Vicious Revenge (Vicious City Book 4) Read online

  The look on his face when he sees Blaze curled up with me on the couch is priceless. If the occasion weren’t so sombre, I’d find it amusing.

  “What the hell is going on?” His voice is tense and terse.

  Blaze stiffens.

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing? Since when do you come here and snuggle with him of all people?”

  Slick is pissed. He’s trying to hide it behind that facade of his, but I can see his anger, and so can Blaze. It’s the last thing she needs right now. Usually I wouldn’t get involved in other people’s domestic disputes, but apparently I am already involved. For better or worse, their marriage is inextricably linked to the world I inhabit.

  “Slick. Come here. Now.”

  I get up and I grab him by his shirt. He’s too tall to really drag, but he lets me pull him into my office, the empty space I used to work in before Kitty came and I had to hide all my secrets away.

  “Why is she here?” He growls the question.

  “Because she needed to talk to someone.”

  “You’ve lost your girl, so you want to take mine, is that it?”

  This isn’t like him. He’s not one of these guys who flies off the handle because his girl talks to someone else. Things must be bad between him and Blaze. I’m not surprised, with the magnitude of the secret she’s hiding.

  “If I wanted to fuck Blaze, I could have the first time I met her,” I say. Not the most diplomatic comment, but it’s true. When we first met, she wanted me, but I only had eyes for Kitty and nothing about that has changed.

  “Making up for lost time?”

  “Don’t be bloody stupid.” I snap back at him. “You need to talk to your wife. I need to go find my girlfriend.”

  “Why is she here?”

  “She’s in trouble, Slick. The kind of trouble only you are going to be able to help her with.”

  “What is it? What did she tell you? Please. I know something is going on.”

  He’s gone from furious to pathetic in a matter of seconds, staring at me with those big blue eyes of his as if begging has ever worked on me.

  “Ordinarily, I’d tell you, but trust me, this is something you’re going to want to hear from your wife. One word of advice. Try to put that blue sky, white picket fence ideal you’ve got in your head behind you. Life’s messy.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means talk to your bloody wife.”

  Slick grabs me, and not by the arm. He takes both his fists, grabs my shirt and pushes me up against the wall. We’re back to angry, I guess.

  Last time we got physical was before the wedding. I didn’t think we’d get back to this place so easily. He must be desperate.

  “Tell me what I want to know, or I’ll have your partnership revoked and you’ll end up in a jail cell before the night is over. I am not damn well kidding, Arthur.”

  “This is a mistake, Slick. If you hear this from me, you will fuck up your marriage. Maybe forever.”

  “Blaze isn’t talking to me, and I’m not going one more damn day without knowing what’s going on. So you’re going to tell me.”

  “Get your hands off me. Before you lose them.”

  I’m calm. This isn’t really my problem. This is their business, and I have my own to attend to.

  Slick relents and lets me go. He’s not actually crazy, he’s just trying to get what he wants out of me. I can see the desperation in his eyes, but again, not my problem. I’m not a relationship councillor, I’m a criminal.

  “What if I tell you I know where Kitty is? Will you tell me then?”

  “If you bring her to me, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. Until then, lips sealed. Get your wife. I have to go.”

  5

  Kitty

  Three days I’ve been on the run. That’s three days longer than I thought I’d manage to stay away from Vicious. I still have to enact the vengeance part of my plan, but that is coming. He’s had some time to stew, to wonder what is coming next. Today’s the day he finds out. He wants to trap me in his web of lies, he’s gonna pay for it. Oh he is going to fucking pay.

  The hardest thing about this whole revenge plot is missing the man I’m trying to get revenge on. I love Vicious. But I can’t let my love stop me from making sure he understands exactly who I really am. I might be younger than him, I might have been completely stupid in many respects, almost getting myself killed by Russians and what not, but I’m not going to be a puppet forever. Hell no. He’s going to be truthful with me, or there’s going to be hell to pay.

  Now that Chad’s hooked me up with a device to fuck with the tracker inside me, I have a lot more freedom. I can put some of the cash I appropriated from Vicious to better use. That means I’ve gone from the crappy motel to a nice hotel. No more roughing it for me. And no more mercy for Vicious. Shit is about to get real.

  I’m sitting on the second floor balcony overlooking the hotel lobby with a knock off ‘Spooge Bob’ Walkie Talkie I picked up at the ninety nine cent store. I was going to try to get one of those cute in-ear pieces, but they were well out of budget at the time. The walkie talkies were two bucks, and they’ll do the job just fine.

  “You ready, Chad?” I whisper into Spooge’s gaping plastic mouth cavity.

  “Ready,” Chad crackles back.

  I dial my cheap burner phone. It only rings once before Vicious picks up.

  “Hello, Kitty.”

  How the hell does he know it’s me? This is a random number. I try not to be too freaked out. It’s probably a simple matter of deduction.

  “Hi honey, how are you doing?” I keep my tone casual and light.

  “Wonderful, darling,” he drawls down the line. I can hear the sinister steel in his voice. “Where are you?”

  Oh he’d like to know where I am. I can only imagine the shit he’s thinking he’d do to me if he found me.

  “If I tell you, will you be nice?”

  His chuckle is deep and dark. “I’m always nice, Kitty.”

  That’s not true. He’s never nice. Nice is not the reason I fell for him, and I know he doesn’t have anything nice in mind for me.

  “I’m at the Borgata. Why don’t you meet me at the bar and we’ll have a drink. Talk about old times.”

  “You went to Atlantic City?”

  “Sure, what better way to spend a weekend?”

  “Kitty, you better be there when I get there,” he growls down the line. “And you better have a damn good reason for everything you’ve been up to. I do not appreciate juvenile pranks. The glitter was not cute.”

  I cover my mouth with my hand and try not to snort with laughter in a way he can hear.

  “And you’re going to pay for that broken window.”

  “Mhm. Well I mean, I guess that’s fair.”

  “It’s more than fair. What happened to the chip? We can’t track you.”

  “I’ve been at a tinfoil convention. Maybe that messed with it?”

  “Kitty,” his voice is deep and resonant, and I feel the lower part of me quiver with anticipation. “You better be there when I get there. If you make me chase you, it’s going to be even worse.”

  “Don’t threaten me, Arthur.” There’s more than a little snappiness in my voice. “I don’t have to tell you where I am. I don’t have to come back. Don’t look a gift kitty in the mouth.”

  There’s a pause. I know his hands are probably flexing. He’s trying not to scare me off, and I’m enjoying this, making him pretend to be less intimidating than he really is. This is just the smallest bit of power and god it feels so fucking good.

  “You’re going to be nice to me, right. You’re going to bring me candy, right?”

  “Kitty…” he practically snarls my name.

  “Make it a nice big box. See you soon.”

  I hang up and burst into giggles. My palms are sweating and my hands are shaking with adrenaline and excitement. Oh my god. Hearing his voice is like taking a hit of something pote
nt.

  It’s going to be a little while before he gets here. If he’s still in NYC, there’s at least two hours if he drives. I don’t think he’s going to drive, though. I think he’s going to charter a plane or helicopter and be here in a matter of minutes. Twenty to thirty at the most. Enough time for me to double check the plan, make sure everything is in order.

  “We good, Chad?” I click the transmission button on Spooge’s butt.

  “You should get out of here. Just in case he sees you.”

  “I want him to see me. That’s the whole point. I want to wave from the balcony as it goes down.”

  Chad groans. “You haven’t changed. I think you’ve actually gotten worse. You know this is a dangerous guy, right? He has a body count. A big one.”

  “I know.”

  Chad has no idea just how close I got with Vicious. I’ve left out some of the personal component of my relationship with him, mostly because I don’t want to explain how I was taken and then seduced by a man like him, how I’ve been his sex toy, his lover, his tool for use. I’m trying to show what a strong, independent, kick ass woman I am. I’d be utterly humiliated if Chad knew my real reasons for doing this.

  I’ve had enough time to get some food and return to my little look out point when the walkie talkie crackles into life.

  “Kitty. He’s here. That was fucking quick…”

  It was quicker than it should have been, but I’m not surprised. Vicious has ways of making the world bend around him when he needs to. I crouch down and watch between the railings as Vicious strolls into the building, my heart leaping a little at seeing him again. There’s a part of me which wants to run down and hug him, but I stay hidden. I can’t lose my nerve, and I can’t let my feelings get in the way of teaching him a lesson.

  He is so damn handsome as he strolls in, moving with a leonine purpose which sets him apart from all the others. People wander in and out of the lobby constantly, but none of them have his presence. Among tourists, travelers, and business men, he is a predator. One who is about to be prey.

  “STOP! POLICE!”

  Vicious doesn’t stop at first. He doesn’t realize that he’s the one they’re looking for, but he works it out pretty damn quickly when he is tackled by two officers and taken to the ground. Oh goddamn. This is even better than I thought it would be. The look on his face as they pull him up in cuffs is fucking priceless.

  They think they are apprehending a drug lord. He’ll try to argue his way out of it, but they won’t listen. There’s a warrant for his arrest that will see him in a cell until tomorrow at the earliest.

  Getting up my courage, I stand up and lean over the railing. I don’t actually expect him to notice me up here. I’m one person in a crowd of many, and I’m at the very periphery of his vision - but he does.

  He looks right up at the second floor where I’m leaning over the railing and we make eye contact. His gaze sears into me and makes my stomach do somersaults. There’s going to be hell to pay when he tracks me down, but right now, his ass is being dragged to jail. Tomorrow he’ll be released, angrier than ever. And that’s when the fun’s really going to start.

  Round one goes to me. Round two is going to bring him to his fucking knees.

  Vicious

  That brat. That little… I press my lips together and try not to strain against the handcuffs, which are done up way too tight. She was smart enough to get me arrested outside New York. There’s a whole different set of law enforcement in New Jersey, men and women I don’t have as many deals with.

  The first thing I did to Kitty once I had her in my grasp, or at least, the first big lie I made her believe, was that she was going to prison. I don’t think it is any coincidence that I now find myself under arrest.

  If she’s doing tit for tat, eye for an eye, then I can expect a man with a hacksaw to cut into my brain any minute now - but I doubt this is going to be that predictable. She’ll no doubt throw in her own twists and turns on the theme. That little brat.

  The truth is, I’m enjoying this. That’s the part I can’t let her know. This is the most entertaining thing that’s happened in years. A true battle of wills without any real hostility. She just wants to get her own back. A part of me wants to let her have her fun, but I know that would spoil it.

  When I catch her she’s going to pay for this in the most decadent and delicious of ways. I’m going to strip her down and I’m going to make her scream. There’s not going to be a part of her body that I don’t make irreparably mine. While I wait for my lawyer to sort this mess out, I lean back against the cell wall and I close my eyes, planning her defilement.

  6

  Kitty

  “Are you sure you want to do this? I mean the first part, okay, he can get out of that. This second part could kill him. I don’t want a manslaughter charge. People like me don’t do well in prison.”

  Chad sounds nervous. He’s not usually involved in things like this. I know it’s not really his cup of tea. I know he probably wishes he’d never taken my call. But we’ve come this far, and we’re going to go all the way, dammit. I want this to be a day Vicious remembers. I can’t do that by playing things safe.

  “Nothing can kill Vicious.”

  “A crossbow could. Or arsenic. Or…”

  “Okay, the normal things can. But I mean, he’s not going to let himself be killed. He’s going to want to catch me. And this isn’t that dangerous.”

  “It’s pretty dangerous.”

  I’m hesitating now. I want Vicious to be scared, but I don’t want him to be hurt. I want him to think that something bad could happen to him, just like I thought something bad could happen to me. With Vicious, that can’t be something small. That has to be something big.

  “He’s just been bailed out of jail,” Chad says. “If you want this done, it has to happen now.”

  “Do it.”

  Vicious

  It has been a very long time since I spent a night behind bars, but I’m not dwelling on that right now. Kitty is somewhere close. I can feel her. She’s keeping tabs on this. She has to be, and that’s how I’m going to catch her.

  My car is waiting for me in the police impound lot. Somehow she managed to get them to seize it as evidence. I’ve been forced to spend the last hour filling out paperwork and trying to prove that the damn thing is mine, which is difficult when my papers are in the aforementioned vehicle. When I finally get the keys back as well as my wallet and phone, I make a call.

  “Yeah?” Slick answers the phone curtly.

  “We need to get Kitty and we need to get her now. She’s doing some very silly things.”

  “I’m a little busy with my own problems. I think I know what’s going on with Blaze.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “I think she’s pregnant.”

  I stay silent.

  “Are you quiet because she told you that she’s pregnant? Or do you just not give a fuck?”

  “Slick…”

  “Goddamnit, Arthur. You should have fucking told me.

  “Your wife will still be secretly pregnant in a day or two,” I reply. “If this keeps up, I don’t know how much longer Kitty is going to survive.”

  BOOM!

  I am about twenty feet from my car when it explodes. It’s not a violent explosion like in the movies. It doesn’t send a shockwave and plume of flame clear across the lot or throw me off my feet or anything so dramatic. But it’s more than enough to destroy the engine and set the interior on fire.

  “You have to be fucking kidding me,” I curse.

  “What happened?”

  “She just blew my car up.”

  “Oh.” He reacts as if I told him I stubbed my toe.

  “You’re a federal agent,” I remind Slick. “You’re supposed to care about this sort of thing.”

  “I’m going on leave,” he says. “I need to save my marriage. Sorry, Arthur, you’ll have to sort this out on your own.”

  He hangs up, leaving me standing in
the police impound lot where sirens are now blaring. Blowing my car up is one thing. Doing it in a police impound lot is a whole other level of fuckery. There are already officers surrounding me and one thing is for sure - I’m not getting out of here any time soon.

  Kitty

  My phone rings. I have to reach out of the bubble bath filled tub I’m in to answer it.

  “Hello?”

  “Car detonated. Target secured. No casualties incurred,” Chad says.

  “How does he look?”

  “Er. Pretty fucking pissed off.”

  “Good.”

  I’m just getting started. The next few days are going to be some of the most frustrating in Vicious’ entire life. I’m turning up the heat now. I know he doesn’t care about the car. He changes cars like he changes his clothes. He will care about the fact that I’m on the offensive. I have to stay out of his reach though. If he gets his hands on me, it’s all over.

  When he gets his hands on you, my mind says. I know how this ends. I’m not going to actually win this. I’m either going to lose badly, or not so badly, and I’m going to have the best time possible until then.

  “You want to get a drink, Chad?”

  “I think I need to vacate this area. I’m picking up a lot of surveillance. And, Kitty? Don’t call me again. I’m out of this now. This is going to get someone killed.”

  I’m disappointed, but I can’t say I don’t understand. This is getting dangerous for everyone, and maybe I’m pushing things a little too far, but anyone who was ever abducted from a hair salon and ended up tied to a stretcher with their brain about to be drilled into can probably relate.

  “Thanks for your help, buddy. I’ll send you your bonus when I get clear. Be good.”

  “Stay safe, Kitty.”

  7

  Slick

  “We need to talk.”

  Blaze looks up from her magazine. “I thought that was my line.”

  I don’t know how to begin to address the situation, so I do what I’m trained to do. I produce the evidence. I take the pregnancy test I found when I was clearing out the trash, and I put it on the table in front of her.