Submission Specialist(Still a Bad Boy #2)(52)

He handed his jacket to the woman, who looked at him with disbelief. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“He’s not going to listen until he’s tested me. I know the type, like the back of my own hand. There’s no respect except what you earn with your fist.”

A maniacal grin grew on my face and I flexed my hands, opening and closing my fists in preparation for a one-sided fight where most of it was spent with my opponent unconscious.

“Are you serious right now?” she said.

The guy held out his expensive watch to her, which she didn’t accept. Instead she looked back and forth between us with an expression that said “Men!” as clearly as any words could and threw up her hands.

“Austin. This is Jace Barlow… your brother. I’m Kendall Barlow. I’m your sister-in-law. This.” She patted her swollen belly. “Is your nephew.”

The monster-truck of my anger suddenly found itself in mid-air with no traction. I looked around, half expecting the host of some practical jokes TV show to step out of the shadows and point to all the hidden cameras.

“Fuck… off.”

The words came out on auto-pilot, weaker than before, the wheels of that monster-truck spinning as the engine redlined. What the fuck was going on here? I could fight a man, but how was I supposed to fight a mindfuck?

I took a few steps towards him and his eyes narrowed in concentration, muscles twitching in readiness for whatever I might do. The woman, Kendall if she wasn’t bullshitting, took a few steps backwards away from the two of us as I slowly closed the distance.

We were eye to eye, toe to toe, and he didn’t back down even an inch. He was exactly my height, probably would have been my size if he spent as much time in the gym as I did. He did look a little like a slightly older version of me.

What was I supposed to do? Fuck him up, or listen to this bullshit that I didn’t have time for?

“Is there somewhere we can sit down? Talk?” asked Kendall hopefully.





Chapter 25

Austin

I sat in Ross’ chair behind his desk, halfway dumbfounded by the story Jace laid out for me. It was fucking insanity, but since the only person I ever told I was bought and sold as a baby was Skylar, he just seemed to know too much to ignore.

If it was true, then I was rescued from the womb of my dead mother after she and my father were killed in a mob hit in front of Jace, back when he was six or so. After that, I was stolen from the hospital and nobody ever heard anything more about me. Until now.

They tracked down the guy who’d been spotted on hospital security footage abducting me, some Picolli associate. He’d served fifteen years for kidnapping and manslaughter after saying he’d left me in a dumpster somewhere.

Well, through unsaid methods that were more convincing than what the city employed on him, Jace managed to get him to admit that he had, in fact, sold me to a guy here in New Ashby. When Jace tracked down that guy, he got the name Aquila.

“So, there weren’t too many Aquilas in the phone book, it didn’t take long to work our way through them. As soon as your name came up, I fucking knew it. How many times had I seen you on TV already? Right in front of my fucking nose the whole time. We got a hold of one of the towels they used to clean up one of your cuts, got the DNA tested. Just got the results back and it’s as close to certain as these things get. You are my brother,” said Jace.

I looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was only four in the afternoon. Eight more hours left in the day, and if it kept on getting crazier at this same rate, then we were all going to be in straightjackets by ten. Me first.

“So what do you do? Looks like you jumped in with the Picollis. That right?”

“You really haven’t heard of me?”

“No. That a problem?”

“No. Well, officially, I won the lottery and grew a corporate empire worth just over a billion at the last estimate.”

“And unofficially?”

“I dedicated my life to taking down the Picollis. I worked up through their ranks and then, when the opportunity came, I all but wiped them out in Port Magnus. I’ll never stop until they’re dust in the wind. The Picollis have always been close with the Bertolinis; that’s one reason their fucking human supply chain landed you here. Now they’ve come to some kind of agreement, so as far as I’m concerned the Bertolinis have to go too.”

Jace leaned forward, putting his elbow on Ross’ desk and scrutinizing me. Kendall jumped a little in her seat and then put her hand on her stomach, distracted by some kind of action in there before her husband continued.

“So, I knew ever since I saw you lose to Cannon-Fodder Coles that you were on the take. What I need to know is if you’re with me or them. Help me end them, Austin. There’s nobody I’d want more as my right hand man than my own brother. If you’re worried about money-”