Inevitable

  Copyright 2015 by Josi Beck

  Cover design by Sprinkles on Top Studio LLC

  Cover and interior photos by Shutterstock

  Editing by Rogena Mitchell Jones (Editing Services)

  Formatting by That Formatting Lady (Angela Shockley)

  All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means- except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews- without written permission from its publisher.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  If you pirate my book I will find you and hope that crabs bite at you for the rest of your life. Moral of story: pay for the book, don’t be an asshole.

  Copyright 2015 by Josi Beck

  All rights reserved.

  More by J.L. Beck

  The Bittersweet Series:

  (New Adult Contemporary)

  BITTERSWEET REVENGE

  BITTERSWEET LOVE

  BITTERSWEET HATE

  BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY

  BITTERSWEET TRUST

  A Kingpin Love Affair:

  (Dark Romance)

  Indebted (Vol: 1)

  Inevitable (Vol: 2)

  This book is intended for readers 18+ only. It’s a dark, erotic romance that contains copious amounts of violence, sex, murder, swearing, dubiousness, and other things that aren’t suitable for a younger audience.

  This book also contains graphic abuse, some that may trigger unwanted or hidden emotions. Please be advised that I DO NOT condone this type of behavior, and I DO NOT agree with emotional and/or physical abuse in any way, shape, or form.

  This is a work of fiction, and nothing contained in it is based off of my life or someone else’s life. Please heed the warning when I say that this is dark. It’s not rainbows and ponies; it’s murder and darkness that blooms into love.

  To my daughter—Annabella. You’re mommy’s angel. I’m sorry for all the SpaghettiOs, TV dinners, and Lunchables you have to eat. This is for you! Xoxo

  Author Disclaimer

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Epilogue

  Sneak peek of Invincible (A Kingpin Love Affair Vol: 3)

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Sneak Peek of The Dream and Aiden Story by Pamela Washington

  Bree

  My ears rang with the sound of a gun being shot reverberated through my mind. Zerro had shot me… at point blank range. So why was I still awake, why was I still breathing, and why was my heart ready to beat out of my chest.

  I watched as Zerro fell to his knees. Another shot sounded off and I wasn’t sure what was happening. Was Zerro killing himself?

  Then I heard Mack’s laughter. It filled the room and made my stomach quake.

  “You thought this bitch would be smart enough to do something like this?” Mack asked. He was talking to Zerro, and my eyes scanned the ground for the gun. Would I save Zerro again? After everything he had done to me just now?

  Zerro was on the ground, his face filled with pain as he stared at me. The look he held said he was sorry, but he still hadn't said the words. His eyes were begging for forgiveness, speaking the words he didn't say. I needed the words. I needed to know he was sorry for his betrayal.

  “It was you…” he said groaning.

  “Ding. Ding. Ding. Of course, it was me. Did you think I would sit idly by while you reaped the benefits of everything I had done for you? I was tired of being treated like shit while the ‘King’ sat on his throne. Instead, I turned you into the FBI and made a deal with them. They let me off the hook—I give them you. Not that it matters, because they’re on their way here to pick you up. As for Bree, well... that hot piece of ass is coming with me.”

  “No…” He groaned again trying to reach for his gun. Mack kicked it away and my hope went flat. I would never be able to reach the gun now.

  “Yes,” Mack mocked. “Then once we’re finally alone, I’m going to fuck her every way possible.”

  I tried my hardest to wiggle out of the ropes, but ended up on my stomach with nowhere to go.

  “Leave her alone,” Zerro groaned rolling over to search the floor for another weapon.

  “Ha, ha. Yeah, fuck no. She’s coming with me,” Mack said, gripping the ropes around my midsection.

  “Zerro, run, leave,” I huffed out, my voice full of anguish. The words were just barely out of my mouth when I felt Mack’s dirty hand fist into my hair, pulling my face into his.

  “Say another word and there’s going to be a fucking bullet in your head,” he growled.

  “Get your fucking hands off her.” Zerro was barely able to get the words out, and though I wanted to look at him, I knew I couldn’t. My heart was already breaking.

  “How about… Fuck. No!!” Mack mocked, and then pointed his gun off in the distance. His hold on my hair was keeping me in place once I heard the gun go off again. I couldn’t stop the tears from coming.

  Trying as much as I could to see through the tears, I screamed until Mack released me to grab something off the floor. Looking up from the floor, I watched as a red puddle all but started to form around Zerro. Suddenly, Mack was biting at a piece of duct tape to place over my mouth.

  “I love you,” I cried out right before the tape was placed against my lips. Tears continued to cascade down my cheeks as I tried to say I love you over and over again. I was certain it would be the last time I would ever see Zerro alive and if he did live, he wouldn’t come to save me.

  “There’s no point screaming. Where you’re going, they love to hear women scream. They feed off the tears you cry. Believe me when I say if you thought Zerro was a monster, you’re in for a ride.”

  “Let fucking go of me,” I mumbled against the tape wiggling as much as I could. Tears were still blocking my vision, but I felt the air whip through my hair as Mack pushed us through the front door.

  “No way. You’re my ticket out of all of this.” He sounded gleeful, and I wanted to wipe the fucking smile I knew was on his face off.

  “You won’t get away with this. He’ll find you, and when he does, you’re as good as dead.” I knew there was no pleading with this kind of man.

  Picking me up as if I weighed nothing more than a feather, he opened the back of what looked like a van and sat me on the edge of the entrance so he could open the other door up. My mind skidded to a halt as I realized this might be my only chance to escape. Pulling my feet together, I bunched up my legs as much as I could and pushed back as I kicked at his face.

  He stumbled back only slightly. Swear words filled the air. Trying to sit up, I pushed my legs up again to get another good kick, but it did me no good. He was bigger and stronger. His hands gripped my legs as anger showed in every muscle I could see. “You’re dirty fucking bitch,” he said as he tried to push me further into the van.

  Fighting with all my might, I pushed back, kicking and screaming. My words were hard to hear
and my kicking did nothing but wear me out.

  “Let go of me,” I repeated over and over again my screams were nothing but a muffle of noise against the duct tape. Another kick to the face would hopefully get him to slow down. His hands wrapped around my legs, and his fist came down hard against my cheek. For a moment, my vision blurred as pain radiated through my face. My mind went blank as light reflected in and out. I couldn’t get a grip on what was happening.

  “If that doesn’t keep you down, then this fucking will.” His words caused my head to ache as I tried to get my wits together.

  Before I could respond, I felt the prick of something in my arm, and the darkness of whatever it was he had injected me with consumed me.

  The Past

  Zerro

  “Jared. Jared…” I screamed into the phone. I was on the verge of death. I could feel the blood seeping from every pore of my body.

  “Calm down, Zerro, just breathe,” Jared kept repeating to me. He wanted me to calm down and just breathe. Did he not realize I was shot three fucking times? I was bleeding to death. He was lucky I was still coherent.

  “They have Bree. I fucked up. I fucked up.” My voice was growing weak with every word I spoke. I should’ve been saving my energy. I should’ve been thinking about anything but her, but I couldn’t get the fearful look she had in her eyes out of my mind. The look I had placed there.

  “What the hell happened? What do you mean they?” Jared asked his voice harsh and panicked. Could I even tell him what had happened. I was beyond ashamed. The way I had treated her. Not to mention Mack, and the fact I had trusted him.

  “Fuck…” I hissed into the phone, trying to roll into a sitting position.

  “What happened, Zerro. I just left less than twenty-four hours ago…?” Jared sounded astonished, and I didn’t even care. I didn’t care about explaining anything to him. All that mattered was I survived so I could kill Mack and get Bree back.

  “Zerro!” Jared yelled.

  “Yeah,” I said weakly, I wasn’t going to make it. He wasn’t going to get here fast enough, and I was going to die. I was going to meet my fate at the hands of one of my most trusted men.

  “Stay with me, dude, stay with me.” I could hear Jared’s pleading voice but couldn’t force any words from my mouth. It was as if everything in my life had slowed down. Memories of my mother, father, and Bree filtered in and out. A ray of colors showed behind my eyes as if they were the moon, sky, and stars on a dark night.

  “Mack…. It was Mack…” I was just able to get out before the world started to grow darker.

  “Alzerro, you’re not allowed to fucking die on me, do you hear me?” It sounded as if Jared was screaming through a long tube. By the time his voice reached my ears, it was muffled and had lost its effect. Instead of it sounding like he was yelling, all I heard was barely a whisper.

  “Alzerro, you listen to me. You have to stay alive. You have to kill Mack. You have to get revenge….” My eyes stung as I tried to open them, and my body felt hard—as if bricks were being piled on me piece by piece, brick by brick. I knew I needed to keep my eyes open. I knew I needed to keep thinking. I needed to hold on to hope, but I couldn’t when the darkness called to me.

  “Zerrooooo…” Those were the last words I would ever hear, and the last image to hit me in the face was one of Bree, and the look on her face knowing I had let her down. I cut her deep with my actions not even realizing the knife was in my hand. I stabbed her in the back because I thought she had betrayed me. In reality, it was I who had caused her the ultimate betrayal.

  Then the darkness came and there was no point trying to fight it. It was inevitable.

  Zerro

  My body ached badly as I threw my legs over the side of the bed. The cotton sheets felt soft against my skin—soft just like Bree’s skin. I had to shake my head to get the memories to leave my mind.

  “You’re too weak to be getting up and moving around,” Jared said interrupting my thoughts. I looked up from the hardwood floor and up to his face. His eyes were dull, reflecting no light. His face was sunken in, and it looked as if he hadn’t shaved in months. I didn’t have room to talk, though. I don’t look much better I’m sure. It had been three weeks since I had last seen Bree, since I had last touched her. Since I had allowed Mack, the fucking snake, into my cabin. Just thinking about it caused my blood to boil.

  “Funny, last I remember you didn’t have a medical degree,” I retorted in a smart-ass tone, adjusting myself. My leg was fucked up from the gunshot. I had lost a shit ton of blood, and though the shots I had taken to the chest hurt, nothing hurt as bad as trying to move my leg when it had stitches and pins in it.

  Leaning against the door of the room, he smiled at me as if he thought what I said was actually funny, when really I was just trying to be an asshole.

  “You don’t need a medical degree to know you should be lying in bed. Resting. Cooling off. Staying hidden.” In one whole sentence, he named four things I would rather not be doing.

  “No…” I hissed out as a burning sensation flowed through my leg. “I would rather not just lay here while Bree is out there and that ass fucking hole has her. I would rather do anything, but sit here and hope and pray for something good to come from all of this.” I sneered.

  “Hoping and praying won’t do shit in this situation, but going into something without a plan won’t help either. Do you want to put yourself in line for death again?” I kept my eyes trained on the floor as I attempted to stand for the first time in weeks. My body was worn and tired, but at the same time, it was begging for a release of energy. To get up and move around. Nothing Jared was saying was going to stop me from doing what needed to be done.

  My foot hit the floor, and although there wasn’t any weight on it yet, I was slightly hesitant to stand. It hurt like a bitch lying down, so I’m sure it would be no better standing. It didn’t matter though; I had to start somewhere. Putting most of my weight on my arms, I pushed myself up slowly attempting to push the majority of my weight onto my good side. Once I was ready, I shifted weight to the other side, ever so slowly.

  “I swear to fucking god, you have a death wish, Zerro. A death fucking wish,” Jared muttered under his breath angrily.

  “No death wish, Jared…” I hissed out between clenched teeth as a burning sensation radiated up my leg. It hurt, but not as bad as I thought it would. “I have a need for revenge. A burning, all-consuming rage to have revenge on Mack; to get Bree back. Sitting here in this fucking bed, not getting better, not moving, and allowing myself to think about it more, just adds unneeded fuel to the fire.”

  In my rant to Jared, I didn’t even realize I had come to stand on both feet while holding the side of the bed. Releasing a deep breath, I let go of the sheets and stood by myself. I looked up at Jared and watched him walk over to me—waiting for me to fall to the ground I was certain. I wasn’t used to feeling weak, to needing someone. If anything, the need for help just made me angrier. I wasn’t coping with the shit that went down. I was simply waiting it out until the moment I could sink my knife into Mack’s flesh.

  “Bree needs you, Zerro. She needs you to come and save her wherever the fuck she is, but she also needs you to be strong and healthy because, without those things, you’re useless to her. If you go barreling in there without a plan, without fully being healed, you become a liability.”

  Fuck. Running a hand through my hair and down my face, I allowed a sigh of release. As much as I fucking didn’t want to admit it, which was a lot, Jared was right. He was right, and I’d be damned if it didn’t make it fucking worse.

  “You’re right… but Bree… she needs me…” I was struggling with my next words because I still wasn’t sure about where Bree and I stood. Her father had killed my mother. I had almost killed her. Fuck. All I knew for certain, even after everything that had happened, was that I loved her, and when I found her, I would release her of the debt and give her the freedom she deserved. I would protect her
for the rest of her life, even if it killed me to protect her from myself.

  I was so lost in my own shit storm, I hadn’t realized Jared had placed his hand on my shoulder. I turned my head glaring at his hand. I knew it was just a gesture of reassurance, but nothing would assure me she was okay—at least not until I had her in my arms.

  “I know you love her. There isn’t any reason for you to have to say it out loud. Just know if you don’t get yourself healthy, you will be useless to her and to me.”

  My eyes left his hand and went to his face. He was looking at me as a friend. Talking to me as a friend. I knew why—because we were friends. Always had been, but I didn’t trust people for a reason. Trusting Mack got me into this situation. What if trusting Jared pushed me into my own grave?

  “You know nothing about love or my love for her. I will get better and I will find her. I will kill Mack and her father. Then I will move on with my life, never thinking back to this very moment,” I growled, so angry with myself and with Jared. It’s an irrational thought because Jared has done nothing wrong.

  I caught a glimpse of a smile crossing his face and had I not been in the condition I was in, I would’ve wiped the floor with his face. It didn’t matter what all he had done for me. He was to respect me, treat me as I was.

  “You’re so right. I know nothing of love. Nothing about it,” he said taking a couple steps back as he headed for the door. “I can tell you love will only get you so far. If you love her as much as you say you do, you will heal. There is no way Mack would kill her—you and I both know it. He took her for a reason.” Jared’s voice was almost reasoning with me, and I forced myself to continue to stare at the wood grain in the floor.

  We were in Jared’s home and everything in it represented him… I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again… he was right. Gritting my teeth, I forced out the words I had never said to anyone. “Thank you… for helping me.” I lifted my face, my eyes landing on a photo on the wall. It was one of him and his mother before she was killed. Just like mine.