

Putting aside his internal turmoil regarding Lucky’s departure from their home, Elias set himself in beast mode. Not that difficult to do, but it felt wrong somehow. Like an article of clothing that didn’t fit, it squeezed him, got too tight until he was sweating profusely.

He had to push Lucky and Maddie from his mind and get on a plane to hunt down Stavros. His ex-lover had a million and one bolt holes, hideaways, and safe houses that it would take Elias months to find. But unfortunately for Stavros, Elias knew his habits, knew his weaknesses. So after securing a promise from Israel to protect his family, Elias was on his way to Lisbon.

Annika lived there. Her mother spent much of her time there and wherever Annika was, Stavros was there, posted up in the shadows. Elias didn’t pretend to understand the fucked up dance those two did. Even when he’d been stuck in the middle of them, he never fully got it. Thank God for that. He was a lot of things, but the Konstantinous siblings’ brand of crazy was next level.

Hiding was never in the cards, using a fake name or passport didn’t even factor in with him. His prey had to know he was coming. So after the endless hours spent aboard a cramped plane, he grabbed a taxi outside 
Lisbon Portela Airport
 and instructed the driver, in halting Portuguese, to take him to 
Inspira Santa Marta Hotel
. He didn’t figure he’d have much time to relax. The sooner he dealt with Stavros the quicker he could get home and grovel.

Don’t think about it.
He shouldn’t, but he texted Lucky anyway.

How are you? How’s Maddie? I miss my family.

He didn’t care how it made him look. He’d look the biggest fool, live on his knees if it meant Lucky would speak to him, forgive him. He got no response from his husband by the time he got to the hotel, and Elias waited just long enough to check into the small room before he dialed Israel.

“Yep,” his friend answered after five rings.

“How are things? Are they okay? What’s happ—”

“Damn, son. Take a breath.” Israel chuckled. “They’re fine. In a fancy hotel. Reggie and I are in the room next door.” He paused. “The Feds are outside in the hallway, guarding the door. Can’t miss those fools.”

Breath left Elias in a relieved rush and he sank onto the thin mattress, a palm on his knee. “Is, I owe you much. You know that.”

“Nah.” Israel denied his words. “We’re even, you and I. Been even years ago.” He changed the subject. “You where you need to be?”

“I am.”

“Then handle your shit, me bredda. Kill that.”

“On it.” Elias ended the call and flopped back onto the small bed, arm thrown over his eyes. The sun was starting to set. He could afford a few minutes of shut eye, just long enough for night to fall then he’d make his move.

Later that night, a ride on a yellow tram took him to Stavros’s place in Alfama, a mostly working class, fishing folk area. He’d set up there only because Annika had grown up not too far away. Anything to be near Annika. The apartment was along steep, narrow cobblestone streets with security cameras covering the front entrance. Two men stood guard.

Elias opted to go in via the back entrance, ducking into a nearby backyard. He climbed the low fences until he got to Stavros’s place then stopped. Another two men blocked that entrance, too, chatting to each other in Portuguese, the red end of their cigarettes glowing in the night.

He walked up to them, hands behind his back, each wrapped around the barrel of a Glock. The sound of his footsteps on the graveled ground drew their attention and in two seconds they were running toward him, mouths moving, hands going to the guns in their waist. Elias met them halfway and raised his guns.

Two taps on the trigger, one for each man and they crumbled where they stood, identical bullet holes in their forehead. He didn’t have time to do the fucking dance, not with them. Their deaths fell under the business column. Nice and efficient, quick and painless.

Stavros’s death? Now that would be pure pleasure.

The back door was locked up tight, but he easily remedied that by shooting out the lock. In Lisbon, Stavros was just a man. With an unhealthy obsession with the very last woman he should want, but he was just a man. The bodyguards that usually flanked him in Paris and who never let him even take a bite of food without first tasting it themselves, those bodyguards were absent. This was his most private of getaways. One could even call it his home. Elias had had the pleasure of fucking him in all twelve rooms.

He crept through the place now, guns leading the way. Muffled voices sounded from the lower level, which must be why no one came running to intercept him. Sound didn’t carry well down there. He knew that first hand. Head cocked, Elias took the stairs one at a time, slowly descending into the bowels of the house.

Giggling. Moaning. Women’s voices. And Stavros’s too, grunting, offering up compliments. Elias paused three steps away from hitting the floor. Stavros sat in a chair, legs spread, head thrown back as a naked woman’s head bobbed in his lap. He palmed her nape, hips lifting to slam down her throat. She groaned, slender body—a smooth shade of milk chocolate—shuddering.

From the back, with that spectacular ass and the hair, she was familiar, resembling Stavros’s ultimate dream girl. But Elias didn’t have to see her face to know it wasn’t Annika on her knees on that floor.

The other female voices he’d heard came from the two additional women in the room who were feeling each other up as they watched Stavros get blown.

Elias took a step. Then another, and before his feet hit the floor he fired, hitting the woman sucking Stavros in the back of her head.

One bullet. Her body stiffened up then she slumped over him.

Dead.

Stavros’s head came up, his eyes went wide and Elias pointed one gun at him, the other at the two women who were suddenly huddled together, screaming.

He sighed. “Get out.” He flicked the gun at the women and they scrambled to their feet, naked.

“What is this?” Stavros pushed at the dead woman in his lap and the body fell back.

One of the women retched while the other tugged on her arm, pulling her toward the stairs.

Elias rolled his eyes. “Ladies. Any more noise from you and I just might keep you down here to join her.” He nodded at the naked body.

They ran up the stairs and he gave them his back, focusing his attention on Stavros.

“Was that really necessary?” He sat there, white shirt decorated with red lipstick, buttons missing, the hairs on his chest visible. His cock was still hard where it hung out of his fly, the dead woman’s spit still making it shine.

“I used to think you were the smartest man I knew,” Elias said conversationally. He stepped over the woman and went to his ex, leaning over him to press the gun to his temple.

Stavros didn’t flinch, the frost in his eyes didn’t change. Elias had never seen him rattled and he didn’t expect to see the phenomena now.

“Care to tell me what this is all about?” Stavros leaned back, chin up as he met Elias’s eyes. “And did you have to kill Nazia? Her throat was fucking heaven.” Something flickered in the depths of his eyes. “Unless… did you want to finish what she started?” He grinned, teeth white against his tanned skin. “I’m more than okay with that.”

Disgust rolled through Elias. He cocked the gun against Stavros’s temple. “You had me where you wanted me, Stav. We had a good thing going then you had to go and fuck it up,” he snarled. “You had to come after my family.”

Stavros blinked. Slowly. “Did I?”

Elias smiled. “I’ve wanted to shoot you for ten years.”