by Ruby Wolff
“Money-wise, she’ll be set for life. She’ll be able to give everything to the babies. Only she knows about that. Gwen had you—Elijah knew you’d look after them. Who’s looking after Alice?”
I turn around and watch them all staring at Max and I talking.
I could have any one of these men looking after Alice for me, but I know her well enough now to know she’ll do what she wants. I just have to hope she’ll stay close to my family. If things go wrong, families will know about it and will do anything to get them while they’re down.
“Let’s talk to the family, shall we?” I ask, walking over to them.
“We? You’re on your own here,” Max says from behind me, and that comment brings a smile to my lips.
Hands in my pockets, I look at every single one of them. My gaze stops on Alice as I begin talking. “You all know that the people in this room are the only people I’d give my life for in a heartbeat. Someone hurt my queen, and I can’t live the rest of my life knowing that man is alive. I need to kill Harvey, and I’ll do everything I can to make that happen.” I stop for a moment with my gaze still locked on Alice, reading her, seeing if this is affecting her. She knows the man I am and, at the moment, seems to be on the same page as me.
“The only way to get to him is by going underground,” Pike shouts. That’s when Alice’s body changes, and worry begins to run through her.
“I’m going down there. I’ll talk to the man in charge and tell him I’ll play by his rules to get Harvey. What he wants, he gets.” I break eye contact with Alice and look over at Pike.
“And what if what they want is you?” he asks.
I just look at him for a moment. “Tonight, I’m going down. I’d like my family to come with me. Once we talk to him, then I can see what I have, I mean, my name—”
“Your name means nothing down there,” my dad interrupts, which makes me look over at him. “You have a name up here like Ronnie told you. They know who you are, but they don’t fear you like they do here because they know you can’t touch them.”
Lighting up a cigarette, I take in one long drag and watch my family for a moment. My eyes meet Alice’s again, and she looks at me.
“Vinny will go with you, but you promise me that it’s to talk and you’ll be back tonight,” she says, and we all look at her. She’s backing me for now, and I can only hope she keeps backing me to the end.
“I’ll be back tonight. I’ll make sure I’m back,” I promise. I see everyone looking between us.
“Your queen has spoken. We leave in two hours,” my dad says. I can hear from his tone that he’s pissed off about it.
“My queen has spoken, but we all know how we do things in this family. We need to stick together,” I tell everyone. This is a family, a family who sticks with each other.
No one says anything, I continue to smoke my cigarette as I watch Dad, Pike, and Warren leave the room. Uncle Ronnie, Vinny and Max follow them, and I’m left looking at Alice.
“This is going to take a while.” I sit down, looking over to the office, and all I can do is wait for them to come out and tell me what they want to do.
“I can understand why, and you do, too, Angel.” Alice sits next to me, and I pull her closer.
“I do, but why did you agree?”
“I agreed because I love you, and I know nothing will stop you from coming back to me. You'll find a way for this to work because you love me,” Alice gives me a kiss.
Before she can pull away from me, I grab the back of her neck and deepen the kiss. This woman is the best thing to ever happen to me, and I’ll always fight to be with her.
“I’ll always love you.” I lean my head against the couch and close my eyes for a moment. I feel Alice start to move away, but I stop her. “No, stay with me,” I say, and I feel her cuddling up against me.
I didn’t think I’d be holding her in my arms again, so there’s no way I’m letting her go now. I’ll fight until my last breath to make sure I come back to her.
***
I look over at Uncle Ronnie as we walk through the corridor. The moment I stepped foot down here, I could feel bad energy, the blood, the sweat… There’s a lot of families here who’ve killed each other’s family members. A lot of bad blood roams around these walls. The energy’s going to be fucked up.
I can see the worry in Dad and Uncle Ronnie’s eyes. The fear in them of what could happen is clear. I have to admit, there’s a small part of me that isn’t ready for what the outcome might be.
Uncle Ronnie stops, and I look around as people start coming out of the darkness around us. Today is the day I get to see who’s in charge of this place. Whoever’s in charge makes the rules, and I might even find out what the fuck the rules are down here.
“Never, never did I think I’d see a Frost down here,” a voice says. I look at the man walking into the light, and I think I know who he is, but the name won’t come to me. “Ronnie, here, has told us you want one of the men down here. I’ve been talking to the group of chairmen, and I think we have something that might work.” He stops when he stands only a few inches away from me. I still choose to stay quiet as I try and get the vibe of this place. “You don't know who I am?” he asks and looks over my left shoulder at my dad.
“No, should I?” I ask.
He starts laughing. “I tried to kill you once.”
“I see that went well for you,” I drawl. I can’t show these people weakness. I need to stay the person they all fear.
“Don’t you even want to know why I tried to kill you?” he asks.
“No.”
“My father killed your grandad,” my dad says to him, “and tried to retaliate by going after Angel. He’d kill my father. But, as you can see, you’re hiding down here. Why is that?”
I’m still trying to remember this man. I’ve seen a picture of him. I just can’t remember why I had to see that picture. I know I’ve not slept in a while and I’m not thinking straight, but what’s the reason he’s here? That’s something I’d like to know.
“You know, maybe you want to tell your son,” he snaps at my dad.
“My father killed your grandad. You came back to kill Angel, but that went sour when my father caught you and told you that if he saw you ever again, he’d make your death so painful, the torture will last for months. And, if you ever showed your face in front of his grandchildren, things would happen to you—things that you could never imagine,” my dad says.
My lips curl into a smile just remembering how my grandad played things. I learned everything from him, and that’s why they all fear me, just like him.
“And now, finally the day has come that I get to tell the Frost family to fuck off.” He takes a step back, but I stand my ground.
He has something planned. He’s too confident. He’s just waiting for his moment, which I’m not going to give him.
“Are you just going to act like the big man down here, or are you going to tell me what you’ve got planned?” I ask him. Uncle Ronnie gives me a small nudge, and I ignore him.
The guy takes a step closer to me, closer than before. “People down here have always told me about the devil. The devil comes out in his eyes, and I’ve never seen him, so I want to make sure what I’m about to tell you, the devil hears every word. I want to see him come out,” he says, and I stay standing strong. “You want Harvey, so this is what we’re going to do. There’ll be a fight to the death. One man dies, one man walks.” A smile forms on his lips, and I look straight into his eyes. “You win, Harvey is all yours. My man wins, I get your businesses. I get your bar, and Harvey gets your girl.” He starts laughing as he looks at me. “And there’s the devil himself. I’ve got chills seeing him in the flesh.”
I take a step back. If what Uncle Ronnie has told me is true about the fights down here, they’re bloody.
There’s only one rule: One man had to die. “And one last thing. The man fighting for your girl and your bar, is you.”
Chapter 30
Alice
“Stop looking at your watch. They'll be back. Angel will be back.” Drew stands in front of me to stop me from pacing the room.
“I know. Angel said he'll be back, but they know so little about what’s down there. I’m just worried that's all,” I say.
I know there are things Angel will be doing that'll make me worry every day, but there's something different about today. They're going into this blind, and that scares me.
I look behind Drew as they all walk in, and they don’t look happy. My gaze moves to Angel, but he doesn’t even look at me, and moves straight to his office.
I watch as the rest of the guys walk over to the sitting room. No one says anything for a moment, and my gaze shifts back to Angel's office.
“Alice, I’d leave him to it.” Robert looks behind his shoulder toward the closed door. “This is going to be a long night.”
“Is anyone going to tell us what happened?” I look at them all, but they all just look at each other for a moment, and Warren hands everyone a drink. “Okay, we can wait,” I say, sitting down on the couch. I look over at Vinny. I know I can read him, but even he seems worried about whatever happened down there.
“Alice, Angel has until midnight to make a choice, and it’s not going to be easy for him. We think you need to know what’s on the line, though,” Robert says before looking over at Pike.
There seems to be a conversation going on between them. I sit and wait, but what they don’t understand is that they’re just making me even more scared.
Pike sits on the coffee table in front of me and takes my hands in his. “We don’t really know what Angel wants you to know.” Pike stops and downs his whiskey in one go. “If he agrees to what they want, there’ll be a fight. One man walks, one man… Dies.”
My grip on Pike’s hands tighten. One man dies. “Angel… He… This…”
“Alice, look at me and breathe. Breathe in, breathe out.” Pikes voice gets to me look back at him. “Angel isn’t scared of dying—never has been. If, and that's a big if, this goes wrong, it’s what’ll happen to you that scares him.” He looks behind me at Vinny, then back to me. “Harvey gets you.”
A cold shiver runs through me, and I’m sure the colour drains from my face. I can’t go back to Harvey, and I know Angel will never let that happen, but what lengths will Angel go to, to make sure that never happens?
“Alice,” Vinny says firmly to get me out of my thoughts. “Everything will be fine. The only other thing—”
“There’s more to this horror story?” I look at all of them standing around me, and I can feel a panic attack coming on.
“If Angel goes through with this fight, you have to come down with us,” he says, and suddenly all I can hear is Drew and Ellie shouting behind me. They’re shouting that this is stupid, and it’s no place to be while I’m pregnant with twins.
I lean back into the couch and look over at Angel's door. I know he’ll fight. I know he’ll win, but how much can Angel's body take? I don’t think he’ll be fighting the easiest man down there. They’ll find the biggest guy they can.
“It’s best that we leave him with his thoughts for now. The last few times he went this deep into himself was when his grandfather died, and when he went to prison,” Robert says, looking at me again, and there’s worry in his eyes. I can feel the pain he’s in because I share it. “This is when he talks to the devil, and all we can do is wait for him to come out.”
***
It’s been hours, and Angel’s still in his office. Pike, Robert, Warren, and Craig don’t even look like they’re worried. They’ve seen this before; they know what world he goes into; they know he’ll walk out of the office and it’ll be like nothing has happened.
I, on the other hand, have been a nervous wreck. I told Robert I should go in and talk to him, maybe talking to him would help, but he stopped me. He told me Angel needs to get into a dark place, a place where he knows he needs to go. He’ll come out when he’s ready.
Hours later, and we’re still sitting here.
“Tea,” Ellie offers.
I take the cup from her, then lean into Vinny's side. This last month, there’s no way I could’ve done it without him. He’s been my rock. He told me everything will be fine, and one day, we can put this behind us. I didn’t believe him, but I know now that soon we will.
“How are you holding up?” he asks.
“I’m trying to think of the positive, but if the worst happens—”
“Then, I'll fight to protect you,” he interrupts. “I’m not letting Harvey have you. I’ll do whatever I have to, to make sure it doesn’t.” I lean on his shoulder to give him a smile, which I know he’s not buying.
I take another look at Angel’s office. He has to be coming out soon, right? I look at everyone sitting on the sofa, then back to the office.
I close my eyes for a moment. This has been a long day, and it’s only going to get longer. The moment Angel walks out of the office, I know things are going to get worse before they get better. All I want to do is tell him that no matter what, I’ll be there with him.
Getting off the sofa, I put my cup on the counter and ignore everyone. I walk over to Angel’s office. I need to talk to him—I need him to know I’m here.
Without knocking, I slowly open the door. Popping my head through, I see him looking out the window. His back is to me as he sits on the leather chair. I slowly make my way over to him, and as I reach him, I see that he seems to be focused on something outside.
I know they all told me he was going into a dark place; I didn’t think they really meant it.
Kneeling in front of him, I place my hands on his legs. “I have no idea where you are right now, but I’m worried about you. I’m scared because no one is really telling me anything, but I needed to come in here and tell you I’m here,” I look over my shoulder at the dark night sky. I take a deep breath and turn to face Angel again. “I know I left before, but that was different. I needed some time after losing Ben, and then the attack on the house. But I need you to know that I’ll never leave you again. You’re my rock, my love, and all this is going to end because you are going to finish this,” I say.
Angel looks at me, and I’m shocked by the look in his eyes. The last time I saw his eyes full of the devil was when he brought me back from the warehouse of hell.
“Do you trust me?” Angel’s voice comes out hard. He doesn’t even sound like my Angel.
“Yes.”
“I promise I’ll never let you go to Harvey, but I know this fight isn’t going to be easy. They’re going to give me a man who can easily kill me. Even if I win this fight, I won’t come out walking.” Angel stops, leans forward, and cups my face in his hands. His grip is tighter than normal, but I say nothing. “I’ve sat here and done nothing but think about you. Can I put you through all this? Can I die, knowing you’ll stay here with my family? Can I die, and trust the men out there to protect you? Can I die, knowing I’ll never be able to hold you again? Can I die, knowing I’ll never be able to kiss you? Can I die, knowing I’ll never see the woman I love more than life?”
Leaning his forehead against mine, I take in a breath and let a tear escape my eyes. I never thought this is what it’d come to. I never believed I wouldn’t ever get my happy ending. I always knew Angel was my happy place. Angel is where I belong. Maybe God has other plans for us. One thing I do know, is that I’m not about to let him go without a fight.
“You’re my life, Angel Frost. You’re my soul and the man I love more than life. You’re mine, and I know you’ll fight until the very end. I know you won’t die. Why? Because the devil doesn’t die. He might get burned, he might get beaten, but he won’t die. The devil still has plans to protect me, hold me, kiss me.” I stop to get my emotions back together. Angel's thumbs wipe the tears from my cheeks. “The king has fallen, and now it’s time for him to rise back up and take back what’s his.”
I know I need to be strong, not just for me,
but Angel, too. He needs to know I know he won’t die. He needs to know that no matter what, I’m his. Maybe on the inside I’m scared, and maybe he sees it too, but I trust him with my life, and I know he’ll win.
“I love you. I love you so fucking much. And once this fucking hell is finished, I’m going to put a ring on your finger and make you my wife.” Angel slams his lips against mine and kisses me until I can barely breathe.
“Was that a proposal?” I ask when we finally part.
“Yes, yes, it was. It could have been so much bett—”
“My answer is yes, so you better not die now.”
Chapter 31
Angel
I grab Alice and pull her closer to me, wrapping my arms around her tighter. I’ve spent hours in this office trying to figure out the best way to play tonight. As much as I should walk away, that's not the man I am. I need to end Harvey, and if that means risking my own life, then so be it.
Alice is supporting me. She told me I need to do this. That proves to me there’s no one better than Alice for me. She’s made for me, and no one else.
Maybe this wasn’t the best time to ask her to marry me but, at the same time, there was no better time to ask her. The fact that she said yes, even while knowing what the hell is about to come, just proves our love is stronger than anything this world has to throw at us.
“Time to talk to the family,” I say.
I know my family are sitting out there, waiting to know what I’ve planned. There really isn’t much to plan. I kill the man they throw in front of me, and if something is to happen to me, I need to make sure Alice is safe. That's the only thing I’ve been planning—making sure I can get her out. I know my family will be able to fight and get out of the hell hole, but Alice… I need her to be able to get out. I had to call a few people who I know owe me. If anything happens to me, I have a plan to get Alice out. Now it’s time to share it with the family.
