Page 81 of Knockout Queen

“She didn’t have a mouth on her, though. I quite like a girl who fights back if you know what I’m saying. They make it so much more fun to break.”

Pain twists my stomach. The thought of him and my mom together makes me dizzy. It makes me revolt. How in the fuck did she get mixed up with someone like him?

He gives my nipple one last squeeze and pushes me forward. I stumble the first few steps but catch my balance before whirling to face him. I back up against a wall, and he waves his only guard left away. “You showed a lot of fight back there.” He tilts his head as if he’s finally taking stock of me. Not like I haven’t been around for these past few months. Suddenly, I’m new and shiny to him, and being new and shiny to someone like Big Daddy K isn’t a good thing. “I see the questions in your eyes, too. Let’s sit back down at the table, and we’ll talk. My dinner was so rudely interrupted by my son conspiring against me.”

“Conspiring against you? You tricked him into killing someone, just so he could move up.”

“I only felt like I had to trick him because of you. So, it’s only fair.” He turns and moves back to his seat at the metal dining room table. It’s a mess now. The guard I threw on top of it smashed some dishes. He frowns and then yells out for the maid. She comes bustling in, and all he has to do is point at the shit he wants taken care of, and she gets to work. When she leaves, he gazes over at me. “Sit,” he orders, gesturing toward where Johnny was sitting only a few minutes ago.

Loneliness hits me in the gut. Just fuck. Here I am where I thought I would be. Facing down K by myself, but since I’ve met the guys, I honestly never thought I’d be alone again. I never wanted to be alone again. I got the taste of what I never even knew I wanted, and I don’t want to let it go.

What if that was the last time I’ll see Johnny? Or Brawler or Oscar? Magnum… When he pops into my head, I’m so confused I grab the wall for support.

“I won’t ask you again, Kyla.”

“I’m not sitting with you at a table like nothing just happened.”

K wraps spaghetti around his fork and peeks over at the guard. He doesn’t wait for audible orders, he marches toward me and grabs my hands. My feet, my limbs, everything feels so heavy and weighted down. I try to struggle against him, but my training has been kissed goodbye.

The guard forces me to sit in Johnny’s place. He pushes my shoulders down so hard, I’m almost positive he cracks my tailbone, but I squeeze my lips shut. The maid walks pleasantly out of the rear of K’s suite and switches my plate for Johnny’s and then takes his into the back with her.

“There,” K says. “Now we can have a polite conversation. Perhaps you have questions about your mom?”

I have a billion questions, but I won’t give him the satisfaction. A burning hole of curiosity tempts me, but I sit straight in the chair. I’m outnumbered right now. I don’t know where any guns are. I lost track of them in all of the commotion, so it’s best to play this by ear for the time being. Brawler and Oscar will come for me when they figure out what’s happening. Then, we can save Johnny. We can tell the police…

Except, Johnny might’ve killed Gregory. He certainly isn’t innocent by any means. He and Magnum annihilated people today. Took them out without warning because we had a goal. If K’s guys never picked up the scene, it would be so easy to put Johnny away for life when the real culprit is sitting to my right. He might not have killed anyone today, but he’s the puppet master with everyone. He orders, they act. To me, he’s just as culpable as the rest of these guys. Maybe even more so because if he didn’t tell them what to think, maybe they’d think differently. Johnny’s already proven that.

“I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. Your eyes remind me of hers.”

“Don’t fucking talk about her,” I growl. The fucker acts as if he loved her—liked her. It’s sick. His reasoning for murdering her is absolute bullshit. Because she was happy? And he wasn’t? That shit happens all the fucking time.

“She was surprised to see me. I was just grateful she even recognized me. I knew her when I was about your age.” He looks away as if these are fond memories for him.

I almost gag.

“Our relationship was short and intense. Just a summer fling, really, but the thought of her never left me.”

“I bet she never thought of you again.”

Pain radiates from my hand. It happened so fast, I didn’t see him move. I try to move my hand from the point of pain, but it sticks, and another wave of pure agony radiates up my arm. I glance over to find a knife handle sticking out of my hand. The blade wedged just below my middle knuckle. I gasp in a breath.Fuuuuuck.

“She loved me.”

I close my eyes and fight through the pain. Dots blur my vision. Wetness creeps over my skin, but I don’t dare look at what I’m sure is blood seeping everywhere. Dirtying his pristinely laid table. His whole life is a greeting card with ugly words inside it. Looks beautiful from the outside, but the inside is where the true story lies.

We’re silent for a few moments as he peacefully returns to eating his meal. Light-headedness hits me, so I reach out with my free hand and take a sip of Johnny’s water glass, making sure to keep my other hand as still as can be.

K laughs into his napkin, and I peek at him before I can stop myself. He shakes his head like he’s about to tell a funny joke. “Aw, my son. He knows better than what he did today. I still maintain you ruined him because he let his feelings get in the way of his work. I learned not to do that a long time ago.” He chuckles again, and a sliver of ice worms its way up my spine. “He didn’t check the car for bugs. The minute he told me you left the Heights, I knew something was up. We Marx’s don’t just give up our toys like that. I had Trey install the bug in the backseat, and it turns out I was right. You know what I heard coming out of his mouth?”

I lick my lips. My mouth won’t stay wet, and I’m feeling woozy. I concentrate on his question though. He must have heard them in the car talking…on the way back to the Heights with Brawler in the car. That’s when we’d solidified the plan. Brawler rode back to ask them if Jax and Finn could go into the club with me. “You heard a plan to trap Gregory,” I say.

K reaches out to grab his water. He holds it to his lips for a second. “That’s what I heard at first.” He takes a long swallow, and I envy the fucking free movement of his hand. Meanwhile, I’m turning cold all over. He sets the cup back down. “Then I heard him say, ‘Do you really think Kyla will do it? Will she kill my dad?’” He flings the glass across the room, and it shatters against the wall. I flinch, and another round of pain shoots through my palm. “I knew right then he was compromised because the son I raised would’ve killed you the moment you spoke out against me. No questions. No second chances. A bullet to your forehead, Kyla Samson.” He turns to glare at me and laughs. “That’s not your real name, is it? You’re good. I’ll hand it to you. You got past my guys, and they’re very thorough.”

I bite the inside of my cheek. I never got past Magnum. Magnum knew all along. What is he doing? I can’t help but think that he’s playing a part again. Just like he did when Johnny told me to leave the Heights.

No fucking wonder the little things I saw didn’t sit right with me. Magnum’s a cop. A dirty cop. He’s been K’s informant this whole time, and fucking shit. K did know that Gregory was holding Johnny. What in the actual fuck? Does that mean he sent the cops there that night too? Or was that Magnum?

“You shouldn’t frown. The only thing a woman is good for is her looks, and the moment you get wrinkles, you’ll cease to be of use to me. If you’re smart, you’ll do anything to stay under my good graces, Kyla. I think I’ve made it clear what happens when women don’t.”

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