A Real Bad Boy(44)

Like this apartment complex.

Fuck the elevator, I bounded up the stairs a few at a time until I got up to my floor. I wanted her and I was going to have her.

I almost didn't pause, but I realized that Michael was not outside the door like he should've been. No, he must've been inside.

Curious, I pulled out my phone and turned on the app that would let me see everything. Let me hear it all.

I was just in time for a very important conversation.

"Do you really want to see your father pay?" he asked, sliding a sandwich towards her. "Or are you just fucking around?"

"What?" Kat swallowed then grabbed her sandwich. "Yes. I wanna fucking make him pay." She took a bite of that sandwich.

"If that's the case, there is someone who wants to do the same thing."  He slid a card across the table with a number on it. "Call him. He'll  arrange a place to meet. Don't tell anyone else. I didn't give this to  you.

He stood and smiled. "I know the way you feel about your father, I feel  the same way. Being dragged into a world you don't want to be in sucks.  Don't live that way, I've been living it for years."

What the fuck? Those two were conspiring against us? All the blood in my  cock immediately flew to my brain as anger overwhelmed me. I opened the  door with a quick loud bang and stormed into the room.

"The fuck, man? I get you this job, I work hard for all this shit, and this is how you fucking repay me?"

I was raging at him from the other side of the apartment and I saw the look in his eyes.

It wasn't one of fear. It was all challenge.

"Keep coming at me if you can honestly say you don't want your father to  go down. I can make all of that happen. I can put you and Greyson at  the top. You just have to say the word." He held up a hand. "Otherwise  kill me. Don't let them get to me, kill me or let me go."

My father. All that rage directed away from Michael so quickly. The feel  of the burns on my back, the ones I never let any woman see. Not even  her.

I looked at Kathryn, then back at Michael.

"Is this what you want?" I asked, a snarl still in my voice. "Do you hate your father that much?"

"I saw him kill my uncle." She said the words with such hate I could  tell she'd never spoken them before. Her body was trembling. "I saw him  put two bullets right in his head and then he slumped to the ground.  Right outside, by our old play set, Janson. I watched as he called a  team and had him cleaned up." She wrapped her arms around her own body.  "I hate that son of a bitch. The only man in the family that was halfway  decent to me besides Greyson, and he killed him. He did it last  February. You wanna know why I ran away? He's why. I don't want anything  to do with this family. Not if he is at the head of it."

So many emotions swarmed over me as I fought my anger, my urge to reach  out and beat the ever living daylight out of Michael, but only for being  the closest person in the room. I needed to pound on something.

"And so, you offer a card? Who is this fool and what is he even going to do?" I asked.

I should've just ended him right there, but I was curious.

"People who have been trying to get rid of your fathers for a very long time."

"Mob?" I asked

He shook his head.

"Feds?"

He didn't say anything.

"No, no fucking police. I won't be a part of that shit."                       
       
           



       

"They have enough shit on all of you to put everyone away, Janson. Just  need a little bit more. You can make an agreement now, and stay out, or  you can rot."

"No Feds," I repeated. I wouldn't be a fucking rat. They'd kill me if  they found out. They would all kill me. It would be slow and painful,  too. No way in hell was I going to cooperate.

"No," I said. "We aren't going to talk about this again. Get the fuck  out of here, Michael. Go back to Pittsburgh, go anywhere. I don't want  to be the one to kill your ass." I waved him away in a fury.

Fuck no, there was no way in hell I would have any of it.

I had to fucking call Greyson. He had to know about this shit.

Jesus Christ. It was all a steaming pile of shit.





Chapter Eight



Kathryn



"Did you think there was going to be an easy way out?" Janson asked  after Michael left. His fingernails dug into the counter, the tips of  them pure white. He was fuming. I could see by the way his shoulders  heaved up and down that it was going to be a difficult conversation. The  man was on the verge of violence.

"I think something needs to be done, I think my father needs to pay for what he did," I said.

He was angry, violent, but I had to believe it wouldn't extend to me. He said he would never hurt me, and I had to believe that.

"They need to be stopped, Janson. I mean, really." I was just as angry. I could spit, claw, scream.

I'd confided in him the deepest darkest secret I had. The one that I had  sworn to take to my grave, because if not, I would become a target. I  knew my father. I knew what he was capable of. I knew exactly what would  happen to me if he knew that I knew what he did. I saw him, but he  never saw me. I hid while he searched the house, double checking for  witnesses. I dreamed about it every single fucking night.

It was the kind of nightmare that I knew was half real. The kind I promised myself would never happen again.

And I had a chance to make sure that the man went back behind bars  forever. I just had to figure out a way to make that happen. To make it  all happen without implicating anyone.

I knew Janson was right, no Feds. At least not that he could be involved  with. He was going to inherit the family business along with my  brother, and it had to be legit. He would not last if he was implicated  as an FBI snitch.

People got killed for a whole lot less than that.

It's why I had to be the one to do it. I made that determination as soon  as I saw the look on his face. I had to figure out a way to get rid of  our fathers once and for all.

Why his father? Because he was the first fucking person that showed up  to help with my uncle's body. He was the one who coordinated everything.  He was the one who took care of it all. They were both guilty.

They were both menaces to the family and to society.

I didn't want that man walking free.

"You think I don't know that? You think I don't live to see my father  put in jail or killed?" He pulled off his jacket and started unbuttoning  his shirt.

What the fuck?

"I think you've gotten very rich off of our parents," I said. "And that you probably don't want to see the income dry up."

"I've gotten what I could, yes, that's true, but I've also received so much more."

His shirt was off and I could see his body for the first time in the  broad light of day. I hadn't noticed all the scars on his body the first  time I'd seen him naked. We were too busy.

At first glance, the front of his body looked totally clean,  well-muscled and attractive, but as he turned, I saw a tapestry of shit  on his back.

"What the hell?" I gasped aloud as I saw the complete canvas.

It was littered in long streaks of scars, burns healed over. Some of them obvious cigarette markings.

"You think you are the only one with a monster for a father? This shit  started when my mother died. When I was six years old, Kathryn. Said he  wanted to ‘toughen' me up. Said it would make me into a great man. It  made me into a monster."

"You aren't a monster," I said as I walked towards him. I put my hand on  his back and felt him stiffen, but I didn't care. I guided my fingers  along that flesh, the tips of them sliding along each divot and dimple  in his marred back. "You're beautiful."

I meant it, too. It was so sad that I could feel the tears threaten my eyes, but he was absolutely gorgeous, scars or no.

This just added a little bit more to the story, and gave me a greater understanding.

It also solidified my decision.

I was going to see our fathers rot in jail if it was the last thing I did.

I would do it with or without Janson.                       
       
           



       





Janson



Beautiful. She called the scars beautiful. She called me beautiful. She  saw so much more in me than I saw, and it scared me. This girl was  completely crazy.

But it was exactly what I needed to hear to calm me down. Or rather, to relocate all that emotion into one very distinct area.

The want I had for her reemerged as I turned and looked into her eyes.

She was so fiery. So full of life. And she didn't see the monster I knew  I was. The one who was just waiting for a chance to get out of his  cage. The beast inside of me.

I grabbed her hand and pulled her to me. "Do you even know how dangerous  it was talking to Michael about that shit? How do you know the number  he gave you wasn't someone worse? Like the men who are trying to bring  down our organization? The ones who would do so at any cost. Even your  life."