HAVOC Read online

  Table of Contents

  HAVOC

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Note from the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Mercy

  The Revenger

  Other Titles By Debra Anastasia

  Copyright © 2017 by Debra Anastasia

  All rights reserved

  Published by Debra Anastasia

  Havoc is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are all products of the author’s ridiculous imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Except as permitted under the US Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Editing by Paige Smith

  Cover design by Hang Le

  Formatting by CP Smith

  Dedication

  T, J, and D

  As always, everything I do is for you.

  In memory of the original Anastasia

  Chapter 1

  Animal

  I looked from one mob boss to the other. They were sitting in my friend’s house, but I was clearly in charge.

  Bat Feybi’s son was on my left. Mitch Kaleotos was on the right. They were unhappy. I didn’t give a damn.

  “Those are the terms. You both report to me. Understood?”

  They cursed under their breath, but they agreed. I stood and they did the same. I folded my arms over my chest instead of reaching out for a handshake. We were not equals. I was better than they were. I was harder, smarter, and meaner—if I needed to be.

  Kaleotos responded using my street name, “Yeah, Havoc.”

  I lifted my eyebrows and they shuffled toward the front door.

  Nix came into the room. Both Feybi and Kaleotos startled at his presence. Nix didn’t have on his ever-present hoodie, so they could see his full skull face tat. He widened his eyes and hissed at them.

  I had to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from smiling. My man. He was my brother in the only way it really counted—in our souls.

  Feybi bristled.

  I followed the two men into the foyer. They seemed like they wanted to say something more. I settled my command of the atmosphere in my chest. My inner essence was calm, cool, and collected.

  They wouldn’t fuck with me, simply because I wasn’t scared of them. A mountain of a man with a reputation that had burned up the town.

  Both Feybi and Kaleotos reached for the doorknob. Kaleotos was faster and yanked open the huge door.

  On the other side, with three backpacks, a suitcase, red heart-shaped sunglasses tangled in the hair at the top of her head, and a miniskirt that made everything below her waist illegally good-looking was Nix’s baby sister, Ember. Her long brown hair was streaked with all different colors and her fingers were littered with glittery rings.

  I saw the whole scene play out in my head like I was a psychic. Ember was going to tease me, and I’d tease her back. Nix would immediately lose his scary demeanor and worry about his sister being too close to these murderers that we were escorting out. And Ember would get made as family. In this lifestyle, connections were best kept murky if possible. Giving people information on who was most important to you might have consequences.

  I rolled my eyes briefly. Because the most obvious answer was surely going to get me punched in the dick.

  I swooped forward and grabbed Ember around the waist. I hefted her against my chest like I’d just come home from war and she’d already birthed three of my kids.

  “Baby.” I kissed her hard on the mouth. On her nineteen-year-old mouth. I could almost hear Nix’s anger engulfing him like a wildfire.

  If I were anyone else, I would have been dead four times already. As I walked Ember back into the house, she clung to me like she shouldn’t know how to do.

  I pushed on Nix’s puffed up chest and peered around Ember’s forehead to see that his eyes were wild as I predicted.

  I was barely kissing Ember now that my back was turned to Feybi and Kaleotos, but Ember was all into it.

  Shit. Double shit. All the shits.

  I was able to slam the door with my foot, thankfully before Kaleotos or Feybi could make out the farce for what it was.

  I pulled Ember off of me. Her hot pink lipstick was smeared around her mouth, and I was betting mine as well.

  “Step away from Animal, Ember. He and I are about to beat the fuck out of each other.” Nix rolled his head on his neck. Snapping, cracking noises accompanied the movement.

  Another gorgeous woman stepped between Nix and me, her face half-etched in a faded version of his skull tat. His girlfriend, Becca, put her hands on both of our chests, and she looked at Ember and me and then turned to Nix.

  “Hothead. Animal would never touch your sister.” I couldn’t see her face anymore, but it was clear from her tiny sweat shorts and tank that Becca had been relaxing upstairs.

  “He kissed her. Kissed her!” Nix was fuming. I considered Ember. She looked frazzled. And embarrassed. And slightly infatuated.

  Crap.

  Becca shook her head, her ponytail bouncing all around. “No. Hear them out.” Becca grabbed onto Nix’s arm. It was tatted like a skeleton’s bones as well.

  Nix looked at me with venom, but I wasn’t dead yet, so I knew he still loved me.

  Then he glared at Ember. Instead of words, he just pointed from her to me and back again. The question was undoubtedly what the fuck?

  Ember grabbed her own hands and kicked her sandaled foot against the tile behind her before answering, “I’m in love. That was the best kiss of my life.”

  I felt my jaw drop. “Ember Ann Fenix Mercy Churchkey!”

  She started to laugh before dropping the act. “Please, Nix. Obviously, I interrupted some of your business, and Animal was making sure I kept my big mouth shut.”

  “You cannot be l
ike that. He would kill me.” I pointed with my pinkie at Nix. He was a murderer. An assassin.

  Ember laughed. “He’d never touch you in a million years. He’s addicted to all the sweetness and baby talk you lay on him all the time.”

  I dared a glance back at Nix. He had visibly relaxed. “Ember, don’t play with fire like that. Shit. What the hell are you here for?”

  Ember wiped her pink lipstick off of her face and then got up on her tiptoes and wiped my mouth as well.

  I looked into her giant, gorgeous blue eyes and knew she was super duper trouble in general.

  “I’m moving in. I’m leaving college and Aunt Dor to live here.”

  “Um.” Ten minutes ago I was so eloquent, I’d convinced two mob bosses they were my bitches. I had nothing now. A teenaged girl made me tongue-tied.

  Nix looked like his head was going to pop off again except for a whole different reason now.

  Chapter 2

  Animal

  I’ve stood next to this man through a lot of shit. Not ever have we been at such a loss for words and direction as we watched Ember make herself at home in the guest room.

  Her phone was propped up on her dresser. There were two girls on the video chat, as if they lived their lives like that. Everyone was involved in different things. One was curling her hair, the other was typing on a computer, and Ember was unpacking her suitcase.

  There was music piping through. I wasn’t sure which girl had it playing, but it was filthy.

  Nix touched my shoulder and tilted his head toward the hallway. He wanted to talk.

  I ducked closer to him as he leaned against the hallway wall. “She can’t stay here.”

  Despite his ink, he looked pale. Becca had left for her shift at the tattoo parlor. It was just Nix, Ember, and I.

  “Obviously.”

  We were in a volatile situation. Nix had a past with the Feybis. He’d killed the patriarch after working in the family for a year. They feared him for his skill, but some sins were not easily overlooked. Lighting a mob boss on fire in his favorite chair was one of those touchy subjects.

  The Kaleotos had been in charge of half of Midville and were in a war with the Feybis for longer than anyone remembered.

  When Nix left to work with the Feybis, I knew I needed to prepare for when he finally returned. I had assembled an army of broken souls over my lifetime, and bunches of them worked for me.

  My family was small, but it now required that I run the entire entity that encompassed the criminal element in Midville. I slowly turned Kaleotos into my puppet. I went to their foot soldiers and offered better. Offered a future. Because there was no getting out of Feybi’s with your life. With me, on my crew, loyalty earned a way out. I treated people like people instead of pawns. I used Nix’s purple Hummer to gather them. Soon, gossip was what it was and I was getting approached by needy people, instead of the other way around.

  By the time I got Nix back, I had a nice group of Kaleotos’ best men. And I had a formula that worked.

  Nix was allowed to wallow in his happiness for a little while, but I used his knowledge of the Feybi organization to my benefit. I moved swiftly during the upheaval in power caused by Feybi Sr.’s demise.

  After the meeting I had today, I was going to focus on eliminating the most vicious of the loan sharks. Then the independent drug dealers. I had Nix with me now, so we were running at full capacity.

  I was magnetic. It was just something I had about me. My gift. Bad people trusted me. Good ones, too. I was ready to defend Nix from whoever came sniffing for his blood and retribution.

  I was an unknown factor. Mysterious to the warring families. Where they had goals of crime and money and power, I just wanted my people to live—in comfort as well.

  Nix wasn’t my first “family” member, but he was one of the dearest to me. And he was currently close to hyperventilating.

  “Did your aunt do anything to cause this? I mean, like what the hell?”

  The music cut out from Ember’s room. She stepped into the hallway. “She lied to me.”

  Nix rolled his head in her direction. I peeked past her and saw that her phone had a dark screen.

  “Your friends are gone?” I watched as she shifted her eyes and hips in the same direction. “Because if they were still there, they could hear stuff that could put them in danger.”

  Ember snapped her gum and went to her phone. I watched as she unmuted herself and then ended the video chat session with a middle finger.

  She stuffed her phone into her bra and came back into the hallway.

  Nix put his hands through his thick hair. I knew that his scalp was tatted up to complete what he thought was a necessary permanent disguise as a skeleton.

  “She lied to me,” Ember repeated.

  “Aunt Dor?” I offered because Nix was too busy sliding his hand over his face to ask.

  Ember narrowed her eyes at her brother. “She said that you’re dangerous. No one speaks about you that way to me.”

  I loved Ember. She was always special because she was Nix’s sister. He’d done a great deal to make sure she was safe. More than she would probably ever know.

  He never expected any kind of reciprocation from the women he watched. Nix rubbed his fingers on his chest. I knew he had the names of four females tatted there. His mother. Becca. Christina, the special little girl he’d rescued. And Ember.

  He was feeling the love.

  We were all goners now.

  “You’re my brother, and I’m proud of you. You’d never hurt a soul!” She had fire in her eyes and the sureness only someone who was still a teenager could project.

  She was wrong. He’d never hurt her. Or me. Or Becca. Or Christina. But I’m sure we’d both lost count of the amount of assholes we’d ended. Hurt them so much they stopped breathing.

  I saw the conflict in his expression. It was just because I knew him as well as I did. He had a great poker face.

  “Just unpack for now. But don’t get too comfortable. This is no place for a kid.” Nix clearly wanted to talk this one out with me.

  Ember leaned in and gave him a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, bro. I’m not a kid. Aunt Dor can pound salt.” She twirled and her long brown hair with streaks slapped me in the chest and Nix in the face.

  Nix turned and headed toward my room. I knew we’d have to hash this out.

  Because we knew something about Ember that she didn’t.

  We knew who Ember’s father might be.

  Chapter 3

  Animal

  Fourteen Years Earlier

  The trick to getting food out of the trash at school was mumbling about how you tossed out your homework if anyone walked by. I was supposed to have a hot lunch provided by the school. My foster “parents” were out of town. Honestly, I liked it better that way. I was biding my time.

  They were assholes. They got a check for supporting me, and they shot that into their arms. I saw it all. And I didn’t have to ’fess up to my social worker. Because she was so swamped with work, actually dealing with the kids on her list was a rare treat for her.

  I could avoid the “parents”.

  I felt someone bump my elbow. Probably ready to bust me for dumpster diving. I had a million excuses on the tip of my tongue and the chip on my shoulder sharpened to a point, but her brown eyes brought me back.

  She passed me a chocolate chip muffin tightly wrapped in plastic. I took it and pushed it into the pocket of the jacket I rarely took off.

  “You boosted this?”

  My girl T was trouble. Thick black eyeliner and a sneer kept her safe from everyone but me. But she’d let me in and I’d never hurt her.

  She lifted her chin at me, letting me know I’d guessed correctly.

  “Shit, girl, you’re gonna get your ass caught.”

  She almost smiled. The black fingernail polish added to the mystery and she touched the upside down star pendant she wore on a chain around her neck. She was giving me her excuse, not saying an
ything. T was spoken about in hushed whispers. She was a witch maybe. A Satan worshipper definitely.

  None of it was true. T was homeless. She used the other kids’ imaginations to enforce the distance she craved.

  She bragged that she was invisible, and maybe she was right. She was a good thief.

  She knew my deal, and I knew hers. We tried to watch each other’s back. It was hard, though. We were tied to separate rafts in the middle of a monsoon. We were trying to survive.

  “They getting closer to getting you locked down?” I stepped near her beat-up Converses.

  Her eyes glazed over and her lips made an O.

  She was a runner. Some people couldn’t take locked doors. T wanted an open door or a cracked window. When she was locked in, she started dying—so she said anyway.

  I’d offered to mention her to my caseworker in the past. I wouldn’t make that mistake again. The answer had been a firm no. She had a mother. One she didn’t want to discuss. Undeniably, something about it wasn’t working.

  After hanging her head so her thick hair could swing over half of her face, she poked at the pocket holding the muffin with her index finger.

  She wanted me to eat now. My stomach grumbled. I’d had the cheese sandwich I was given at the cafeteria. The foster parents were arrears in payment to the school so that was all I could get on the menu. I got the poor man’s meal.

  Shit, I was just thirteen, but even I knew that signaling out kids who couldn’t pay for lunch with the goddamn cheese sandwich was cruel bullshit. Cheese gave me wicked gas on top of it all, so I threw the cheese out and ate the bread.

  I knew she wouldn’t stop picking at me until she saw me swallow some food. I rolled my eyes at her and heard her snicker in response. I unwrapped the muffin in my pocket and broke off a bit. I had to be stealthy. The cafeteria manager, Ms. Dadish, didn’t like me. If she saw me eating, she’d know I had food I shouldn’t. Like her job was to slap a cheese sandwich onto my tray, and also make sure it was the only thing that crossed my lips for lunch.

  I watched as T tried to make her slight form bigger to provide a shield. I palmed the food and put it between my lips. T watched my mouth move. It made her happy to help me. I allowed that. She was the only one that got this me. The walls-down, chip-laid-at-my-feet, ready-to-smile Animal.