Page 29 of Wicked Love
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Madelyn
“Are we sure Beckett’s coming?” Slade asked impatiently, tossing one of his cinnamon candies to the ceiling and allowing it to fall back into his hand as he lay sprawled across the sofa. “Maybe he’s blowing us off.”
I shook my head and snatched the candy midair when he tossed it again. I dropped it on the coffee table in front of me.
“I second that question,” Logan added from the chair across from me.
“He said that he’d wait until everyone arrived so that we could get started right away,” I reminded them. “He should be here any time.”
Slade let out a huff that was half-heartedly impatient. “He didn’t tell you anything about this big news of his?”
I shook my head. “I’m guessing it’s the kind of thing he wouldn’t want to bring up on the phone.”
Logan grimaced. It looked as if it took particular effort for him to say, “That does make sense.”
My eyebrows just about shot right off my head. Logan caught my gaze and held it for a moment, and the memory of how we’d embraced on the sofa just an hour ago tugged at my heart. He’d wrapped his arms around me as if I were an anchor in a storm, the only thing keeping him from spiraling into disaster.
But he seemed settled now. I thought the things I’d said had dissolved the worst of his fears about himself and what he deserved. How could he think he wasn’t even worthy of beingalive?
Dexter shifted on his feet where he’d been standing by the window, leaning forward to peer between the blinds. “He’s here.”
I was too restless to stay sitting after that announcement. I pushed myself to my feet and hurried to the window in time to see Beckett closing the back door of the car he’d just gotten out of. It was a modest Kia, not the kind of car I’d ever seen him in before, but he had wanted to stay anonymous. I’d bet it was an Uber.
He’d taken other obvious steps to stay under the radar. Rather than his usual tailored business clothes, he’d donned a baseball cap and sunglasses, his leanly toned frame hidden beneath a baggy sweatshirt and jeans.
It only took a few seconds for him to stride to the building’s front door and disappear from our view.
Dexter moved to the apartment door automatically, hitting a button when the entry buzzer sounded. I forced myself to sink back into my chair. There wasn’t any point in all of us jumping on the guy the second he came inside.
At a firm knock, Dexter pulled the door wide. Beckett stepped over the threshold, his sunglasses in his hand now. He considered Dexter and the three of us around the living room in the space of a heartbeat, as coolly collected as always, and walked over to stand by the entertainment system where he could face all of us.
As Dexter joined Slade on the sofa, Beckett gave us all another assessing glance. He held himself with an air of such authority even dressed so casually that there was no mistaking the power he could wield.
How could I ever have failed to realize that he had to be a major leader, someone who pulled the strings behind innumerable operations? His dominance was etched in every particle of his being.
“What’s this all about?” Logan demanded, brusque but to my relief not overtly hostile.
Beckett folded his hands together in front of him. “We have a lot to discuss. I’m sorry for the urgent meeting, but I didn’t feel it was right to leave you all in the dark now that I know what we’re dealing with. Or rather, who.”
Slade had straightened up while the other guy spoke. He cocked his head, curious but also wary. “And who is that?”
Beckett took a deep breath. “To explain that, I have to tell you more about whoIam and how I factor into the criminal underground. What I tell you today should not leave this room, or people who are much more vicious than me may see you as a threat to be destroyed simply for knowing.”
Dexter studied him for a second with narrowing eyes before his gaze dropped. “That doesn’t sound like a typical underground organization.”
“That’s because it’s not. There’s a group of thirteen families who call themselves the Devil’s Dozen, and between them, they have influence over all the significant criminal activity that goes on throughout the world. My family is one of those. My father is the current head who generally meets with the other leaders, but I’m his heir, and I’ve already begun the process of taking over from him.”
There was a moment of silence. The other guys simply stared at him. Then Slade let out a low whistle. “Fucking hell. You’re some kind of black-market royalty—is that what you’re saying?”
Logan’s expression was more disbelieving. “All the crime in the entireworld? That’s not possible.”
Beckett shrugged. “You can believe me or not. I’ve seen our empire in action. All that’s important is you believe that I’m operating on a stage with only a handful of other major players who hold incredible sway, and one of those other players is directly involved in Evan Silver’s murder.”
My stomach lurched. “What? Why would any huge criminal king pin have it in for my dad?”
Beckett’s gaze slid to me with obvious sympathy in his eyes. “I don’t know that part yet. But this city is divided between territory belonging to my family, the Storm, and some that’s part of a different family’s empire: a man who goes by Doom’s Seed.”
