A Captive Situation (Kings of New York)

I was just stepping out of my car to meet with Ashton Walden when my phone buzzed.

Alert: guest bedroom window open.

Alarm went through me as I clicked over to check the video footage.

I went cold at the sight of seeing Sawyer half running and half hopping across the yard to the garage, then the shed.

My phone buzzed again.

Alert: Garage door opened.

Alert: Shed side door opened.

Alert: Shed main door opened.

I was in disbelief when my old truck drove out of the shed, with Sawyer behind the wheel. I paused the video and zoomed in to see her face. Her eyes were wild, dilated. Her hair was a mess, but her mouth was in a set and determined line. Her face, hands, and arms were caked in blood.

Blood? What the fuck? How had that happened? Alarm spread through me.

No one did that to her. No one found her.

I tried her number, but it went to voicemail.

Where the fuck was she going?

“Do you need to be somewhere else, Worthing?” Walden asked sarcastically. A hard smirk on his face.

I glanced at him, seeing he’d raised an eyebrow toward me. He added, his voice cutting, “Am I keeping you from something else? Someone else?” His other eyebrow rose, taunting. “Maybe a Miss Sawyer Matsen, by any chance?”

I cursed, shoving my phone in my pocket. “I don’t have time for your jabs. I’m here because I found out who put the hit out on me, and he’s going to be a problem for you as well.”

The humor faded from Ashton’s face. He got serious. Dark shadows crossed over his face. “Keep going. Don’t stop at the best part.”

“Creighton Lane.”

I knew Ashton and knew when he opened his mouth, he had a sharp retort on the tip of his tongue, but the name I’d just said stopped him in his tracks. He closed his mouth and took a step back before raising an eyebrow once again to me. “Why the fuck are you saying Creighton Lane is going to be an issue for all of us?”

My phone kept fucking buzzing and I knew it was all my territory alerts notifying me of Sawyer’s whereabouts. I had a tracker on the truck, but I just didn’t know her intended target. I didn’t have time to waste here, and said quickly, succinctly, as I began heading back to my vehicle, “Turns out he’s the fucking devil, and that my family’s a bunch of scared shitheads.”

“Is that supposed to make sense to me?”

I got to my truck, opened the door, and looked in Ashton’s direction. “He found out he’s related to us. Now he wants to take over, and apparently putting a hit out on the current head is his first step.”

Ashton’s eyebrows lowered as he went very still, an ominous wave starting to rise from him.noveldrama

I didn’t know what kind of relationship I had with Ashton Walden.

I’d done a lot of shitty things in life—being on Ashton’s payroll as a detective in the organized crime unit hit pretty high on that list—but there’d been reasons. Ashton was aware that I walked the line. I had still been a cop but, knowing if the Walden and West family businesses fell, they’d be replaced with worse families, I gave them information at times to keep them where they were. I’d gotten a glimpse of who wanted to take over from them and I chose the devil I knew. Trace and Ashton weren’t bad men. They just did bad things, and somewhere down the road, Ashton and I became friends. Reluctantly.

I respected him, liked him, but loathed him at the same time.

I also never wanted to see him or talk to him again, but this was the second reach-out we’d had about my current problem. He’d reached out first. I reached out now.

I also couldn’t deny those two had happened for a reason, but when it came to his best friend, I hated Trace West. There was a personal history that I would never get over. Ashton was also aware of this, hence why he showed up without his self-indignant asshole of a best friend and business partner.

“Jake,” Ashton clipped out. He took a step toward me but stopped. His hands were in fists, pressed at his sides. His jaw clenched. “What are you planning? Lane’s a different sort of beast.”

I shook my head, a whole new feeling of exhaustion hitting me at the moment. “I don’t have one fucking idea. I can’t operate with this contract on my head so I’ll have to get him to take it down, somehow.”

Ashton’s eyes were shrewd and I knew I had only three options. I’d either give Lane what he wanted from the family, kill him, or let the contract be fulfilled. He said, “Lane took control of Cincinnati through a cultlike worship of followers. He went after the gang leaders, corrupt politicians, and law enforcement, and rival organized crime organizations, then gave their money to people on the streets. He is protected by a million followers. You won’t be able to bribe your way to him.”

Fuck. I knew Creighton Lane was different, but hearing this—fuck. I raked a hand over my face. “I’m going to have to try, or I don’t know what I’m going to do. He’s decided he wants my family. He made his demands known to them a while ago.”

Ashton’s jaw clenched again. “Don’t choose the same door your cousin Nicolai chose. Don’t open that door.”

I knew. I fucking knew I couldn’t. “Don’t worry, but if you know of a way to get to Lane, I’d appreciate it. Until then, I need to go and track down the current pain in my ass.”

“I know of a way you can get his attention.”

Ashton had stepped to the door, stopping it before I could close it. A starkness on his face had me pausing, questioning for a slight second if I wanted to know his idea. He didn’t seem keen on it himself.

I said lightly, “Why does it look like this idea of yours is probably a suicide mission?”

His eyes flared, but his hand fell away from the door. He moved back, shutting down. “Because it probably is, but it’s Lane’s only weakness that I’m aware of.”

My gut flared, not liking this, wherever it was going, but I couldn’t afford not to hear it. “What’s his weakness?”

“A girl. He’s obsessed with her, but she’s not in the life. You want to get his attention, take the girl. I’ll send you the information I have on her.” He shut the door for me and headed to his own car.

I took off, not happy with how that conversation had gone, but resigned at the same time.

A bitter and harsh laugh rippled up my chest at the thought of how far I’d fallen in this world. My new career as a criminal was already budding.

Now I had to kidnap a different woman.