Page 29 of Unhinged Cravings
Rage raked at me for release, but I kept it in check. “And why is that?” I asked, stepping into his space and snagging his shirt in my fists. “Because I expected to have that warehouse filled with cartons of artillery.”
“I know, Cade.” He swallowed, his pupils wide with fear. Jimmy feared little, but he knew to fear me. Had seen what I did to people who disappointed me.
With a violent shove, I pushed him through the door and looked around at the empty building. Another empty fucking building. “Where are my goods, Jimmy?”
Jimmy had his own team of men, all loyal and on my payroll, as long as he delivered like he always had. Two of them watched us, the tension clear in their stiff stances.
“Rhodes, tell him what you told me,” Jimmy called to one of them.
The grinding of my teeth caused the man to flinch as he came over to us.
“The truck was here. It rounded the corner but stopped.” He swallowed loudly, the only sign of nerves the man showed. Too bad I was one word away from blowing a hole in his head. “Someone threw the driver out the door and the truck backed away. We ran for it, but it was too far down. By the time we got to the end of the buildings, it was gone.” The skin on my knuckles strained at the pressure. “This was on the body of the driver.”
He handed me a paper, and I snatched it from him, surprised my skin hadn’t split.
One line, three simple words.It’s over, Cade.
Rolling my neck, I shredded the note. “Next time, you shoot out the windows, the tires, everything your bullets can hit, and you don’t tell me you failed.” My gun was out before he could register my movement. “For you, there won’t be a next time, but your boss won’t fuck up again.”
I shot him between the eyes, then took out the second man in the building before turning my gun on Jimmy. To his benefit, he held his head high, awaiting his sentence.
“Clean up this mess and find my fucking shipment, or it will be your blood spilling next time.”
“Yes, Cade.”
After tucking my gun into my pants, I punched him, hearing the break of cartilage and seeing the spray of blood.
“You ever fuck up this bad again, you will beg me to use my gun and end your miserable life.”
I stormed away, trying to maintain my composure when all I wanted to do was roar in frustration. They were destroying me. Dismantling my empire stone by stone and I had found no way to stop them.
“What do you want to do, Cade?” Pack asked as we drove off.
I had called in all my favors, used every resource, but nothing I had done had flushed them out.
“Double down on security at all the sites.” I thought of Ava. The last piece on my chessboard. The most valuable piece. “And on the house. Run through everything again, all communication, all the videos, the itineraries. If there’s even a small letter out of place, a number smudged I need to know. I want these fuckers and when I get my hands on them, I will spend days savoring their deaths.”
I avoided seeingAva until it was late. My mood was too volatile and the last thing I needed was a reminder of another weakness. And Ava was a weakness. A vulnerability I couldn’t fortify. Her meds were due the next day, and as much as I wanted the nightmares to stop, I disliked the idea of not having her next to me.
Rubbing my temple, I opened her door to find her staring out the window. She had a pair of low-cut jeans on and a shirt that left too much of her skin uncovered to avoid that uncomfortable swelling in my pants as my eyes skimmed over her curves. She turned, and I fixated on the soft skin and the belly button piercing. A pink rhinestone at the top, a teardrop pink stone dangling on the bottom. I wanted to flick my tongue against it, then strip her down and tongue all the others I suspected she had.
The tip of her vine tattoo showed where the pants sat low on her hips, and an overwhelming desire to wrap my hands around those hips threatened to leave me out of control.
“You left me in here all day,” she said.
I forced my eyes from her body, skimming over her crossed arms and the way the pose drew her shirt up higher.
“I can leave you in here any time I want. In fact, I can lock that door and never let you out again.”
She cocked her head, her eyes sparkling. “Would you do that?”
“Keep giving me that attitude and I just might.”
She let out something between a sigh and a snort before skipping to the side table and picking up her book.
“Did you really just skip?” I asked, walking further into the room.
“Yup. You should do it sometimes. It’s fun.”
