The Finisher (Dark Verse Book 4)

Alpha

HEARING FROM HIS SISTER-IN-LAW during the day was a surprise.

Alpha wiped his face with the towel, sweat pouring down his chest as the ringing of his phone interrupted him mid-training. With the fight coming up, knowing his opponent would be the Ravager, Alpha was preparing for the first time in a long time.

He picked up his phone, putting it to his ear, his scarred eye itching with the phantom sensation because of the sweat.

“Sister-in-law,” he greeted, curious as to why she would call him and not Zephyr for something. The only thing he could think of was SLF.

“Brother-in-law,” Zenith greeted back, her serious tone immediately making him focus.

“What is it?” he demanded, a tightening in his chest at the thought of something happening to his wife. That could be the only reason she would sound so somber.

“I just got home and found an envelope,” she informed him. “It’s addressed to you.”

Fuck.

Why the hell would he send a note to Alpha through Zenith of all people? Jasmine, he could understand. Zephyr too. But leaving a note for Zenith, at her home, made no sense.

Alpha looked around the training center, the one he had for fighters in the industrial district near the arena. It was about fifteen minutes from where she lived.

“Can you please bring it to me?” he requested. “It might be urgent.”

Zenith agreed and he told her the address, hanging up and going to the locker room to change, his mind whirring with questions.

His phone rang again, his wife calling this time.

“Rainbow,” he put her on speaker, tugging on his jeans. “I take it your sister called you?”

“Oh god, is it the same black envelope thing?” her voice, sweet and feminine, rushed out. “Do you think he knows something about your DNA at the last scene? Will you meet him? I don’t want the cops trying to arrest you for something you didn’t even do so—”

“Breathe,” he commanded, a sliver of amusement curling inside him despite the grim development.

He heard her catch her breath, blowing another out, and felt the movement in his lips at her. She did that a lot, did things naturally that made something inside him lighten up, though he didn’t know if she knew that. Since he’d brought her back, she’d been a bit more reserved, held herself back just a tad bit enough for him to feel it, and fuck if it didn’t make him feel like shit. But it also lit up a fire inside him—to make her love him again, as openly, as completely as she had, and banish all doubts from her mind. He was the one with the trust issues between them, not her.

“Ask Zen to read the note when she gets there,” his wife suggested after she’d calmed down a bit.

He tensed instinctively. He didn’t like anyone knowing about his inability to read small words. He didn’t know why it was the way it was, but he could make out billboard signs and large posters well enough to understand what they read, but trying to focus on smaller fonts just made his head ache. And it wasn’t his vision, because he saw both near and far with clarity with his one eye. It was just another peculiarity related to his missing eye he didn’t comprehend anymore.

Why he’d told her he couldn’t read, when his sentinels were the only other people who knew about it, he didn’t know. Maybe his instincts had known deep down that she was worthy of his confidence, maybe he’d been too bull-headed to listen to it.

He fucking hated trusting people.

But he had begun to trust Zephyr, and she trusted her sister implicitly. And it wasn’t like he had a choice anyway. Hector was out of town so one of his other guys had been driving him, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to give him the note to read. No, Zenith was a better bet.

“Okay,” he told her, hanging up, then realized maybe he shouldn’t have been so abrupt with her. That was just the way he was with everyone.

Sighing, he pocketed his phone and went out into the parking lot in the falling dusk, darkness encroaching on one end of the horizon, chasing the day away.

Someone exited the training building behind him, coming to stand at his side.

The Ravager.

Alpha had known him once, fought with him as a younger man on the streets. The hate-filled boy had channeled it and grown into a weapon that made the industry a shitload of money.

“Adrik,” Alpha greeted him by his real name, wondering how someone could have such natural white hair.

“Alpha,” the dangerous man said from his side, cracking his knuckles. “You shouldn’t have entered the tournament this time, not with me in the ring.”

Alpha had definitely avoided that. Adrik was probably the only man who could seize his advantage over Alpha in the ring even though he was leaner and a few inches shorter. He was another boy of the streets, much harsher streets in his homeland, and he’d grown up as a force to be reckoned with when he got in the ring.

Alpha stayed silent.

Adrik twisted the ring on his left hand, keeping his eyes forward. “I don’t want to kill you, Villanova. And I’m not ready to die. There are things I need to do. Debts I must… settle.”

Alpha’s focus sharpened on the man. He’d have to get more research done on the man. The file he had was old—he had files on everyone he considered important enough in the underworld—and clearly, there had been some changes from then to now.

Alpha kept his tone deliberately light. “My wife wouldn’t like it if I let you touch me. She’s possessive.”

Adrik chuckled, bringing up his bottle of water to his mouth. “You’re lucky. Mine would slice me open the first chance she could.”

Interesting. Very interesting.

“So neither of us is dying,” Adrik declared. “Think about how we do that without throwing our names in the mud. Think about it.”

With that, he went back to the building, leaving Alpha mulling over his words. He was right. There had to be some way they could throw the fight without throwing their reputations.

As he thought, a silver cab pulled into the parking lot, his sister-in-law emerging from the back. He was truly surprised at how the sisters had gone living in the city without any personal mode of transportation. Zephyr, he knew, just didn’t know how to drive, mainly because she’d not shut up about how much she feared driving one night when Hector had almost hit a car from the side. Zenith, he didn’t know about.

The beautiful young woman came to him, her face serious as she rummaged in her bag, taking the envelope out.

“Read it for me please,” he requested, saw her dark eyes go to his eye patch before understanding dawned. Smart girl.

She ripped the flap of the envelope and took the notecard out, exactly like the ones he’d been getting.

“It’s time we meet,” Zenith read out loud verbatim from the note. “Consider this a courtesy. If you want the truth, midnight at Old Town Pier. Come alone. I won’t contact you again.”

Alpha knew exactly which location this was. Right next to the river, old, abandoned, a place no one went to since a small flood had destroyed it years ago.

It could be a trap. For all he knew, the killer was the one sending him the notes, wanting to lure him to the location. But his gut told him something else. His gut knew it was the one man he’d never been able to get a file on, because the man was a myth, and he existed in the very shadows he was named after.

Taking the note from Zenith, knowing he couldn’t drive himself but couldn’t take his men, he looked at his sister-in-law. “Can you drive?”

Zenith blinked in surprise, taken aback by his request. “Um. Yes.”

He nodded. “Good. I’ll need you to drive me to the location.”

She looked at her wristwatch. “It’ll take two hours with the traffic to get there. It’s on the other end of the city.”

Then he’d have a while to scope out the place. “Come to the compound. We’ll leave after dinner.”

He had his substitute driver take them to the compound, too many things going on in his head, questions he’d been putting off coming up. Yesterday, he’d had a visit from the homicide department at Trident, interrogating him about the whereabouts he’d been at the time of the murders and why someone would want to frame him. His alibis had been solid for most of them and the cops had been on his payroll, but it definitely irked him that some asshole was running about in his city not only targeting and hunting the very people he protected but also framing him systematically for it.

Zephyr greeted them on the deck, giving her wide-eyed sister a tour of the place while he showered and set the table for their meal, the dogs sitting around the kitchen—Baron ignoring everyone as he always did, Bear, like the sucker he’d become, looking at Zephyr like she hung the moon, and Bandit chewing on a new bra he’d stolen from her closet, this one a blue that matched her new hair.

He’d always liked her hair, wavy and long enough for him to wrap his hand around twice, little fringes that made her look adorable when she smiled, which was almost all the time. But he’d noticed her smiles weren’t all the same. Sometimes, she smiled at people out of politeness even when she didn’t want to because she was sweet like that, completely unlike him who had forgotten what a smile felt like until she poked the beast inside him. Sometimes, she smiled when she cried, and she cried a fucking lot much to his consternation, and those smiles always made her mouth quiver in ways he wanted to steady it with his lips. Sometimes, her smile was wicked and naughty, the green in her eyes popping more than the brown, the dimple in her cheek deep, and getting that smile made him want to turn her and smack her ass.

And then she smiled the soft smile, the one that was his favorite, the one that knocked him in his chest because of how tender it was. Gentleness was not something Alpha had been familiar with in a very long time. His life had been brutal and ugly and monstrous, all rough edges and bleeding wounds and selfish interests, and she, she was all softness and light and generosity. Her very existence was proof enough that there was good in the world, that beyond the pain and the hurt and the darkness, joy existed in the form of a small woman.

Even though he didn’t like that she’d changed her hair to a ‘sad’ blue, as she’d called it. He hoped she changed it again because seeing the strands just made him remember how he’d almost lost her to his stubbornness.

They wrapped up dinner, Zephyr and Zenith mostly chatting, telling him about their childhood and various antics from their younger age. For the first time, sitting with the two women as they argued in jest, surrounded by good food and his bois, Alpha felt a sense of family wash over him. He’d wanted it for such a long time deep down and eventually began to believe he would never have it. In the beginning, it had been the fact that he didn’t have to eat alone, that he could share a meal with someone. It had been sitting on his big couch with her presence by his side and watching something with her warmth pressed against him. It had been just coming back home and being greeted not just by his bois but by her genuine joy at seeing him. Little by little, she’d shifted things in his life, minuscule bit by minuscule bit, in a way he’d not even been aware of it happening until it had stopped. And now she was a part of his lifeblood, vital to his functioning.

He never wanted to tell her, but the best thing she could have done for them and their relationship had been to leave. It had shaken him up enough to make him open his eye and realize a life with her was something he wanted, a future with her was something he craved.

It was extraordinary the little things she kept adding to his life.

The only issue now, on his end at least, was physical.

She was an amazing lover, aware of what she wanted and vocal about asking for it, completely abandoned in the way she accepted him and her pleasure. And fuck if he didn’t love pleasuring her, hearing those little noises and loud demands, seeing her body shake and writhe as she came and drenched him, feeling her full tits in his hands and tasting her over and over. He loved it.

But he wanted more, and he didn’t know how to have it. He couldn’t go back to the way they’d been in the beginning. He’d held back in so many ways, and it had given him the control he’d needed.

Now though, he wanted to bend her over the table and pull her hair and fuck her until the legs of the table cracked with the pressure. He wanted to finish inside her and push any cum that escaped back inside, making sure it stayed there, marking her from the inside out. The force of his desire scared him, enough to realize that he could lose control and severely hurt her, and he couldn’t live with himself if he did that. She was so much smaller than him, tight enough that pushing his cock in her always made him realize he could tear her if he went hard. He wasn’t detached anymore.

“I think mama is accepting him,” Zenith indicated to him as they cleared the dishes. “She told me she wanted to organize a proper wedding for the two of you. She’s forgetting the toad.”

Zephyr sighed. “Do we want a wedding?”

That pissed him off. “You’re not leaving,” his voice came out more a growl.

She gave him a look, one he’d become used to recently, one that said that she wasn’t sure if they shouldn’t move on. As if he’d let her. She’d know the real meaning of stalking if she tried. He had a plan ready just in case. He’d simply show up everywhere and kill anyone she wanted to move on with. Fucking hated that term. She’d given him everything and he’d be damned if he let her do it again with someone else. It was all his. She was all his.

Alpha ignored the look, addressing Zenith. “We should go.”

Zenith hitched her bag on her shoulder, ready to leave.

Alpha bent down, tilting his wife’s adorable face up with his fingers, putting his thumb in the little dent, loving how his digit fit like the groove had been made for it. He pressed a hard kiss to her plump mouth, telling her very clearly what he thought about her even entertaining the idea of an alternative, and pulled away.

She looked up at him, her pupils blown and eyes slightly dazed. “Be safe.”

He gave her a chuck under the chin and left.

Zenith was a careful driver.

She drove slowly but steadily to the location, mostly keeping to herself and focusing on the road. The two hours flew by, with Alpha lost in his thoughts and Zenith in hers, the silence comfortable.

The pier came into view, moonlight glistening over the dark river waters, just an old boathouse in sight that remained intact. A few decades ago, it had been a trade route crowded with shipments and such with cities that followed the river. After the flood, a better, newer, more sustainable dockyard had been made on the other side of the city, and this one had been abandoned. Alpha had never been there before, but as he looked around, an ominous sense of déjà-vu washed over him, like he had been in this place.

“Stay in the car. Lock the doors. If I don’t come back in fifteen minutes, drive back,” he instructed the younger girl, arming himself with his trusted knife in his left boot, and a backup gun at his waist even though he wasn’t someone who liked guns. With his vision, shooting a moving target accurately almost never happened, but on the close range, it worked well enough.

Zenith looked around the abandoned area and gave a reluctant nod. “Be careful.”

He exited, making sure she locked the doors behind him, a little at ease since the entire vehicle was bulletproof. Once locked, it would be impossible to break in.

It was time to meet the man who’d left him the black envelopes.

There was no one that he could see in the area as he walked to the boathouse, and leaned against it, keeping an eye on the car while keeping his ears open for any sound besides the usual. The sound of the river, of some animal in the forest beyond, of the engine of the car, those were the only ones around him.

Standing at the abandoned pier in one of the worst areas of the city at midnight was not his idea of a meeting. But the fucker was careful, to say the least if he was who Alpha suspected.

Alpha leaned against the wooden wall of what had once been a boathouse, watching the moonlit river that went into the forest and disappeared. He almost wished he smoked, just for something to do as he waited. He’d tried as a teen with a chip on his shoulder, but just never got into it.

Taking his knife out, he began to twirl it between his fingers, like a student would a pen. But it was a training trick he’d learned after his injury when the scar on his right hand had pulled at his muscle. The twirling helped keep the muscle mobile and nimble. It also helped him feel more at ease, knowing the knife he’d had since he was seventeen was still with him.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of his neck prickled.

Someone was there.

Alpha didn’t look around, instead focused on his other senses, trying to narrow down where the presence was.

Animal? No. Human. Eyes.

To the right? No.

Left.

Close?

No, a few feet away.

“Mr. Villanova,” the quiet voice from a few feet to his left confirmed his suspicion. He looked to the side casually, seeing nothing but the dark umbra of a shadow at the edge of the boathouse.

“Shadow Man,” he greeted, keeping his voice level. The myth. The only one he knew of that everyone in the underworld stayed far away from. They said if the Shadow Man came calling, you’d never be heard from again. He sure fucking hoped that wasn’t true in his case.

“The note said to come alone,” the voice, with a slight accent he couldn’t place, said without inflection.

Alpha shrugged. “Can’t drive with the bad eye. You wanted to meet?”

There was silence for a long minute, a long minute that Alpha stared at the river, keeping his ears open. A slight rustle before the voice came back. “The killer wants to frame you.”

Alpha huffed. “That’s obvious.”

“He’s made a deal with The Syndicate.”

What?

Alpha looked to the side, just able to make out a tall silhouette. “What kind of deal?”

“He’s to deliver them something, and they would help him take you down.”

Interesting. He’d not heard of the organization making deals with rogue killers.

“Why tell me about it?” Alpha asked, the itch in his eye getting worse.

A lighter flicked on, showing the flesh on a gloved hand, before flicking off again.

“You leading the city suits my purpose in the grand scheme of things.”

He had a purpose? Alpha didn’t voice the question. He knew nothing about this man, and that made him a wild card he didn’t know how to deal with.

“So the killer works for The Syndicate?” Alpha verified.

“He kills because he enjoys it,” the man clarified. “The organization is simply a means to an end… your place in the narrative.”

“You talk like there’s a bigger picture.”

A dry chuckle. “There always is.”

The chat was interesting, to say the least. “Do you know who the killer is?”

“Yes.”

Alpha waited for him to fill in the blank, but he didn’t. “And you won’t tell?”

The man waited for a beat. “Call your brother in Tenebrae. His undercover dog has information that will help you.”

Alpha tensed, the knife stilling in his hand. His connection with Dante was not common knowledge, neither was the fact that Dante had sent one of his guys, Vin, undercover in the organization a few months ago. Who the hell was this guy?

“Was that all?” Alpha tried to keep the anger contained, seriously pissed at the cryptic replies. He wasn’t there to play whatever mind games this guy came with. “That’s the truth you wanted to tell me?”

A small pause. “You don’t remember, but this killer is the same man one who took your eye years ago.”

Lead filled his veins. Alpha straightened to his full height, taking a step closer to the silhouette that didn’t move. “How the fuck do you know? Who is he?”

The man didn’t reply.

What the hell? This was personal. This man knew that he didn’t remember, knew who the killer was, and knew that he’d been the same person to destroy Alpha. And he still said nothing.

Seriously irritated, Alpha advanced toward him, ready to beat him to a pulp if that was what it took to get some answers.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

It was the tone that gave him pause—calm, clear, lethal. Any man who spoke a threat with that eerie calm with a man like Alpha coming to him meant business.

Alpha stayed at the edge of the shadows, able to make out the silhouette putting his hands in some kind of jacket pockets.

“I’m going to find out who you are, Shadow Man.” Alpha meant it. He was going to make a whole fucking file on this guy and distribute it to every underworld boss he knew.

The voice came again, this time with amusement, one chilling word before he was gone.

“Try.”