Stolen (A Bad Boy Romance #2) By Kaylee Song
Chapter One
Janson
I slammed my fist into the bone of his cheek, the crack of it under my knuckles oh-so-satisfying. Yes, you deserved to scream.
I took pleasure in days like today. Days where I had a job to do, a simple one. I’d woken up this morning to get a single text from James Fitzgerald.
Take care of the butcher, he needs a little reminder.
The butcher wasn’t a man on the corner who sold deli meats and those nice little cuts of beef you put in your oven, no, it was our butcher.
A human butcher.
He’d gotten a little too big for his britches and he needed reminding. I didn’t need to know what about. I didn’t need any of that shit, no details.
I did as I was told. I answered to two people in the family. James Fitzgerald, the head of the Fitzgerald family, and his son, Greyson. My job was twofold. Protect Greyson at all cost, and beat the f*ck
out of anyone the mob needed.
I liked it that way, too. No complications, no bullshit. Greyson listened to whatever I had to say, and he took me seriously. I mattered.
I was important.
“Keep going,” Henry O’Caughlin said as he looked up at me. He knew his pleas would get nothing in return. He’d heard them all, so he didn’t beg, he didn’t scream.
He ushered me on.
“Why do you have to f*ck
ing test your limits?” I asked as I slammed my fist into that twice-broken nose of his. That motherf*ck
er looked handsome even with the broken nose and the scars on his face.
It wasn’t the first beating he’d taken.
I wouldn’t kill him, hell, I couldn’t. He was too valuable to the family, and he knew it. He had a million secrets and a million more talents. He was one of the most indispensable people there was.
“Got bored,” he answered as he chewed on a broken piece of his lip.
“I know the feeling,” I said. I was getting bored, too. He didn’t even grunt when I hit him.
“If I were you, I’d get out the drill and go right for my knee caps,” he said.
I wasn’t him. I’d beat a guy, I’d shoot him in the head, or dump him in the river, but I wouldn’t torture with the intent to kill.
“You need to stop pushing boundaries, just do what they want.” I didn’t know what boundaries, but I knew that was the reason for this little visit.
“I’ll be good. For now.” He smiled at me, the blood in his mouth rushing down his lips. What a sick f*ck
ing bastard.
The fact that I enjoyed making him bleed made me one, too.
My cell buzzed in my pocket right as I cocked my arm back to take another swing. f*ck
. It was the phone in my left pocket. My direct line to the family. Either Greyson or James, no one else had that number.
I fished it out and answered it.
“I need you to get your ass into the office. I have a job for you.” Greyson.
“All right, I’ll be in around nine,” I said, as I looked at the time on the display. It was seven thirty in the morning. Jesus Christ, I’d been up beating the hell out of this ass*ole
all night.
“No, this is urgent. I need you here now.”
“All right, I’ll be right there,” I said, then hung up the phone.
“Looks like duty calls me away. I’ll have to reschedule this little session, but you’ll wait for me, right?” I asked as I walked over to the warehouse’s set of sinks.
“You know it,” he said with absolutely no emotion.
f*ck
, that guy was totally cold. I respected him.
“What did you do to piss them off?” I asked. I didn’t care, not really, it was just idle talk.
“I carved up my last target and left his bones in a message for his organization.”
“And that’s a problem?” I asked. He was known for signature moves like that.
“He was supposed to stay alive.” He shrugged. “I got bored.”
“Ah.” He said it just like a kid would about homework, or a board game they stopped playing.
We all had to follow the rules in the family, we all had a responsibility.
And right now, mine was getting to Greyson. I left Henry sitting there in his own blood as I walked out of the warehouse. I’d see him in a few hours to finish the job.
Beat him bloody, leave him unconscious with the family name carved into his flesh. Those were my orders. That was what I would do.
Because I always followed orders.
***
"Why in the hell did I have to come in this early?" I asked as I walked into Greyson's office. He was too busy talking to his secretary, Lily, to even look up.
"Because I asked you to. And because I need you to do a job for me no one else can do," he said as he filled out a couple of forms and then sat down.
"Then you should at least buy a man breakfast, don't you think?" I could use a sausage and egg platter to get me in a good mood.