Kindred: Kingpin (The Kindred Series Book 1) Read online

  “I’m not sure I believe you,” June chuckles and it sounds so cruel and menacing that Tara almost gives in to the helpless feeling, almost wants to give up and let him do what he pleases.

  She steels herself, “I’ll get rid of him,” she says immediately, “I’ll kill him if I have to, just leave them alone.”

  For a moment, the line is silent; and then, “You have until tomorrow.”

  The line cuts off and Tara breathes a heavy sigh of relief. She lets her hands drop to the table, landing onto the hard desk with a heavy thud. Lucas finds her staring at the wall three hours later, in the same position.

  When she reschedules her meet-up with Soran, she tells him that it’s because she needs to show him something at the warehouse. June sits in the corner of the room, watching the entrance with curious eyes. When Soran steps into the building, the cop spots Tara standing in the middle and furrows his brows curiously.

  “What’s going on, Tara?” he asks and when he sees the distressed look in the woman’s eyes, he rushes over to make sure she isn’t hurt.

  “How touching,” June scoffs from his place in the shadows and when Soran hears his voice, he pulls out a gun and aims it right at June’s form.

  “Tara,” Soran snaps and this time his tone is angry, “What did you do?”

  “I’m sorry,” she finally speaks in a soft mumble, voice trembling, “He threatened my family. I’m so sorry, Soran.”

  Soran feels the heavy press of a gun at his back and his entire body stills. He assesses the situation, takes in the slight tremble of the gun and thinks he might be able to disarm Tara. The only unknown variable is June.

  “Well?” June eggs her on, “Shoot him.”

  “Tara,” Soran tells her in a calm voice, “You don’t have to do this. You’re not capable of murder, Tara.”

  “She has to be,” June responds in a nonchalant tone, “Unless she wants her sister to take your place. Either way, there’ll be a dead body tonight.”

  Tara whimpers, the gun trembling even more and Soran can hear how she struggles to keep herself quiet.

  Suddenly, a rush of furious rage stirs in him and Soran turns to June with a heated glare, teeth bared angrily, “Are you enjoying this, seeing her breakdown like this?” he hisses, “Do you like knowing that you’ve completely crushed her spirits, completely eclipsed the person she used to be?”

  “Soran,” Tara mumbles, “What are you doing?”

  “She’s your Kindred!” Soran ignores her questions, just continues to yell at June, “She’s your Kindred and all you’ve done is destroy her!”

  June stares at Soran with guarded eyes, choosing to remain silent.

  “How did you know?” Tara asks in a soft whisper.

  “I did some digging,” Soran tells her, this time turning his back on June completely so that he can look Tara in the eyes, “You won’t kill me,” he tells her in a soft tone and he reaches out to pull the gun from her hand. Tara lets him, letting her arms fall limp at her sides.

  For a moment, she stares at him, silently pleading for Soran to help her. For a moment, she feels almost hopeful. And then a gunshot sounds from up above them. They turn to June, to see him duck into the shadows again, trail of blood following him.

  Tara’s Mark thrums with energy and she reacts on instinct. She rushes to June without thinking, finds him leaning against the wall and nursing a bloody shoulder.

  “Call Lucas,” he tells her but Tara’s already got her phone out.

  “Stay with him,” Lucas instructs, “Make sure he doesn’t bleed out. Try to stop the bleeding if you can.”

  Tara ends the call and turns to June with a determined expression, hardly noticing when Soran runs off, “Take off your shirt,” she tells him and June grimaces as he tries to move.

  “I can’t.”

  She sighs to herself before reaching out to the buttons of his shirt, pulling them apart with a strong wrench and tearing the shirt into strips.

  June watches her latch her teeth onto a piece of the fabric and tug so that a long strand of it tears off, “Why are you helping me?” he asks as she makes to tie the fabric over his wound.

  Tara doesn’t reply for a while and June almost thinks he won’t get an answer before she mutters out a soft, “I don’t know,” she gives him no other explanation but the words alone stir a gut-wrenching pain within June that he can’t explain.

  There are gunshots outside and for a moment, Tara fears the worst. A second later, Lucas dashes through the doors, followed by a panting Soran, both men covered in blood and sweat.

  “An ambush,” Lucas tells June, “Someone knew we were going to be here.”

  “One of ours,” Soran explains, “But he wasn’t here on my orders.”

  “Not here,” June rasps out, “Take us back to the club,” he orders Lucas.

  “You need to get the bullet pulled out of you first,” Tara chastises, brow furrowed “And you need to get your wounds treated.”

  “Do it in the car,” June tells her. Tara wants to argue the point further but Lucas cuts into their quarrel with a harsh, “We need to leave. Now!” she grits her teeth in frustration but follows them out without more of a fuss.

  Back in the car, Tara uses the spare first aid kit to try and clean up June’s wound. She’s practiced taking out bullets under Jin’s supervision but she’s never had to do it by herself and in a moving car, no less.

  Her fingers are trembling as she holds the tweezers and June grips her hand before she can do more harm than good, “Breathe,” he tells her, “You’re too panicked to do anything and right now I need you to calm down.”

  “Not twenty minutes ago, you asked me to kill one of my closest friends,” she tells him in a strangely calm voice, “And then we were attacked. So excuse me if I’m a little anxious at the moment,” the last bit comes out clipped, through her gritted teeth.

  June is quiet for a moment before, “I wouldn’t have let you kill him,” he tells her.

  Tara looks at him with a confused furrow of her brows.

  “The gun that I gave you wasn’t loaded,” Lucas says from the front seat, “I made sure.”

  Tara looks between them for a few seconds before she feels tears well in her eyes. June curses next to her and Soran takes the first aid kit from her, “I’ll do it,” he tells her in a quiet voice.

  She sits in the back seat of the car and sobs into her bloodied hands. By the time they get to the club, she feels like a complete mess. She has blood and sweat clinging to her skin, her face runs wet with tears and she knows she’s probably got blood in her hair from where she’d pulled at it.

  Sola takes one look at her and suddenly stands from where she’s seated at the bar, on her break. June watches the dancer walk over and nudges Tara in her direction, “Clean her up.”

  Sola nods and ushers Tara into the changing room bathroom and helps her get undressed. She soothes the younger woman with firm strokes on her back, stepping into the warm shower with her and trying as best as she can to get the blood washed off.

  “You don’t have to tell me about it,” Sola says in a soft voice, hesitant and timid as though she’s speaking to a wounded animal, “But I need to know if you’re hurt. Can you tell me if you’re hurt?”

  Tara shakes her head, “I’m not hurt,” she mumbles out.

  By the time Tara sees Soran and June, she’s managed to pull herself together. She’s in one of Sola’s sweaters and jeans, both a little too big for her because of the woman’s taller stature. Her hair clings to her face and neck in a mess of curls and by the time it’s dried, it’s a tangled, frizzy mess. Both Ren and Sola have taken turns just playing with the strands curiously.

  June and Soran find her in one of the VIP rooms, nursing a cup of tea as both Ren and Sola keep an eye on her. June stops in the doorway, eyeing her warily, “Is she okay?” he directs the question at Sola.

  Tara narrows her eyes angrily and Ren reaches out a hand to hold her back but is a second too late; he
watches with both helplessness and awe as she walks straight up to June with daggers in her eyes.

  “I am fine,” Tara snaps, “No thanks to you. If you ever, ever try to manipulate me like that again, I’ll make sure that everyone knows about your little business,” June glares at her and opens his mouth to retort but Tara doesn’t let him, “And if you lay a hand on my family, I’ll make sure your mother knows that you’re the one with did it.”

  June stares her down and the room falls into a tense silence. Tara doesn’t reply, simply glares at him some more. Eventually, June backs away with a small sigh, “Yeah, fair enough,” he acknowledges her, “Although threatening to tell my mom on me sounds a little juvenile,” he quips with a raised brow and Tara thinks she sees the hint of a smirk tugging his lips up.

  “Maybe,” she shrugs, anger simpering, “But I think it’s your biggest fear, letting down the only woman you love.”

  June narrows his eyes, “You were a crying mess not an hour ago. What happened?”

  “You made her angry,” Soran shrugs from where he stands and when Tara turns to him, he’s giving her a proud grin, “She’s tiny and cries whenever she accidentally steps on a bug but she’s also terrifying when she’s angry.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone order June around like that,” Sola comments from her seat on the couch and her tone sounds impressed.

  “Alright, enough,” June scoffs, “Lucas, take her home before she starts a mutiny.”

  Lucas, who had stepped in after the two men, steps aside and holds his hand out for Tara to take. She does with a proud grin, satisfaction in her gait as he escorts her out.

  The drive home is mostly silent. Once they’re parked outside her apartment, Tara turns to Lucas with worried eyes, chewing the inside of her cheek.

  “What?” he asks, eyeing her expression with worry.

  Tara takes a breath, “Do you think he would have really hurt my family?” she asks finally.

  He stares at her intently for a moment before speaking, “I think, maybe two years ago, he might have,” Lucas begins slowly. He thinks for a moment, trying to phrase the next few sentences properly so that she’d understand, “But I think now, we wouldn’t let him. I would have stopped him myself if it came down to it.”

  “Really?” she asks and she sounds so genuinely surprised that Lucas can’t help the fond tug of his heart.

  “You’ve become very important to a lot of people, myself included,” he tells her sincerely, “There’s not much I wouldn’t do for you.”

  She furrows her brows, “But you told June,” she accuses, “About Soran.”

  “Because it put you in a dangerous situation,” Lucas tells her, “Sometimes the police aren’t just working for the law. Sometimes, they’re acting on the orders of someone who wants June’s power and isn’t afraid to kill innocent people to do it.”

  “Like the person who attacked us tonight?” she confirms, “At the warehouse.”

  “Yes,” Lucas nods, “Telling June was the quickest way to make sure that you were okay.”

  She stares at Lucas for a while, eyes shining, “Thanks,” she says shyly.

  “Anytime,” he replies with a grin but when he sees her eyes flit to her hands, he knows that there’s more, “What is it?”

  Tara is silent for a while, looking down and fiddling with her fingers. Lucas thinks she’s going to ignore his question when she speaks up in a small, barely there voice, “What you said before, about not letting June hurt my family,” she begins, “You don’t think he wouldn’t do it, to not hurt me, would you?”

  He hears the hope in her voice and Lucas’s heart breaks for her. He doesn’t respond because he honestly doesn’t know, just stares at her with a hopeless expression.

  “Yeah, I thought so,” Tara chuckles to herself and she brushes it off but he sees the wet trails that streak down her face as she turns to open the car door, “That was a stupid question, anyway. Goodnight,” she tells him in a cheery tone but he hears the way her voice trembles, “Drive safe.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Soran starts working with June shortly after their encounter and Tara isn’t sure what to make of it. During her weakly training sessions with Sola – who she learns is also a part of June’s syndicate – she brings up the sudden change in tactics.

  “I thought he didn’t like working with cops,” Tara huffs out as she blocks a hit from the older woman.

  “Desperate times,” Sola replies and with a flourish of her leg, she sends Tara sprawling to the floor, “You’re distracted. Stop complaining about June and concentrate on your feet.”

  By the time they’re finished, Tara has a few blooming bruises on her back and thighs.

  Almost three months after the warehouse incident, she receives a call from the private investigator.

  “Meet me outside the building,” he tells her, “I have something to show you.”

  Tara informs June who tells her to leave for the warehouse immediately with Ren. On the way there, Ren comments on Tara’s change of heart regarding June, “You’re different now,” he tells her, “Not as scared as you were when you first started working with him.”

  “Had to toughen up,” she shrugs, “I’d go insane if I let him keep affecting me the way he used to.”

  “That’s not just it, though,” Ren pushes.

  Tara sighs and thinks through her words carefully, “I had to separate who I thought he was and who he really was. Once I did that, the things he did stopped affecting me as much.”

  “So you’re no longer pining for him?” Ren quips.

  Tara looks at him in mortification, “I wasn’t pining!”

  “You were definitely pining,” Ren snickers, “I’m not sure why, though. It’s not like June’s exactly your type.”

  “And what is my type?” Tara asks.

  Ren glances at her from the corner of his eye, “I’m not sure, actually. I’d say your Kindred but that’s obviously a lie.”

  Tara narrows her eyes, “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, come on,” Ren scoffs, “Everyone knows that you and June are bonded.”

  She doesn’t know how to react to that so she simply shrugs.

  “It makes the whole Kindred thing seem like a cruel cosmic joke,” he adds and Tara can’t help but agree.

  They reach the warehouse, both eyeing the building apprehensively.

  “Leo said to meet him around the back,” she says, “Said he found out who was behind the fire.”

  “Did he hint at who it may be?” Ren asks.

  “No,” Tara responds, “But I assume it’s big if he couldn’t tell me over the phone or come to the club.”

  They find out who it is as soon as they round the corner.

  Hendrik Jenkins stands towards the back of the yard, surrounded by a host of guards – all pointing guns at Tara and Ren. Leo – the private investigator she’d hired – stands next to Jenkins with a black suitcase in hand.

  Tara eyes them warily, “I should have known,” she sighs, “Of course it’s you.”

  Jenkins sneers, “Smart little darling, aren’t you,” he quips, “A pretty one, too.”

  Tara feels her skin crawl at the look he gives her and her eyes light with a furious rage. She eyes the way Ren tenses next to her and something in her chest clenches painfully at the prospect of him being hurt because of her.

  “Let him go,” Tara tells Jenkins, “And I’ll tell you everything I know about June’s operations.”

  “Tara!” Ren hisses in warning but she shakes her head at him.

  “Shut up and listen to me,” she snaps, “You won’t die because of me.”

  Jenkins gives her an appraising look, “I already know everything I need to,” he looks at her with bored eyes, “You’ll have to sweeten the deal for me.”

  Her eyes narrow at his implication, “What do you want.”

  Jenkins regards her for a moment, “Come work for me,” he tells her, “Use that pretty little head of
yours to make me as successful as you made Park.”

  Tara scoffs, “That’s your ultimatum?”

  Jenkins narrows his eyes, “Of course,” he replies and his eyes drag over her body, “With a few additional stipulations of course. I’m not as young as your boss but I have experience under my belt,” he smirks, “And if you say no, then I kill you both.”

  Tara feels bile rise to her throat at his proposition but doesn’t let herself react outwardly. She gives him one curt nod, “Deal.”

  Jenkins motions for her to come to him so Tara does, shrugging off the hold Ren has on her arm. When she reaches Jenkins, he reaches out a hand and Tara shakes it. She doesn’t expect the tug at her arm but forces herself to go willingly as he pulls her body flush against his. She feels a hand snake between her legs and Jenkins breathes against her ear, “I’m going to have fun playing with you, doll.”