Bones (Dark Kingdom, #5) — Chapter no 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

MIA

“I SAW HIM,” I growl at Luca while he stands in my bedroom.

Running a hand through his hair, he sighs. “I told him you were no one.”

I flinch at his words even though it’s the same thing I told the strange man who stood in my bedroom yesterday. “He’s a King.” I heard Luca call him Bones. And although I’ve never met the Kings, I know who they are.

“Yes,” he agrees. “But he won’t be a problem. He let it go, and he’s got too much going on to remember you.”

His words make my chest tighten. I’m always forgotten. I should be used to it by now, but somehow, it still hurts to know how easily someone can forget you exist. “But what if he does remember me?” I ask, trying not to let him hear the hope in my voice.

“If he does, he won’t say anything,” he assures me. “The Kings are nothing like our father. Or our brothers, for that matter.” Walking over to me, he gives me his kind smile that always makes me feel safe. “The Kings will not use you against Father. They are not those kind of people. They’re the good guys.”

I should have known Luca was lying. The Kings were only eighteen when I first saw Dillan. Now they’re grown men, running a Kingdom. They will do anything to get rid of any threat that comes their way, and I’m that to them now.

I sit at his island with a piece of lasagna in front of me. I haven’t touched it because I’m not in the mood to eat anymore. Dillan just told me I’m a prisoner. Again. At least in Italy, I knew what to expect. I looked forward to Luca’s visits. For once, I’m in the same state as him, and I can’t even see him. What if he doesn’t make it? I won’t even get to say goodbye. I can’t take that as an answer.

I hear Dillan entering the kitchen, but I refuse to look up or acknowledge him in any way. Fuck him! Fuck the Kings and fuck my family. They can

all go to hell.

“Here.” He drops a box in front of me, making a slapping noise.

“Where’s your cell phone I left with you at the beach house?”

I look up at him through my lashes, hoping the bastard catches on fire with my glare. “Going to take that freedom away from me too?”

“Yes,” he states, holding out his hand to me.

My jaw tightens, and I slap my hands on the kitchen island, standing to my full height. He is easily over six feet tall. But I’ve been small all my life.

That doesn’t mean I’ll let someone bigger run all over me. “If you want it, you’ll have to take it.” It’s not like I have anyone to call other than him and Haven anyway, but still, it’s the point. He’s trying to isolate me from everyone. Maybe he wants me to go insane? It’s some reverse psychology bullshit. I’ve seen it on TV.

His bottom lip starts to twitch, and then he begins laughing at me—like throws his head back laughing.

I walk around the kitchen island and shove him.

His laughter stops, and he grips my wrists in his strong hands, yanking my body into his. He’s freshly showered, and the scent of his body wash fills my nose. It smells like cedarwood. Much more refreshing than the smell of blood from when he first arrived. He looks down at me, and I can still see the laughter in his pretty blue eyes. He thinks this is funny.

“Mia …”

“I won’t let you do this!” I argue. “I will go see Luca. And I will talk to whoever I want.”

Letting go of my wrists, he reaches over and picks up the box he had set down in front of me. Placing it in my hands, he takes a step back, crossing his arms over his chest.

“What’s this?” I ask, staring down at it.

“Open it,” he orders.

Letting out a huff, I rip the lid off and pause at what I see before looking back up at him. That same gorgeous smile he had in that picture with the baseball bat is on his face right now. God, he really is gorgeous for a man.

More than any man should be.

“This is your new phone,” he states, taking the box from me and removing the black device. “I want your old phone because I was afraid that maybe your brothers put a tracker on it when they went and saw you. This one … I had delivered while at Kingdom. And …” He pushes a button on

the side, and I hear it come on. “It has everyone’s number in it. I charged it earlier in my office while at work, so it’s good to go.”

I bite my lip nervously as he hands it to me.

“Emilee just lives next door, and so do Alexa and April. Jasmine isn’t far away.”

Tears sting my eyes, and my breath catches in my throat. This is about as much freedom as I’ve ever had. I look up at him.

“I don’t want to isolate you, Mia.” He reaches out and cups my face with his warm hand, and my pulse starts to race at his tender touch. “But I will protect you. Even if that means doing things that you don’t agree with.”

With that, he pulls away and turns to exit the kitchen.

“Dillan?” I call out.

“Yeah?” He turns around under the archway.

“My old phone is on the nightstand charging.”

He nods once and then turns, disappearing once again.

I fall onto a barstool at the island and open my contacts. They’re all there. Jasmine, Haven, April, and Alexa. Along with Cross, Grave, Titan, and Bones. Luca is also there and Nite. A guy named Nigel. I remember him from the limo. He was the driver.

I hold the phone to my chest and smile as I hear it ping several times in a row.

I open a message that says BITCHES at the top and read over the chat.

Jasmine: Breakfast in the morning?

April: I’m down.

Alexa: Of course.

Jasmine: Empire?

I sigh, knowing that no matter what Empire is, I can’t go there. Although Dillan was nice enough to give me a phone with everyone’s number, I have no doubt that he won’t allow me to leave the house to be with the girls.

Emilee: No. I heard Mia can’t go out in public.

April: We can do it at mine? I’ll cook.

Sounds good. They all respond with.

Jasmine: See you all at six.

I smile at the fact they thought to include me in something so simple.

Breakfast. Just girls getting together to hang out before their day starts.

How did they get this number? Bones must have given it to them before he even brought it home to me.

I feel like I should be nervous because I don’t know any of them. I didn’t see Haven reply to them, but maybe that’s because she’s staying at the hospital with Luca.

I lock the screen and put it on the kitchen island, that smile still on my face. I have plans with the girls in the morning, and it doesn’t even matter that I don’t know them.

BONES

I WATCH HER from around the corner. She sits at the island, smiling down at her phone. One of the phone calls I made this evening was to get her a new one. I had no clue what all her brothers did to keep tabs on her when they showed up in California. The least they could have done was get her number. This was my best option.

I’m cutting off any contact she has with the world other than what I approve of. And that will be a very tight circle. My circle.

Pushing off the wall, I walk back down the hallway to my bedroom. I pick up her old cell phone off the nightstand and head out to the garage.

Grabbing a hammer, I set it down on my tool bench and bang on it until it’s in fucking pieces.

Then I walk over to the sink, fill it with water, and drop it in. You can never be too sure. Entering the house once again, I go back to my bedroom to find her standing at the end of my Alaskan king-size bed.

She still wears my shirt, and my cock reminds me that the hand job I gave myself in the shower was not nearly good enough. “What?” I growl, irritated with myself.

She crosses her arms in front of her and drops her face to the floor. It reminds me of when I saw her all those years ago, back when I had no idea who she was. I should have made Luca tell me. But our fathers ended up taking us to Kingdom, and let’s just say there were other things on my mind. And over time, I just erased that memory. I believed her when she said she was no one. It was almost as if I had dreamed of the interaction between us.

“May I go to breakfast in the morning with the girls?” she asks softly.

Her eyes rise, and she looks at me through her long, dark lashes.

I hate that my mind instantly pictures her on her knees looking up at me like that. “No.”

Her head snaps up, and she lets out a huff at my refusal. “The girls were messaging, and they want to have breakfast at Grave and April’s house so I can go.”

I run a hand through my hair. “That’s fine.” A smile grows across her face. Just like the one when she was in the pool and when I told her I’d teach her how to drive. “But come right back here afterward.”

She nods in understanding. “Thank you.”

My chest tightens that she’s fucking thanking me to walk across the driveway to go to breakfast with some women she doesn’t even know.

“You’re welcome,” I say awkwardly.

“Were you hungry?” She changes the subject.

“No.” I’m starving, but I’m not telling her that. I have to be up soon.

Right now, I just want to go to sleep and forget about the half-naked brunette in my bedroom.

“Oh, okay.” Her face falls. “I’ll go clean up the kitchen.” She walks past me but stops at the door. “Where are your blankets?”

I turn to face her. “Blankets? For what?”

“I need a blanket for the couch.” She points back behind her to the hallway. “I toured the house this evening, and this is the only room that you have any furniture in. Well, besides the living room.”

“I’m never here,” I say defensively. Like I need to explain why I have a ten-bedroom house but only enough furniture to fill up a one-bedroom apartment. I don’t want to make her sleep on the couch. The poor girl has been through so much already. “You can have my bed,” I tell her.

“Oh no, that’s okay,” she rushes out. “I can sleep on the couch.”

“It’s decided,” I growl. “You’ll sleep in my bed.” With that, I give her my back and enter my bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Walking over to the sink, I turn on the faucet and splash some water on my face.

Hearing my cell ring in the bedroom, I go back in there and pick it up off my nightstand to see it’s Titan. The Kings and I very rarely get much sleep.

Our bodies are just used to it by now. “Hello?” I snap.

“I just got a call, and it looks like we need to go to the Airport,” he says in greeting.

“For what?” I ask, looking at the clock to see it’s almost two a.m.

The Mason brothers run the Airport. Three people I despise. But we ended up making a deal with them recently. We went into business with them for diamonds in order to help out Cross. It’s not the call I would have made, but it is what it is.

“Turner had a guy come in to fight tonight bragging about robbing a strip club a couple of nights ago.”

I frown. “But as far as I know, nothing was stolen from Glass.”

He sighs. “I agree, but it’s something worth looking into. Even if it’s not Glass, we may get a lead on something we can use.”

“I’ll meet you outside in five,” I hang up and walk over to my closet.

Grabbing a Kingdom hoodie, I slip it on, pocketing my cell. Then I walk into the kitchen. My feet stop on their own at what I see.

Mia has her back to me, standing at the dishwasher. She’s bent over, placing dirty dishes in it. The shirt of mine she wears rides up, exposing her bare thighs to me. Her skin looks like it’s been kissed by the sun, and they look so smooth. I imagine walking up behind her and running my hands up her legs, reaching underneath the shirt and pulling my boxers down that I can see from here to expose her pussy to me.

“Dillan?”

I blink to see she’s now turned around, looking at me. “I have to go.” I

clear my throat.

She frowns but doesn’t say anything.

“I’ll be back later.” With that, I turn and get the hell out of my house, thanking my lucky stars that the Mason brothers need to see me. Maybe I like them after all.

Titan already sits outside of my house in his car. I fall into the passenger seat of the candy apple red Maserati. “Grave didn’t answer his phone,” he informs me.

“He’s probably asleep.” I look over at his house, and not a single light is on. Grave would stay awake for days or sleep for days when he used. Now that the kid is clean, he sleeps whenever he can.

“Cross is meeting us there. He’s up at the club with Alexa helping her get it ready for the grand re-opening.”

We pull out of the gate, and I lean my head back, closing my eyes for a second. It’s a mistake. Because all I picture is me and Mia in my kitchen.

Her body laid out on my dining room table like a feast, and my head between her legs with her hands in my hair … “You okay?” Titan asks, bringing me back to reality.

“Yeah.” I lie and sit up straighter.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” he assures me. “We’ll find out who the fuck shot Luca.”

Right? That needs to be my main focus. Not the gorgeous brunette whose father runs the Italian-American Mafia. “It’s not adding up.”

“Which part?” he asks, getting on the highway.

“All of it.” I shrug. “Mia was so sure that it was her brothers who shot Luca. The timeline adds up with that.”

He shifts in his seat, and I look over at him. “What?” I demand when I see his hand tightening on the steering wheel.

He gives me a quick glance before placing his concentration back on the road. “Do you really believe her?”

“I do.” I nod and look out the passenger window. “I saw the look on her face at the hospital. Poor thing was scared to death.”

“Just marry her then.”

My head snaps back over to the left, and I glare at him. “You can’t be serious?”

He shrugs. “Not like you’re saving yourself for someone special.” Titan chuckles. “Throw the biggest fucking wedding of the century and marry her. Give them a show and rub it in John’s fucking face. And if what her brothers tell her is true, then her father will make his move, and we’ll be ready.” His eyes meet mine, and I see just how serious he is before he turns back to the road. “He may be John Bianchi, but we’re the motherfucking Kings. And that means something.”

_______________

THE AIRPORT IS just that—once an airport that was abandoned years ago.

That Tanner, Turner, and Trey Mason own. It’s their Kingdom. But where we cover our illegal activities with shiny and expensive things, they don’t even bother to cover how corrupt they are. It sits on the outskirts of Las Vegas on two hundred acres. It has five stories of the original airport, and the hotel next door has been transformed into apartments they rent out called the Mason Towers. Where the bomb shelter once was underneath the airport is now their own personal dungeon.

The cops don’t come here, no matter what. The Masons have them on their payroll, along with many other important Vegas names. Their father used to run it, then handed it over to them. Just like our fathers gave us Kingdom.

I never wanted this life, but I’m not the kind of guy to half-ass anything, so I devote my life to our business. It’s given us a life that most only dream of.

“Titan, Bones.” Turner Mason nods to us as we enter their office. He’s stuffing a black duffel bag full of guns that sit lined out on a table. Turner is the middle brother. He’s their muscle, hitman, and runs for the Cartel. Out of all the Mason brothers, you don’t want to piss him off. I’ve never liked him. Or any of them, for that matter. Trey and Grave got into some trouble in the past, and Tanner, the eldest brother, took the fall for them. He spent some time in prison but recently got released. Of course, I didn’t find out until it was too late. My brother chose to keep his illegal activities a secret from me. None of us actually know what went down to this day.

“Titan said you have someone for us?” I get to the point.

He nods. “Tanner has him down in the basement.”

Titan and I go to exit the office just as the door opens, and Cross enters with Grave. “You didn’t answer my call,” Titan says to my brother.

“Sorry, phone died. But I was at the club with Alexa and Cross. What do we have?”

“We were just headed to find out,” I answer, shouldering past him and out of the room.

Making our way to the bomb shelter, we stay silent. I don’t have much to say, and my mind is still going over what Titan said in the car about marrying Mia. He made it sound like marrying her was a business transaction. Write up a contract, sign it, and then throw a big party. He was right when he said I wasn’t saving myself for that special someone. I told

myself that I’d never get married. A life of a King isn’t an easy one. Why bring a woman into it? She’d expect too much from me and eventually a family. I don’t want to be my father. I don’t want to see my son have to live the kind of life I have. Or a daughter? What the fuck would I do with a daughter? I’d be a horrible husband because Kingdom would come first.

And the same as a father—my kids probably wouldn’t even know who I am. Doing Luca a favor and having Mia take my last name are two very different things.

And let’s not forget what my father told me—show me a man in love, and I’ll show you his greatest weakness. I can’t say he’s wrong because Titan, Grave, and Cross will do anything to make sure nothing happens to their Queens. Even if that means dying for them. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. If you love someone, you should do anything for them. I consider all the Kings my brothers, even Luca and Nite. So my father’s words make sense because I would not only kill for them, I’d die for them.

“Everything okay?” my brother asks me.

“Fine,” I growl. Fuck, why does everyone care how I feel right now? I liked it better when they were all single and too busy with their own hectic lives to pay attention to me. Now that they’ve all locked down some pussy, they’re in my business like it’s their own life.

“Where’s the girl?” Grave goes on to ask as if she’s too insignificant to remember her name.

“My place.” Where else would she be? Does he expect me to keep her by my side with a leash attached? I have to hide her, so I sure as fuck wouldn’t bring her here.

“I told him he should marry her.” Titan laughs again like it’s a joke.

“That’s the worst idea you’ve ever had.” Grave snorts.

“It’s a means to an end.” Titan shrugs. “John would come out of hiding along with his sons—”

“Speaking of sons.” Grave interrupts him. “Luca would kill Bones once he wakes up. There’s a reason they’ve been hiding her.”

“I don’t see it being a problem.” Cross finally speaks. “Bones told us that Luca sent him to help her. It’s obvious he trusts him with her.”

He shouldn’t have. I haven’t stopped thinking about fucking her since I

forced her into the limo.

“Yeah, well—”

“Can you guys just shut the fuck up?” I snap, cutting off Grave.

Thankfully, they listen.

Exiting the elevator to the bomb shelter, we make our way through the old tunnels. After passing the jail cells lined up on either side, we enter the door at the end into the one cell where they keep their special guests. We’ve been here recently when Cross needed answers.

A guy sits tied to a chair. Tanner Mason has his back to us, arms crossed over his chest. As we enter, he turns to face us. “Kings.” He steps to the side. “Have a gift for you.”

Grave snorts. “It’s only a gift if he has something to tell us.”

The guy looks up at us through his busted face. I’m not sure if the Masons did that or if it was from his fight here. “Heard you were bragging

about robbing a strip club,” I say.

He lifts his chin and glares up at me.

“All of a sudden, he’s got nothing to say.” Tanner smirks. “Let’s fix that.”

He walks behind him and grips a handful of his hair, yanking his head back.

Grave grabs his face, squeezing hard enough to force his mouth open, and he holds his free hand out to Cross. “Give me a knife.”

The guy starts thrashing in the chair.

Cross retrieves his pocketknife and flips it open, handing it over to Grave. He holds it up to his chin.

“Okay, okay—” the man rushes out. “It wasn’t Glass.” He looks at me.

I tilt my head to the side. “Which one was it?” Being a King, we hear about everything that happens.

Grave takes a step back, letting him go. “It was Mansion. A friend of mine works there and helped me set it up.”

I rub my chin. “So you know nothing about Glass and Luca Bianchi being shot?”

His eyes widen, and they dart around the room. “Luca was shot? Fuck, man, is he okay?”

Titan gives me a “told you so” look. Everyone knows Luca, and no one would dare go after him unless it was his own family. That was why Luca didn’t draw his weapon. He never saw it coming.

Cross has already pulled out his cell and has it to his ear. I look over at him. “Thank you.” He hangs up. “It’s true. Mansion was broken into, and over a hundred grand was taken.”

Dead end. Fuck! Not sure what I was expecting to find, but a part of me already knew what the outcome would be.

“What do you want to do with him?” Tanner asks.

“Let Nicholas know where to find him.” Nick owns Mansion. He can take care of his own mess. He can pay us later for handing him over.

“Wait. No!” the guy rushes out, and we ignore him, turning to exit the cell while he tries to save his own ass.

“What do we do now?” Cross asks, pocketing his cell.

“Go to bed.” Grave yawns. “I’m not like you guys. I need sleep.”