Motown Takedown (Motown Down Book 3) (6 page)

“Boss,
”
Ransom says eye balling the estimate. “Forty g’s for a fucking pool? You sure she even likes to swim?
”
The answer to this was no, I wasn’t sure but I was fairly sure most people did, in fact, like to swim. Per the terms of our agreement I would be free to come for her in thirty days. When she came home I wanted her to have a fucking pool. A heated pool. A pool that she could strip down and float in whenever she fucking felt like it. I also had the kitchen upgraded, our suite finished by an interior decorator and toilet seats that went down on their own. When Cinn came home I wanted her to have exactly that, a home.

It didn’t matter that I already knew she hasn’t experienced life, but seeing her excitement over a fucking game of miniature golf sent me into a tailspin. We had a God damn deal. He was supposed to raise her and teach teach her shit while I got this business off the ground. He did neither. In fact, if he did anything it was stunt her. If that motherfucker wasn’t dead yet, I was considering doing it tonight with my bare hands.

There was a time I respected Savage. But that respect went out the window the day we found Cinn.  He never should have taken her but back then I wasn’t in a position to stop him. Then again, the second I saw her I didn’t want to stop him. Taking her hand and leading her to the pool, I don’t even speak to Ransom but she did and he soaked that shit up. All she said was hello and that she sucked at miniature golf but you’d think she told him she loved him.

Opening the door, I move her ahead of me so she can take it in.

Standing there, she looks. And looks and looks. “What’s wrong?
”
I ask her wondering if my shit mood was affecting hers.

“I don’t know how to swim,
”
she says simply. “And I know shit about pools but I’m thinking this one’s clutch.
”
She wasn’t pouting or complaining about not having a pool, just stating fact.

“Would you like to learn?
”
I manage to ask her.

“Yes, okay no. Well maybe,
”
she says squeezing my hand. “I need to think on it.  Your pool is intimidating. Okay you know what, I don’t need to learn how to swim. Ever.”

“Cinn,
”
leaning in, I get eye to eye with her. “You’re learning to swim.”

“I’m afraid,
”
she whispers for my ears only.

“Trust me?”

“You? Yes. Absolutely.
”

“Good, wait here.”

Escorting her to a chair, I call for Ransom. Before I tore this place apart, I needed a minute to myself. Coming in, he takes one look at me, then to her and nods. Cinn looked uncertain as to why I was leaving her with Ransom but we’d discuss it later. Bolting, I head to my office to make a call.

For five years the son of a bitch was twelve blocks from this building. I used to believe he set it up this way so he could keep an eye on our business. Now I knew he did it to fucking torture me. Breaking from his den and our joint venture was the smartest thing I’d ever done. Of course that’s when he started trying to kill me on a daily basis, but knowing she was close yet out of my reach was the worst kind of torture. Guaranteed, he got off on that shit.

“I told you she would want to come home –
”
he answers smugly.

“Putt putt, mother fucker,
”
I growl into the phone
.
“She can’t fucking swim either.”

“Why in the fuck would she need to know how to do either?
”
he growls back in real confusion. In that moment, I wished I had instructed Ransom to shoot him in the heart instead of the legs. “We had a business to run not fucking play time. What are you, twelve?”

“I don’t trust you,
”
I remind him. “You lied to me. The day you die I will rejoice, but trust me, Savage, she’s purring in my bed right now. She most certainly does not want to come back.
”
His roar was a bonus. “Thank you for keeping her safe until I was ready for her,
”
I say going for the jugular. “And Savage, she was ready for
me
.”

“She belongs to me!
”
he screams. “I’m coming for her!”

“I look forward to it.”

Hanging up I decided fuck it, his death would end in drowning.

I was minding my own business sitting at the table reading a copy of The Art Of War by Sun Tzu when Savage took the seat across from mine and cracked a beer. I despised his interruption because this book was amazing and I couldn’t absorb the knowledge while he eye fucked me. “You and your books,
”
he smiles taking it from my hands. If I was older, stronger, I’d bash his head in with the hand mixer sitting on the counter. However, I was sixteen and because of my numerous attempts to brain him, he’s kept potential weapons hidden. Flipping it over he skims the page before dropping it. “Have you spent all your free time reading trash or have you bothered to find Marco’s weakness as I’ve asked numerous times?
”
Rolling my eyes, I stand up and grab my book keeping it safe in my hands.

“Marco’s weakness, as I’ve said numerous times, is his collection of priceless antiques.”

“Not his daughter?”

“No,
”
I lie. Luna was a weakness, kind of
…
but I wanted her left alone. If Savage was stupid enough to try and take on someone of Marco’s ilk, I wanted her out of the way. Marco slitting his throat would be Christmas in July for both of us. “And I’ve said no the last six times you’ve asked.”

“I read,
”
he says waving my attitude off. “Socrates said ‘living well and dying are one.’”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,
”
I groan. “First of all, Socrates certainly did not say that. In fact, it was Epicurus who said the art of living well and dying well are one. Can we stop with the small talk now? I don’t like it.”

Laughing loud, he finishes his beer, stands up and kisses the top of my head and pauses. Opening my book back up he says, “Bean?”

“What?
”
I return not bothering to look up.

“My achilles heel loves to read,
”
he says from the door and to this I just smiled. Oh, if he only knew…

Not that I didn’t enjoy the opportunity to get to know Ransom better, but he looked like he’d rather dive into the pool sans water than be sitting here with me. Neither of us knew what to do. A master of small talk, I was not. I gave orders, could be a great listener if what was being said was worth listening to and preferred to plot; not…sit.

Looking around the poolroom, I took a seat on one of the plastic lounge chairs wondering what to do now. There was no way I was getting anywhere near that water and I regretted telling him I couldn’t swim. Monarch looked murderous when he left and I wanted answers as to why he did. I was queen, right? Time to put my status to good use. “Any idea what he’s doing?”

“Yeah.”

“Care to share?”

“No.”

“Then point me in the direction of the office, my hair’s getting frizzy in here.”

“He doesn’t like that you’ve been living under a fucking rock.
”
This came out as a grunt. Ransom was not handsome in any sense. I read a book once that used the term,
rode hard and put away wet
. This was Ransom. It had to suck to be that unattractive.

“Well that makes two of us,
”
I say rolling my eyes.

“He’s risking everything by bringing you here,
”
he says standing. A normal woman would find him frightening. I was not a normal woman, I was a queen and he was below me.

“His risk will be our reward.
”
I counter.

“Men will die,
”
he points out like I’m remedial.

“That’s called
war
,
”
I say standing so we’re equals. “Death waits for all of us and sometimes if it’s done right, it’s even fun.”

Then he gives me an ear splitting smile I wish he hadn’t before saying, “He chose well.”

“Of course he did,
”
I smile back ending the fight. “So, how long do we have to sit here and think of shit to talk about? I’m not good at small talk.”

“Yeah, Cinn, you are,
”
he says quietly. “You just haven’t had a lot of practice at it.
”
This hit close to home so I changed the subject.

“Do you know how to swim?”

“Of course I do,
”
he says like I’m an idiot. “Who the fuck doesn’t know how to—
”
raising an eyebrow he stops short and winces.

“It can’t be hard,
”
I mumble staring at the water. I was terrified of down to my marrow but I wasn’t sharing that. Never show weakness and all that. “I excel at everything, swimming cannot be difficult. Worse case is you drown, right?”

“He wouldn’t let you.”

“I’m holding you to that,
”
I say sitting back down. For the next fifteen minutes we said nothing while I stared at the water trying to talk myself out of this fear. When the filter kicked on and I noticed a swirl in the water I realized; Nope, still there.

Without a word, Ransom stands, pushes on his earpiece and silently exits the room. When Monarch entered I sensed a shift, a dangerous one.

This, of course, made me wet.

Monarch was too enraged to notice.

Pity.

She was terrified and refused to get back into the truck. I’d never seen her like this before, in truth, it scared me. And if I didn’t get her back soon, Savage was going to start killing people. But I couldn’t do that until I fixed what was wrong, which meant his killing spree would wait. “Tell me what’s wrong, Cinn,
”
I urge her.

Shaking her head no, I watch her rubbing her hands in agitation. At Savage’s order, I had one of our newest recruits with us and clearly his patience was at an end and he’d forgotten the pecking order. “I told you bringing her would slow us down,
”
he grunts.

“Just toss her in, we don’t have all day.”

“Cinn, last time. Tell me what’s wrong before I kill him in broad daylight.”

Whatever it was had her so embarrassed she couldn’t look me in the eye. Standing up on her toes, I lean and her breath in my ear was like heaven until she spoke. “I started my period.
”
Oh fuck me… So she wasn’t terrified, she was embarrassed.

“What do you need for that?
”
I grate out.

“I don’t know, it’s my first one. Can we go to the store, please?”

So I took her, bought her one of everything, which included a year’s worth of magazines and chocolate. I don’t know which of us was more mortified but when her bag broke and the contents spilled onto the concrete, I did know who’d be dying for laughing at her. “The princess started her period, fucking classic!”

The look she gave the recruit should have shut him up but he was too stupid to realize what he’d done. Two hours later, with Cinn in her room handling her shit, I found the recruit and handled mine. Dumping his dead body into a utility sized garbage bag, Savage asked me why I killed our newest recruit. I told him the truth, “He made fun of Cinn for starting her period.
”
He shrugged and said,

“He can rot.
”
And that was that.

Ransom was too close to her, but I’d discuss that with him later. Right now, I needed to be near her, touch her, feel the proof she was real. Pushing past him and the smirk on his face, I pull her up and out of the lounge and take her mouth. Pouring everything I had for her in the kiss, she threw her arms around my neck and gave it back to me. Like all things Cinn, it went from kissing to wanting inside of her. When she guided me down to the lounge pulling me on top of her, before I ripped her clothes off, I stopped kissing her. Her eyes were begging for only what I could give her, her body was screaming for mine but denying her was best. “I’m not fucking you on a lounge chair,
”
I growl backing away. “Do you own a suit?”

“A suit? As in, swimsuit? No.
”

Figures. Pushing my earpiece, I let Ransom know to grab the suit I bought for her a few years ago. There was a reason he was my second in command. He was back in five minutes still wearing that damn smirk. He was enjoying my discomfort and when I looked into the bag my balls got a pulse. This wasn’t the suit I meant for him to grab, this one was a torture device. One I ordered from a catalog on a whim and was too revealing. The prick knew I was riled up…

I would just have to make sure no one but me ever fucking saw her in this suit. Fuck, I was in trouble. When he leaves without a word, I face her. Not bothering with privacy, she undresses and asks, “I’m getting naked to put a suit on? Can’t I just stay naked? This seems unnecessary.”

Palming my cock to keep it from jumping, I try to explain without coming in my jeans. “The pool is a common area, which means one of my men could walk in here and see you.
”
Then smirking at me, she shimmies the bottoms on and turns to look at me.

“Is it supposed to
…
to do this?
”
she asks grinning. “My ass doesn’t fit,
”
she says trying to cover it. As for me, I was loving that it didn’t come close to covering that ass. Then fumbling with the top she grunts and looks at me like she’d like to skip it, which was appealing but not happening.

“Put it on,
”
I order.

“Put what on?
”
she says throwing her hands up. “Ransom has a sense of humor,
”
she mumbles. And I had to admit once she put it on there wasn’t much to it. Adjusting the triangles she turns like a fashion model seeking my approval.

“Fucking flawless,
”
I praise her.

She glows from my approval then I drop my pants to pull my trunks on and I can see how much she wants me. Her nipples are rock hard, her eyes are begging to fuck and she’s breathing heavy. She can see how much I want her too considering my dick was hard and pointing at her like a God damn compass
.

“Monarch,
”
she whispers licking her lips. “I can’t keep waiting.”

“Yeah you can,
”
Walking over to her, I take her hand leading her to the steps to the pool.

Frozen solid, she takes her arm back and says, “Um no.”

“Cinn,
”
I coax. “I’ll never let you go.”

“It looks cold,
”
she says backing away.

“It’s heated,
”
I assure her.

“It looks deep,
”
she says ringing her hands.

“Six feet at the far end, four feet here,
”
I urge. “Take my hand, baby.”

“No fucking chance,
”
she says shaking her head. Never have I witnessed her truly terrified. I’ve watched men die at her feet and not once did she flinch. I’ve also watched her negotiate with hard ass criminals and stand up to Savage but I had no idea she was afraid of water or that it would fuck with me that she was. Again, my fault.

“Do you trust me, Cinn?
”
I ask holding my hand out.

“I don’t trust undertoes, monsoons or thunderstorms.  All are products of water. You look hot by the way, let’s just forget the pool and—”

Pulling her to me and picking her up, I decided tough love was the best love. Carrying her into the water, she doesn’t scream or thrash which I what I expected. Instead, she clutches me and pants in my ear. “Don’t let go, please.”

Sinking us slowly into the warmth of the water, it took a full five minutes of my swaying with her, showing her it was safe before she looked into my eyes and let out a sigh. She had a strong fear of water but I didn’t know why. “How is it, Mo chuisle?”

“Silky,
”
she mumbles letting go with one hand to let it flow through the water. She was fearless, my queen was. “Gentle.”

“Lie back,
”
I urge her. Slowly, very slowly she does. When the water covers her ears, leaving her face and tits above water she let’s out another breath while I move her around the water. “Now?
”
I ask.

“Relaxing,
”
she says closing her eyes. “Quiet.”

“Why are you afraid of water?”

She doesn’t jerk away from me but she does tense before answering, “When I was little, as punishment I was held under water a lot. I told Savage about it and when I made the mistake of defending Pope, he held me underwater in the bathtub. So let’s just say I am not a fan of water.”

The bastard never told me this and he would pay for that.  Savage, of course, would pay double. “You are safe with me,
”
I promise her. Switching positions I start to sway her in the opposite direction watching her long hair trail behind her. “Cinn,
”
I repeat, “Do you believe you’re safe here with me?
”

Opening her bright green eyes she says, “Yes, I do.”

“We practice every day, a week from now you’ll be swimming laps.
”
Reaching up she touches my face gently before letting it float in the water. We stayed like a while, quiet and reflective. When it was time to get out, she let me dry her off and kissed me on the cheek when I was finished pampering her. For the first time in my life, I felt like a king.