Page 72 of A Heart So Savage

Winter fires burn bright.

Icy hearts made of snow.

I stand in their puddles.

As the limo pulled away,Kingston’s brow furrowed.

It was an uneasy feeling letting Ava out of his sight. But catching whoever left the mysterious note and took a shot at him would lead to the real culprit.

He spent the next minute or two firing off texts with instructions for her safety, finishing up as Jack came jogging back down the alley out of breath.

“Just got word Franco’s team caught him at Madison and 68th. He was ditching the shopping cart and flagging a car down. Older Mercedes. Black. Tinted windows. It took off when Franco wrestled our subject to the ground, but we got a partial plate. Our man at the precinct is running it now.” Jack’s eyebrows rose high upon seeing the bloody gash in Kingston’s upper arm. “Damn. You got winged?”

“Minor wound. What about the shooter? Same man or someone else?”

“I’m thinking a different guy. My guess would be the guy in the Mercedes. Franco says the one they grabbed was unarmed. No weapons were found in the vicinity, and I found nothing in the alley or on the street.” Jack lit up a cigarette. “Got a car coming for us now. What’s the plan?”

It was an unnecessary question, but Kingston still answered. “Meet up with Franco at The Block. We need to question the one we caught and cast a net for the one that got away.”

“Miss Blue is unharmed?”

That uneasy feeling crept through Kingston again, but he was reminded of the immediate issue of gaining information. “She’s okay and headed back to the penthouse. Blair’s unit is shadowing the limo and will stand guard until I get back.”

Jack nodded. Taking a drag on his cigarette, he squinted against the smoke and scuffed the concrete with his shoe.

“Spit it out.” Kingston knew the man well enough to know when he had something on his mind.

“Just wondering if you should take Miss Blue back to The Den sooner rather than later. Probably safer there.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Kingston shrugged, taking a cigarette from the pack Jack held out to him. “Who’s to say it isn’t Oliver behind this? He knows how to push my buttons, and when it comes to Ava, he’s made it very clear he wants her, too. Returning her to The Den could be just what he hopes I’ll do.”

“There’s the car.” Jack motioned toward the sleek, black Lexus gliding to a stop at the end of the alley. “And you’re right about Oliver. Brother or not, he can’t be trusted for shit.”

Kingston blew out a swirl of smoke then stubbed the cigarette out with his shoe. “I’m well aware of his lack of loyalty.”

It took forty-five minutes or so to reach the strand of remote dockside warehouses known as The Block. It was a collection of spaces buildings serving many purposes. Storage for illegal imports. Meetings and negotiations. A place where interrogations sometimes turned murderous.

Back when Kingston’s father lorded over this kingdom, it was a place where trafficked souls were housed before being sold off like prime livestock.

Turning onto the pothole-riddled street running parallel with the docks, hemmed in by both water and buildings, Kingston recalled the first time he’d come here with his father. The night he was instructed to murder a falsely accused man.

He had refused at first, sickened by his father’s demands and frightened as hell. Because the man tied up in a chair waiting to be slaughtered was not the man sleeping with Rebecca, his stepmother.

That man was Kingston himself. And he carried the evidence of his father’s rage because of that refusal.

Absently, he rubbed the scar integrated within the lion tattoo over his heart. He hated The Block. Hated what the buildings represented. Hated the smell of dead fish and stale water. The stench of diesel fuel and rotting garbage decimated the very suggestion of fresh air and sunshine.

Mostly, he hated the faint odor of blood and death that never quite faded away.

But today was one of those days when he didn’t mind it so much. Today, someone would be taught a very short lesson on why one should never fuck with Kingston Winter and those under his protection.

Despite his misgivings over Oliver, Kingston suspected Carson was behind this incident based on one simple fact. The enemies he had in the criminal underworld would not have missed the shot. And that included Oliver. He would have never even heard him coming if his brother was the assassin.

Once the man they’d caught was questioned, Kingston planned on moving his focus inward. Smaller and smaller circles would enable him to reach and punish every person who hurt Ava in the past. Her brother. Judd Vanderhoff and by extension, his father. The twins who had held her down that night were first on the list. Word of their deaths would be coming through shortly.

They would all bleed. For Ava’s sake as well as his own.

“You okay, King?” Jack asked with a raised brow.

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