Levels Of Exposure (Distortion Series Book 2) Read online

“I will never be ready.”

  “We’ll see,” John said, holding her gaze.

  “You expect me to be on my best behavior but you lock me away like an animal. If you want me to want to know if you are my father or not, then you should start showing some humanity.” Lexie found herself leaning forward in her chair. She knew John could see the fire in her eyes, she had allowed her temper to flare despite her best intentions. She watched him clench his jaw as he stared down at her as if she was a bug and he was deciding whether to step on her or not. She pulled back in her chair when she realized her misstep. She needed to change her angle or he would just lock her away again and she’d be no better off. “I really just want to see my mother. I’m scared and have no idea what you’re planning to do to me. I don’t know this life my mother hid from me. I have no idea who you are or what any of this means.” Lexie waved her arms around her.

  Lexie watched the smoke curl around his lips as he released it slowly. John glanced over at Flint before he set his cigar down on the ashtray. “Maybe a change of scenery will do you some good. We’re having a small event this evening. You will come and enjoy yourself.”

  “I don’t understand. You’ are letting me out?”

  John leaned forward, holding Lexie’s gaze with a fierce intensity. “If you do anything out of line, you will be punished. You’ll be closely guarded, so don’t plan anything in that pretty little head of yours.” John picked up his cigar and twisted it in his fingers. “It will give you an opportunity to become acquainted with your new home.”

  “Will my mother be there?” Lexie asked hopefully.

  A knock on the door grabbed everyone’s attention. One of the men opened it. A suit and tie took a few steps inside the room before stopping to address John. His dark shoulder length hair was slicked back and a neck tattoo just peeked out from the collar of his shirt. “Sorry to interrupt, John, but I have a couple of urgent matters that can’t wait.”

  John pushed back his chair and stood up. “Flint, Jacobs, and Rayner, you’re with me. Miller, make sure Lexie is brought back to her room.”

  Lexie watched the men file out of the room after the man with the tie and she was left in the chair with the remains of the letter scattered over her feet. She looked down at the paper, leaning forward and setting her face in her hands. She didn’t want to go back to that room. She couldn’t stand being confined within its walls anymore. Lexie moved her feet so the pieces of paper would shake loose and not touch her. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths.

  Lexie wasn’t sure how much time passed when she heard someone clear their throat. She opened her eyes and saw a piece of gum held out in front of her. She sat back in the chair and looked up into the eyes of the man she assumed was Miller, the man that was supposed to bring her back to her room.

  “It’s all I have and you look like you need some cheering up.” He managed a crooked smile. Lexie could feel a scowl form on her face. The man standing in front of her did not fit the profile of the rest of John’s men. His blue eyes were sad and not tainted like all the others. “You don’t like gum? It’s peppermint.” He raised his brow. He couldn’t have been any older than herself.

  Lexie took the gum from his hand. “Thank you.” He looked like a boy next door who decided to slip on an all-black attire to fit in but instead it just made him stand out more. “Why are you being nice to me?”

  Miller sighed and smiled knowingly, running his hand through his blond hair. “John’s not so bad. In time you will see.” Miller smiled encouragingly.

  “Thanks for trying to cheer me up,” Lexie said as she popped the piece of gum in her mouth. “You seem different from everyone else.”

  “I’m the new kid in town. My uncle was the man who came looking for John. My mother passed away a few months ago and left too many bills for me to handle. My uncle offered me this job to help me get out from the debt.”

  “I’m so sorry about your mother,” Lexie said.

  “Thanks. She was sick for a long time.” He scratched the back of his neck, showing his discomfort. “We should get you to your room,” he said, changing the subject.

  Lexie pushed herself out of the chair and stepped over the pieces of paper. She followed Miller out into the hallway. A robust looking man with a full beard approached in the opposite direction in the hallway, followed by three women dressed in revealing evening attire and heavy makeup. The first girl with curled hair and leopard print shoes narrowed her eyes when she noticed Lexie. The man stopped to open a door and the girls filed in behind him.

  Lexie couldn’t help but notice the apprehension on the last girl’s face. She looked scared under all that glitter eyeshadow. Lexie tried to see inside the room but the man closed the door behind them. “Who are they?” Lexie asked curiously, looking back at the now closed door.

  “They’re here for the party tonight,” Miller said casually.

  “Oh…do you know where they’re keeping my mother?” Lexie asked on a whim. Miller turned around and looked at Lexie. “I just want to know if she’s all right. Maybe you can just show me…please.”

  “Lexie…I can’t.” Miller shook his head.

  “Please. I won’t say anything. Just show me where she is.”

  Miller looked up and down the hallway, looking tormented as he dropped his shoulders. “I can show you where but I don’t have the key.”

  “Thank you so much,” Lexie said in a rush.

  He walked past the elevators toward a room down another hallway. He came to a stop in front of an unnumbered door and gave a slight nod.

  Lexie walked up to the door and pressed her hand against. “Mom?” she whispered. When there was no response, she spoke a little louder. “Mom?”

  “Lexie,” her mother’s voice answered from the other side of the door. “Are you all right, baby?”

  Tears filled Lexie’s eyes. “Yes, what about you?”

  “Don’t worry about me, Lex. How are you here?”

  “I don’t have long. I have to go back to my room.” Lexie ran her hand over the door.

  “Do you remember the girl from my diary? The one I mentioned with the rose tattoo that was taken?”

  “Yes.”

  “The man who took her…I saw him, Lexie. You need to make sure you stay far away from him.”

  “Who is he?” Lexie asked.

  “I don’t know his name but I recognized him as soon as I saw him. He has a scar down the side of his neck.”

  “Okay. I’ll make sure to stay away from him.” Lexie stared at her hand spread out against the door. “John knows…he knows if I’m his daughter or not. I’m scared.”

  “Oh Lexie. I’m so sorry this is happening to you. I tried to protect you…”

  A hand was clamped over Lexie’s mouth and she was hauled backwards into a room on the other side of the hallway. “Quiet,” Miller whispered in her ear as he pushed her against the wall. She nodded her head and listened quietly as footsteps approached in the hallway.

  “All clear,” a man called out in the hall before his footsteps faded off. Miller stayed close to the door for a few minutes as Lexie tried to calm her racing heart. The room they were in was stripped bare and looked as if it was recently painted. She had so much more to say to her mother but she knew Miller would not risk it again.

  She didn’t protest when he grabbed her by the shoulder and led her out into the hallway. They walked past her mother’s door and she couldn’t look away. Talking to her mother through a door wasn’t enough. She needed to see her and wrap her arms around her.

  Miller led them onto the elevator, and once the doors closed, she noticed him visibly relax.

  “Thank you,” Lexie whispered.

  “Yeah,” Miller said tightly as he pressed the button for her floor and avoided eye contact. Lexie wrapped her arms around herself and followed him numbly as he led her back to her room.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Jackson

  Jackson pulled off a dirt road into the drivewa
y of an old farm. The house and barn were nestled on an overgrown property that ran against a heavily wooded area on the outskirts of Belhaven. Jackson parked his car in front of the white house. It had an oversized front porch with a broken swing that hung haphazardly from one chain. The property was a ghost of the quaint family home it would have been before it was left to the elements. It was the address Seth had left in Evan’s motel room.

  Two men leaned against a black sedan. They both wore oversized t-shirts and torn jeans and looked completely out of place in their surroundings. The man with a flat-brimmed ball hat pulled out a piece he had tucked in his belt. He held the gun by his side in warning as he rested his elbow on the car. The other pulled a long drag from his cigarette and watched them through narrow eyes.

  “Do you want to keep your broken ass in the car, Dane?” Teddy asked as he grabbed the handle of the door.

  “Fuck no, let me out.” Dane hit the back of Teddy’s seat impatiently.

  “Fine, let’s go save my baby brother.” Teddy chuckled.

  Jackson opened his door and stepped out into the sunny afternoon. The heat felt good on his neck as he surveyed the lot. The two men were the only bodies manning the exterior. Jackson swung his door closed and ran his fingers along the scraped body of his car. He had been too distracted to deal with the damage. Teddy was right; it was like having a target painted on their backs.

  “We’re looking for Seth,” Jackson said as he approached the two men.

  “Who’s asking?” The one with the cigarette tossed the butt on the ground toward Jackson’s feet with an insolent smile on his face. Jackson clenched his teeth irritably. He never had much tolerance for the idiots Seth kept in his circle. They smoked more crack than they sold and took stupid risks, thinking they were invincible. It looked like nothing had changed in the last ten years. It may have been new faces but it was the same ignorance.

  “Tell him Jackson is here.”

  “You the dirty cop?” he asked as he tilted his chin and pulled out his box of cigarettes.

  Jackson knocked them out of his hand. “Do as you’re told, shit-head.”

  The guy watched his cigarettes scatter over the ground as they rolled out of the package. “What the fuck?”

  Jackson swung, his fist connected with the guy’s throat. His victim’s eyes bulged as he grabbed at his neck. He struggled to breathe, falling back against the car.

  “Don’t move,” Dane threatened. Dane had his gun pointed at the man’s forehead before he even realized it. His panicked gaze flickered between Jackson and Dane. “Go tell Seth we’re here.” Jackson waved his hand toward the door impatiently.

  The guy shuffled his feet nervously, glancing at his friend who was recovering from Jackson’s hit, before he took off toward the door and disappeared inside.

  The front door opened a moment later and a man stepped out that Jackson had hoped to never see again, Seth Marshall. He wore a short-sleeve plaid shirt partially tucked into his low riding jeans. Three armed men filed out behind him, two of whom Jackson recognized from years ago, looking the same as the day he left. Seth stopped on the top step and pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. Jackson noticed he was missing the baby and ring fingers on his left hand.

  “It’s been a long time, Jacks,” Seth said coldly.

  “Not long enough,” Jackson responded with the same lack of affection. “Where is he?”

  “He’s here,” Seth confirmed with a cool confidence as he walked down the porch steps. “I heard you were back in town dirtying that shiny badge of yours.”

  Jackson had known that picking up those drugs for Evan was going to put him on the radar. He just didn’t know it would be Seth that would be sniffing around.

  “What the fuck do you want, Seth?” Jackson asked. “I don’t have time for your games.”

  The front door of the house opened and Jackson got the surprise of his life. Nate. He was the one person Jackson had considered a friend all those years ago. He looked thinner than he remembered with an unhealthy tone to his skin, but it was unmistakeably him. As soon as he saw Nate, Jackson put the pieces together. Jackson looked back at Seth, who had a satisfied grin on his face, but Nate refused to look him in the eye.

  “So tell me, why did Black let you live?” Jackson asked. He knew Nate had sold him out as the person who had revealed Seth’s indiscretions behind Black’s back. Anyone who crossed Black ended up dead, no questions asked, which begged the question as to why Seth was still living and breathing.

  “We came to an agreement.”

  “Was that part of the agreement?” Jackson nodded toward Seth’s mutilated hand.

  Seth lifted up his hand and studied the remaining fingers with a frown. “Black always favored the blade over a gun. Luckily we came to terms and it seems we had a mutual enemy that ran away and hid behind a badge and eventually got one of his very own. You should have stayed on the other side, Jackson.”

  “And miss out on this?” Jackson held his arms out beside him.

  “Who are your friends?” Seth asked, eyeing Teddy and Dane flanking Jackson.

  “Oh how rude of me. Let me introduce you.” Jackson waved toward Teddy. “This is Fuck…” Then waved toward Dane. “And You. Now give us our guy.”

  Seth laughed and shook his head. “I always liked you, Jackson. Too bad things turned out the way they did.”

  “I’m heartbroken, really,” Jackson said with a bored tone.

  Jackson knew exactly what Seth’s plan was. He did not plan to let any of them leave alive. Seth was as reckless as they came, which was why after fifteen years wielding what little power he had over his men he was still only one step above them.

  Seth took a long drag on his cigarette. “I knew it was only a matter of time before you came crawling back.”

  “Well, congratulations, Seth. Is this the part where you start to bitch about what happened ten years ago?”

  “Check them for weapons.” Seth nodded toward a few of his men. They stepped forward and patted them down, disarming them of their guns.

  “All good,” one of his men said, placing Dane’s last gun on the hood of the car.

  Seth narrowed his eyes. “Let’s go for a little walk.” Seth started to walk toward the barn. Jackson glanced back at Teddy and Dane to give them warning that things were about to go downhill fast before he turned and followed Seth. One of the armed men swung open the large door. It scraped along the ground as he pulled against its resistance. The voices inside the barn immediately quieted as Seth entered first.

  “Your friend doesn’t know when to shut up,” Seth said as he waved toward Evan. He was gagged and tied to a chair. Dried blood covered his chin and stained the front of his shirt as he slumped forward in his chair.

  “That’s something we agree on,” Jackson said as he surveyed the interior of the barn. Evan stirred at the sound of Jackson’s voice.

  Three men stood up from a small table tucked in the corner of the interior. They discarded their cards and picked up their guns. They walked up behind Evan, looking to Seth for orders.

  Jackson walked inside the barn, closely followed by Dane and Teddy. The door swung shut behind them, closing them in with Seth and eight of his men, guns in hand.

  “This doesn’t look like much of a party. Where are the snacks?” Teddy asked, looking around the old barn.

  Seth threw Teddy an annoyed glare before he settled on Jackson. “I want to know who leaked the info to Black.” Seth pulled on his smoke.

  Jackson smiled cruelly. “Let me guess. For the past ten years you’ve been losing sleep because you can’t figure out who could have possibly ratted to Black about your little side business. Let me start by saying if you didn’t keep such shady motherfuckers in your circle, you wouldn’t have this problem.”

  Seth’s nose flared angrily as he blew out a lungful of smoke. Jackson knew exactly who told Black about his indiscretions but he wasn’t about to let Seth know that it wasn’t one of his men. He liked
the fact he didn’t know who to trust. “From the looks of some of the new faces it looks like you already tried to weed out the rat.”

  Seth pulled out his gun and aimed it at Evan’s head. “Who the fuck was it, Jacks?” Seth hollered angrily. The veins in the side of his neck bulged. “If you don’t tell me I’ll start with this piece of shit and then move on to your other friends until you tell me what I want to know.”

  Evan made a pained sound in the back of his throat as he looked at the barrel of Seth’s gun and then glanced wide-eyed at Jackson.

  “Do you mind putting your smoke out? My friend here has a bad case of asthma and he’s very sensitive to smoke,” Jackson said, pointing over his shoulder toward Dane.

  Seth took a long drag and blew the smoke out. “I don’t care about your fucking friend. Tell me what I want to know.”

  Dane starting coughing on cue, Jackson turned around and watched Dane struggle to breathe.

  “Breathe, man,” Teddy said in a panic before he shoved Dane in the back, knocking him into the gunman beside them. Dane grabbed the gun from the man and pulled the trigger, shooting the gun out of Seth’s hand. All of Seth’s men set quickly into action, Dane took out two more before the bullets started firing around the room.

  Teddy made a run for Evan, knocking his chair over and getting him out of the way of the spray of bullets. Jackson struggled, grabbed the man Dane had knocked over, and used him as a shield from the bullets aimed his way. Blood sprayed from the man’s mouth as he took all the bullets meant for Jackson. He dove to the side, throwing the man’s body into another, taking him out and grabbing for his gun.

  Jackson pulled it from his grasp and brought the butt of the gun up into the man’s face, sending him to the ground before he swung the gun around to take out another man that had ducked behind a large wooden beam with his gun aimed in their direction. Jackson shot off a round first and caught him in the throat. Blood sprayed over the beam before he collapsed on the hay covered ground.

  Jackson looked around to see that Dane had already taken down the rest of the men, leaving only Seth, who seemed to be trying to scramble to his feet while searching for the gun that had been knocked out of his hand. Jackson aimed his gun toward the man out cold at his feet, pulling the trigger to ensure he would not get back up before he walked toward Seth.