Tore Up (Mississippi Smoke Series Book 1)

I parked my bike behind the Urban Bistro food truck. I’d arrived two hours early because I needed to talk to Alf and Tember about my living situation and see if I could possibly get someone in to replace me today. I was almost to the door of the truck when Tember stepped out. He looked at me, and the regret that crossed his expression was concerning He was always the chipper, upbeat one. Alf was the moody one. Tember always said they had a grumpy-sunshine romance.

“Hey, Tember,” I began. “I know I’m early, but I needed to talk to y’all.”

Alf’s body filled the doorway behind him. “Halo,” he said with a similar expression.

What was wrong with them? Had something happened? I really hoped they didn’t need me today.

“Uh, yeah, good morning,” I replied.

Tember looked back at him, and they both seemed to be upset.

Then, Alf cleared his throat and turned his eyes back to me. “Halo, I’m sorry, but we have to let you go.”

I stood there, shifting my eyes from one to the other. Was this a joke? They didn’t normally kid like this, but they were known to joke around with the employees. This was bad timing if it was.

“What?” I asked, looking at Tember.

If one was going to crack, it would be Tember. He was softhearted. But his face looked like he was about to burst into tears.

“We are overstaffed, and the budget is tight. We’re cutting back. I’m sorry. If you need a recommendation, please use us. We will give you an excellent one.”

I was so confused. Just last week, they had praised me, telling the evening shift that I was their hardest worker and they were going to cut everyone’s hours to give me more if they didn’t step it up.

“I know this is sudden, but we had to make a decision. Money is tight,” Tember said, tears glistening in his eyes. “It just has to be this way. But go on and apply at a restaurant. You will get a new job in no time. Like Alf said, use us as your recommendation.”

I wanted to ask why me, but that seemed selfish. They’d obviously struggled with the decision. But I could think of a few other employees who rarely showed up on time or at all and some who took more smoke breaks than allowed. Maybe they had been cut too though. I hated to make this harder on them than it was.

“Okay,” I replied, my voice barely above a whisper.

Tember started to come toward me, and Alf grabbed his arm, pulling him back as his gaze scanned the area nervously.

“Come inside,” he told Tember gruffly.

Tember seemed to understand his reaction and nodded, then went back into the food truck and shut the door without another word. I stood there, alone again.

This had really just happened. I’d lost my job. My heart sank even lower as I walked slowly back to my bike. Crosby wouldn’t know where I was if he ever decided to come find me. I had his number, but he’d not responded to my texts. I’d left him alone, hoping he’d come back after some time. He hadn’t, and now, it was too late.

At the rate people were getting rid of me, I was even more convinced there was something about me that turned them away.

When I reached the bike, I climbed on and started back out onto the main road.

Where did I go now? To the house? To find a job? Could I even rent a place to live if I didn’t have a job? What did one need to rent a place? If I could just get in touch with Ares, he could tell me who this guy was who was trying to kill me and what to do. How though?

With my family gone, the only other person who would have talked to Ares and might know what was going on was Nicco. Going anywhere near him and the people those two had started hanging out with made me cringe, but I had no other choice. Nicco had never held a knife to my throat, so there was that. He was definitely the lesser of the two evils. There was a very good chance that Nicco would know why this man was hell-bent on finding and killing Ares.

If it came down to it, he might even let me sleep on his sofa for a few nights. I immediately shut that thought down, thinking about his apartment. I knew the kind of parties they had there. I’d seen pictures on Ares’s phone. There was a chance I could get an STD from that sofa.

The sun was brutal, and I was coated in a thin layer of sweat when I parked outside Nicco’s apartment building. I glanced up at it and wished there were anywhere else I could go. There were probably drugs in that apartment. I wrapped my arms around my waist and contemplated this before I gave in and headed for the stairs. I had no choice. With no family, no job, and soon-to-be nowhere to live while being ghosted by the father of the baby I was carrying, being picky about where I got answers from wasn’t an option.

Rapping on his door twice, I stood back and waited.

God, please let Nicco be who answers and not some druggie gang person or something.

Not that God was listening to me. I was pretty sure he hated me the way my father did.

I waited two minutes before knocking again. There was a shout inside that sounded like someone called Nicco’s name. At least I knew he was in there. I was about to knock again when the door opened slowly, and a shirtless Nicco answered. His black hair was sticking up everywhere as he squinted against the sunlight. When he finally blinked and focused enough to see who it was, he stilled for a moment.

“Halo,” he said in a raspy voice.

“Good morning, Nicco. Sorry to bother you, but I have a bit of a problem, and I need your help.”

He frowned as he scanned the area behind me before stepping back. “Uh, okay,” he said, moving so I could come inside. He looked around again before closing the door and locking it.

The main area—or living room, or kitchen, or whatever it was—smelled like weed, dirty feet, and moldy food. There were empty liquor bottles, ashtrays, a couple of used needles, clothing, boxes of pizza, and some fast-food bags littering the space. A guy sat up on the sofa, and I realized he wasn’t just shirtless, but naked too.

I snapped my gaze off him and turned to Nicco. Yep, not about to stay here. It would be healthier and safer to sleep on the street. I’d find a large box.

“Halo, Ronnie. Ronnie, this is Ares’s sister,” Nicco said, then walked toward the kitchen. “What’s up, Halo?” he asked as he jerked open the fridge. “Seems like it must be bad if you came here.”

No kidding. It was life or death. That was the only reason I would have come here. I wasn’t sure if the pungent smell I was breathing in was toxic or not.

Had he ever cleaned this place? I knew he’d moved in here a little over a year ago. Ares had been pumped about it.

“Has Ares called you since he left?” I asked him.

He shook his head and took a drink from a carton of orange juice. “No. Why?”

I could feel the other guy in the room looking at me, and it made me even more uncomfortable. I moved closer to the kitchen.

“I, uh …” I didn’t want to chance glancing at this Ronnie guy and seeing his junk again. One time was enough. “Can I talk to you in private?” I asked.

He leaned against the counter and cut his eyes back over my shoulder. “Give us a minute,” he told Ronnie. “And put on some fucking pants.”

I stood there with my arms crossed over my chest, staring at the floor since it was a safe location for my eyes, while the guy muttered a curse. His footsteps went down the hallway, and then a door slammed. I lifted my gaze back to Nicco, who was studying me.

“What’s up?”

“Iris left with the kids four days ago. Nick came home, took his things, and then left last night,” I told him.

His eyes widened. “Shit,” he said, setting the orange juice down.

“Yeah, that’s not why I’m here. It gets worse. Do you by any chance know why a man would want Ares dead?”

Nicco’s olive complexion paled. “Dead?” he asked as if he hadn’t heard me correctly, but his reaction said he had. In fact, there was something in his dark eyes that said he knew why.

“Yes. Dead. A man was in my bedroom last night and”—I pointed to the bandage on my neck—“held a blade to my throat and demanded I tell him where Ares is.”

“Fuck,” he hissed, straightening from his stance. “How did he get in? Did you hear him? What else did he say?”

“I think I left the door unlocked. I woke up terrified. I could feel someone in the room with me. He said I had twenty-four hours to tell him where Ares was or he would kill me and the rest of my family. I’m gonna tell him. Ares is safe, but me and the others? Not so much. But I need to know why and what he did. I’m trying to decide if this guy is going to kill me anyway. Should I be alone in that house tonight?”

Nicco ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he chanted as he walked over to the sofa and gripped the back of it. “Dammit!”

This wasn’t helping me. I needed answers.

“What did he do, Nicco?” I demanded.

Nicco shook his head. “I don’t know,” he lied.

“Yes, you do! I need to know. This man is coming back.”

Nicco let his head fall forward as he groaned. “Fucking hell, Ares.”

“My family left me, I won’t have anywhere to live in two days, and, oh, I just got fired this morning. So, you see, this is just one of many problems I seem to have. I don’t have time for you to panic or rant. I need to know what I am dealing with. Is it drugs? Did y’all get drugs from someone and not pay them?”

Nicco shook his head and turned to look at me. “It’s not drugs,” he said. “Ares stopped drugs back when he decided to enlist in the Army.”

I threw up my hands. “Then, what is it? Don’t tell me you don’t know because you do.”

He rubbed his face, looking at me like he’d rather jump off the balcony than tell me what my brother had done.

There was a knock on the door, and he looked relieved for the interruption.

“It’s probably Ronnie’s bitch, tracking him down. She’ll keep banging and start yelling if I don’t get it,” he said, walking over to the door and jerking it open.

It wasn’t a female. Nicco was thrown back so hard that he landed on his butt in a loud crash as his body knocked over several of the empty liquor bottles. A much larger guy walked into the apartment, closing the door behind him. I sucked in a breath and held it. He was here, and I’d been wrong. In the light of day, he was even more attractive. And he had a gun in his right hand, pointed at Nicco.

“I didn’t do it, man,” Nicco told him, holding up both hands. “I swear it!”

The man tilted his head, and the sinister gleam in his eyes lifted to me.

Topaz. His eyes were topaz. They were breathtaking, but they belonged to a man who was holding a gun and wanted to kill me.

“You said I had twenty-four hours,” I blurted.

He motioned to Nicco with the gun in his hand. “I lied. You did as expected and led me to answers.”

“He’s not here! Tell him, Halo! He’s gone.”

Those eyes swung back to Nicco. “Then, where the fuck is he?”

Oh God. We were all going to die.

I put both hands on my stomach, as if that were enough to protect the life inside me. If he shot me, my hands weren’t going to do anything.

“Ares enlisted in the Army after graduation. He left for boot camp two months ago.”

Rage lit his expression as he lifted his arm and pointed the gun at me. “You lied to me last night.”

I shook my head. “No. No, I don’t know where boot camp is. I planned on telling you this tonight.”

“You expect me to believe that? Why wait? Come here to see this guy? Hmm? What was it you were warning him about? I told you if you ran, I’d kill you and your entire family.”

“That’s not it. You don’t understand,” I replied just as a bullet silently whizzed past me and into the cabinet, causing something to shatter inside.

A cry tore from my mouth, and I dropped to the floor.

“WHOA!” Nicco shouted. “Don’t kill her! She didn’t do shit! I swear it!”

“That was a warning. If I’d wanted to kill her just now, she’d be dead,” he replied.

Another sob escaped me, and I ducked my head, covering my mouth. Wishing I could crawl into a small hole and hide. He’d shot at me.

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

“What is it you want? She told you he’s at boot camp,” Nicco told him as his voice cracked.

“I want vengeance. That’s what I fucking want,” he drawled. “An eye for an eye might be all I can have right now.”

“Wait!” Nicco shouted.

I was afraid to look up at either of them.

“She’s pregnant.”

His words, however, caused my head to snap up, and I stared at Nicco in shock. How did he know? I’d not told a soul other than Crosby.

“And you think I care?” The man sounded disgusted.

Nicco’s gaze met mine. “If the vengeance you’re seeking is for Crosby, then, yes, I do.”

Crosby? I sat up from my crouched position. A cold chill ran through my body as I stared at Nicco, then looked at the other man. Why were they talking about Crosby and getting vengeance for him?

“What does that mean, Nicco?!” I demanded, my main concern no longer being the gun.

The man swung his weapon back to Nicco. “I’d like that answer too.”

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and looked over to see Ronnie with his own gun pointed at the stranger. I froze, wanting to warn the man because I needed to know what he had to do with Crosby.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say something when the man moved so fast that I would have missed it if I’d blinked. The crack of the gunshot made me jump just before Ronnie fell back, hitting the wall as the gun dropped from his hand. I gasped in horror as blood oozed from between his eyes. Covering my mouth, I was sure I was about to be sick.

“Fuck!” Nicco swore. “I told Ares not to, okay? But he’d found a pregnancy test hidden in the trash. Then, he got Carina’s phone and checked it or some shit. He looked at their messages or something. He got real fucking worked up over it. Halo had been talking to Crosby a lot, and he had heard it—I guess listening from another room. Then, he listened in on the last call she made to him. She told Crosby about the positive test.” He shook his head. “Ares has a fucking temper, and he is real protective of Halo. I told him not to take the damn gun and go hunt him down.”

I stared at Nicco as all the blood drained from my face. I heard a wail and realized it was me. Wrapping my arms around my stomach, I began to rock.

This wasn’t real. This was a nightmare. This couldn’t be happening. No. Everything was fine. It was fine. Just fine.

Another click from the gun, and I heard the heavy weight of a body falling with a thud onto the floor. I didn’t look. I stared straight ahead.

Not real. Not happening. If I looked, it would be real. I couldn’t look.

Whatever they had been talking about, I misunderstood it. That was all.

Black combat boots stopped in front of me. They were big, like the rest of him.

I kept rocking.

“Is it his?” the deep voice asked.

Is it his?

The baby.

“Crosby’s,” I whispered. “The baby is Crosby’s.”

“Get up!” he barked at me.

I shook my head and rocked faster. “Where is Crosby?” I asked. The hysteria in my voice made it high-pitched. I was losing it.

A hand wrapped around my arm and jerked me up to my feet. Although it was painful, I didn’t cry out. That pain didn’t compare to the agony unfurling inside me. The hand tightened on my arm and shook me.

“You really don’t know?” The hate he felt saturated his tone.

I shook my head as my vision blurred.

I could hear him grinding his teeth.

“He’s dead.”

“NO!” I shouted, shaking my head and trying to pull my arm free. “NO!” My voice sounded like someone else. I didn’t recognize it.

He held me up until my feet barely touched the ground. “Your brother shot him. All because you spread your legs like a fucking whore!”

“No, no, no, no,” I chanted, feeling like the room was spinning.

A hard slap snapped my head back, silencing me.

“Shut up!” he roared.

Reality in all its horrific truth started to creep over me.

He began pulling me with him as he walked through the room, back toward the door, kicking Ronnie’s body out of the way. A strange numbness settled in my chest. I turned to look back and saw Nicco lying there. His lifeless eyes staring at nothing.

“Take a good look,” he snarled. “If the DNA test says that’s not my little brother’s kid inside you, then you’re next. Unless your brother wants to come home and take your place.”

Little brother.

I turned to look up at the man holding my arm. This was Crosby’s brother.

“Bane,” I said, remembering the name.

Crosby had talked about him more than once.

Emotion flickered in his eyes as he jerked me from the apartment and closed the door. He said nothing as we walked down the stairs, and he took me to a black Silverado truck. Although I got inside willingly, he still shoved me as if I were trying to fight him.

Ares had killed Crosby. I wasn’t dreaming. There was no nightmare to wake up from.