Breaking Her Bad by Michelle Mankin

 

 

 

 

 

Kyle

“Wake up!” a gruff voice barked.

“Huh?” Groggy, I lifted my head from the concrete floor, only to have it yanked up. My scalp on fire, my thoughts scrambled again as my skull got slammed into the floor.

“Hear me now?” the guy with the gruff bark asked, his silhouette looming over me.

“Yeah,” I quickly mumbled.

Squinting, I tried to bring my assailant into focus. The fluorescent lights in the small cell-like room were like needles in my eyes, but I recognized Gruff Guy as one of the assholes who had jumped me outside the shit hole.

“Boss wants to talk to you.”

“Okay, okay,” I muttered through my swollen lips.

Dizzy, I managed to make it to my feet, but leaned heavily against the wall. As my head pounded and the room spun, the contents of my stomach lurched into the back of my throat.

“Mad Dog, get in here.” Gruff Guy grabbed me by the front of my shirt, and my head lolled, my neck feeling as rubbery as my legs. “He’s too out of it to walk on his own.”

“Okay, man.” The other big asshole who had jumped me at the apartment appeared. “Got ’im.”

Mad Dog latched onto one of my arms, Gruff Guy the other. Together, they dragged me to the door. I knew nothing good awaited me where they were taking me, but I couldn’t say I wasn’t glad to leave behind the room that smelled like body odor and despair.

“Slow down,” I mumbled, trying to get my legs underneath me out in the hall.

Gruff Guy snarled at me. “We give the orders, Murphy.” His meaty fingers digging into my flesh, he walked faster.

“Yeah, accept your fate.” Mad Dog snickered. “Shouldn’t have pissed the big guy off.”

I didn’t accept the fate Martin had for me. Unlike the last time I’d gotten beaten up, this time I had Claire, our friends, a band, and a potential future. More than just my uncle to live for. More than just my uncle to protect.

But I shut up and glanced around, looking for something that might give me an advantage to help me escape, even though I knew it was a long shot.

We passed by several steel doors. Behind then, I knew, were rooms with drains and soundproof walls like the one I’d left behind. At the end of the hall, my assailants turned and dragged me into a waiting freight elevator. We rode it up in silence.

From the basement to the top floor, the trip wasn’t long, but it was excruciating. My ribs were probably broken, again, considering how each breath was difficult and burned like fire. My brain felt mushy, and my head pounded. My body hurt, probably bruised all over from punches and kicks. I throbbed nearly everywhere.

Well, everywhere except for the ice water that flowed through my veins when I noted the plastic tarp along our route. Sheeting of the same material was taped to the elevator walls. They were preparing for there to be a body. My body. They didn’t want traceable DNA on anything.

As the elevator door slid open, I pasted on a mask of indifference. My escorts dragged me into a small, unfurnished area guarded by two men carrying M4 carbines. Not batting an eye at my situation, they lifted their chins to my escorts.

“Boss is expecting you.” The bigger one went to a control panel on the wall. When he typed in a code, the door swung open.

I’d been up here before. I knew the entrance to Skellin’s posh penthouse was just on the other side.

This is it.

Determined, I got my feet underneath me. Walking on my own through the wide opening was something, but not a lot when two sadistic assholes had me. My heart raced as I anticipated what awaited me, but my thoughts crystalized. Facing my potential demise helped me see things clearly that once had been cloudy.

It wasn’t my old man’s biggest mistake that he hadn’t been aware of the danger Martin Skellin represented. It was that he never realized what he had. His family cared about him—my mom, Bob, and me. Together, we might have been strong enough to prevail, even against a guy like Martin, or at least who Martin was in those days.

Maybe my dad realized what he had just before the end. Maybe he’d had an epiphany too. After all, he’d gotten in the car with my mom and me, and we’d been headed somewhere. Had it been his intention to leave Southside, drugs, and his dealing days behind?

A disturbing thought followed, one that Claire had voiced, one that had always lurked in the back of my mind.

How could Martin have been right there, just in time to pull me out of the lake when our car was run off the road?

“Time to get Murphy ready to see the boss.” Surprisingly, Gruff Guy released his hold on me. “Hold ’im a minute, man.”

“Sure thing.” Mad Dog manacled my wrists in his big hands and yanked my arms behind me.

“Ow!” Pain shooting up my arms, I turned my head to the side, seeing Gruff Guy snap zip ties around my wrists. I tried to wiggle my hands free, but the sharp plastic only cut my skin.

“C’mon, Murphy.” Gruff Guy shoved me hard between the shoulder blades, and I staggered forward. While I regained my balance, he rapped once on the solid wood door.

Arturo opened it. Seeing me, he smiled coldly.

“How’s it going?” I asked, deciding to play it like I wasn’t afraid.

It was the wrong choice. Arturo grabbed my shoulder and sucker punched me, landing a wicked blow in my solar plexus. I doubled over, struggling to breathe, fire blazing in my midsection.

“Shut the fuck up.” Arturo kicked my leg with his steel-toed shoe.

Beneath the sinew and muscle, the titanium plate attached to my tibia vibrated. Red-hot pain racking me, I fell to my knees on the plastic tarp that covered Martin’s expensive Carrara marble floor.

“Asshole.” I glared up at Arturo.

Wearing a darkly gleeful expression, he rubbed the knuckles of his right hand. Anticipating another blow, I braced.

“Kyle Murphy.” Martin rose from the white leather sectional. Floor-to-ceiling windows with one-directional glass framed him and the blackness of the night. “You look like shit.”

He tossed back whatever beverage remained in a fancy crystal tumbler and set it on a side table. Tugging down the hem of his navy suit jacket, he slowly approached me.

“King of shit should look like shit.” I cracked the joke and attempted a shrug, but it ended up being a grimace. I was fucked up bad.

Martin’s coal-black eyes narrowed. “You’re not the king of anything, my boy.”

I didn’t dispute that. But I knew he was wrong, and so was I. I possessed a treasure greater than any king. I had Claire’s love, and a girl like Claire didn’t love shit.

“Aren’t you gonna ask why I brought you up here?” He tilted his head, staring down at me like I was a bug.

“Nope.” My gaze glittered defiantly. “Don’t care.”

I pushed to my feet. My battered body strengthened by my newfound knowledge, I only swayed slightly.

“You care about Claire Walsh, though, don’t you?” he asked.

I tried not to react to her name, but it was bullshit that didn’t get past him any better than my earlier lies about her had.

“Just like your father,” he spat, “falling all over yourself for Footit pussy.”

“Don’t talk about her like that!” I lunged at him, and he took a step back.

“Show respect, Murphy.” Arturo grabbed my arms.

I was so weak, he nearly lifted me off the floor. He shook me so hard, my teeth rattled together.

“Where is he?” Claire called out, sounding upset. “Where’s Kyle?”

That couldn’t be right. If I was hearing Claire’s voice, I was more messed up than I thought.

Narrowing my gaze, I followed the direction of her voice to a split-screen security monitor. Perched on a desk, it revealed various sections of the building.

My heart sank when I saw that Claire was in the guardhouse and that Gruff Guy and Mad Dog were with her. Claire was caught, trapped like I was.

The only plus? She wasn’t alone.

“Addy,” Martin whispered.

Surprised, I glanced at him. From just those two syllables and the expression on his face, I knew he was into her.

“Buzz her up, Arturo. Get all of them up here.”

“But, boss.” Arturo inclined his head. “What about Murphy? I thought—”

“Now, Arturo,” Martin said sharply. “I pay you to enforce my orders, not question them.”

“Okay, boss.” Arturo took off, leaving the door to the penthouse open.

Two guys with M4 carbines were just a room way. But as far as I knew, it was just Martin and me inside his pad. I’d never been alone with him like this before.

“You and Addy, huh?” I led with that. It seemed significant.

“She’s a hot piece.” His dark eyes gleamed like obsidian wrenched from the deepest bowels of the earth.

“She used to be my dad’s girlfriend.” My gaze narrowed. “Your interest in her come about before or after you knew that?”

“None of your business, boy.”

Okay, a dead end.Maybe I could unravel a loose one.

“Is it none of my business why you were at the scene of my parents’ accident just in time to rescue me?”

“I was driving by—”

“Driving by, or did you ram your car into ours?” I asked pointedly.

“What do you think you know?” Martin’s aura was menacing. Like a raptor about to swoop down on its prey, he took a step closer.

I forced myself to stay focused. This prey’s hands might be zip-tied behind his back, but with him closer, I started considering options.

“I know that the impact was on my mom’s side of the car, and that she didn’t survive it.”

“Miranda.” His skin blanching of color, Martin staggered back.

Pressing my advantage, I said, “The tumble down the embankment got my dad. Snapped his neck. It was awful.”

I curled my zip-tied hands into fists. I couldn’t recite the facts without seeing everything again, hearing the sounds, experiencing the terror.

“Your dad got what he deserved.” Martin gave me a cold look. “He double-crossed me.”

“But what about me?” I asked. “What about my mom?”

“I didn’t know you were both in the car.”

Fuck.Martin really was responsible for my parents’ deaths.

“You not knowing isn’t an excuse.” I stared at him, hatred dripping from my voice. “But it’s certainly something the cops handling the case would find interesting.”

“You’re in no position to threaten me.” Martin unbuttoned his jacket, revealing he had a gun inside a holster. His expression darkening, he advanced.

My gaze locked on his Glock, I calculated the distance between us. My goal that firearm, I took a step forward.

“Hold it right there, Murphy,” Arturo called out.

Striding through the penthouse, he dragged Claire by her upper arm. Gruff Guy had Addy in a similar hold. The guys with the automatic weapons herded everyone else.

I did a quick calculation. With Rachel, Missy, Tommy, and Barry, there were seven of us versus six of them. But four out of those six carried weapons, and with Claire in Arturo’s clutches and Addy in Gruff Guy’s, they had a well-thought-out strategy for controlling us.

Claire gasped. “Kyle!”

“Claire.” I breathed out her name as our gazes met and melded.

Time seemed to stop like the first time I saw her. Her eyes widened as she took me in, and I noted her loose damp hair. She wore a pink T-shirt, jeans, and her red boots. Thankfully, she appeared to be unharmed.

Her arrival put an end to my previous strategy. I couldn’t make a move without being certain of the consequences, not with her and those we both cared about in the room.

“Get your hands off her,” I snarled, hitting Arturo with the full force of my rage.

“Be quiet, Kyle Murphy,” Martin said. “Or Arturo will put his hands on your girl where you wouldn’t like them to be, and I’ll make you watch.”

“No one is laying a hand on my niece.” Addy yanked her arm free from Gruff Guy and marched to Martin, her head held high.

“My dear,” Martin drawled, his entire expression changing from menacing to creepy obsession like a thrown switch.

“Martin.” She stopped less than a foot away from him and narrowed her eyes.

He ran his gaze over her and licked his lips. “You look absolutely delectable. It’s been a long time.”

“Seventeen years.”

“That long?” One of his dark brows rose. “You don’t look any older.”

“Maybe not.” Addy’s greenish-blue gaze flashed to thunderous green like the sky before dangerous weather. “But I’m a shit-ton wiser than when you fucked up my life.”

“Are you really?” he asked. “I find that interesting.”

“Don’t care what you think,” she said through clenched teeth. “Not here to reminisce about the past, either.”

“Then why are you here after all this time, my dear?” Palms up, he spread apart his hands. “Speak. I’m all ears.”

“I’m here with my niece to collect Kyle.” She planted her hands on her hips. “And to warn you to stay the fuck out of his life and all our lives from now on.”

“Well, I’m very sorry, my dear.” Both his brows rose. “But you can’t have Kyle. He belongs to me. And as for the rest, you’re in no position to bargain with me.”

“I disagree.” Addy lifted her chin.

The room went silent, the tension thick.

Addy risked a lot coming here. They all did, and I got why. I got it because of Claire.

Claire changed everything.

She loved me. Believed in me. Thought I was worth the risk.

She was more than a key, more than a treasured memory to lock up inside a chest. She was the reason I couldn’t give up. The reason I had to fight. The reason I didn’t see the bars of my prison as unbreakable anymore.

“Be that as it may, you should be more cautious how you speak.” Martin glanced at me. “Kyle is in such a fragile state.”

“We see that, asshole.” Tommy’s arms were straight at his sides, his hands opening and closing. He seemed to be having difficulty keeping it together.

I certainly was with Claire and nearly everyone I cared about in peril.

“I wasn’t referring to the current state of his injuries.” Martin glanced down his nose at Tommy, then Barry.

To Martin Skellin, everyone was a bug to be crushed. He might have the power in this situation, but he had no one who cared about him, and so he held no power that mattered.

“Your son is rash.” Martin sneered at Barry. “And likely to grow up to be nothing but a disappointment, just like his father.”

Missy tossed a lock of her black hair over her shoulder. “At least the Evanses have a legitimate business.”

His dark eyes flaring once more, Martin glared at her. Under his scrutiny, Missy turned pale.

Addy moved in front of Martin, throwing out one arm.

“Enough. This is a waste of time. Everyone here, including your men, know you’re an evil, sadistic asshole.” She kept her focus on him. I think she knew it wasn’t wise to divide her attention around a man like Martin. “We’re leaving with Kyle.”

“I’m leaving with my friends.” I glanced at each of the people I cared so much about, beginning with Addy and ending with Claire. “And my girlfriend. I’m not working for you anymore.”

“You don’t have any say.” Martin’s lips curled. “You chose your path. I own your ass.”

No longer afraid, I looked down my nose at him. He was a bug. “I think I do, given our previous discussion.”

“And if I say no?” Martin delivered the question in a droll tone, though his attention on me was suddenly sharp.

“He’s your nephew.” Addy lifted her chin. “I don’t think even you are so despicable that you would knowingly harm your own flesh and blood.”

I froze, and my eyes flew open wide. “No. I’m not.”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Addy shook her head. “Miranda was Martin’s sister, or she was before he and the rest of his elitist clan disowned her for marrying Collin. They considered your father beneath them.”

I didn’t need to glance at Martin to know that what Addy said was true. It made sense in a twisted, warped way. Martin’s only remorse about the accident was my mother’s death. Then the strange way he’d reacted at the hospital after Strader’s guys had worked me over.

“I was grooming you to take a higher position within what I have built,” Martin, my uncle, said. “You have a certain skill set that I value.”

“Not interested,” I snapped.

Martin crossed his arms over his chest. “Not optional.”

“His choice, Martin.” Addy pressed her lips into a tight line. “Like it was my choice to make an agreement with you all those years ago.”

“You were well compensated.” His lips flattened. “So was Kyle. I gave him a place to live, and employment. He’d be in foster care and his uncle on the streets if not for me.”

“He was young, frightened, destitute, and heartbroken . . . like me.” Addy pointed an accusatory finger at Martin, her movements jerky. “And you took advantage of him, just like you took advantage of me.”

Fire flared in Martin’s gaze. “Collin slept with Miranda. That was his decision, not mine. He was weak, a loser, and an addict. He destroyed my sister, and he would have destroyed you. You got your medical bills paid. Your bar built. Better for you to be shot of him.”

“But I lost my daughter!” Addy flung her hands wide. “In the end, it was the wrong choice, one I regret to this day. So I’m ending my agreement with you. Starting right now.”

His head jerked back in shock, all traces of amusement gone. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“I would. I am.” She leaned forward. “What do I have to lose?”

The smile Martin gave her was pure evil. “Your business. My protection.”

“If you come after mine,” her voice lowered, “then I’ll come after yours.”

Martin scoffed. “How do you propose to do that?”

“First, I’ll tell all those rich pieces of shit in Lakeside what you really do for a living.”

At that, tension whipped through Martin. His body stilled, but his gaze went hyperactive.

“Next,” Addy said with a malevolent smile, “I’ll sue you for custody to get my daughter back.”

Martin’s expression turned livid. “Our daughter, and she’s not a child anymore. She’ll be seventeen soon.”

Daughter. Lakeside.

I put the pieces together, realizing Ella Skellin was Addy’s daughter. Martin and Addy’s daughter. That made her my cousin.

“Right.” Addy threw her hands in the air. “Everyone here now knows that precious secret. Keep up, Martin. The times and the tide are changing. You have a new generation of Footits, Murphys, and Evanses around to deal with. New and old, we unanimously don’t like you. If I were you, I wouldn’t underestimate our hatred and the lengths we would go to protect those we care about.”

“Get rid of them.” Martin sliced through the air with a sharp and decisive motion. “Get rid of all this garbage.”

“Yes, boss.” Arturo gestured at us. “Let’s go.”

“We’ll see ourselves out.” Addy lifted her chin and turned away, thinking she’d checkmated him.

“This isn’t over, my dear.”

Martin’s words stopped Addy short.

Turning, she smiled. “You know where to find me.”

“And me,” I said.

Addy and I exchanged triumphant glances. We’d won this battle, for now, as well as something significant. Something I’d never possessed before.

My freedom.