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CHAPTER 237
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Hotter Than Hell CHAPTER 238
AustinA few minutes later, I head into the kitchen dressed in slacks and a shirt. She’s placing our breakfast on the table. There’s something entirely fucked-up with this picture and I scowl. I say nothing as she serves me and then sits on the opposite side of the table. She looks down at her plate and remains quiet. Why the hell does it even bother me?The food smells delicious, I think grumpily. “I’m not accustomed to someone cooking for me.” It’s my white flag and she takes it by handing me a plate of bacon. I enjoy cooking for myself. After I turned eighteen, Cindy cooked for me only on rare occasions. I preferred to cook my own food and eat in my room.I scoop eggs onto my plate along with two slices of toast. I watch her closely as we begin eating.“What?” she finally asks.“You’re going back to your brother in five days.” And why the hell did I need to remind her? Her expression changes completely and I swear the fucking light goes out of her eyes. What the hell did she expect
Hotter Than Hell CHAPTER 239
MelinaI obediently follow Austin upstairs. It’s day five and I’m sure my time is up. I haven’t said a word to Austin since he left me in the basement after our fight. He’s talked minimally, which helps. I’ve eaten little food and complied stiffly when he checks the tattoo. The damn thing itches, and he’s lucky I haven’t scratched the ink from my skin.The smell of dinner fills the kitchen when we walk through the door. The table is set for two. I ignore it and head to the master bath. With a shrug, I lift my right arm and pull the T-shirt off. In the mirror, my olive skin is pale. The eyes peering back at me are dead with no hope.Austin stands behind me. I ignore the ink on my breast like I’ve ignored it these past five days. He washes my back, ass, and lastly, my breast. The water is warm and should be soothing, but it’s not. I impatiently wait for him to apply the ointment so we can end this charade.“You’ll be eating dinner with me tonight,” he says after he’s finished. “You’ve h
Hotter Than Hell Chapter 240
AustinThey leave with Melina and I head to the whiskey. By the third glass, doubt sets in. My feet move of their own accord even though I know where they’re taking me. I open Victor’s safe and remove the 10 by 10 metal box. The lock broke years ago. The dented metal is green with paint flakes scratched off here and there. Victor gave me the box on the one-year anniversary of me coming to live here.I lift the hinged top and move aside the top newspaper clipping. I placed the latest one in here a few days after Victor and Cindy’s funeral. The other clippings are about me. I go to the bottom of the box and pull out the thin strip of paper. It shows a burned down home on the outskirts of Austin, Texas.Fire kills twoInvestigation underway There’s more about my mother and her latest boyfriend. The article makes them sound like nice people, which is a complete lie. I feel nothing as I look at the burned image of the place I lived. Half the time there was no running water. More often tha
Hotter Than Hell CHAPTER 241
Moon Austin is a fucked-up mess and he might not be the ally I need in southern California. Only time will tell, but tonight’s actions were not those of a sane man. Alex put the woman in the back seat. The smell of Austin’s piss permeates the air. We might visit the asshole again sooner rather than later. The woman should be out for twelve hours. She appeared healthy with what little we saw of her. I’m not happy about the ink, and I can’t imagine she is either. Fernandez holds a man who betrayed me, which is the only reason I went through this shit with Austin. I want Fernandez dead too, but this isn’t my territory and I respect that Austin has the right to take out Fernandez. “He’s fucking crazy,” Alex says, disrupting my thoughts. “As they come,” I agree. He glances into the back seat. “Fernandez won’t like that he inked his sister.” Yeah, Alex and I have the same thinking patterns after being through so much together. Alex has few lines he won’t cross and that forces a chuckle
Hotter Than Hell CHAPTER 242
AustinAn explosion rocks the house sometime before dawn. I roll to the floor and reach for my gun, which is in a fingerprint-controlled drawer in the nightstand. My cell phone rings and I grab it too. It’s Andreas and I connect the call while staying low beside the bed.“We have a breach. Kendrick is down with a bullet in his stomach. They blew the east side of the house with some kind of rocket launcher. We’ve taken out at least four of their men.”My brain scrambles as I come awake but this is the shit I live for. “It’s Fernandez,” I yell because the blast continues to repeat itself inside my eardrums. “The police will be here shortly, so be ready.” He knows I mean stash the guns as soon as it’s safe. Fernandez’s men should back off when they hear sirens. I don’t have close neighbors but taking out a wall of the mansion won’t go unnoticed. “They’re in the house,” I tell him when heavy boots sound outside the bedroom.I shoot the first guy who enters and the rest of his team falls b
Hotter Than Hell CHAPTER 243
MelinaI wake up with a steady throb pounding inside my head. With early childhood conditioning, I don’t open my eyes as I scramble to remember what happened. Austin put a drug in my wine and I’m back with my brother. The fact I’m not dead yet is not good. It takes a few minutes to gain the courage to open my eyes.I squint into the brightly lit room and receive a sharp pain in my head. The four-poster bed is not my brother’s and I exhale the breath I was holding. Glancing nervously around the room, I try to figure out where I am. This could be a room I haven’t seen at Austin’s place, but it doesn’t feel right. I pull the cover back slightly and notice I’m naked. I jump when the door opens and I immediately regret not checking for a weapon.A woman with dark shoulder-length hair enters. She’s carrying a tray and smiles in my direction when she sees I’m awake. “Welcome to my home,” she says. “You’re safe here. My husband brought you early this morning. It’s after noon now and I know yo
Hotter Than Hell CHAPTER 244
AustinFernandez’s compound is eerily quiet. We’ve been watching it for several days. We’re about half a mile away in a barn on some mostly abandoned property, biding our time, but I’m not happy about it. The cops stayed on my ass for a few days, so I couldn’t be here to scope out the situation and had to rely on Andreas. The men haven’t seen any sign of Melina or Fernandez. We took out eight of his men and by the looks of it, only a skeleton crew is here. It fucking pisses me off.Melina is all I can think about; her smell, her voice, the velvet feel of her skin and my art on that very skin. If he killed or even hurt her, I’ll skin him alive and slow roast him over a fire for days. I need to find Melina, but I need to find him first. Thoughts of her invade my dreams and every waking moment. I cared for Cindy and can admit that now. It’s no comparison to how I feel about Melina. She’s rocked something inside me and I know I’ll never be the same. It could be good or the change could be
Hotter Than Hell CHAPTER 245
MelinaI rub my temple wearily. “I’m ready to work. I can’t stay here in your home without doing something. I’ll go look for a job if you’ve changed your mind about the escort service.”Mak blows out a frustrated breath. We’ve been going back and forth since the first day I arrived. “I’ll take you in with me this morning. Xavier has increased my security and if you go work somewhere else, he’ll have separate men on you, which he won’t appreciate.” She adds a stern lift of her eyebrows to get her point across. Xavier is Moon. It’s cute the way he uses her given name and she uses his but no one else does.My brother is extremely dangerous, and I don’t want Mak, Moon, or any of their people hurt. Their home is so different from where I grew up even if Mak calls it a mausoleum. There’s warmth here and love. I started working out with Gomez’s wife, Celina, yesterday and she kicked my ass. My muscles are sore but in a good way. I feel like I’m taking my power back even though Mak wants me i
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