Surrender To Me

BANE

IT HAD BEEN twenty-four hours since the fire that consumed the bodies of four people who had every-fucking-thing coming to them. I sat back in my office chair, scrolling through the news story on my iPad, looking for any hints that they were going to start sniffing around me. Absently, I scratched at the bandage taped to my chest, the shallow wound hardly worth fucking fussing over, but I didn’t want blood leaking through my shirt.

Andy walked into my office looking like he hadn’t slept at all. He ran a hand through his dark hair and took a seat. In all the time he’d been my driver, he’d never set foot in my office, so it was strange to see him in here now. But the bastard deserved to be here. He’d saved Dagger’s life. He’d gotten him to the hospital in time. Dagger had gone in for surgery to repair his liver that had been turned into a two-hole sieve with that gunshot wound. That, along with two blood transfusions, meant his injury was a bad one. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but apparently, the worst was over. The first twenty-four hours post-op were the most critical. Dagger was still breathing, so I knew he’d pull through.

“You wanted to see me, boss?” Andy asked.

I gestured to the seat in front of my desk, waiting until his ass was firmly planted before saying to him, “I want to thank you for what you did for Dagger.”

The guy shrugged like it was no-big-fucking deal. “He’s a brother.”

“You served in two different streams.”

He shrugged. “Army or Marines, we’re both fucking brothers.”

I leaned back in my chair and studied him. “How would you like to work for me in a different capacity? Just until Dagger gets back on his feet.”

Andy narrowed his eyes at me. “I’m listening.”

“I need someone I can trust at my back. You’ve proved that to me.”

“You need a new Dagger.”

I nodded. “Yes. With Sanderson gone, Manzetti’s a threat. I’m not willing to give up my share of the drug trade to that Italian fuck. I need someone like you, someone who keeps his fucking head in a situation. There’s a war coming. I need my soldiers.”

Andy thought about it for a moment. “Who’s going to drive your ass around town?”

Throwing my head back, I laughed. “I’m sure we can find someone else.”

“I have a younger brother. Just discharged. Got wounded in Afghanistan and is trying to adjust to civilian life.”

“What’s his name?”

“Max, but everyone in his unit called him Fox.”

“Get him in here. I want to meet him.” Reaching into the top drawer of my desk, I pulled out a wad of cash and slid it across the tabletop. When Andy arched a brow at me, I said, “You risked your life for me. I reward people for their loyalty.”

Andy’s gaze fell on the money before flickering back to my face. “I don’t need your cash for doing my job, Mr. Rivera.”

“Take the fucking money, Andy. Donate it to charity. Whatever the fuck you want to do, but take it.

You went above and beyond, and I thank you.”

After a long while, he reached across the desk and picked up the cash. “Thank you.”

I nodded. “When could your brother start?”

“I’ll call him today. He should be good to go in the next couple of days.” “Good.” I stood and buttoned my suit jacket.

Andy did the same. “How’s Wren?” “I’m going to go and see her now.”

“Does she know about…” His question drifted off when I shook my head. I’d told Andy everything that had happened in that warehouse. I’d dragged him into the sitch, so it was only right that he knew who the bodies belonged to. “I’m going to tell her now.”

Andy stared at me a little longer before turning around and walking to the door. “She loves you, you know.”

“What?”

“Wren. She loves you. You’ve never dated. You’ve just fucked the woman you wanted. And then those women turned into fucking basket cases when you said you didn’t want more. But you want more with her because Wren isn’t anything like those women. Don’t do what I did and fuck up a good thing.”

I tried to tamp down the hope that lit up my chest. There was no place for love in my life, at least that’s what I thought. Wren did more than turn my life upside down when she came storming into my office that day. She fucking lit a match and watched me burn-burn for her.

“Call your brother,” I told him gruffly.

Andy left my office, and I grabbed the tumbler of whisky off my desk. His words were still pinging around in my head. Wren and my relationship was based on an agreement-a sneaky-as-shit way to get into her pants. I’d wanted her the moment she set foot in my office, but the more I got to know her, the more I touched her, the more I got lost in her, the more I wanted.

Was it love? Fuck, I didn’t know.

I wasn’t sure I could love a woman like that. Bianca was different. She was my sister, so the love we shared was familial.

Our father had been incapable of showing real love, and our mother was a shell of the woman she used to be. I’m sure she did love our father at one point, but that love had been beaten down and trodden on until there was nothing left by an emotionally broken woman.

I would never raise a hand to Wren. It would kill me. I needed her safe. I wanted her to be with only me-not because of some fucking agreement-but because she wanted to be with me. To love me. To fucking give me the life I had only ever dreamed about.

Placing the tumbler back on the desk, I grabbed my phone and stalked from the office. Andy was waiting by the car at the curb when I stepped from the club. Wordlessly, like he knew exactly what was going through my head, he opened the rear door, and I slid inside.

WREN WAS awake when I walked into the room, smiling at something the nurse said.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

“Mr. Rivera, nice to see you again,” Patty stated, her eyes crinkling in the corner.

“Nice to see you, too,” I replied, my full attention on Wren who was sitting up in bed. Some of the swelling around her eyes had disappeared, but she still couldn’t see. Holding out her hand to me, I laced our fingers together as I sat beside her on the bed.

“How are you, my little bird?” I asked, brushing her knuckles against my mouth.

“Okay. Still drugged up, so can’t feel much.”

Patty said, “I’ll come in and check on you a little later, Wren.”

And with that same efficiency, she left them along with the scent of the breakfast Wren had been served a few hours earlier.

I had to tell Wren what had happened to her brother. It was her right to know, but I had no fucking idea how I was supposed to broach this subject with her. I was so far over my fucking head. I’d crossed so many lines-with her, with my own life, and my business-with everything that used to be clear-cut black and white now had shades of gray.

I sucked in a breath and let it out. “I found Hawk.”

She stiffened. “You did?”

“Yeah.” I studied her face, knowing that this could break us. “He’s dead.”

An anguished sob was torn from her throat, her hands covering her mouth as tears streamed down her bruised and swollen face. I reminded myself that Hawk had been the one to put those bruises there, which helped me to say, “Sanderson shot him after he spilled everything to me.” “Jesus,” she whispered.

I brushed the tears from her face with my thumbs, cursing myself out when she winced from the touch.

“What happened?”

I opened my mouth, then shut it. I couldn’t lie to her about this. If she was going to stay with me, she needed every single dirty detail. She had to have all the information to figure out whether I was worth the heartache.

“Dagger found him. I went to speak to him, and he told me he’d been working for Sanderson. Sanderson wanted to fuck me up the ass, so he used your brother to do that by getting to you. He said…” I hesitated because the truth could be ugly sometimes, and I knew I never wanted Wren to hear something hurtful but, “… he said Sanderson would destroy you if he didn’t work for him. The plan was to kill you in front of me to make me suffer, knowing that my blood was on your hands.”

“He said that?”

I rubbed at the spot in the middle of my chest, trying to massage away the pain she was feeling. “Yes. Sanderson eventually showed up and told me it was all to get me out of the drug trade. There was a gunfight.”

Wren looked up suddenly, her face twisted in agony. “Are you hurt? Did you get shot?”

I touched the bandage over my chest. “No. I got out okay. Dagger, not so much. He’s recovering in another ward.”

Her head dropped into her hands, and she began to weep. Rubbing her back, I said softly, “It’s okay. It’s over now.” I hesitated over the words I was about to say to her, though. Any sentiment that I was sorry for Hawk’s demise was a fucking lie, but Wren loved him even if he was a fucking asshole. “I’m sorry about your brother, too.”

“Thank you,” she whimpered. “I did not like the man he’d become, but I still loved him.”

“I know you did.” Moving farther up on the bed, I continued to rub her back, hoping the motion would calm her sobs and dry her tears. As I waited, I watched the clock on the wall. The big hand moved a full two revolutions before she was finally silent, and I was pretty sure that was because she’d fallen asleep. She turned her face toward me, her cheek resting on the top of her knees. She was struggling to open her eyes. Leaning forward, I kissed the tender flesh, tasting her tears.

“I have to organize a funeral for him… although where I’ll get the money to pay for that, I don’t know. Maybe give up the shop?”

“There’s nobody left to bury,” I said, kissing the top of her head, hoping she understood.

“But you said-”

“I said he was shot, yes, but so were three other people… the kind of people that the cops would be very interested in finding.” Please read between the lines, Little Bird.

“Oh,” she eventually said. She took in a shuddering breath and let it out.

“We can still have a memorial for him.” Even making the suggestion made my stomach turn. Hawk’s actions against his sister made him my enemy number one, and I gave zero fucks to people who liked to fuck over their own family.