Criminal: A Bad-Boy Stepbrother Romance (24 page)

"Abigail Tuney, you've been my Princess and
guiding light since I first met you. When I left you, there was only
shadows and pain, doubt and fear. And that doubt, those fears, they
didn't disappear when you came back into my life. They reignited my
need to protect you, to make you mine. And so today, the best day of
my life, we become one."

I'm trying not to cry, but he's making it impossible.

“I love you more than a man ever should.”

It's not the wedding of my dreams, not by a long
shot. My white dress is more... off-white, and I had to waddle down
the aisle. We didn't really have anyone to invite to a wedding, so
instead we're in Vegas, the city of sin.

It's fitting, in a lot of ways, and Kaiden looks damn
fine in his tuxedo.

Becky, however, did manage to make the trip, along
with her boyfriend, and she's at my side looking so excited. She's
never met Kaiden before and, well, doesn't know he's technically my
step-brother.

We decided to omit that from the wedding
announcement.

I unfold my own vows, biting down on my lower lip to
try to make sure I won't cry, but I know it's fruitless.

"When I first saw you, shirtless and jumping
into the lake, I never could have known the impact you would have on
my life. You were so tough, so cocky, and instantly I knew... I'm a
girl that's going to fall for the bad boy. And I did fall, hard.
Over, and over, and over again." I lick my lips, my voice
quivering and I can't go on, just smiling at him, and then the
marriage commissioner.

"Well, if that's all, you may now kiss the
bride!" he announces, and suddenly I'm in Kaiden's arms, his
hands knit through my hair, absolutely destroying my careful updo as
his mouth presses against mine. It's a bruising sort of kiss, his
actions so hard and passionate.

It's not the happily ever after I expected, but I
couldn't imagine it being more perfect.

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“What’s your name again?” Angela
asked, rubbing at her temple. After all that had happened, the last
thing she wanted to deal with was the police. Between juggling
mobsters, hiding her own ill-gotten gains, and the loss of someone
special… she didn’t know if she had it in her to
bullshit the cops too.

“Detective Luke Crusher, ma’am,” he
said, standing there tall and built. His uniform did little to hide
that fact. He had a squared off jaw and bright eyes. Looked too damn
handsome for his position. “But we were talking about your
friend,” he said, shifting things back to the topic at hand.

“Yes, yes of course,” she said, tiredly
confessing to knowing the missing man. She couldn’t decide if
that was carelessness or just pragmatism.

“Can I come in?” the officer asked.

She didn’t know what to say, but part of her
just shuffled out of the way a little and before she knew it, the
officer was in her dinky little apartment. And she knew she’d
made a mistake. After all, wherever he went in her place, he wasn’t
that far away from her own stash of ten grand.

“So you two knew each other?” he asked
her again.

“Yeah,” Angela let out a sigh, tucking
some of her dark hair behind her ear. The past week had been
exhausting, and the last thing she wanted to do was talk about it
with a cop.

“Did you want some water?” she offered,
going into the kitchen and already grabbing her own glass as she
looked over her shoulder at him. She’d been sucked into the
vortex and there was no going back. Not after what had happened.

“Sure,” he said to her, casually pacing
about her living room, those eyes of his scanning the place. Such a
cop, she thought. Studying her, the place. Everything.

She kind of regretted the baggy sweater and jeans she
was wearing, though at least she’d put on some mascara.

“Were you two close?” he asked as she
poured up the water.

She thought back to the phone calls, the last words
he’d said to her, and gave a slight nod as she offered him his
water.

“Thanks ma’am,” he said with a
smile.

“I guess that depends on your definition of
close,” she said, and it did. What they had...

She sipped her water.

“Though I don’t think I’ll be of
any help to you. I don’t know what happened,” she added
on.

“So you know about what happened to him?”
he asked, his circling motions coming to a close as he studied her
place, his blue eyes upon her again as he awaited that answer.

Angela shook her head.

“I’ve not been getting any answers. I
think the only reason I knew anything at all is because it happened
in the lobby of my building.”

“I see,” he said, looking patient as he
thought over her words. “So you weren’t here at the time
it happened, I take it?” he asked, sounding ever so patient and
calm as he went over the whole thing with her. He helped calm her
nerves at least, that much she had to admit.

But she knew that was dangerous, too. One misstep
with him and there was no going back.

“No,” she said, her eyes falling down.
“Half of me thanks God I wasn’t, the other half thinks,
if I was, maybe...” she trailed off.

“I doubt there was much you or anyone other
than an armed party of officers could’ve done,” he said
compassionately. Actually sounding like he wanted to reassure her.
“Are you aware of any… criminal connections he may have
had?” the officer asked, not content to solely console her
however.

Her brow furrowed and she hoped her confusion looked
authentic.

“He must have just been in the wrong place at
the wrong time,” she said earnestly. “It’s... not
the best part of the city.” She looked around at her sad
apartment, her meagre existence, as if to prove her point to him.
“Bad stuff happens around here all the time.”

The officer didn’t look convinced by her
statement, however. Had she oversold it?

“Not like this it doesn’t,” he said
to her, tapping his stylus against the touch screen pad he held.
“Even for the criminal element in this city… this is a
big deal, ma’am,” he said to her, looking a little more
stern now. “Which is why we’re looking into this so
seriously. The building’s security camera showed him —
and sometimes you and him — entering the building to go to your
apartment. Now, I know you might be concerned about saying something
to get yourself in trouble but… I’m really just
concerned with finding out who would shoot up a neighbourhood in this
city.”

He made his case so well, his smooth, deep voice so
convincing. He just wanted to help.

Angela sipped her water, doing her best to hold back
her tears. She’d spilled so many, already, and was exhausted
over it. She sat down on her ratty couch and let out a long sigh.

Detective Luke Crusher moved over, sitting himself
down on her couch beside her, placing his glass of water on the
coffee table. All the equipment dangling from his belt making it seem
so awkward for him.

“This isn’t the sort of city where we see
gunfights in the streets, ma’am. And certainly not the kind of
city where we see murder en masse, right out in the open. Your friend
was a victim of that attack, and even if he was involved in something
criminal… either way, anything you can tell us would help us
track down the perpetrators.”

Angela looked up at the officer, her emerald eyes
glittering with her unshed tears, her face looking more mature than
her 30 years, her lips drawn into a tight line as she considered the
detective.

Roughly one week earlier...

The beat of the music in the club reverberated
through the walls of the office, so that even though it was quiet,
the feeling of the beat and energy below carried up into it. Javier
sat upon the corner of his desk, a fine white suit upon him to
contrast his dark skin and eyes, though he’d shed his tie.

“I see you out that window every night, and I
can’t help but smile,” he said to Svetlana, who sat upon
the edge of a one-way window that looked out over the dance floor
below. His lips were spread into a broad smile as he eyed the dainty
woman, dressed in a mix of fluorescent pink and black, a raver outfit
if ever there was one.

She leaned back as she looked at him, all softness
and affection in her every move.

“Vell maybe you should be comink down more
often instead of hidink away from all of us. Enjoy the life you’ve
built.” Her toes were pointed inwards, resting against one
another in her high stiletto heels. They glowed under the black
light, just like most everything else she wore.

She flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder,
running her fingers through it idly as she glanced back to the crowd,
a lingering look of enjoyment upon her face.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do,” he
said simply, then rose up from his spot upon the desk, the tall man
towering over the much shorter woman as he made his way towards her.