Ruthless (A Lawless Novel) Read online

  PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF LEXI BLAKE

  “A book to enjoy again and again . . . Captivating.”

  —Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews

  “A satisfying snack of love, romance, and hot, steamy sex.”

  —Sizzling Hot Books

  “Hot and emotional.”

  —Two Lips Reviews

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

  RUTHLESS

  This book is an original publication of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Copyright © 2016 by DLZ Entertainment LLC.

  Excerpt from Satisfaction copyright © 2017 by DLZ Entertainment LLC.

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  BERKLEY® and the “B” design are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  For more information, visit penguin.com.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Blake, Lexi, author.

  Title: Ruthless / Lexi Blake.

  Description: Berkley trade paperback edition. | New York, New York : Berkley, 2016. | Series: A lawless novel ; 1

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016025595 (print) | LCCN 2016026305 (ebook) | ISBN

  9780425283578 (paperback) | ISBN 9780698410305 ()

  Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Romance / Contemporary. | FICTION / Romance /

  Suspense. | FICTION / Romance / General. | GSAFD: Erotic fiction. |

  Romantic suspense fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3602.L3456 R88 2016 (print) | LCC PS3602.L3456 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016025595

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Berkley trade paperback edition / August 2016

  Cover design by Sandra Chiu.

  Portrait of businessman by Peskymonkey / Getty Images;

  Cityscape by Evgeny Dubinchuk / Shutterstock.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  I would like to thank my amazing editor, Kate Seaver, and the entire Berkley staff for helping me make this transition. I kind of like not having to make all the decisions. I would also like to thank my staff: Kim, Riane, Stormy, and my amazing husband, Richard.

  This book is dedicated to my agent, Merrilee Heifetz, who took a chance on me when no one else would. It took us a while to get here, but I’m so glad I had you with me for the ride.

  Contents

  Praise for the Novels of Lexi Blake

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Satisfaction

  About the Author

  Prologue

  DALLAS, TEXAS

  Riley Lawless sat in the chair they’d offered him, but he wasn’t alone. There had been only two chairs in the small office at the police station and there were four of them, so he’d settled Mia in beside him.

  Four of them.

  There used to be six.

  “I’m tired, Riley. When can we go home?” Mia asked, her blue eyes wide.

  Riley exchanged a look with his oldest brother, Drew. What was he supposed to say to that? He still couldn’t believe what had happened himself. How was he supposed to explain it to Mia? She was barely six. They’d had a Barbie birthday party for her two weeks before. She’d worn a princess tiara and opened her presents with a grin that showed her first missing tooth. Their dad had forced them all to attend. Three boys amid a sea of six-year-old girls.

  Where was his father now? He didn’t understand anything.

  Brandon looked to Mia with tears in his eyes. “I don’t think we get to go home ever again, Mia.”

  Drew put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We’re going to be okay, Bran.”

  Riley wasn’t sure how that was possible. Had it really only been two hours before? Had it really happened at all? Maybe he was dreaming. His mind drifted back.

  The sheets tangled in his feet as he tried to sit up. Confusion. There was a crackling sound he didn’t understand. He fought his way out of the sheets and sat up in bed. The computer he shared with his brother was still on, the green light of the screen illuminating the room. Riley rubbed his eyes.

  Something was wrong. He could smell smoke.

  The light on the computer died suddenly and so did the one on his small fish tank.

  Bran?

  His brother was on the top bunk. Riley scrambled up the ladder that connected their beds.

  Bran, wake up.

  There was a pounding on the door to his room and he thought about all those horror movies he wasn’t supposed to watch but he did when he was at Tommy Ferguson’s house because Tommy’s mom always took a sleeping pill and then nothing would wake her. Bran sat up, and Riley could see him even in the darkness. He reached for Riley’s hand. Bran was only eight. Riley had turned twelve months before. Riley gave him a squeeze. Bran was his responsibility.

  Hide. Get in the closet and hide, Bran. I’ll deal with what’s happening.

  That crackling sound was so much louder, but nothing was as loud as the door exploding as it was kicked open. Riley tried to cover his brother’s body with his own, his heart pounding.

  An eerie red light filled the room and smoke came pouring in. In the midst of the haze, a tall figure appeared.

  Drew. He was carrying Mia and his face was smudged with dirt. His voice was husky, older than normal when he spoke.

  Come on. We’ve gotta move. I think the back stairs are still clear. If not, we’re going out a window. Move it. Now.

  What’s happening? He didn’t understand.

  The house is on fire. We have to go.

  But Mom and Dad? Shouldn’t their dad be the one ordering them around?

  Drew shook his head and Riley realized the world had flipped and he didn’t recognize where he’d landed.

  He took Bran’s hand and followed his brother.

  “Don’t think about it.” Drew looked down on him, bringing Riley back to reality. The grim expression on his face made him look so much older than fourteen.

  “I want Daddy.” Mia started to cry.

  Drew immediately picked her up, settling her against his lanky frame. “I’m sorry, Mia. But it’s going to be all right.”

  Riley wasn’t sure how. He got to his feet. “I’m thirsty. They said there was a water fountain outsid
e.”

  “Don’t be gone long,” Drew said in a voice that let Riley know he was in control.

  Riley didn’t really want a drink. He was fairly certain he was going to throw up.

  A man and a woman, both in blue uniforms, sat at their desks talking. The rest of the building seemed almost eerily empty. “Poor kids. Their dad tried to kill them all. Did you know he’d locked all the doors and propped them closed from the outside so the kids couldn’t get out? The bastard wanted to make damn sure those kids died with him. Found the window he used to get back inside, but the kids wouldn’t have found it because of how he lit the fire before he offed himself.”

  “Yeah, well, I heard what he did to his wife was even worse,” the female officer replied with a shake of her head. “They don’t know if there’s enough of her left to identify. What a way to go.”

  Riley felt his stomach turn. They were talking about him. They were talking about his dad. His mom.

  They were really gone. His dad, who played ball with him and never got mad even when Riley interrupted his work. His dad worked a lot, but he always smiled when one of them entered the room. He would grin and thank them for the interruption because work was boring but his kids were fun. That house had been filled with his dad’s unique energy.

  “He didn’t kill her.” His father would never hurt Mom. He loved her.

  The two officers looked back, and he saw a nauseating sympathy cross their faces.

  The female officer immediately crossed the space between them. “Honey, you need to stay in the captain’s office. I promise a very nice lady is going to be here soon, and she’s going to take care of you.”

  “Drew and me will take care of us.” He didn’t want some random lady. He wanted his mom.

  “No, honey.” The woman shook her head. “You don’t worry about that now. It’s going to be all right.”

  He turned to go back into the office before he heard them whispering again.

  “Damn, I hate that they’re going to break those kids up,” the man said in a hushed voice he probably thought no one would hear.

  Break them up?

  “They don’t have any family. No one’s taking in four kids.”

  Riley slammed into the room, his heart in his throat.

  “They’re breaking us up.” He couldn’t lose them. He couldn’t lose his brothers and his sister. Mia was so young.

  Drew’s eyes closed, and when he opened them again, there was the same steely glint in them he got when facing down a pitcher in a baseball game. “No matter what happens, know that I will find a way to see you, Riley. I won’t let any of you go and when I’m old enough, I’ll come and get you.”

  But that could be years.

  Bran and Mia were sitting together, slumped against each other. They were asleep and Riley wished he was. He wished this was all a bad dream.

  “They say Dad killed Mom.”

  “No,” Drew said sharply. “That’s a lie and you never believe it. No matter what they say. Dad and Mom were murdered.”

  “By who? Who would want to kill them?” It didn’t make a lick of sense.

  Drew shook his head. “I don’t know, but I will find out. I saw some of it. I tried to tell the cops, but they don’t believe me. They think I’m a kid who doesn’t want to believe his dad could do something so evil.”

  “He wouldn’t.” How was his dad gone? Where had he gone? Riley didn’t understand. He didn’t understand anything at all.

  Drew put a hand on his shoulder and in that moment, in the dim light of the office with silence all around them, Riley could see his father in his brother’s face. “One day when we’re older, we’ll find them and we’ll make them pay. I’ll make them pay.”

  The thought gave him strength. It was better than thinking about what he’d lost. “No. You were right the first time. We’ll make them pay. You and me and Bran and Mia. We’ll make them hurt.”

  The door opened and an older lady with a briefcase strode in. She started talking about temporary housing and grief counseling. She began to gently broach the subject of foster care and how difficult it would be to place the four of them together.

  But Riley just looked at Drew.

  And knew one day they would be together again. After all, they had a job to do.

  One

  Twenty years later

  NEW YORK CITY

  Mr. Lang? Can I get you anything? Anything at all?”

  Riley Lawless looked up at the pretty blond receptionist and got the distinct feeling she really meant what she’d said. She was staring at him like she could eat him alive.

  “I don’t think we have time for what she has in mind,” he muttered under his breath. Drew chuckled beside him, lounging back.

  Riley shook his head because his brother was right. He needed to focus on one thing and one thing alone, and that was making an impression on Ellie Stratton. “Thank you, but I think we’re fine.”

  The blonde blushed and handed him her card. “If you change your mind, Mr. Lang.”

  She walked away, her sky-high heels clacking against the marbled floors. It had been years since Riley had started using the name Lang professionally, and he still wasn’t used to it. They’d decided on the name to give him distance from the Lawless history. He and Bran went by their paternal grandmother’s maiden name so they wouldn’t be easily associated with Drew. He still hated not sharing a name with his parents.

  He had a bunch of very official documents proclaiming him to be Riley Lang, but that didn’t make him forget that he was a Lawless.

  “I do not get that. I’m obviously more attractive than you. How do you get all those women?” Drew watched the receptionist’s very nice ass sway as she walked back to her desk.

  Riley snorted. They had this discussion at least once a month. “You scare the hell out of women. It’s like they can sense the predator in you.”

  Drew gave him a smile. “See? I can smile. I’m utterly harmless.”

  It was Riley’s turn to laugh. “Dude, even smiling you look like you’re ready to hunt someone down. You need to take after me.”

  “So I need to be a brainless himbo?”

  “Yeah, tell that to Harvard Law. No. You need to look friendly. You need to look normal. Normal men don’t look like they’ll sprout claws and fangs at any given moment.” His brother got more than his fair share of female attention, but years of growing a company and raising his siblings had killed any light in Drew’s eyes. Riley straightened his tie and put on his game face.

  When the mission required man candy, they went with Riley. He was the charming one, the one who had figured out how to shove down all the dark stuff and give people what they wanted. Drew was too predatory, and Bran . . . there was always something dark bubbling under Bran’s surface. Women seemed to be even more wary of Bran.

  So Riley was the go-to guy when a little seduction was needed.

  “Are you ready?” Drew’s eyes were on the hallway that led back to the two executive suites. Riley was certain Drew knew the whole layout of the office, though he hadn’t been inside it before. Drew never left anything to chance. Anything.

  “I am.” He was ready to meet Ellie Stratton. Daughter of Phillip Stratton and business partner of Steven Castalano.

  Phillip Stratton and Steven Castalano had been involved in their parents’ deaths. They were murderers, and finally they were going to pay. Unfortunately, Phillip Stratton was dead.

  The sins of the father were about to be visited on the daughter’s doorstep. Ellie Stratton would have to pay her father’s debt.

  “Here we go.” There was a wealth of satisfaction in his brother’s voice as Steven Castalano strode down the hallway.

  It made sense because this was the beginning of a game Drew had been working on for twenty years. It was a game Castalano wouldn’t know he was playing
until he’d already lost.

  “You the lawyers?” Castalano didn’t waste time on politeness. He was a man past his prime, and the photos Drew had of him hadn’t done his florid face justice. Craggy and lined, his face bore the marks of long nights spent partying. According to everything they knew about the man, his love of women and booze had cost him two marriages and the majority of the fortune he’d come into exactly two months after Benedict Lawless and his wife had been murdered. Riley wondered if wife number three knew the truth about her husband’s cash. Castalano had made his money the old-fashioned way—he’d murdered and stolen for it.

  An IPO had been much more important to Castalano than a good man’s life.

  Yeah, that was going to cost him, too.

  Riley got to his feet and put out a hand. The thought of touching the man disgusted him, but he was willing to do just about anything to get his foot in this particular door. “Riley Lang. This is my associate, Andy Hoover. I thought we were meeting with Ms. Stratton.”

  Castalano studied them through narrowed eyes. “Yeah, well, I always like to know my enemies.” He stopped on Drew. “You look familiar.”

  Drew looked most like their father, though not a single one of the kids was a carbon copy. Drew and Mia had inherited their father’s sandy hair coloring and blue eyes while Riley and Bran had darker hair and green eyes.

  It was more likely Castalano had seen one of the few photographs reporters had managed to take of the infamous Andrew Lawless, reclusive billionaire software developer. At the tender age of twenty-three, Drew had built the firewall system almost every corporation now used, including StratCast. Drew had used the money to put them all through college, and he’d used the teeny-tiny backdoor he’d left in his software to spy on his enemies—starting with Castalano.

  Drew remained perfectly cool. “I’ve been told I look an awful lot like that actor who plays Thor. I promise not to throw a hammer your way, though.”

  No, Riley was sure Drew would much rather use a knife on the man. Or leave him to burn to death. Like Castalano had left their father.

  Castalano shrugged. “Right. I appreciate that.”