fiery eyes and get yanked back to face him. His mouth is twisted violently, his scar deep and glowing. “I didn’t make love to a woman for the first fucking time in my life for her to end this.” He virtually pushes my face away. “But at least I know where I stand.” He gets up, his look pure filth, and he keeps it on me for a long, painful time.
“We need you downstairs,” Brad says, edging out of the room.
“On my way.” Danny grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet, giving me a quick once-over before pulling me toward the door. I stagger along mindlessly, my head ready to burst, my mind in tatters. The chaos extends into the main house, men running everywhere in a panic. We meet Esther at the bottom of the stairs, and I’m handed over to her like a piece of discarded trash. “She’s covered in cuts. See to it.” Danny disappears out the door, and I look down my front. I’m filthy, dirt and soot smearing me. My hand rests on my stomach over Danny’s shredded shirt, and Esther moves in quickly, opening one of the buttons to reveal a mess of scrapes and raw grazes. It doesn’t hurt. Nothing hurts.
Except my heart.
Chapter 19
DANNY
* * *
Fucking carnage. As I stand amid the rubble, slowly circling on the spot, I question for the first time in my existence what my purpose is. We’ve lost one man. Freddie. He was on the gate when it was hit. My personal suite has been ripped apart, and the police are swarming my property.
I dip and shift a lump of brick, reaching past it and pulling at a piece of material that’s buried. The silver dress I bought Rose. An image of her face flashes through my mind, a face that screamed defeat as she hung from my hand off the edge of the terrace. Moments before that, she was gazing adoringly at me as I swirled my tongue through the slickness of her addictive pussy. Something shifted between us during the night, and it’s shifted right back. I was distracted. While I was lost in her, my men were dying and my house was being destroyed. I nearly lost her too.
Brad let’s out a sigh, crouching down beside me, looking around to make sure we’re out of earshot. “Len checked in earlier. I was on my way to tell you, but the bomb . . . ” He picks up a piece of wood and looks it over before casting it aside on another sigh. “Adams is taking calls from a burner phone. Untraceable. His bank accounts are bone dry. All of them.”
“We didn’t tell Adams we were going to the hospital,” I say out of the blue, gazing around at the carnage. I can feel Brad’s questioning eyes on me, so I go on. “Whoever was at the hospital wasn’t there to shoot me. They were shooting at the kid because he’s in their way too. So whoever Adams has breathing down his neck wants my marina, and, like me, they want Adams in power. They want Miami.” It’s like the explosion didn’t only light up the sky, it also lit up my mind. “They know I won’t release Adams. They probably haven’t got thirty-five million to pay me off, plus whatever more cash they need to continue bankrolling Adams, so the only way for them is to see me dead. It’s easy. Cheap. The question is, who and what are they planning on getting into the country through my boatyard?”
“Easy? To kill you?” Brad almost laughs. “You’re still standing, Danny. Just.”
I hear him. He’s telling me, in an indirect kind of way, that I need my wits about me. I always need my wits about me. Pops was right. Women are nothing but a distraction. “Get Adams here. It’s time for some torture tactics.”
“With fucking pleasure.” He’s off, heading back to the house. Keen, eager.
I’ve put Brad through a hell of a lot of shit in his life. And in this last month, more than he’s used to. But he’s still fucking angry that I thought it was a good plan to kill the kid. He’s still enraged that I put myself at risk like that. So, yeah, he’s pissed. And this task will be a release of pressure for him. Have at it.
“When you do shit, Danny, you do it in style.”
I look up and find Spittle kicking remnants of my terrace