Neil (The Uncompromising Series Book 2) (33 page)

“André needs you at the office right now. Both of you.” Tyler’s expression was apologetic but unwavering as he glanced at Conner.

I wasn’t falling for this bullshit. “I don’t know what Viking put you up to, but I want no part of it.” I started to close the door and he put his boot in the way.

Tyler frowned. “This isn’t about Christensen. You need to come with me.”

“Why?” I challenged.

“André will tell you.”

For all I knew, this was a ruse, or worse, Candle was behind it. “Not happening. Move your foot.”

Tyler whipped out his cell, dialed and held the phone out. A second later, André’s voice came through the speaker. “Luna.”

“Boss, you’re on speaker with Ariel. She’s reluctant to come.”

“
Chica
, you’re going to want to hear what Tanner has to say.”

Damn it, damn it,
damn it
. I undid the chain and snatched the phone from Tyler. Taking it off speaker, I held it to my ear. “No, I don’t. We talked about this. I’m not getting involved.”

“You’re already involved. Do yourself a favor and get down here.” He hung up.

I handed the phone back to Tyler but all I really wanted to do was throw it.

He raised an eyebrow. “We good?”

“I’m not putting my son in danger.”

Tyler placed his hand over his heart. “I promise nothing will happen to him on my watch.”

He couldn’t promise me shit, but I didn’t argue. Wanting this over with, I grabbed my wallet, cell and the diaper bag. “I’ll follow you over.”

Tyler took the bag from me. “I’ve got Luna’s Escalade. The car seat is still in it.”

I sucked in a breath to try and calm the fuck down then I squeezed Conner tighter to my side. “Come on, baby boy, we’re going for a ride.”

Tyler smiled at Conner. “You want to ride in a big truck?”

Conner tucked his head to my shoulder and mashed his blanket to his face. I couldn’t blame him. I followed Tyler to the Escalade and buckled Conner in. It wasn’t until I got in the passenger seat that it really hit me where we were going. I hadn’t been back to Luna and Associates since I’d been taken. The anxiety that’d been crawling around in my head all day ratcheted to a new level and I was bouncing my knee and twisting my hands by the time Tyler pulled up to a new security gate for the underground parking.

I glanced over my shoulder and a warm hand landed on my arm.

“Ariel.” Tyler squeezed, but instead of it being reassuring, his touch made my skin crawl. “We’re safe. There’s a new gate, more cameras and we now have a full-time guard posted in the garage.”

I jerked my arm away. I didn’t want him touching me. I didn’t want anyone touching me except Viking and I hated that I was even thinking about that. “I’m good. I just haven’t been here since… it happened.”

Tyler pulled past the new solid metal gate and parked. “I get it.” He let out a short laugh and shook his head. “This garage doesn’t hold my favorite memories either.” He glanced at his arm and scowled. “And your boss isn’t letting me get even.”

“He’s your boss too.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Steeling myself for the garage, for Jason, for whatever fucked-up bullshit that was about to be unleashed, I pulled Conner out of his seat and held him close. Following Tyler to the elevator, glancing around for bloodstained concrete and bullet holes that weren’t there, I thought I would see evidence of what had happened here a mere week ago but there was nothing. A guard hut had been installed and one of the men from upstairs waved at us as Tyler pushed the elevator call button.

I waited for the fear to rear up and hit me but it didn’t. Instead, a slow simmering anger took hold and everything that Jason had put me through became a shitstorm of too many years’ worth of repression. By the time I followed Tyler into a conference room, I was ready to explode.

Until I laid eyes on Jason.

One eye swollen shut, lip split, jaw discolored, nose taped, most of his face and arms black and blue, he was beat to hell.

And he wasn’t alone.

“Elle.” His voice scratched, straining through the single word. He tried to push himself more upright in his chair and grunted.

I turned to Viking as he quietly stood three feet away with his legs apart and his hands clasped in front of him like he was in a military ready position. “Did you do this?” I seethed.

His face a mask, Viking didn’t even blink.

I spun on André, who was on the opposite side of Jason. “He needs a hospital.”

“No hospital.” Jason lisped through the
s
like teeth were missing. “I’m okay.”

“Daddy,” Conner whispered.

Enraged that André had made me bring Conner, horrified with myself that I hadn’t shielded my son the second I saw Jason, I quickly covered Conner’s face with my hand and backed toward the door. “We’re leaving.”

“Daddy’s fine, little man. I just fell is all. Elle, please, let him come to me.” One arm tucked in his lap, Jason held his other arm out. “Come give Daddy a hug then you can go get a soda, okay?”

Jason had done it to me again and right then and there, I knew I was over him. I didn’t care if he was hurt. I didn’t care if he was in pain. He’d fucked me and Conner and I was so over him, I wanted to finish him off but in true Jason form, he’d put me in a bind. Not only were there witnesses to my fucking mess of a life, I was put in the position to be the bad parent. If I didn’t let Conner see Jason, I’d upset him. But if I let Conner go to him, seeing Jason up close could scare him worse. I only had one choice. “Come on, Conner. Mama will get you a soda.” I was getting the hell out of there and André could fucking deal.

Tyler stepped up. “How about you come with me? I think I might know where there’s a cookie.” He grinned and held his good hand out. “What do you say?”

I glanced at Tyler’s bandaged arm and it didn’t escape me that everyone in this room was suffering because of Jason. Conner looked up at me and I had a choice. One last opportunity to let Jason have it or be the bigger person and simply walk away.

I wasn’t the bigger person.

I forced a smile. “You can go with Tyler but only one cookie before dinner.”

Conner looked at Viking like he needed reassurance and I held my motherfucking smile until it hurt.

Viking quietly spoke in Danish then inclined his head at Tyler and Conner let me put him down. The second Tyler walked out of the room with Conner, I dropped the charade.

“This is bullshit.” I looked from Viking to Jason to André. “Fuck all of you for telling me to bring Conner.”

“Elle—”

“Don’t you fucking
Elle
me. I don’t give a shit if you’re dying. Conner didn’t need to see this!”

“
Chica
.”

I spun on André. “And you!” I pointed. “You
know
better!”

“They took Marissa, Elle,” Jason rasped. “I didn’t have a choice.”

Momentarily thrown, I stared at Jason. “Who took her?”

“The president of the LCs. He took her two weeks ago. He said I’d never see her again unless I stole the guns from Candle. He told me where they were gonna be and everything. Come on, you know I wouldn’t be stupid enough to cross Candle.” He wheezed through a few breaths. “I didn’t have a choice. The president had it out for Candle and put me in the middle. I had to do it. He was going to kill Marissa if I didn’t.”

Rage like I’d never felt before in my life threatened to consume me and I was moving forward. “And you thought taking my car and
my son
to pick up three crates of guns was a good idea? So you could save the bitch you
cheated on me with
?” My arm swung out of its own accord and would’ve made solid contact with what was left of Jason’s face if a strong, calloused hand hadn’t shot out and caught my wrist.

“Ariella.” My name whispered across Viking’s lips like a caress.

All of my rage switched targets. “Take your cheating, piece-of-shit hand
off
me and go back to your wife, you fucking asshole!”

His grip moved to my arm so quick, I was driven out of the room before I could register André’s “
Dios mios
.”

Viking propelled me past half a dozen of André’s men, who all suddenly looked too busy to pay us any attention, and into an office in the far corner of the suite. Slamming the door behind him and dropping the blinds like a crazed person, he ushered me to the far wall only to release his grip so he could slam his hands on either side of my head.

“I am
not
married.”

“You liar!” I yelled, not giving a damn who heard me.

His face twisted up, his veins popped, his neck went red and Viking roared, “
I killed her husband
.”

I blinked. Then I blinked again.

Viking’s nostrils flared as he sucked in a breath. Then he lowered his voice and started explaining. “The Taliban were collecting and killing her family because her husband helped us track them. They had three children of their own and two dozen more they’d taken in whose parents had been murdered. When they discovered Jannat’s husband had leaked the location of one of their hideouts, they started killing the children. By the time I got there, it was too late to save them all. Her husband had been captured and was being led off while Jannat and the rest of the children were held at gunpoint and looked on. I had a split second to choose who to save. I chose the children but Jannat begged me to end her husband’s life. The Taliban would have tortured him. A sniper shot was more humane.” He pushed off the wall. “I took the shot.”

Jesus Christ. “And the children?”

He turned his back on me. “Most of them made it.”

“Then you brought her to the States?”

“No. She and her children moved to a different province. They were left alone until two years ago, then I had to relocate her to the States to keep her safe.” He faced me again and this time, he didn’t hide behind an expressionless mask. “The quickest way was to marry her.”

My heart sank but I didn’t let it show because I didn’t want to be that selfish.

“She was never mine.” He stared at me as if he could see into my heart. “I was never hers.”

“You told me you weren’t married.”

“The divorce papers were already filed.”

“But she called you her husband.”

“She is wary of strangers.”

My head was spinning. “She lives in your house.”

“No, she and her children have their own house on the back of the property, but this isn’t the time to discuss it.”

“You’re right.” I moved toward the door but his hand on my shoulder stopped me.

“Tanner is asking us to not turn him over to the authorities.”

Heat bled through my shirt from his single touch and I wanted to lean into him just to feel his arms around me but Viking wasn’t a comforter and I wasn’t going to be weak. “Not my problem.”

“He wanted to see his son one last time.”

I looked over my shoulder at a man who was leaps and bounds more complicated than I ever imagined. “Last time?”

“He has the woman back. He wants to leave.”

I hadn’t seen children gunned down in front of me. I didn’t lose my family to terrorists. I wasn’t on the run for my life, so I shouldn’t have felt sorry for myself,
for anything
. But right in that moment, I couldn’t swallow the bitter pill of rejection. Jason cheating on me, Viking telling me not to get attached, where did I go so wrong? The only right in my life was my son and I wanted him back in my arms. “I’m going to get Conner. I don’t care what happens. The second Jason picked up those guns with my son in the car, he was dead to me.” My hand landed on the door handle.

“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”

“I’m not afraid of Jason.” Not anymore.

“I was not referring to the boy’s father.”

My back stiffened, my eyes closed and I sucked in a breath. “I’m leaving.”

His body heat warmed my back a second before his breath touched my ear. “I will not chase you, Ariella.”

“You told me to not get attached.”
No attachments
. It’d become my mantra.

“I was still married.”

“You still fucked me.”

“I have no regrets.”

“I do.” I wish I never knew what it felt like to have him inside of me.

“Turn.”

“I’m not yours to command.”

“That is a decision you made. Turn.”

Stupidly, pathetically, I spun to face him. But this time, when I looked up into his clear gray-blue eyes, I didn’t see the coldness in his expression or the emotional detachment of a man so entrenched in valor that he was nothing else. I saw a man who’d lived with circumstances for so long that he didn’t know what choice was anymore. But I did. And I’d sworn to myself that the next time I gave my heart away, it was going to be to someone who loved me. Viking didn’t love, he calculated and maneuvered then he dominated. And I wasn’t sure he took joy from any of it. “You can’t give me what I want.”

“I can give you everything.”

“Except your heart.” This time, I walked out on him.

T
YLER DROVE ME AND
C
ONNER
home.

He was silent until he turned onto my street. “You know Christensen is sort of a legend. And the fact that you…” Tyler glanced at me. “Well, no one’s ever seen him with a woman.”