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  Boss Games

  Boss #7

  Victoria Quinn

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or used fictitiously. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

  * * *

  Hartwick Publishing

  Boss Games

  Copyright © 2018 by Victoria Quinn

  All Rights Reserved

  1

  Diesel

  I remembered the day my mother died—vividly.

  It was the worst day of my life.

  I was in college at the time. I had just finished my last final and was on my way to my apartment when I got the phone call.

  My dad told me the news.

  He barely said anything over the phone, his silence packed with so much sorrow that I could feel it over the line. I remembered how cold I felt, how empty life felt. I’d always been close to my mother, and I took for granted how wonderful she was. I just assumed she would always be there.

  Until the day she wasn’t.

  Now I was reliving that nightmare, but this day was far worse.

  It was worse because Titan was the love of my life.

  The only woman I’d ever loved.

  We hadn’t had enough time together. It was far too soon. I was supposed to go first, due to old age. I wasn’t supposed to live without her. She was the stronger one; she should be the one to live without me.

  I couldn’t do this.

  My driver took Thorn and me to the hospital, but we didn’t say a word to each other in the back seat. The corners were still covered with snow, patches of it sitting in the gutters. People walked in thick jackets down the sidewalk. Life in the city continued on peacefully, while chaos reigned in my heart.

  Thorn stared out the window, his hands still shaking.

  Mine were shaking too.

  The car wasn’t moving fast enough. Time was moving too slowly. Titan was in critical condition, a bullet in her chest. She lost a lot of blood, and there’d been no update about her condition since she was rushed to the hospital.

  I felt like I had a bullet in my chest too.

  A lifetime later, the driver pulled up to the hospital.

  Thorn and I maneuvered inside, got to the ICU, and checked in with the nurse at the front desk. When I looked at the nurse in her green scrubs, I nearly forgot how to talk like a human being. I couldn’t think correctly, so I just said what I could. “Tatum Titan…I’m her fiancé.”

  The nurse obviously recognized me, judging by her look of pity. She turned to her computer, typed in Titan’s name, and pulled up her chart.

  Thorn stood back, his breathing still haywire. He hadn’t calmed down since he’d read the headlines on his phones. He repeatedly dragged his hand down his face or through his hair. He was taking the news just as hard as I was—and just as silently.

  “She’s…” I’d never struggled with words. I took control of every situation, spitting out my thoughts the second they came into my mind. But now, my eloquence was gone. I’d been stripped down to a grieving man…and I could barely function. “She’s alive, right?”

  “Mr. Ammo, I don’t have any details on her status.” Her eyes were on her screen. “It says she was rushed to surgery the second she arrived. The bullet hit a major artery in her chest. The surgeons are working to stop the bleeding and safely remove the bullet. That’s all I know.” She turned back to me, her face showing she felt even worse for me.

  I gripped the counter, taking in those words like each one was a single bullet. “Is she going to be okay?” It was a stupid question because I knew I wouldn’t get an answer. But I needed to know she would make it through this. She was my whole life. Without her, I was nothing. None of my accomplishments amounted to the importance of earning her love.

  “I can’t say, Mr. Ammo. The second I get an update, I’ll let you know.”

  I stayed rooted to the spot, gripping the counter for balance.

  My father must have arrived with my brothers because he appeared at my side. His large hand moved to my back, and he gently pulled me away from the counter. “Let’s take a seat, Diesel. They’ll update us as soon as they know anything.”

  I didn’t say anything, but I let him guide me to one of the couches in the waiting room. There were other families there, sitting in their corners and watching the TVs on the walls. The sound was off, and it showed the local news. Right now, all they could talk about was the shooting that had just happened. They played footage from the cameras in the lobby.

  I didn’t look.

  My body sank into the cushion, and I gripped the wooden armrest.

  My father sat beside me.

  Thorn sat on my other side.

  And we just waited there.

  I stared at my hands in my lap, my back hunched over. Just last night, she lay underneath me and asked me to marry her. She didn’t want to wait. She didn’t give a damn what anyone thought of our love affair. She wanted me forever and always. I gave her my ring, and I pledged my eternal love for her.

  It was the greatest night of my life.

  Now I sat in the waiting room at the hospital, hoping for good news.

  Everything had changed in an instant.

  My happiness was gone.

  Gone.

  I still didn’t know all the details of the shooting. All I gathered was Bruce rushed Titan when she got off the elevator. He gunned her down in the lobby of her building. I didn’t know what happened to him. The second I knew Titan had been shot, that was all I cared about.

  If I’d just waited for her, I could have protected her.

  I could be the one in surgery right now.

  And she would be sitting in my place instead.

  Why the fuck didn’t I just wait?

  My biggest regret.

  My father pressed his hand to the center of my back. He didn’t tell me everything would be alright or try to distract me from my thoughts, but he reminded me he was there, along with everyone else in the room.

  Thorn turned his gaze to the TV and watched the footage.

  I still couldn’t look.

  I couldn’t watch my baby get shot.

  My baby… I’d do anything to call her that again.

  Thorn released a deep breath before he turned forward again, his jaw clenched. “She killed him. That’s my girl…”

  I still didn’t look. “She did?”

  “Yeah,” Thorn answered. “She got his gun from him and shot him in the face and neck.”

  That was the only good news I’d gotten so far. “Good.”

  “He was going to shoot her again, but she stopped him,” Thorn continued. “She’s a fighter…and I know she’s fighting right now.” His voice broke at the end so he stopped speaking.

  “She is a fighter,” I whispered. Titan would do anything she could to get back to me. She was young, healthy, and strong. If anyone could overcome this, it was her. She’d been shot once, but she managed to get the gun from Bruce and destroy him. There was still hope. There was still hope I would get my baby back.

  God, please.

  I leaned forward and pressed my face into my hands, shutting out the room altogether. I wanted time to pass quickly, to hear the doctor say the surgery was a success. I wanted to know we still had our lives together, that I still had something to live for.

  My father rubbed his hand down my back. “She’ll win, son. She always does.”

  I nodded. “I
know, Dad.”

  2

  Titan

  Unaware of where I was or if I was anyone at all…I felt like nothing but a spirit. There was no light, no sensation. There was just a small sense of existence, not really on earth, but somewhere in space.

  I was certain I was dead.

  I thought I heard the loud beep of the monitor.

  I thought I felt Diesel’s spirit collapse.

  I thought I experienced things I couldn’t understand.

  And then I saw something.

  In an old building in Brooklyn, I stood inside the small studio apartment my father and I used to occupy. The paint was coming off the walls, the floorboards were crooked, the refrigerator constantly hummed like it was on its last leg, and the yellow couch still had the endless holes where the stuffing was seeping through.

  It was home.

  I used to sleep on one of the couches, while my father used the pullout bed. We had an old kitchen table we’d found at the flea market. It had two plastic cups on top, dishes that I forgot to wash. There was one picture of us on the counter, a day of us at the park.

  It smelled the same as it used to.

  I felt my expensive stilettos click against the hard floor as I moved. I was in my Suede clothing, an outfit Connor had specifically made just for me. I was the same age that I was before the bullet entered my chest.

  But I never forgot how I used to be.

  The sunlight filtered through the dusty windows, showing a view of the meat-packing facility across the street.

  “Look at you.”

  I stopped when I heard his voice, the deep sound that still found me in my dreams. It was full of a constant smile, full of my childhood memories. I stopped breathing when I heard it, a waterfall of emotions cascading over me. He’d been gone for ten years, but he never left my heart.

  I slowly turned around and looked at my father. He wore the only pair of glasses he’d ever owned, square frames with thick lenses. His brown hair was turning gray, and it was shaggy and untamed. He wore his light-colored jeans and his blue t-shirt, one of the outfits he wore the most. His fingers were callused from the constant grip of the paintbrush.

  He was exactly the same. “Daddy…”

  He closed the gap between us and gripped me by the elbows, the smell of his cologne washing over me. “Tatum, you’ve grown into a beautiful woman. You look just like your mother… I can hardly believe it.”

  He never mentioned my mother when he was alive. “I think I look like you too.”

  His smile softened gently. “Definitely.” He ran his hands up my arms before he stepped back. “Richest woman in the world… I want to say I’m surprised, but I’m not. I always knew you would do great things. But such immense things…I couldn’t have anticipated.”

  My eyes filled with tears, but not tears of pain. They were tears from something else entirely. “I wanted to take care of you. I wanted to give you a better life… I’m sorry I couldn’t do it fast enough.”

  “A better life?” He tilted his head to the side, shooting me that surprised look he used to give me when I said something that didn’t make sense. “Tatum, I had a great life. I wish I could have given you better school clothes and paid for you to go to college…but I had everything else I needed. I had you. That’s always been more than enough.”

  “Daddy…” Now the tears fell down my cheeks, two streams on my face.

  “Sweetheart.” He gripped my elbows again. “Don’t be sad. You have no idea how proud I am of you.”

  “I know you are… I’ve always known.”

  “And you published my book.” His lenses magnified the moisture in his eyes, showing the hint of tears. “You made my dream come true.”

  “Of course I did.”

  “That was very sweet of you.” He slowly rubbed his hands up and down my arms. “You have no idea how nice it is to see you again. But, I’ve been dreading this day too. It shouldn’t have come so soon.”

  His words sank into me, their meaning heavy. “That means…”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh…”

  He squeezed my arms gently. “Unless there’s something worth fighting for. Is there, Tatum?”

  Diesel’s face came into my mind. I suddenly felt his ring on my finger, felt the weight of the small diamond. I raised my hand and showed it to my father.

  He examined it with his same boyish smile. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Thank you…you would love him.”

  “I already do. Diesel Ammo…he’s a fine young man.”

  I looked into his face again, feeling the swelling of my eyes and cheeks.

  “Then it looks like there is something worth fighting for…”

  I nodded. “Yes, there is. I want to stay with you… I miss you. But—”

  “Go, sweetheart. Like I said, it’s too soon for you.” He released me and stepped back. “You have so many more things you need to do, Tatum. You’ve become the richest woman in the world at the age of thirty. What else are you capable of?”

  “I’ve always wanted a family of my own.”

  “Good. There’s no greater joy than having a child. I know from experience.”

  My smile melted away as the tears kept coming.

  He grabbed both of my hands and brought them together. “Go, sweetheart. Fight your way back to him. We’ll have our time later.”

  “We didn’t have enough time in the first place…”

  “We have eternity.” He squeezed my hands before he let go. “Can you give a message to Diesel?”

  “Yes.”

  “Tell him he has my blessing.”

  A smile returned to my lips.

  “And tell him to forgive himself.”

  Just as quickly, my smile faded away. “Forgive himself for what?”

  “For not taking that bullet for you.”

  3

  Diesel

  Twelve hours had passed.

  No news.

  I checked in with the nurse at the front desk, but she had nothing new to report. She ended her shift and was replaced by someone else. Then I started bugging her just as I bugged the previous woman.

  My dad stayed by my side the whole time.

  Thorn didn’t sleep, seeming as troubled as he had been when he’d first heard the news.

  I hadn’t shut my eyes even for a second, unable to relax until I heard something. I didn’t drink or eat, and when a headache started, I didn’t care.

  Thorn’s parents arrived an hour ago. We made our introductions, but I couldn’t remember their names because I hadn’t been listening. Brett talked to me about sports for a little bit, obviously trying to get my mind off the current situation.

  Nothing could get my mind off it.

  I wished Bruce Carol wasn’t dead just so I could kill him again.

  But a bullet to the brain would be too good for him.

  He needed to suffer.

  At my bare hands.

  Fifteen hours later, a doctor in blue scrubs finally stepped into the waiting room. With gray hair and glasses, he scanned the room in search of someone.

  I hoped he was looking for me.

  I stood up and stared at him, wanting to make sure he didn’t miss me. Other people were waiting for news about their loved ones, so I wasn’t the only one anxious for an update.

  But I must have been the one he was looking for because he walked up to me.

  Fuck.

  Please, God.

  My father and brothers gathered around me, along with Thorn and his parents.

  I stood with my hands on my hips, my breathing already escalating even though I hadn’t received the news. If she didn’t make it, then I didn’t want to hear him say anything. I couldn’t handle those horrifying words.

  I’d already heard them once. I couldn’t listen to them again.

  “Ms. Titan’s family?” the doctor asked.

  Not a single one of us was related to her. She didn’t have a living relative. The family she
did have had come from something thicker than blood. I loved her more than anyone she’d ever known, and that was good enough. “Yes.”

  He placed his hands on his hips. “She had a lot of internal damage from the bullet. It pierced her chest, hit a large artery, nicked some of her heart, and did a lot of damage to her soft tissues. She lost half of her blood volume, and she needed an emergency transfusion…” He continued to name off all her injuries.

  I could barely take it.

  “Toward the end of the surgery, we lost her for a bit…”

  I immediately staggered even though I’d been standing upright before that.

  As if my father had expected that to happen, he caught me in both of his arms. He stabilized me on the floor, keeping my feet planted in place.

  “What does that mean?” I demanded.

  “She flatlined,” the doctor continued. “We did a few rounds of CPR and brought her back. She stabilized after that, and we completed the operation successfully. I want to keep a critical eye on her for the next twenty-four hours just in case. So she’ll stay in the ICU for now. Afterward, she’ll move to the surgical floor.”

  He began with such horrifying news that I nearly missed the good news. “So she’s alright?”

  “For now, yes,” he said. “Considering how much damage she sustained, she did surprisingly well. She’s strong and healthy, that’s for sure. She’ll be asleep for the next few hours, and I want to monitor her for signs of infection. She’ll be here for at least a week.”

  I didn’t give a shit how long she was there. I just cared that she was okay.

  That she would live. “Thank you…” I didn’t know his name. He’d probably told me, but I hadn’t been listening. “I need to see her. When can I see her?”

  “We can only have two visitors at a time,” the doctor said. “Due to her risk of infection. You’ll need to scrub down and change your clothing.”

  “That’s fine.” I just wanted to see her.

  “I’ll take you to her,” he said. “Who’s coming?”