The Pieces that Built Him: The Pieces that Built Him, Pieces Collection Book Two (The Pieces Collection 2) Read online

  Brenden slumped in the black chair in the center of the room, his hair was slicked out of his face and tucked under a baseball cap. I paced in front of him, anger radiating off of me. The entire time I was plotting to take him out I was under the assumption we were close in age. I was wrong. He was seventeen and in high school, which made him untouchable for at least another six months. My father was a move ahead in our chess match.

  Leaning down, I grasped the back of his chair and whispered into Brendan’s ear. “I can’t end you, but I can hurt you. Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to gasp for air as the world around you fades to black? I can do that,” I said with a devious glint in my eyes. Watching the sweat roll down the side of his face, I moved my lips closer to his ear to ensure he understood. “If you even breathe near my side of town again, your mom will be praying to God while machines are working to keep you alive.”

  Brendan swallowed hard before licking his lips. “He said you couldn’t hurt me. It’d draw attention to you.”

  Standing straight, I sneered at the kid sitting in front of me. “He was mistaken. I can’t kill you, but I can and I will hurt you. The brink of death is a very big playing field, and I could do a lot to you. Not to mention, I have the time and the means.” Nodding my head, I motioned for Jim to take Brenden back to wherever he found him. I knew it wouldn’t be the last time I’d have to deal with him.

  A few months later Daniel stumbled into my life. I found him outside, lying on a park bench. His mind was completely fried from whatever he had taken earlier that day. I don’t know what drew me to him, but when I passed by, I felt a pang of guilt pull at me. Kicking his feet off the bench, I offered him a smoke. He wiped his face as he took the cigarette from me. That’s when I realized he was just a broken kid.

  Maybe it was fate. Whatever it was, I couldn’t walk away from him. After hearing that he’d been kicked out of his place and that Brenden was involved, I knew helping him would be a dig at my father. I helped him clean up his act and got him a job across the street from my place at a liquor store. The clerk owed me a couple of favors, so I cashed one in on Daniel. The deal between Daniel and I was that no matter what he did outside of the apartment, drugs weren’t allowed in the building. Pills were fine because they could easily be hidden, but nothing else. I also had a strict no hooker policy. The idea of women having to give that part of themselves away to survive never sat well with me. It was the one line I wouldn’t cross.

  I can’t remember how long Daniel had been staying at the apartment across from mine, but I do remember the first time I laid eyes on his sister. Daniel had brought some girls back with him and one of them was yelling in the hallway while I was trying to sleep. I warned him about bringing junkies home with him, but it seemed my warnings had landed on deaf ears. When I stormed into his apartment, I found him with a junky wrapped around his dick. His apartment was trashed. Fuck this. Daniel was back on whatever he had been on when I found him, and I knew Brenden was to blame.

  I started laying into him when one of the girls stepped between us and pulled Daniel away. I stood in shock as I watched her ream him out over his life choices. As it turns out, she wasn’t just some girl, she was Daniel’s sister, and she was hot as fuck. I chuckled when she turned on her heel and headed towards the junky sprawled out on the mattress. Apparently, all three of them knew each other. It was obvious that Daniel’s sister had better control of the situation, so I stood back and let her handle things. Watching her, I couldn’t stop imagining her naked and sprawled out on my bed, so I excused myself from the room. Though not before letting her know she might be able to benefit from a friendship with me.

  The world was my playground and I had everything under control until that fuck, Brenden, went and gave Daniel the means to end everything. I wasn’t home the afternoon Daniel overdosed. My cousin, Drew, who was really more of a brother to me, owned the building and was walking to work when he saw two people bust the glass door and charge in. Alarms started going off and within minutes, police were on the scene. It wasn’t a safe place for me to be but for some reason, I couldn’t pull myself away from it. From where I stood, I could overhear the officers talking back and forth over the radios. Whoever was upstairs, they didn’t make it.

  The only thing I didn’t know was how Daniel had ended it all. I expected a glorious display of blood and a spray of bullets, but instead, he had slipped silently into the darkness with a needle in his arm. And I knew exactly who had given it to him. Brendan. My mind was already processing the number of ways to eliminate him when I spied Daniel’s sister coming down the stairs. I was standing on the sidewalk, giving a statement to an officer, when she walked up to me. Her to-be rock star boyfriend was holding her when she slipped from his arms and into mine.

  I held her as she cried against my chest. She needed me. She wanted me. She left the arms of the boy she supposedly loved, for me. My heart swelled, caging her in before she even realized what was happening. No matter what happened after that moment, or where she went, I was determined to make sure she was protected. She would never have to know pain like that again.

  The only problem was that I didn’t take one thing into account. Me. I would destroy her. I never planned on it, but I was too arrogant to prevent it. I could’ve walked away. Instead, I had Jim follow her around. When I found out she split from her rock star, I started taking a few classes at the college she went to. Jim couldn’t always watch her, and with me attending classes I would have a better chance of running into her. Funny thing about life, it does what it wants whether you want it to or not. Life seemed to be playing in my favor but eventually, my luck would run out.

  I was sitting outside watching the waves crash along the edge of the rocky shore when the hair on my neck stood on end. Looking up, I spotted the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. My Gemini. And she was looking down at me. I don’t remember when I gave her that nickname, but I know it was long before that afternoon. I was obsessed with her, and I had her twin brother to thank for it. Maybe that’s where I pulled it from, I’m not sure, but at that moment it fell from my lips. Once again, my heart put another claim on her. This time she wasn’t getting away from me. I would make sure of it.

  I had convinced her to come to a party with me, something low key, and she’d agreed. My stomach was in knots the rest of the day wondering if she would actually show. To my surprise, she showed up with a friend of hers. She probably felt safer having her friend with her, but I had enough people at my disposal to distract her friend long enough for me to lay my claim on Arlington. Fuck. Even now the thought of her beneath me on that couch makes my dick go rock hard. Everything about her was good and pure. It was everything I wanted to be, but I had failed her. I failed us. That’s what I am…a failure.

  Everywhere I went I made sure she was close by. She was my most prized possession. If I was the king, she was my queen. I would give anything to go back and change it all. I’d walk away and leave the life I was living behind. But that doesn’t matter anymore. She’s gone, and with it, the hope of ever having a family of my own.

  I knew that if I went back for them, I would poison them with my darkness. It was better this way. At least, that’s what I kept telling the other me in the mirror.

  Jim was already on his way over and I was still standing in my bedroom with a towel wrapped around my waist. I was supposed to ride out with him a few days ago, but I decided Jim could handle it on his own. He was doing a bit of a recon mission for me. Despite my pleas to the bureau, I had found myself back under the control of the fuck-stick most people called ‘Tate’. My father. The hate I had for him boiled under my skin. The bed of my fingernails turned white as I flexed my fists. I needed to calm down and thinking about what he had done to me, to Arlo, and to our life had me spiraling out of control.

  My father was underhanded, dirty, and never had what some would call ‘a moral compass’. I was rising above him, while at the same time, slipping further and further into murky wate
rs. I wasn’t moving with him, I was making my moves against him. Unfortunately, he saw my calculated moves for what they were, a way out. No longer would I need to answer to him. Sadly, my arrogance got the best of me. Just when I thought I was untouchable, no longer in his grasp, he came out of the shadows to destroy me.

  I, along with two other people, Jim and my sister, knew what I had in my apartment the day of the raid. However, I knew they weren’t the ones to turn me in. Jim is faithful, without a doubt. That left my sister. However, I knew it wasn’t her when she texted me that morning and told me to leave town. In that moment, I knew my father had found out. Tate Oxley, also known as Ox to his cronies, was never one to back down. I should’ve known he would come for me. In the end, he destroyed my life with one measly little favor he pulled with the Chicago Police, and I paid dearly for it.

  Ten years I sat in prison while the world moved on without me. Arlington and Jack were both gone. I never even had a chance once the rock star showed up. But none of that matters now. They’re gone, and I’m back under the thumb of the man I hate the most. Little does he know, I’m about to bring his world to a crashing halt!

  All I was waiting on was for Jim to bring back some good news. I sent him to keep an eye on the new marks Tate had given us. I hated working for him again, but Uncle Aaron constantly reminded me that it was the only way to destroy him. The part that killed me was how long it was taking. What the hell is the bureau waiting for? Surely the case they were building had to be substantial by now. My uncle, however, insisted on me keeping my head low until it was time to move.

  “Stick with it. Do you want him to buy his way out? Maybe he’ll sit a couple years in some golf resort they labeled a prison, or do you want to see him rot?”

  I scoffed at my uncle in reply. “What I want is to watch him die.”

  “That, my dear nephew, will put you right back behind bars. Trust me. This is the best way to take him down and keep him locked up for good. Follow orders, stick to the plan, and keep your head low.”

  “Yeah.”

  That was easier said than done.

  One day, Tate had called me in for a meeting, and being the good son that I am, I obliged. At our meeting, my father informed me that Roscoe and Saint were put on my ‘to watch’ list. They were bullshit names, if you ask me. I don’t know why everyone who worked for my father was obsessed with trying to sound like some douche from a crime movie. I had known Roscoe most of my life. He started off running small betting pools and eventually, climbed the ladder after a few years of kissing ass. However, lately, Tate’s trust in him was waning. I didn’t have all the details, but I knew enough to know my father wasn’t going to keep him around much longer. Saint, on the other hand, was an entirely different problem all-together. When payments were short, Tate noticed, and I was sent to collect.

  Suddenly, a knock on the front door of my apartment drew me from my thoughts. Quickly grabbing a dark blue shirt from my dresser drawer, I pulled it over my head as I walked toward the front door. I’m no one’s fool, not anymore, I thought to myself. Peering through the small hole in the door, I spotted Jim leaning against the wall with two paper bags in his hand. Pulling the heavy steel door open, I motioned for him to come in.

  “Even crazy people wear pants,” Jim said, shifting the bags to one arm and tossing the pair of jeans I had lying across the back of a chair at my face.

  “I just got out of the shower.”

  “Don’t give a fuck. I don’t want to watch your dick swing around. Cover that shit up.”

  No one else would ever dare talk to me like that, but Jim was a different story. He was responsible for me finally getting my shit together. When I was released, I was hell-bent on revenge. To my surprise, it wasn’t found at the bottom of a whiskey bottle. One night, Jim found me passed out, face down in a puddle of my own vomit. He saved me that day. Once he made sure I was breathing he kicked my ass around my apartment until I finally snapped back to reality. Then he squeezed my shoulder and said, “Finally,” with an exasperated breath before finally tossing my ass in a cold shower. Compassion wasn’t his forte.

  I gave Jim a quick wink before dropping my towel and pulling on my jeans. “Better?”

  Jim glanced over his shoulder as he tucked the last of the groceries in the fridge before tossing me a cold beer. “Much. Quit walking around naked. You’re not the only one living here.”

  “True, but I am the one paying for it. So, if I want to swing my dick around, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  “Tell you what. Keep your dick hanging out and the next time you’re on your way to visit death, I won’t stop you. I’ll let the man in black come with his sickle and reap your ass.”

  Fuck him. “Lines, Jim. There are fucking lines and you’re just about over them.”

  “Duly noted. Now keep your shit covered.” Smug bastard. Fucker knows he’s untouchable. I owe him too much.

  The crisp crack of my beer brought an immediate change in the conversation. I wanted––no, I needed to know what Saint had tucked away in that house of his on the river. Chicago was my home. It was familiar, and I felt comfortable slowly getting my feet back into everything. However, Tate had other plans. He wanted me to keep an eye out on a shipment he had coming up the river from Southern Illinois. Now ‘the river’ could mean any fucking river. That’s how we moved shipments, but this one had a more specific location.

  The house Saint had taken up residence was in the small town of Momence, located just off the Kankakee River. It was just a speck on the map, small and conveniently located on the river, which also flowed through Indiana. We could move anything by boat––guns, drugs, people…it didn’t matter. If it could fit in the crates, Tate moved it.

  Standard rules applied when occupying a residence. No more than five months, and everything had to be paid up front, in cash. And no one was to be seen going in or out. As far as anyone else was concerned, they were vacation rentals and nothing more. Unfortunately for him, Saint had over stayed his welcome by four months, and Tate wanted him out.

  The whole fucking operation needed to be moved, but something was keeping Saint locked in-place and it wasn’t hurting his cut. Rumor had it, he was turning a bigger profit than he was letting on about. Which means, he was withholding cash that belonged to my father. That’s also the main reason he showed up on my radar.

  With the ridge between the two getting wider by the second, it was the perfect opportunity for me to get between them and work my magic. Tate would think I was on his side, straightening out a mess he didn’t have time for. And Saint––well, he would think I was aiming to go against the family. Meanwhile, the FBI would be in my ear the whole time.

  You see, my father made the mistake of thinking he bought off Aaron a long time ago, after he saved my mother from her habits. Which may have been the case back then, but a lot had changed since. My father was no longer just a piss-ant trying to work his way up––he was on top. And with his new position, my mother was long forgotten. Sadly, her habits came back with a vengeance and Tate simply turned a blind eye.

  Last I heard, my mother was whoring herself out to his business partners in order to keep the diamonds around her neck. Fucking bitch. I hated her. I hated all of them. The only one who was ever worth a damn was my sister, Brooke. However, because of my fuck up she had to get her hands dirty with the family business.

  From what I understand, she overdosed on her own stash during my third year in prison. Not one person in my family took the time to let me know. I had to hear it from Jim one night when he was giving me an update on Arlo. Because of that, the notion of being responsible for my father’s demise was the only thing that kept me going. My only concern was what I had to deal with before I could even reach him.

  “Jim, tell me it’s something easy.”

  “They’re hiding something, but it ain’t drugs. Rosco was there, so Saint wasn’t talking. I did find something that might tickle your fancy though. You may want to sit
down for this one.”

  I took a sip of my beer letting the cold liquid glide down my throat, cooling my core before looking back up at Jim. “Say it. I don’t play games. You know that.”

  “Yeah, I know. Just keep your head on and your heart out of this,” he warned. Taking a deep breath, he continued. “You know how we couldn’t find Brendan when you got out? We figured your father hid him away?”

  Please don’t say it. “Spit it out.”

  “I found him. Fucker has been working for Rosco since before you hit your feet on free soil.”

  Red. It’s the only thing I could see, followed by a swift darkness encompassing what was left of my rational mind. “Get the bikes.”

  “Nah, you ain’t listening. Your pops sent him there.”

  “I’m fucking listening. He sent that fuck there, and then he sent me to see what Saint was hiding. Looks like I found something. You think Tate didn’t plan this? My father knew exactly what he was doing. He wants blood, and I’m going to fucking give it to him! Get the bikes, Jim.”

  “You can’t ride now. Your head is all fucked up. I ain’t letting you kill yourself, or someone else. Take a fucking breather. We can sort this out in the morning.”

  My jaw ticked as I stared back him. “You’re not my conscious, Jim.”

  “You’re right, but I’m the closest thing you’ve got to having one, so sit the fuck down, finish your drink, and breathe. I ain’t leaving until the morning, and you need me, so it looks like you’re stuck here for tonight.”

  Someone was going to pay for my time behind bars, and if I needed to start with the fuck-stick who started the downfall of my family, then so be it. One thing was for sure––Brendan wasn’t going to make it out of there alive.