Secret: A Stone Billionaire Series Novel (The Stone Billionaire Series Book 5) Read online

  Leigha and I stand at the door for a moment.

  “After you,” I say.

  She looks incredibly uncomfortable.

  “You can wait in the car you know,” I tell her.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Leigha responds, stung.

  She walks into the apartment, her Glock carefully by her side.

  Grace’s apartment reminds me of Vic’s old place; clutter everywhere, worn out furniture and lots of little touches that make it homey.

  “We beat him,” Merc says.

  He does a quick check of the MP-5, smacking the long magazine firmly with his palm.

  Then, he gets into a low crouch, moving towards the bathroom door.

  “Evan, watch my six! Lucius hide over there,” Merc says, nodding to the other side of the room.

  Watch my six?

  Seriously?

  Jackass.

  I grumble as Merc takes pushes the door to the bath open slowly.

  He jumps into the room, and then back out, taking another long look around the apartment.

  “What’s going on, Lucius?” Grace turns to her brother.

  “It’s a long story,” Lucius says.

  “Just sit down, and pretend we aren’t here,” Merc interrupts.

  “Jesus! Can’t you be human for a second!” I scold Merc.

  Merc just shakes his head at me.

  “Stop it,” Leigha says.

  She takes a seat on the couch., and Grace walks over to her.

  No sooner does Grace sit down beside Leigha, in a daze, then the door bursts open.

  Leigha and Merc both point their guns at Isaac at the same time, the little dot of Leigha’s laser sight shaking on his chest.

  “Don’t kill her,” Isaac says.

  Then, he throws his hands up.

  “Not her, just you,” Merc tells him.

  Grace gasps and before I can stop her, she throws herself in front of Isaac.

  The momentary distraction is all Isaac needs, and his gun is out and aimed at Merc before any of us can stop him.

  “We don’t need him,” I growl at Isaac.

  Just like that, I press my gun to Merc’s temple.

  “Test me, go ahead,” I add.

  “Evan!” Leigha screams.

  She moves to jump between Merc and me, but Lucius holds her back by the waist.

  “Test me!” I scream at Isaac.

  Merc’s gun doesn’t move, doesn’t falter, he doesn’t even shake.

  His laser’s dot is centered between Isaac’s eyes.

  Grace bobs and weaves, and the dot is sometimes crossing her face.

  “Grace, get out of the way please,” Merc says calmly.

  “No!” Grace screams back in his face.

  Merc doesn’t budge, and I find myself laughing.

  He turns to me, looks straight down the barrel of my gun and shakes his head.

  “Put the gun away Evan,” he instructs.

  “You first,” I tell Isaac.

  “You set me up,” Isaac ignores me.

  Instead, he presses his gun to Merc’s temple as Grace clings to him needlessly.

  “So, what?” Merc spits.

  Suddenly I’m thrown off balance, and I hit the ground, the wind knocked out of me as I gasp for breath.

  “Leigha,” I struggle with her name.

  At the same moment Isaac and Merc both move, Isaac pushes Grace out of the way, I hear a struggle, and a gun goes off.

  “Everyone freeze!” Lucius yells over the confusion.

  When I finally catch my breath, Leigha is still on top of me, Merc is bleeding with his arm around Isaac’s neck, and Grace is crying on the floor.

  “You really thought we would let you get away with this,” Merc says.

  His voice is as menacing as I’ve ever heard it, and I realize I’m getting an unambiguous picture of who Merc has become.

  “Did you really think-” Merc begins.

  Isaac manages to get out of Merc’s grasp before he can finish his sentence and topples Merc to the ground, right through the glass coffee table.

  The sound of glass shattering is accompanied by Grace’s ear-shattering scream.

  Another shot goes off, and I press Leigha against the ground instinctively as a bullet hits the ground where we were moments ago.

  “Son-of-a-bitch!” Merc screams.

  Isaac manages to land a punch and winds up for another but not before I can get to him.

  I throw all my weight against him as Merc kicks him away and I throw Isaac against the shattered glass.

  There’s blood everywhere, and I’m not sure who’s been cut or hit.

  “Enough!” Lucius screams.

  He grabs Isaac by the collar and throws him against the wall with so much force that the drywall cracks slightly.

  Isaac struggles against him as Grace screams.

  Grace’s screams throw Lucius back for a second, and he lets Isaac go.

  Lucius pulls a chair out away from the kitchen table.

  “Sit,” Lucius orders, shoving Isaac onto the chair.

  Isaac obeys him.

  Merc gets up and shakes the broken glass off his jacket, then reaches down and pulls Leigha to her feet.

  “You okay?” Merc asks.

  “Fine,” Leigha nods.

  “Why’d you set me up?” Isaac asks.

  “Why don’t you tell us why you’re here, asshole?” Merc turns on him.

  “I want to know where Elizabeth Darlington is,” he adds.

  “I don’t know where Elizabeth is, but I can tell you who she’s working with,” Isaac says slowly.

  Merc laughs.

  “Let me guess. You, right?” he continues to laugh.

  “Michael Bishop,” Isaac replies.

  But he isn’t looking at Merc, he’s looking at a tearful Grace.

  “Michael Bishop?” I gasp.

  “Explain,” Merc demands.

  He presses the suppressed barrel of the MP-5 gun against Isaac’s temple.

  “That’s not necessary,” Issac says, annoyed and batting the gun away.

  Merc grunts, and lets the gun fall on its sling.

  “I don’t need a gun to kill you,” he whispers.

  Isaac shrugs.

  “Elizabeth worked with Michael Bishop, and for the Ventrettis. She orchestrated the whole operation on the island, moving the girls in and out. The island was a trap for Noah, on her part. She wanted to get Stone in trouble; Bishop was in on the whole thing,” Isaac explains.

  “Why?” I ask.

  “Shut up, Evan,” Merc shakes his head at me.

  “What’s his role in the Ventretti Mafia?” he asks Isaac.

  “Bishop runs it in the background, but that only happened recently. Elizabeth killed Dominic Ventretti so he could take over,” Isaac continues.

  “Where is she?” Merc asks.

  “I don’t know,” Isaac says, but I think he’s lying.

  “Where is she!” I demand.

  “I don’t know!” Isaac screams.

  “I didn’t want Grace to get hurt. I did what I could to keep her away from Grace,” he stutters through his words.

  Grace continues to cry on the floor.

  “Gracie, I’m sorry,” Isaac tells her.

  That sounds sincere, at least.

  “Why did you have to destroy me!” Grace screams.

  “I love you!”she cries.

  “I know,” Isaac tells her.

  I just can’t help myself.

  There’s a sickening thud as my fist contacts the side of Isaac’s head, and then he slumps to the ground.

  The rest of them stare at me.

  Merc smiles grimly.

  “About damned time, Evan,” he says, smirking.

  10

  Evan

  March 2, 2018

  “Evan!” Leigha scolds me.

  “What? He deserved it,” I growl back at her.

  Merc just shakes his head at the both of us.

 
“Why would my father do this?” Grace asks through her tears.

  “He-” Lucius starts.

  But, he realizes he doesn’t know what to say.

  He shrugs, and we all are silent for a moment.

  Then, he shrugs again, kicking Isaac in the side with the toe of his boot.

  “I’ve worked for the IDF, the CIA, various arms dealers, and even I don’t have an answer as to why our father would do that,” Lucius admits.

  “There’s a bloke in deep with Ventrettis that might be able to help us,” Merc says.

  He lights a cigarette and takes the seat that Isaac previously occupied.

  “I don’t want to do it, but it might be time to give him a call,” Merc admits.

  “Well, then just do it,” I urge Merc.

  “We need all the help we can get. If my mother is in that deep with the Ventrettis, it’s only a matter of time before they kill the twins, and then who’s next? Ava? Me?” I point out.

  “No one’s next,” Merc says.

  There’s an almost imperceptible tilt of his head.

  “No one has to be next,” Merc says, mostly to himself.

  “This is fucked,” Leigha says.

  “Let me think,” Merc says, grimacing at her.

  “Call your man,” Lucius interrupts him.

  “The sooner we get the twins back, the better,” Merc admits.

  “Who is this guy, anyway?” I ask.

  “Doesn’t matter, what matters is that he can help us,” Merc says.

  He stubs out the cigarette on the floor, then stands up.

  “I have to make a call,” he adds.

  Merc steps into the washroom, blood dripping from his arm.

  Leigha follows him, probably to clean him up.

  “Lucius are you alright?” I ask, mostly out of concern.

  He shrugs as he helps Grace up off the floor.

  “Not surprised, mostly,” Lucius admits.

  “I knew dad was trouble,” Grace adds.

  “He would’ve been working for the Ventrettis all along if Isaac was telling the truth. I don’t know how I didn’t see that,” Lucius says, sadly.

  “Maybe because he’s your father. You want to see the good in your parents, even when you get a perfect picture of them at their lowest points,” I explain.

  Lucius just nods.

  “He’s right,” Grace says.

  “You stopped seeing the good in him a long time ago. I just didn’t think he was capable of keeping his affairs in order, was all. I thought he was just a fuckup. That’s the last time I underestimate someone,” Lucius says darkly.

  Isaac moans on the floor.

  Grace suddenly picks Leigha’s abandoned gun up off the floor and points it right in Isaac’s face.

  “Grace?” Isaac gasps.

  “Hands up,” Grace tells him.

  Isaac puts his hands up.

  “Grace, you don’t want to do this,” Isaac says slowly.

  “I’ll do what I want,” Grace replies.

  “Tell them what they want to know,” she adds.

  Her hands shake as she points the gun at Isaac’s forehead, and I watch the little red dot skitter from temple to temple.

  “I don’t know where the twins are, I don’t even know where Elizabeth is. The last I heard, she was back in London. That’s all I know,” Isaac tells her.

  “When was that?” Grace demands.

  Her voice is angry but somehow dripping with sadness.

  I feel her pain, she’s already lost her sister and her husband, and now her father, as it turns out, is just as deadly as my mother.

  We’ve both lost a lot.

  “Three days ago! Grace put the gun down,” Isaac pleads with her.

  “No! No! You don’t get to tell me what to do!” Grace shouts at him.

  “Grace please!” Isaac begs.

  “No!”

  She screams louder than anything.

  She aims the pistol right into Isaac’s face, her grip tightening.

  Isaac closes his eyes.

  Grace drops the gun, and her hands begin to shake uncontrollably, and tears pour down her face as Lucius holds her.

  “He’s not worth it, Grace,” Lucius whispers to her.

  Isaac hears the gun drop, and sighs with relief.

  “Thank you, Gracie,” he says quietly.

  All the fight is gone from him.

  Grace sobs into Lucius’ arms for a moment, then she wheels wildly on Isaac.

  “Where is she!” Grace screams at the top of her lungs, grabbing him by the lapels and shaking him.

  “Olivia has the twins!” Isaac blurts out.

  “Fucking Olivia!” I sigh.

  “Where’s Olivia?” Grace asks.

  “I don’t know! I never spoke with Olivia, Olivia was just… just one of Elizabeth’s benefactors. Olivia insisted on it, I don’t know what she had on Elizabeth, but Elizabeth didn’t want to seem to work with her,” Isaac tells us.

  I’m stunned by this admission.

  “Was Olivia involved with Elizabeth before they got married?” I ask.

  “I don’t know,” Isaac says, but it sounds like he is lying straight through his teeth, and I know he knows the answer is yes.

  After all, Olivia’s been using my father for decades.

  11

  Leigha

  March 2, 2018

  “He uses you like a fucking doormat, and you let him,” Merc tells me.

  We are in the washroom, and he’s stripping down so that I can get a better look at the wound.

  “Evan does not,” I argue weakly.

  “Yes, he does,” Merc says.

  “Shut-up,” I tell him.

  “Take your shirt off, I need to clean that wound,” I say.

  Merc shakes his head, and begins to undo the buttons on his dress shirt.

  “You threw yourself at him,” Merc says.

  “I knew he wasn’t going to shoot me; you didn’t have to do that,” he adds.

  Merc removes his shirt, and suddenly the scent of his familiar aftershave fills my nostrils, and I’m thrown backward in time.

  I press my lips together and force myself to get a grip.

  Instead, I turn the tap on and run cold water over my hands longer than necessary.

  Merc grabs a towel and moves it under the flow of water before pressing it against the blood on his arm.

  “Here,” I whisper.

  With the wet towel in my hands, I gently press around the wound; it’s not too bad.

  The bullet grazed him.

  “It’s a flesh wound,” Merc says.

  He smirks at me.

  “You’re still hurt,” I tell him.

  “And, you’re not the Black Knight, you jerk,” I mutter.

  He grins again.

  “I’m surprised, actually, that you’re in here with me instead of out there with Evan? I thought for sure you’d stick by him, like you always do,” Merc says.

  “Stop it,” I say, stung.

  Why do I always stick by Evan?

  Is it residual feelings or the fact that I can depend on him, despite what everyone else seems to think?

  Who was there when I needed someone most?

  It wasn’t my brother or my girlfriends; it was Evan.

  But he did need something too…

  “You do, you always pick him,” Merc says.

  “I do not,” I protest.

  I push the towel against the injury, maybe harder than is necessary.

  Merc makes a face.

  “That hurts, Leigha,” he says.

  “Sorry,” I reply, not meaning it at all.

  He turns me to face him.

  He looks straight into my eyes.

  I feel weak.

  “Admit it,” he insists.

  “Merc, no,” I whisper.

  There’s no way I’ll admit it to him.

  The blood is almost gone, and I look under the cabinets for a first aid kit.

  There’
s some rubbing alcohol, and a few Band-Aids, and that will have to be good enough.

  With a cotton ball, I gently massage the rubbing alcohol over the wound.

  It must sting, but Merc gives nothing away.

  “I don’t need a Band-Aid,” Merc says.

  He grabs my chin between his finger and thumb, tipping my head back so I can see his eyes, again.

  Then, he smiles, and releases me.

  He slips his shirt back on.

  “You’re still strong, Leigha. Just don’t let Evan walk all over you,” he adds.

  “I won’t,” I whisper.

  Then, Merc is gone, his crumpled jacket in his hands.

  I would’ve rather gone to my apartment.

  Merc’s shitty little safe house is in Brooklyn, and I’d rather be anywhere in the city but Brooklyn.

  However, my apartment was not an option.

  Merc made that very clear.

  I don’t know where Merc went, and I don’t care if he comes back.

  I sit on the worn-out bed and pick at a loose thread on the comforter that’s wrapped around my shoulders.

  “It’s cold in here,” Evan says from the doorway.

  “Merc said there’s no heat,” I explain.

  “I figured as much,” Evan replies.

  “He said you use me as a doormat,” I tell him.

  Evan looks at me, oddly.

  “I sat here for a while, trying to figure out why he said that, before I remembered that you almost kissed me, regardless of how messy that would be,” I tell Evan pointedly.

  He bites his lip.

  “Look, I’m sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Evan starts.

  “You never know what you’re doing,” I interrupt him.

  “That’s not fair,” Evan tells me.

  “I apologized,” he adds.

  “There’s no need to apologize, Ev. Just don’t do it again,” I scold him.

  “I promise,” Evan nods.

  There’s an awkward silence.

  Things are never awkward with Evan.

  “You can’t use me to get over Vic, Evan, okay? I’m not that woman. You want to use someone, go find some other woman who just wants you for what they think you are. I’m not that person,” I say, my mouth spilling out the words I can’t stop from coming.

  Evan nods, guilty.

  “Someone’s going to get hurt, and it’s not going to be me,” I tell him.