Death & Dust (New York Crime Kings Book 7) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Emily’s Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Epilogue

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  Death & Dust

  NEW YORK CRIME KINGS

  Round Seven

  Skyla Madi

  Death & Dust

  Copyright © 2018 by Skyla Madi.

  All rights reserved.

  First Print Edition: March 2018

  Limitless Publishing, LLC

  Kailua, HI 96734

  www.limitlesspublishing.com

  Formatting: Limitless Publishing

  ISBN-13: 978-1-64034-335-1

  ISBN-10: 1-64034-335-0

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  For Mum,

  Even though you don’t read my shit.

  And for Crystal,

  Because you read ALL my shit.

  Table of Contents

  Emily’s Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Epilogue

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  Emily’s Prologue

  The Night of our escape…Jai’s death

  Joel gives in, letting me sit in the quiet forest until the painful truth of Jai’s death settles into my bones. He sends Monique through the forest on her own to tell Ted what happened, to tell him there’s only three of us and we’re slightly delayed because now he’s gotta help me try to pull myself together. He said it to her with as much compassion as he could muster, but even I heard his irritated undertones.

  To think Ted went to all this effort only to lose his best friend. I lower my stare from the forest ahead to my bare feet. The sky has lightened enough for me to see the cuts on my skin, and in the distance, we hear the shouting of emergency services as they fight to contain the inferno. I should be happy my former prison is now a pile of death and dust, but I can’t. Not when it might encase the body of the love of my life.

  I should’ve begged harder for him to stay…I should’ve done more.

  My chest aches, my lungs feel crushed. Irritation prickles over the surface of my skin and, joined with my anguish, it creates an unrelenting surge of anger deep inside me. After all of this, after everything, how could he still want to go after Skull?

  We were free, damn it! We were free.

  “Emily,” Joel sighs, lowering himself to sit next to me, “I don’t want to rush you, you know I don’t, but…we have to go.”

  “Why? Why should I go? All Jai and I had to do was walk out of this forest and we’d have the rest of our lives together.” I sniffle, swiping at my nose. “Now what do I have? No house. No job. No Jai. I gave up everything I had when I followed him from that damn train.”

  I might as well lay down and die here. I let the thought go unspoken.

  “You have me. You have Monique.”

  “You have each other,” I say, my voice thick with acid, with unfiltered jealousy. “I’m not going to be your third wheel.” I turn my head away from him, pulling my knees tighter against my chest. “And you…you look so much like him. I can barely stomach the sight of you.”

  He places his wide-open palm on my back and glides it in circles, trying to soothe me, but all it does is send dread hurtling down my spine. I shudder.

  “Maybe I’m wrong, maybe he isn’t…” Dead. He swallows the word. “We can go back to Hannah’s. Jai knows we’re going to be there. He’ll show up.”

  Slowly, I straighten my spine, his words planting the tiniest seed of hope in my chest. I grasp it and I hold on for dear life. “Do you think there’s really a chance…that maybe…”

  “I think, if anyone is going to survive that blast, it’s Jai.” I hear a smile spread across Joel’s lips. “He’s not the type to go down easy, you know that. He’s—”

  “Stubborn,” I add, hating the way my voice sounds, like it’s coming from my nose. Damn sniffles.

  “Yeah.”

  Silence forms between us and we simmer in it. Despite the glimmer of hope Joel’s given me, a storm of emotion brews with it. Am I delaying the inevitable by believing Jai will meet us later? Am I setting myself up for complete emotional destruction if he doesn’t show?

  “So, will you come with us? Back to Ted’s?”

  I grimace. The thought of going there, the thought of being around Jai’s friends and family, sits oddly in my chest. I know them through Jai. Without him, I’m not connected to any of them, not really.

  “If Jai is gone…” I tighten my lips to prevent them from quivering. “You don’t have to keep me around.”

  “I want to keep you around. We’ve been through a lot—more than most—and that makes us family.” He clears his throat. “Besides, Monique will need a friend. Our child will need an aunty.”

  Shockwaves of surprise shoot through my body and I whip my head to face him. “Monique’s pregnant?”

  How’d I miss that? Monique and I didn’t speak much while living with Skull, but I would’ve thought a pregnancy is something she’d trust me with. Obviously not. Earlier tonight, I regretted throwing myself under the bus to spare Monique from Laura’s wrath. Now I’m glad I did. If she lost the baby…I’d never forgive myself. Doing what I did with Skull doesn’t make me feel so ill.

  As I look at Joel, I can see the pride etched onto his features. Amongst it, I also see his apprehension. He pulls his hand from my back.

  “She thinks she is.” He scratches at the back of his head, avoiding my eyes. “She told me she was late earlier, when you two came into the cells. She’s beginning to feel nauseous, her breasts are hurting.”

  Anger seeps into his expression.

  “What?”

  “I know it’s not her fault…” He folds his full lips between his teeth and releases them with rushed air from his nose, “but she fooled around with Skull. So, I guess there’s a chance it’s his too.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “She told me.”

  Oh. So, Skull was telling the truth then…and he rubbed it in Joel’s face too. What a pig. Disgust creeps over me and I cringe at the thought of being in bed with them when it happened.

  But I can’t judge her. Monique and I are as bad as each other. I did things I’m not proud of too, things I knew would hurt Jai. The only difference being the fact I’m old enough to know better, to put up more of a fight. Monique, however, is only nineteen. I imagine it’s harder to speak up against grown men with bad intentions. Besides, I know my body. I’ve known what it can do, how good it can feel, for y
ears. Monique is still getting to know her body and how pleasure works. I imagine it’s a lot easier to manipulate her, forcing her body and her mind to work against each other.

  “She hates him more than anything, and he hates her, but he gets under her skin like no one can,” he adds. “They have history…and they—I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being paranoid.”

  I shrug. “And if the baby is his?”

  Joel glances up at the trees, his strong jaw clenching on and off. “I think I’d make a better father than Skull, don’t you think?”

  “Without a doubt.”

  I flick my eyes over Joel’s physique. He’s much like Jai, tall and broad shouldered, only he’s leaner. While Jai carries beautiful masses of thick, ropey muscle, Joel is subtler, more cut. I wonder, for a second, what he’d look like without all the ink on his skin. He wouldn’t be as appealing, I don’t think. There’s something about his tattoos that’s just so…him. Jai, on the other hand…my heart thumps painfully. He has beautiful, clean skin and the thought of not seeing every inch of it again sends licks of panic up my spine. I squeeze my tongue to the roof of my mouth, fending off an impending breakdown.

  He could still be alive.

  “I’m ready to go now, if you are,” I say.

  Joel looks at me, his lips pulling at the corners into a sincere smile. He could have run off and left me here, but he chose to stay and talk some rationality into me.

  Maybe he genuinely does want me around.

  ***

  My body aches and my skin stings, as if vinegar has been sprayed into my cuts.

  The further we get from Skull’s compound, the clearer the air becomes. If only my lungs stopped heaving and I could hold the air in longer than a split second.

  “Almost there,” Joel says, tightening his grip on my hand, tugging my arms tighter around his neck as he carries a good portion of my weight on his own exhausted body.

  I underestimated the length of the forest. I think Ted did too. If I had to do this on my own, I don’t think I would’ve made it.

  “I hope Monique made it out okay,” I pant, hanging my head. Sweat drips from my hair, a side effect from the drug made worse by the running.

  I clench my teeth as my kidney pounds and my liver shudders. Thank God I never have to take that drug again.

  “I’m sure she did. That girl is fitter than me.”

  In a few large strides, the forest begins to thin, giving away to shorter foliage and sparse shrubbery. On the last one, the tall trees are behind me, protecting me from whatever remains of Skull’s compound and its inhabitants. A rush of tears overwhelms me as relief moves through my tense muscles. I never thought I’d feel like this again. I never thought I’d be free of Skull’s madness with Joel at my side, not Jai.

  “Well…” Joel groans, releasing me to stand on my own. He looks around the deserted field like I do. “This is unexpected.”

  My heart sinks. Where the hell are they? Did we take a wrong turn?

  “On your knees!” a deep voice booms, sending panic shooting through my body. “Hands behind your head.”

  I stare ahead at the man slipping out from behind a bush, dressed in black—or very, very dark shades of green—fatigues. He approaches cautiously from ages away, a gun with a red laser pointing in our direction. Lifting my hands to the back of my head, I look at Joel and the red dot in the middle of his forehead.

  “Doesn’t he know it’s us?”

  “Just do what he says. When he gets a little closer, he’ll see who we are.”

  Swallowing hard, I thread my fingers together behind my head. My jacket falls open, exposing a sliver of my naked skin, right down the middle, to the freezing air. I’d close the fabric if I weren’t worried about taking a bullet between the eyes.

  The man with the gun swallows the distance, only lowering the rifle from its aggressive position when he’s ten feet away. In the light of the moon, I see his fair complexion between the gaps in his facial mask and where his jacket meets his gloves. My stomach clenches in fear, my limbs trembling. He’s not Ted. Ted’s complexion is dark, a lovely fusion of deep brown, umber, and ochre tones. In the light of the sun, the sharper edges of his features glow with beautiful bronze highlights. Ted’s taller than the man in front of us, his body thicker, his shoulders broader.

  Who is this man? And where’s Ted?

  “Emily?” I flinch as he speaks my name.

  The way his tongue wraps around it is familiar.

  Oh.

  My face falls further.

  Jordan Hustel. The whole reason we’re in this nightmare in the first place. I open my mouth only to close it again. I’ve had dreams about what I’d say to him if I ever saw him again.

  None of it nice.

  Pushing his gun around his back, he shoots forward and yanks me to my feet. Gasping, I stumble as a random bout of dizziness slams into me.

  “I’m sorry.” He squeezes me harder and my entire being tightens. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

  Jai told me to forgive Huss, to put myself in Huss’s shoes. I could’ve forgiven him…if he wasn’t so dishonest about the whole thing. If he told me what I needed to do to spare his son, I would have chosen to go to Skull willingly, but he took the choice away from me…

  …and I can’t forgive him for that.

  I pat his back and pull away, unable to meet his anxious face. I want to. I want to be mature and put this awful feeling to rest, but it’s not that simple. He’s the reason for everything that has happened to me since the lake house, to Jai, Joel, and Monique. I don’t know if I can ever let the hatred I have for him go.

  Joel stands, and they shake hands and pat each other on the back like they’re longtime friends. From the back of his waistband, Huss pulls out two long sleeved shirts. He tosses one to Joel, who immediately whips it on over his naked torso, the bulk of his ink hidden from sight, and holds out the other for me. I glance at. I don’t want to take it…but I’m naked and it’s so cold my nipples threaten to cut through the fabric of Jai’s jacket.

  Exhaling, I take the shirt.

  “I have pants for you too.”

  I look to Joel. “Can you hold the jacket up while I get this on?”

  “Sure.”

  Joel moves to stand in between Huss and I, and I turn my back to him. He pinches the shoulder of the jacket as I slide my arms out. As quickly as I can, I pull the black, long-sleeved shirt over my head and force my arms through the openings. Joel places the jacket on my shoulders and I slip my arms in, hugging the fabric around me, covering my backside from view. I breathe a sigh of relief at the feel of the soft cotton against my skin and Joel gives me a gentle, reassuring squeeze on my shoulder. I turn around and he steps out of the way, exposing Huss, who holds out another piece of black fabric. Pants.

  I take them, and I wish I could say I did it gratefully, but it was a rude snatch full of attitude. I slip into them without exposing any more of naked body to either man in front of me. The pants soothe my cuts and scratches and warm my muscles. All I need now are a pair of socks and shoes. I give Huss a once over. It doesn’t look like he’s carrying either of those things.

  “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we have to walk south, about a mile down the field. Ted’s there with a vehicle, waiting.”

  “I don’t care how far I have to walk if it means leaving this shit hole behind,” Joel says, turning to Huss. “I’m so fucking glad to see you.”

  Rolling my eyes, I turn and trudge forward. It seems I’m the only one still holding a grudge against him and that doesn’t sit well with me. Don’t they hate him? Not even a little bit?

  They should.

  They should hate him like I hate him.

  I ignore the screams in my muscles and creaks in my bones, the way my lungs burn and my skin sears. I don’t want to walk beside Huss. I don’t want to look at him or talk to him.

  How could Ted trust him enough to bring him along again? What if Skull isn’t dead and he goes after Hu
ss’s son again? What happens then?

  My heart stills at the thought and thick tendrils of nausea roll through me.

  Skull.

  I slow, moving to the left to walk beside Joel. He looks at me, quirking an eyebrow as if to ask me what’s wrong.

  “Do you think…do you think Skull survived?”

  I hug the jacket tighter around me, the frost filling my chest colder than the frost burning at my feet or chilling the tip of my nose

  He shakes his head. “Jai would’ve got him. I know it.”

  I catch my lower lip between my teeth and chew at it as we keep walking. Cold damp ground has soaked into my skin and feels like sharp ice against my toes, but I still count my blessings.

  I can make it through this. It could always be worse.

  I shudder. If we were still in the thick of winter, frostbite would’ve bitten my toes off and gnawed at my nipples already.

  “You’re not worried you could be giving her false hope?” Huss asks, and I release my lower lip as my heart punches my ribs.

  False hope.

  The words I’ve refused to acknowledge until now are offensive in my ears.

  “It’s not false,” I snap, pulling my shoulders up to shield my neck. “He could’ve made it out.”

  A weird feeling I’ve never felt before curdles in my stomach, its unbearable heat spreading into my chest.

  False hope.

  We make it to Ted’s SUV that’s parked behind a spontaneous cluster of shrubs and trees that are yet to reach their peak.

  False hope.

  I shake my head, hoping the words fall out through my ears and never come back. Even as Ted leaps from the driver’s side of the car and scoops me up in his arms, the words remain, taunting me. He speaks, and his voice is vibration without sound. My lungs close in. Nausea spreads from my stomach and up my throat, sitting uncomfortably on the back of my tongue. Hoisting me into the backseat, Ted slaps on the roof light and catches my face in his large palms, forcing me to look at him. I squint in the light, groaning at the pain it causes my eyes. I’m unable to complain as a dizzy spell washes over me, and his boyish face dissolves from sharp to fuzzy, and the words he speaks continue to float past without registering.