A reminder they are there and angry.
That they can get to us. Curling my fists into my sides, I stomp through the mess, kicking aside the broken sofa. “Check on all the other safe houses, I want a report back. Find whoever the fuck is betraying us!” I snap.
Grabbing my phone, I dial Ryder. “Speak,” he snarls, obviously having as much fun as me.
“It’s trashed, they fucking knew exactly where to go. We need to find the fucking bastard who is giving them this information,” I growl, smashing my fist into the wall.
“I fucking know that, I’m trying. Go check out the other houses,” he orders, before hanging up. I pocket my phone. He’s stressed as well, we can all feel it. Before, it wouldn’t have mattered, it would have been fun, a game to destroy them, but now we have Roxy to think about, and we don’t want her caught in the crossfire. My phone vibrates as I’m slipping it into my front jeans pocket, so I yank it out and read the message.
Kenzo: No luck here.
Fuck.
Putting it back, I circle my fingers at the guys. “Let’s move out. We’re checking all the houses until we find someone, and when we do, we’re going to fucking kill them.”
They nod, and we rush off to search the next safe house.
Five safe houses later, and I’m pissed. Three have been hit, but there’s no sign of whoever did it, or whoever told them about it, because we all know it’s the Triad, a revenge hit. Maybe they were hoping they would find someone at one of them, I’m not sure. Either way, I want to smash someone’s face in.
I have to hold back the urge, my body vibrating with tension and anger, the feeling I get when I’m winding up to fight. Breathing through it, I try and tamp it down for as long as I can. Suddenly, my phone rings, and I answer it without looking.
“What?” I snarl into it, as we head to the next safe house.
“How fucking rude! I was going to be nice for once, but…” She laughs—Roxy. I relax instantly at the sound of her voice, a smile coming to my lips.
“You okay, baby?” I ask, my voice softer now. I see the two men in the front shifting, so I glare at their backs, and they hunch.
“Yeah, you, big guy? I got worried when I hadn’t heard from any of you.” She sniffs.
“You’re bored, aren’t you?” I chuckle.
“Out of my fucking mind.” She groans dramatically, making me laugh harder.
“Haven’t got up to any trouble yet?” I query, staring out of the window. All my tension seems to float away for a moment as I imagine her guards chasing her with pale faces, trying to keep up with whatever trouble she’s up to.
“Psh, not yet, but it’s only…nine in the morning.” She laughs, the sound heading straight to my cock and hardening it. “Though I did order us some new chains to play with.” Her voice goes low and sultry.
Fuck me.
I groan, closing my eyes for a minute. “Baby, I’m in a car with three other guys, you can’t say shit like that.”
“Why? You wanna chain them up too?” she teases.
“Behave,” I snarl.
She scoffs, “When the fuck do I ever behave? Now hurry your big ass up and get home, I’m fucking bored, and who knows what I’ll do.”
She hangs up, snickering. I pocket my phone again, but I feel calmer now. More relaxed and in control. I feel the guys looking at me, so I turn my head and narrow my eyes. “Do not even think about her, look at her, or go near her, or I will fucking smash your faces in.”
They all turn away instantly, and I smirk, even as Tony chuckles from the front. The next safe house is an apartment above a coffee shop, so after we check it and find it trashed, I decide to take a break. I didn’t eat this morning, and I find myself missing our usual breakfast dates. When I hated her, or at least tried to, they were the only real times I could be around her without the others catching on to my desire. I could stare at her without them noticing.
Sighing, I head inside. One of my guards stays in the car, another stands outside the shop, and the third sits and waits, his eyes scanning everyone. But I do it anyway, it’s a habit, and that’s when I see her.
Her.
Here, staring right back at me.
She has on a hood, hiding half of her face, but it’s her. I would recognise her anywhere. Her lips are turned up in a knowing smirk, her one cornflower blue eye locked on me. I used to stare into her eyes for hours, wondering if she was my forever, and now she’s here.
My whole body freezes, my chest and muscles burning as fear and fury pour through me. “Sir?” the woman behind the counter calls in confusion. I’m at the front of the queue, it’s my turn, but I can’t look away from her.
Daphne.
The bitch who tried to kill me, who stripped the skin from my chest. My ex-girlfriend. She’s sitting in the corner with an untouched mug before her, watching me the same fucking way she used to. An expression I didn’t realise was so cold and calculating, the greedy cunt, until it was too late. Until she had her blade in my chest, carving me to pieces while she laughed.
When I woke in the private hospital, the guys were there. They knew where she had run to, she had never gotten far enough to escape us. No place would ever be far enough. I didn’t ask, I just told them to take care of it. To make it hurt.
To make her suffer for what she did.
Because when I peeled those bandages away, I gagged at the sight of my own chest, and I couldn’t let the nurses help me wash it. Diesel had to. I couldn’t stand their hands on me, and when one tried, I snapped her wrist. This woman tried to kill me, ruin me.
Even managed it for many years. Only now, with Roxy, am I finally starting to live again, yet she’s here, staring at me like nothing happened.
How is she alive?
“Sir?” comes again, but I turn away and storm right up to her. I want to ring her neck, to snap it, but that would be too fast. How did she survive whatever the guys did? It had to be bad, they assured me she was dead.
How is she fucking alive?
And why do my hands shake? I hide them behind my back as I tower over her table. She tries to play it cool, her hand reaching for her mug, but I see the tremble in them, the fear in her eye. Unlike Roxy, she was always slightly scared of me for what I could do. She was disgusted at my fighting, yet the cold fucking bitch had no issue with my blood.
Cunt.
My gaze catches on her wrist as her hoodie pulls up with her movement, revealing mottled, burnt flesh. She gasps and yanks her hand under the table, her one eye narrowing on me.
“Gar,” she breathes. “You look good…almost fully healed.” She smirks.
“How are you alive?” I seethe, holding myself back from attacking her. It wouldn’t do us any good, but fuck, it’s hard. I want to snap every bone in her traitorous body. To make her feel the pain I felt, and not just at her betrayal.
“It wasn’t easy.” She shrugs. “But I had things to survive for.”
“Like a fucking cockroach you can’t get rid of,” I snarl, and she laughs, the annoying, high-pitched tittering sound that used to make Diesel threaten to stab her. That should have been warning enough. They didn’t like her, but I was blind.
I even protected her from him, let her pull me away from my brothers when she was scared of them. I hurt them, not that they will ever say it. I know that’s why Ryder is so panicked about Roxy, because I couldn’t just walk away from them for her.