When we arrive, he looks at me and rolls his eyes. “This is even worse than I thought. There isn’t even a cookie stand in this one,” he says as I laugh.
“I’ll get you an oatmeal raisin later, freak. Who doesn’t prefer chocolate chip?”
“I like to be different, Dace. I’m an individual, and I like oatmeal raisin,” he complains, following me into the mall as I search for the place Martin continuously bought a soda.
We walk nearly to the opposite end where there is little, if anything, but a few stores and one, little, sundries stand. “That’s it.”
“That’s what?” I move forward as Antony continues to bug me for information.
I walk up on the guy working the stand who is seemingly more interested in the young girl working the nearby clothing store than any customers that might come by. “Hey!” I say, snapping him to my attention.
“Yeah, what do you want?” The dumbass teenager says with an attitude.
I look at Antony who is instantly as annoyed as I am.
“What do we want? You little shit. Do your fucking job and stop staring at that girl’s ass. She doesn’t want your raggedy clothes, infected nose ring, backwards hat wearing, scrawny, minimum wage earning ass,” Antony says with little humor, but it makes me laugh all the same.
“Says you motherfucker!” he says back to Antony. Antony grabs him and pulls him over the counter. “Hey! What the fuck dude!?”
“I swear I want to hurt you bad.”
“Antony, okay, I am sure the idiot can help us, so don’t kill him yet.”
“Kill me?” the kid says as Antony smiles wide and lets his gun flash from underneath his jacket. The kid suddenly finds a more respectful attitude. “What do you guys want? I don’t have much cash here, just some nuts and Gatorade. We haven’t gotten a new shipment in over a week.”
“We don’t need any of that. I was wondering about a man that would come here once a week and buy a soda.”
The kid starts to say something smart ass when Antony knocks him upside the head. “Owe!”
“Think before you speak fool,” Antony says.
I pull out my phone and show him a picture I have of the Martins. “Have you seen this guy?”
“Him? Yeah, he would come here all the time with his luggage, buy a soda, do a zigzag through my girl’s store there, walk out, and then walk out that door. Weird guy.”
“What’s through that door?” I ask him.
“I don’t know,” he says, earning another smack to the head. “Damn man, what the fuck?”
“Would there happen to be a storage facility near here?”
The kid stares at Antony, watching for another hand smack before turning back to me with bright eyes. “Oh yeah, there is this place you can get to … and actually you could walk there from here, the closest door would be that door. You would have to walk through the small amount of wooded area there, but I am sure if you really wanted to, you could do it with no problem.”
I smile at Antony as he suddenly realizes. “You did well,” I say.
“I did?”
“Yeah, you did great,” Antony says, taking out some money and handing it to the kid. “Now, go buy yourself some real clothes and take that girl out somewhere decent.”
“Oh fuck! Thanks!”
I grab him and pull him back to me. “We were never here, and if anyone else comes here asking about the same man, you don’t remember anything. Tell them you smoke a lot of weed.”
“I can’t smoke weed. I got asthma,” he says. I roll my eyes and squeeze his little dumbass a little tighter. “But I get your point.”
“Good.” Antony and I walk away to go to the storage facility. It’s somewhat rundown and hidden back here. I have never even heard of this company. It must be a family owned place. No matter, it’s easy to sneak in and get a hold of their records and narrow down the units to a few possibilities before we break in and start looking through them. It’s one of three, or maybe all three. We use a few tricks to work through the locks and open them all up. There are boxes and boxes of stuff everywhere, except for in one, which is completely empty. “I think they got here before us.”
“I hope they didn’t take everything.”
“There’s only one way to find out.” We dig through the other two units, both which prove to be the Martins, but most of it is crap.
“This is going to take forever to go through!” Antony yells.
“We need some help, and I think I know who to call.” Aaron shows up with interest but still cautious as he approaches us.
“I don’t like meeting you guys alone. What’s this about?”
“I told you we found the units that match the key Austin has. One was cleaned out, and the other two are full of …”
“Shit,” Antony says.
“What looks to be shit, but maybe within the shit, there is something we can use.”
“Alright,” Aaron sighs and agrees to help us go through it. He settles in and takes off his coat, which causes Antony to smile too big. I eye him mouthing words I can’t say out loud.
“He’s so hot,” Antony whispers to me.
I dig in and ignore the drooling next to me. We spend hours before Aaron suddenly pops up. “I think I found something.” He quickly looks through the rest of the box before grabbing the whole thing and bringing it to the table for us all to look through. “Look at this. It’s an arrest report for Michael.”
“Michael?” Antony says, grabbing it to look at. “He was caught joyriding with some other kids. This is nothing.”
“Look closer. He was arrested with Victor Towns, the man arrested for the murder of my mother and … the eldest with them was a man named Rowen Rodecker.” I grab the report from Antony and look it over.
It all starts to make sense, horrible twisted sense. “There’s no way Michael would have had anything to do with that man, or any of this. He’s a little high strung, but kill someone’s mother or his own mother?”
“No, it makes sense. Michael was the only one that could have changed Father’s order. He was old enough and surely knew what was going on. It was him that talked Father into sending us away.”
“For our own good, Dace!”
“For our own good? He sent us to the worst place possible, Antony, to be beaten whenever the witch needed an outlet. We were too afraid to say anything because she said no one wanted us and we would be killed otherwise. You don’t remember how bad it was because you wanted so bad to believe it was done for our own good, and hell maybe I did too. It wasn’t for our own good; it was to torture us, to make our lives as miserable as possible. No one came to visit us but Michael. He had to have seen the bruises on us, but he never said a word to Father. He wanted to make sure we were dejected.”
“He brought us toys and played with us and made us feel loved,” Antony says.
“And then he left us behind. He’s the one that said Ettore had threatened to kill us. No one else heard him say that.”
“Are you saying our own brother killed our mother and …” I nod towards Antony as Aaron steps back and puts and arm around Antony.
“He’s a sick, twisted fuck. I’m telling you. He was the one that took me and he forced Austin to marry him so he could get more control of her and you,” Aaron says to me.
“He thinks Billy was her lover, not me,” I blurt out without thinking.
Aaron looks me over. “He tried to kill Billy because he thought Austin was in love with him?” Not even Antony knew that, fuck. They both stare at me with a million questions look.
“Jamee told Michael about Austin and me, but Father doctored up some pictures and some evidence that proved it wasn’t me, that it was Billy instead. He had already suspected Billy, so it was easy to convince him.”
“Oh my God, Dace!” Antony yells, fisting his hair and walking around the room. “He’s going to fucking kill you. He’s going to torture you to death and then kill you. There’s no way he is going to let Austin go.” We all look
at each other realizing the same thing.
“Well, now we know two things: Rowen works for Michael and we have to kill them both if we want to live,” Aaron says.
I don’t know who else to go to other than Ettore. I have never approached him before for help, and it feels odd to do so now, but what choice do I have? Besides, I need to know who all is against me. I am hoping I don’t have enemies coming from both sides.
Ettore sits down, looking me over, clearly searching for some understanding for why I am there. “I know about our mother and that Michael changed the order to have her killed,” I say bluntly. He leans back with his eyebrows raised. “How much did you know, Ettore?”
“I knew how angry he was. He believed in perfection, even then. Of course, Father only encouraged it. Michael could do no wrong. Michael would knock the shit out of me, and it would be my fault.” Ettore raises his sleeve to show me a terrible scar. “The fuck had his friends hold me down while he burned me.”
“Why?”
“To force me to tell Father it was my fault that the order was changed. I didn’t but I didn’t deny either. I have built up as much as I can to try and prevent him from getting the upper hand on me again. Yet, he still finds a way to be one step ahead of me. He killed Father, you know?” I nod, realizing it the more I find out about my brother. “I’m surprised he let you two live as long as you have. You should have seen how angry he was when Father was bragging about all your abilities. It made me want to protect you just to piss him off. Then the fuck blew up my guy. I had to scramble hard to try and find a new way to launder my money. It nearly cost me everything!” Ettore slams his fist on the desk in front of him. “I’m not sure why you are here, but I can’t help you much.”
“Much?”
Ettore roll his eyes. “If you want to get out of town quick, then let me know. Outside of that …”
“What if I can help you get Michael?” He looks me over with doubt. “You don’t have to make any promises. All I want to know is that you won’t come after me while I get him.” Ettore looks away, considering. “Remember, I’ll know if you lie to me.”
He laughs, “I will promise not to come after you while Michael is still in power if you promise the same?” He clearly chose his words carefully, but I will take it for now. One brother at a time is better than worrying about them both at the same time. “Deal?” Ettore holds out his hand to me, and I take it.
“Deal. But don’t think I didn’t notice that you agreed for only while Michael is in power.”
“It’s a tough world, Dace, I have to keep up the pace just like everyone else, so stay out of my way, and we won’t have a problem, ever.”
Chapter 32
Dace
I wake up unsure of the time but quickly realize the woman in my arms. Feeling down her bare back and over her ass, I wrap my arms around her and pull her in close. I know I need to say goodbye. Michael will be looking for her soon, and she can’t be found here. “Austin, you have to get back to Michael,” I whisper.
“No, just a few minutes longer,” she says, burying herself into my chest.
“We are so close. With the information we have on Michael now, all we have to do is let it leak to the media and make sure he doesn’t win the election. Then, we can start bringing him down for good. Antony has already mailed a package to one of the most obnoxious reporters in the city.”
“Justin Lohan? Really, I can’t stand him. He has always been in the middle of things and trying to make the police out to be idiots.”
“He’s also not afraid to say shit about anyone, including my brother. He is all about his own fame. He is even more self-centered than Michael.”
Austin sighs. “It’s becoming harder and harder to get away from Michael; I think he is having me followed.”
“I wouldn’t doubt it. Please be careful. I would really prefer you move out of there and stay anywhere else.”
“Ah, Baby, don’t worry about me. You know I can handle myself. I only need a few more things. I am getting a lot of information out of the staff without them realizing. They will talk endlessly if they don’t think it means anything, and you know I’m good at asking questions.” She smiles, and I laugh at the nutcase.
I kiss her with a soft touch. “Okay, you do what you need to, but I can’t stand the thought of you two even pretending to be intimate. I can only imagine he isn’t making it easy on you.” She looks back up at me with a painful expression. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry about it all, but I promise it will all be over soon, as soon as he loses the election, there will be no reason to continue the charade any longer. I would prefer you out of there before then though.”
“Okay, Baby. I will pack tonight and move in with my father. I will tell Michael he is sick and needs to be cared for. If my father doesn’t look sick enough, I will feed him rat poison until he does,” she says with a smile.
“You’re scary.”
“I was only kidding, but I have thought about it once or twice.”
“And what would you do to me if I made you mad?”
She bites her bottom lip with a moan. “Oh the things I would do to you. I would tie you up, strip you naked, and beat you until you surrendered, and then I would fuck you so hard you would be too exhausted to get out of bed for days.”
“Oh, then what can I do to make you mad?” I laugh. Her laugh lightens my mood and brings out my playfulness. Nuzzling through her hair, I kiss her face and wander down to her bountiful breasts, enjoying myself immensely.
She giggles, rubbing the back of my head. “Alright handsome…,” she says, pulling my head up from her breasts, “I don’t think you’re supposed to be convincing me to stay.”
I groan, looking her over and wanting to do so much more. “But you have something I need, and I can’t get through the day without it. I neeeeeed it …” I dive underneath the sheets and find her sweet spot. “Mmmm.” I stop when one of my alarms go off. Jumping out of bed, I check my monitors and scramble. “Fuck!” I quickly call Antony, tell him to get the hell out of town and to step up his efforts to find my friends and quick. We are going to need them sooner than expected. After sending a quick, secure message to Aaron, I grab some clothes for us both to get dressed. “Austin, come with me.” I grab her arm and pull her into my secret room with me. I shut the door and lock down the rest of the space so no one can get in. The rest of my things will just have to be vulnerable. Typing away on my computer, I make it as difficult as possible for them to get in, but it only deters them for a little while. They blow through my front door and instantly begin looking for me, turning the whole place upside down. I manage to save one camera from being destroyed and see the man we have been looking for. Austin looks over my shoulder with wide eyes. I motion for her to be quiet. We sit quietly with each other as they continue to search through my things and wait for me to return home. Aaron somehow manages to clear them out with a fire alarm that sends half the fire stations in the city in and searching through the building thoroughly. We sneak out with the crowd, and I send Austin away with Aaron. “They want me, not you. So go with your brother. Don’t you dare go back to that house,” I say to her.
“Dace, where are you going to go?”
“I need to go turn in a favor from Ettore. Once I get that done, I will come and find you, and we need to leave for a while. Only for a while, okay?” She nods. I kiss her and send her away with her brother. I check in with Antony and make sure he has moved out of his current location to another we talked about. My place is clearly being watched, so I have to somehow get to Ettore and hope he will still let me use his plane to escape this city.
Walking up to Ettore’s gate, I nervously ask to be let in. After some frustrated sighs, I am permitted inside. Everything is quiet, and as soon as the door shuts behind me, I know I have made a mistake. Ettore walks through the room and sighs at me but doesn’t say a word. Then Michael rounds the corner.
“Hello, Dace. I have been looking for you.”
Justin Lohan walks out with a smile and looks me over. “This is your brother? I would have thought he would have looked a lot more like you.”
“Well, he is only a half-brother. My good friend Justin said he got a package about me and it had all kinds of terrible accusations in it.”
“It had the truth—you’re a monster.”
“Ahhh, don’t be like that. I was hoping we could end on better terms.”
“Fuck you!” I say to him, and he simply smiles and walks away.
The door behind him shuts, and I look up and see three men coming in from another direction, ready with weapons and fierce intentions. I slip my jacket off quickly and steady myself. I dodge a bat aimed at my head and grab it, breaking it over another guy’s back. I knock another into a wall and break his jaw and his knee. With one left, they send in three more. I handle one and run out of the way of the others. I begin to plan my way out of the house as I fight one off and then another two. I feel pretty good about my chances when I get out the door with car keys in my hand until the door opens and Michael walks out with his arm around Austin’s neck. “Look, Honey. Look how tough my little brother is?” Austin looks dazed and a little beat up. “Believe it or not, all we had to do was have one of our police friends send out a call that a man, of your height and build, was being beat to death, and she came running. When she arrived, my sweet, loving wife put up quite a fight, which was fun for me to watch for a little while, but then I grew tired, so I had her shot.” I step forward. “Don’t worry, she’s not hurt. My men shot her with a tranquilizer. I be damn if it didn’t take two in order to get her to stop fighting us.”
“Let her go, Michael. This is between you and me, no one else.”
“Oh, I disagree. Considering you have been fucking my wife, I would say it has everything to do with you both.” Michael waves his men down, but I stay on guard. “After everything I did for you, you want to steal the woman I love, you fucking bastard?”
“Don’t fuck with me, Michael. You were the one that changed that order Father gave. You ordered our mother to be killed along with me and Antony,” I say, trying to get him to admit it while watching Ettore from his balcony listening in.