I couldn’t help but feel a bit suspicious of his words. “What do you mean?”
“Wick isn’t the only one interested in the Dallas territory. There’s another man who wants to take over here and he’s nothing like your boyfriend or me. He is brutal and he will want to make a statement. I managed to hold him back because I have connections with his family, but with me retiring…I can’t hold him off any longer.”
“Who are you talking about?” I asked. “Did you mention this to Wick?”
Larry nodded. “I did, but Wick thinks he can handle Renaldo.”
Having met Wick, I honestly thought he could probably handle anything thrown his way, but I still felt a trickle of fear run down my spine.
“But you don’t?” I asked.
Shaking his head, Larry got to his feet. “No, I don’t. I don’t think Wick has encountered anyone like Renaldo before.” The smile he gave me was sad. “I want you to be happy, Jena. I may not be the best man, but I can still recognize good people when I see them.”
Unable to think of anything to say, I nodded.
Larry leaned across the desk and laid his hand on mine. “Get away from King, Jena. He’s the reason that Justin is dead.”
Speechless, I watched as he straightened and walked through the door of my office. If I could have spoken, I would have asked him what in the hell he meant.
But it was way too late.
Chapter Twenty-Five
‡
Five minutes after Larry walked out of my office, King rushed in. I was still sitting behind my desk, unmoving.
King shut and locked my office door behind him and came around my desk, crouching down next to me. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking me over from head to toe, running his hands over my arms and legs.
I shoved my chair back, pulling myself out of reach. “Y-yeah, I’m okay,” I stammered, lifting my hands. “Just give me a second. I think I’m in shock.”
King froze, then sat back on his heels. The worried expression faded from his face, replaced with anger. “What the fuck were you thinking?” he asked in a low voice.
“What?”
“Larry fucking Peretti comes to your office, you don’t sit down for a fucking chat, darlin’. You haul your ass outta here and get somewhere safe.”
I stared at him, wondering if he killed Justin. I didn’t love Justin anymore and realized I never had, not really, but I also didn’t like the idea that the man I did love might be capable of cold-blooded murder.
“Larry came by to tell me he’s leaving. Retiring to Florida with his wife,” I muttered. “He wanted me to know that I was safe, that he meant it when he said he didn’t want to hurt me.”
The rage gradually receded and I could tell King was surprised. “He told you all that?”
I nodded. “Yeah. It’s over. I’m safe.”
King leaned forward, wrapping his arms around me. “I’m glad you’re okay, darlin’, but I’m not sure I believe him.”
“I do,” I insisted. “He could have hurt me when he came in today. He could have done it a long time ago.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” King asked gently, leaning back and putting his hands on my arms.
“Justin sold you out, King. He went to Larry and told him your plan just before he was killed.”
The fury returned to King’s eyes. “That motherfucker!”
I stared at him, feeling as though I were looking at him from a great distance. “That’s why it took you so long to get Larry in hand,” I offered. “Justin gave up everything he could.”
King shot to his feet and paced around my small office. Suddenly I was struck with the thought that he looked like a panther locked in a cage, dangerous and hungry.
“Larry also said that he thought you were the reason Justin was dead,” I stated.
King stopped moving, turning toward me in slow motion. “What?”
I rose to my feet. “Did you kill Justin?” I asked baldly.
He actually looked surprised by the question. “What?”
“Did you kill Justin?” I repeated.
In a flash, he was across the office and in my face. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he growled. He was so close I could see his pupils contract to pinpoints. “Are you accusing me of murder?”
I didn’t cower. I hadn’t done it before and I’d be damned if I did it now. “You said yourself you’re not a good guy, King. I may not be a criminal mastermind, but I’m pretty sure that bad guys kill traitors.”
He blanched as though I’d slapped him across the face and took a step back. “You really think I killed him,” he muttered.
“No, King, I don’t know. That’s the problem. I don’t have a gut feeling either way because you are so fucking hard to read and you don’t talk to me about this shit. You hide things and you walk away when shit doesn’t go down the way you want it to. You scare me at times.”
“So that makes me a fuckin’ murderer?” he hissed.
“I don’t know, King. Are you?”
“Fuck you, Jena,” he snarled, throwing the same words at me that I’d thrown at him before.
Without another word, he opened the door to my office and charged out. My shaking legs wouldn’t hold me up any longer and I collapsed in my chair.
* * *
It wasn’t until I was back at my apartment three hours later that I realized what I’d done. It took the full three hours to calm down from being scared shitless when faced with Larry and downright furious following my confrontation with King.
Once my mind cleared, I understood exactly why King was so enraged. I’d listened to the shit Larry spit out, let it get into my head. I never would have done that with anyone else. If someone had told me when I was dating Justin that he was fucking Katie, I wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t for the video.
Now, the first time someone had something horrible to say about King, it made me question everything about him. And Larry wasn’t the most reliable source. Just like King, he admitted he wasn’t a good guy.
I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling when this realization hit me. Jumping out of bed, I walked into the living room, looking for Tia. She would help me get my head on straight.
When she picked me up from work in my car, I told her I didn’t want to talk about it, that I’d explain everything later. Like the wonderful cousin she was, she accepted that without argument.
My living room was empty when I entered. I glanced around and noticed my car keys were gone and there was a note on the TV. I walked over to it and plucked it off.
Quick liquor run. Figure you’ll need tequila when you tell me what happened.
T
Shit. She wasn’t here to give me advice and I had the gnawing feeling that I needed to take action now, that waiting even another minute would be one minute too late.
I went back into the bedroom for my phone and stared at the screen for a long time, trying to figure out what I should do. Actually, I was trying to get my courage up to call King and apologize. I should have told him what Larry said and discussed it with him instead of freaking out and basically accusing him of murdering someone. I knew I would be extremely pissed off if he’d done the same to me.
As my thumb was about to hit his name in my contact list, I heard the front door open.
“Oh, Tia, thank God you’re here. I think I really fucked up,” I said as I came out of the bedroom.
I stopped short one step outside my bedroom door. My hands fell to my side and terror unlike any I’d ever known flooded my system.
Standing at the other end of the hall was Katie and she had a big black pistol in her hand, pointed straight at me.