Rise of the Notorious (42 page)

Wyatt watched as she backed away from him, as Linc slid his arm around her protectively.

An old familiar pain slipped in to mix with the fury he felt.

“Would you have believed me, Madison, if you hadn’t known for yourself that Raoul was involved?” he asked frostily. “In any event, I held my cards to my chest because I knew it wasn’t the right time to lay them down. Now it is.”

“Now that you’ve taken a bullet,” Madison spat, furious tears in her eyes.

“A bullet that was meant for you,” Wyatt corrected. “And yes, I suppose the shooting opened my eyes to the seriousness of the situation. You can stand up to many things, sweetheart, but a bullet isn’t one of them.”

Grant’s face tightened with concern as he looked at Wyatt. “Shaw confirmed that his opponent, Jack Morgan, is responsible for cutting the brakes on my car. Could Duke be working with him?”

Wyatt’s eyes narrowed at this information, but he shook his head. “I doubt it. In my opinion, you’ve got threats coming in from all sides. That’s the price you pay for being notorious.”

Madison straightened, shaking the initial shock and resentment from her system. She didn’t have the time for it now. She had to act.

“Call the detective again, Grant. Have them arrest Duke,” she ordered. “Raoul’s involvement in this does not leave this room. Do not mention his name to the police until I have had a chance to speak to him.”

She swept up to Wyatt, let out a restless huff of breath, then reached up to grab his shirt and pull his face down to hers for a hard and fast kiss. When he stared at her with a confused expression, she tried on an edgy smile. “When I get back, we’re going to settle this once and for all.”

“Where are you going?” He wanted to hold her back, to keep her safe, but knew better than to try.

She lifted her chin defiantly. “To find my chef.”

They lounged on
one of the long sofas in
Amoureux,
sipping whiskey and talking bullshit. It was one of Cy’s favorite pastimes, but lately he’d gotten less and less enthusiastic about it.

Especially since the only person who would give him the time of day was Duke, and he was pretty sure his cousin had lost his damn mind.

Which was exactly why he had booked a flight out to Los Angeles the following morning. He was done putting up with Duke’s coded statements and blatant arrogance, especially since the shooting. Things had really gotten strange after that…

“Knicks game on tonight,” Cy muttered conversationally, swirling the whiskey in his glass and watching it catch the light. The game was on one of the flat screen televisions across the room, the sound muffled by the infectious pop music that reminded him nostalgically of Los Angeles.

Beside him, Duke scoffed. “I’ll never understand your fascination with sports.”

“And I’ll never understand your fascination with Madison,” Cy shot back.

Duke let out a dark laugh, sipping at his drink and eyeing a leggy blonde that walked past. “I don’t see how you can’t, my friend. She’s as much a thorn in your side as she is in mine.”

“Except that I only want to pluck out the thorn. You want to pluck out the thorn, smash it into little pieces, then burn it to ash.”

Duke smiled, amused by the analogy despite the circumstances. “We all have our methods.”

Disturbed by the look in his cousin’s eyes, Cy turned away and downed the last of his whiskey. He started to stand up, deciding he’d had enough conversation for the time being. “I gotta go take a leak.”

He was about to leave when he spotted a couple of cops enter the bar and scan the crowd, searching for someone. A lump formed hot in his throat as he stared immediately down at Duke.

Duke rose to his feet as Detective Crawford and another cop saw him and approached.

“Duke Vasser?” Tina asked, flashing her badge at him.

“That’s right.” Duke sipped at his drink casually, a sly grin on his face. “How can I help you?”

“We need to talk with you regarding your cousin’s kidnapping. It may be best if you come with us down to the station.”

Duke’s eyes narrowed, anger flashing in them. “Why don’t we start in the lobby. You can ask your questions there.”

“I should let you know that we learned you rented a storage locker down in the East Village. I have a squad car on its way right now to search the area. We can have a warrant within hours if we suspect the missing girl may be there.”

Duke nearly dropped the glass in his hand. “I rented that unit to store some of my belongings while I stay here in the city. You call off your men or I’m going to call my lawyer.”

“You probably should contact your lawyer, Mr. Vasser,” Tina said dispassionately. “But I will not call off that squad car.”

“You have no right!” Duke charged, looking like he was going to punch her in the face. She stepped back as he suddenly lunged at her, his glass shattering to the floor. Within seconds she had whipped out her handcuffs and her partner was restraining Duke’s arms.

“Duke Vasser, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…”

She spun him around to slip the cuffs on his wrists, and Duke started laughing.

“I don’t believe this.” He shook his head, grinning cynically at his cousin before turning his head to glare at the detective. “My fucking lawyer will have your badge, bitch.”

She only continued to read him his rights until she was interrupted by her cell phone. When she answered it, her face visibly softened with both relief and thrill. She hung up, then turned to Duke.

“My squad car picked up the girl three blocks from your storage unit, Mr. Vasser. She led them right back to your unit when asked where she was held.”

Duke paled and suddenly gnashed his teeth in panic. “I gave Raoul García a key. He must have taken her. Why would I kidnap my own cousin? Where the fuck is my phone? My lawyer is going to be so far up your ass…”

Tina said nothing as she read him his rights all over again and led him from the bar.

Cy watched them go, eyes wide. He blinked a few times, hoping what he had just witnessed had actually occurred and had not just been a side effect of the whiskey.

When he understood that Duke was really gone, he plopped back onto the sofa and laughed like a fool.

A
fter knocking on the door, she took a second to wonder if he would even open it for her. She figured that if he didn’t, then she would find the nearest hard and heavy object and batter down the door herself. It would certainly help relieve some of the tension.

She was saved the trouble as the door slid back and Raoul’s head appeared behind it.

Madison studied the dark shadows under his eyes, the messy waves of raven hair that fell over his ashen face, the harsh curl of his mouth. He looked like a man who’d been down to Hell and managed to claw his way back to the surface, only to fear being dragged under again.

She supposed that was exactly how he should feel, how she wanted him to feel, given the circumstances.

“Can I come in?” she asked, keeping her emotions tightly coiled up inside of her, knowing they spit and riled like deadly snakes, aching to strike. But the moment to attack was not now, not when she knew she owed him at least a moment to explain himself.

Raoul said nothing and backed away from the door, leaving it open. She followed him inside and shut it at her back.

His apartment was large and spacious, yet he had all the windows covered so that it felt like a cave. A few candles flickered on the coffee table, where a tall bottle of Spanish red wine stood, half empty. The glass beside it was also empty.

Some kind of heavy and violent instrumental music played in the background, and she saw him touch a panel on the wall to turn down the volume.

He rummaged around in his state-of-the-art stainless steel kitchen, looking for what she assumed was another wine glass.

Deciding she was going to have to speak first, she stepped up to him and placed her hand firmly on his arm.

“Darling, we both know you have a few things to confess.” She kept her voice level, distanced, even as the fire in her gut surged. She wanted an explanation, needed a reason, any reason, not to hate him.

Raoul cursed in Spanish under his breath, then turned to face her. He handed her a wine glass with a grunt, then motioned for her to follow him to his expansive, black leather sofa.

She took a seat beside him silently as he poured wine into her glass.

“My apprentice told you what she saw, no?” he grumbled, setting aside the bottle after pouring himself more wine as well. He kept his eyes averted from hers as he sipped.

Without speaking, Madison reached over and lifted up the sleeve of his right arm, exposing the scratches. She bit down on her tongue to keep from clawing at him herself.

“The police picked up Kennedy as I was on my way over here. She was found on the Lower East Side near a storage unit that was rented in my cousin’s name.”

Raoul chuckled darkly, then knocked back the rest of his wine and set aside the glass.

“She’ll have quite the story to tell,” he told her with a heavy sigh, somber now. “Poor girl stood no chance against the monster that lies in that man’s heart.”

“She told the police she managed to escape on her own, but somehow I find that unlikely.” Madison’s heart stumbled, torn between fury and gratitude. “Did you free her?”

Raoul shrugged even as his hands clenched into fists. “I should have known he would try and kill you, but I was certain I could make you back down. After he put a gun in your sister’s hand and ordered her to shoot you, I prayed to God for the strength to defy him. So I did.”

Madison winced, pain lashing out to stab her in the chest. “So it was Kennedy.”

“He did that on his own. I didn’t know of it,
cariño.
” Eyes oddly haunted and wet with tears, he angled his head to face her. “If I had, I would have killed him.”

For a few moments, she said nothing. She looked him directly in the eye and measured his statement against everything she knew of him. She saw her closest friend, one of the few she had in this world. Yet he had betrayed her, just like all the others. Loyalty was the one thing she required in any association.

“I believe that you didn’t want me dead, Raoul. However, I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that you drove my lover away and consequently helped Duke kidnap my sister.”

At the mention of Wyatt, fury flashed vividly over Raoul’s face. “So he told you the truth about Las Vegas.”

She nodded, letting the burning pain she felt show, unable to hold it back any longer. “You knew I loved him. Yet you framed him and took him from me. Why?”

When he said nothing, violent rage hit her like a slap across the face. “
Goddamnit, answer me!
”

Raoul’s nostrils flared with his own fiery anger. “Because he is a bad man. He has secrets you don’t know, a past he keeps from you. I needed to protect you from him.”

She actually started laughing. “With what you know of my past, darling, don’t you think I have more skeletons in my closet than he does?”

“Your past is noble,
cariño
. His is not.” Raoul reached for the wine again and this time took a swig straight from the bottle.