by Amo Jones
“What did I miss?” Melissa asks, sitting on the other side of Meadow.
The old fella looks toward us. “Whiskey?”
I nod. “And keep it coming.”
Chapter 25
FROST
“Jesus, now that’s one scary sight,” Beast mutters, eyeing the girls who are all seated at the bar at Ella’s back. Taylor shuffles beside me, and Pax is resting in my arms.
“Hey, baby, you don’t want to go and play with your cousins?” I whisper into her hair.
Miles Jr, who is a couple of years older than Pax, comes over and takes her hand. “Come on, Pax. We can go and climb the trees. I’ll take care of her, Uncle Frost.”
I nod to the little man, who looks way too much like his father, as she slides off my lap and follows, taking his hand with hers before guiding her toward Ivy and a few of the other kids. The backyard is fully fenced but large enough to fit an army of bikes. It’s safe here, and I can see her from where I’m sitting, and by the looks of it –I shoot a quick glance toward Ella, who’s throwing back her drinks—I’ll be needing to stay sober.
As soon as Pax is out of earshot, I turn to face Taylor. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I wanted to meet your daughter!” Her eyes fly between all of us who are seated on the logs. Raze and Miles also in that line.
“We broke up.” My eyebrows shot up.
Her smile drops. “I just thought you said it out of anger.”
I search her eyes, remaining calm. “I didn’t. I meant it.”
“Right.” She stands, brushing off the dirt from her pants. “I’ll leave.”
“Yeah, you do that.” My lip curls.
She leaves, her head held high like I knew it would be. Taylor has way too much pride to let it appear I insulted her that much.
She disappears around the corner when Miles’ voice leaks in. “I don’t know about that girl.”
“What do you mean?” Beast asks, leaning forward on his elbows.
“I mean, I don’t know about her. She’s always seemed a little off-balance to me.”
I shrug. “She is strange. Way too fucking normal and nice.” I cast a glance toward Raze who meets mine head-on.
“That’s what I mean,” Miles adds, picking up a stick and pushing it into the embers of the fire. “She’s too normal, and too nice.” He cuts me a grin. “She’s probably about as crazy as they come. I’d be watching my tires.” Tires are the least of our issues when it comes to Taylor.
“Fuck. She has a key to my house too.” I entertain their concept anyway, taking out my phone and shooting her a text.
Leave my key in the mailbox.
Then I push my phone back into my pocket.
“See, that’s where you need to be careful,” Miles adds. “She has your guard down by you assuming she wouldn’t do anything crazy.”
Oh, how wrong you are, my brother.
Chapter 26
ELLA
“I need some air.” I push off the bar.
“I’ll come!” Willow stands.
I shake my head. “No, it’s okay. I sort of, need a minute.”
“Ok.” She smiles, and then slowly lowers herself back onto the bar stool. I don’t know if she genuinely wanted to come with me, or whether it was just to get away from the girls. Probably the latter. The girls can be a little intense, but they mean well. Sometimes. I start to walk out the front, knowing damn well I don’t want to get air at the back, when I pass a group of bikers. All the Devils, from the Westbeach chapter, I’m guessing.
I smile politely at them, and they nod in my passing. No doubt they know I carried Frost’s baby. What, his incubator or some shit. While he’s out having sex and hot relationships with supermodels. Reaching the front entrance, I take a deep and long inhale of breath and close my eyes. Things start spinning so I quickly open them. I really shouldn’t have consumed all that whiskey, but on the other hand, I feel a lot calmer and more collected. Well, I appear to feel calm and collected.
“You just had to come back, huh.” Taylor’s voice breaks through my relaxing state.
I beam softly, though I don’t look at her as she comes beside me. “Well, it sort of is my home.”
I can see her examining me out of the corner of my eye, and just as this realization happens, the wind picks up and sets chills to erupt over my spine.
“Ah, my ride is here.” A white van pulls up with blacked out windows. It stops in front of us.
“Your ride is a van?” I ask, and I was so fixated on the fact that she had a van coming to pick her up that I didn’t see her duck behind me. The sliding door opens just as I feel a shove against my back, and a man in a hoodie launches out of the back seat, grabs onto my arm, shoves a sack over my head and pulls me into the dark enclosure of the van. I barely had time to scream.
“What the fuck!” I yell just as I hear gunshots pop off outside and the van speeds off, skidding out of the driveway.
“Go, go, go!” the man behind me calls out.
“Who the fuck are you, Taylor?”
My hands get pulled to the back of me, cuffs clipped around them.
“I’m Taylor. That’s all.” And her accent is stronger. A lot stronger. “Is that Russian? Well, you’re going to have to narrow it down a bit more, because he nor I can recall many of our kills, but I can assure you, yours will be remembered.”
She giggles. “Oh, honey. I doubt I will be added to yours or Frost’s numbers. I’m far too much of an asset, and yes, I’m Russian, but I didn’t come for that, or am I representing that.”
I think over who else she could be here for, who is possibly a threat to us, and I come up with an overload of organizations and names. Truth is, everyone is our enemy, just no one has the balls to step up to us. With good reason, those are smart people. Taylor? Not so smart. Then I freeze.
“Snake.”
“Ding ding.” Her laugh crackles out. “She gets it.” There’s a long silence then she orders, “Jason, remove the rag.”
Someone, or Jason, removes the rag over my head and I squint my eyes, looking directly at Taylor who is sitting in front of me. “Now, I know that you understand business, Ella. Especially business in the underground. I never wanted it to get like this, I was hoping to slip in with the help of Frost, but looks like that isn’t happening.” She glances to the side with a small eye roll. “So, I have to go outlaw on you. So sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” I answer with a snarl. “I wouldn’t be sorry.”
She looks down at me in a way that pretty much screams, ‘That’s cute, child. But sit down.’
“Listen,” she leans into the seat, “I’m taking you to Snake, who is my father by the way, and we will see what happens from there, but I will say that you will be very lucky if you make it out of here alive.”
My phone lights up in my pocket and her eyes zone in before she reaches for it and snatches it from my pocket. She unlocks my phone.
“How the fuck!” I blurt out, confused with how the hell she would know my passcode.
She shrugs. “How obvious do you have to be. It’s Pax’s birthday.” Her eyes move across as if she’s reading something, then she grins.
“Buckle up, sweetheart.” She clears her throat, and then continues to read out the text, “I know you’re fucking reading this, Taylor, and just know that when I find you and get my woman and Miles back, I will chop you up limb by limb, while keeping you alive. You don’t think I know how to do that, honey? Oh, I do, I know exactly how to slow down the process of death while relishing in inflicting so much pain you will be begging me to put a bullet between your eyes. Mark my words, Taylor, one hair touched on Ella’s head, or Miles, and this will be guaranteed. Oh, and I know exactly where to find you too.” She touches her chest. “Sigh, isn’t he just the ultimate heartthrob.”
I scowl at her. “What the fuck does he mean Miles?”
“Oh, sorry, that was rude of me.” Her eyes shoot over my shoulder. “My collea
gue got him too. I must say, we are getting a lot better than the McKenna’s. Maybe it’s time Raze steps down from his position, I mean, he is down one man, isn’t he?”
“My brother doesn’t need a sixth,” I seethe.
“Oh, and why’s that?” She rolls her eyes.
“He has family.”
Chapter 27
The van bumps and jumps until we come to a stop. “What do you want with me?”
“Well,” Taylor begins, shrugging, “I want The Operation.”
“That’s it? That’s why you’ve been with Frost for over two years? For The Operation?”
She tilts her head, her eyes scanning over my features as if she’s inhaling every inch of what I show. “I couldn’t date Miles, and because I value my life and I’m not delusional, there’s no way I was going after Raze, and yes, for The Operation, for my father and his many reasons, though the fact that you think it’s ‘only’ The Operation tells me you don’t know much of anything.”
“Why not Miles?” I think I know why, but I want to hear her say it herself. I’m not bothered about the logistics of The Operation. Raze knows all there is to know about that world, not me, and I don’t have to know.
“I’m not his type.”
“He’s not gay,” I counter, just as the van door slides open.
“He’s not?” She cocks her head.
I jump out and chuckle. “No. He just has a very diverse taste in women. He’s bi, but not gay.”
“Huh.” She stares off into the distance and climbs out after me. “Maybe I should have pursued that.”
I shake my head. “Nope. You were right the first time; you aren’t his type. It takes a lot more than good looks and a tight body to catch his attention.”
We start walking into a large shed that looks to be hidden amongst a bunch of industrial buildings. There’s a large glass door that slides open to face the river that sits opposite where a wharf lines out across the water.
“Go through the doors, Ella,” Taylor mutters, and that’s when I realize I had stopped.
“I’ve seen this before.”
Taylor glares to the wharf and then looks back to me. I can see movements out of the corner of my eye, but I ignore it. I’ve seen this place before, I swear, but I just don’t know where from.
“Not likely. Come on.” She shoves me from the back and I have no choice but to walk. We step through the doors and into the empty space. No one is hanging around and waiting for us like I was expecting, and there are no guards waiting with AKs, or pistols. It feels—alarmingly normal. Something flicks through my brain, maybe a faint memory…
“Raze! But what are we doing here?” I know I annoyed my brother. He told me with every chance he got—which was a lot considering he is raising me.
“Shut up, Angel. You’re doing that annoying shit again.”
I huffed, my arms crossing and my head dipping low. “I don’t like this place. It’s murky and weird, and why does that wharf drag on for so long?”
“Shut up,” he repeated, grabbing onto my wrist and tugging me forward.
“RayRay,” I whined.
“El!” he whisper-roared at me, pinning me with a glare. “We are here for Miles, now shut it.”
“What’s he doing here?” I further asked, looking toward the big metal shed.
Raze shoved me behind his body. “He’s not here anymore, but the people who inflicted pain on him are from here. I think. It’s where I first ever saw him.”
My eyes shot toward the shed again with new found interest. “You’re going to kill them, aren’t you? RayRay! I don’t want to be cleaning blood off my clothes today.”
Raze shook his head, then dropped his eyes to me. “Not today, those are his kills.” Then he glared back toward the shed. “But when that day comes, El. It’s going to be a chaos of mass destruction.”
Oh my fucking fuck! The flashback expires in my head and I’m met back with the present. I look to Snake with newfound interest. Is it him? Did he have something to do with Miles? I know I can’t say anything or even imply that I know about Miles’ history—whatever that history is—with this place, with Snake, and possibly even Taylor, so I brush it off.
“Who am I meeting here?” I turn around to ask Taylor, but no one is there. I’m met with an empty dimly lit room and a glass sliding door that is, by the looks of it, now locked.
“Huh,” I murmur to myself.
“I wondered when I’d ever get the sheer pleasure of meeting the dark princess herself.” The voice that stilled my thoughts was smooth, but at the very end of each syllable, there was a distant crack that winded it off. Kind of like whoever was the owner of that voice had smoked one too many cigarettes in his lifetime.
I swallow, straighten my shoulders, and then slowly turn my head around to finally come face-to-face with who is probably, my brothers’ biggest threat. Tall. Maybe six foot or a little taller. On the skinny side, or maybe that’s because I’m constantly surrounded by gorillas. He has long dark hair pulled back at the nape of his neck. A long dark beard hangs off his what looks to be a narrow chin and then he smiles, and I’m greeted with a golden tooth amongst the many very straight and very white ones. If I didn’t already know, that right there would tell me that he has money. With the croak of his voice, from all that smoking, his teeth would definitely be, I’m guessing, a lovely shade of yellow. Regardless, that’s not what actually catches my attention. Not even the two very large men he has on either side of him either—which tells me he’s afraid of me—which in hindsight, makes him a little smarter than I initially gave him credit for. It’s the long, black, silken snake that is curling itself loosely around his neck.
“You reading me, child? I’ve heard you’re rather good at that.”
“Well, forgive me, but since my hands are still tied—thanks to your side bitch Taylor, and I’m out of my element in a strange room with an equally strange man, yes, I cannot help how my survival instincts kick straight in, so yes, I am reading you.”
He chuckles, taking a smoke out of his back pocket and putting it into his mouth. He lights it and then curls his finger over his shoulder to one of his guards, who then rushes off, gets a chair and places it behind Snake’s legs.
“I wouldn’t get too comfortable, Snake…” I hiss but leave a sly grin on my face.
He just continues to watch me, pinching the smoke between his lips. “Right, because your brothers, all three of them, and your man, are four of the most feared men in the United States of America, right?”
I step toward him, fidgeting with the ties at my wrist. One of his guards steps forward, but I ignore him, keeping my eyes solely focused on Snake. On my threat. I keep my eyes on his, taking note of how they’re so blue, they could pass as a shade from the Antarctic Ocean. But not the crystal, clear dark blue tone, where all the penguins play at. More like the area where the seals shit at. Murky blue. “No.” I smirk. “Because you have kidnapped the most feared woman in the United States of America.”
His fingers pause, and then he stands, his chest coming to mine. I stare up at him in challenge. The ties at my wrists are loose enough to fit through the loops now, but I can’t take them all right now. I need at least one of them to be distracted. “You will listen to what I say very carefully.” He tosses his smoke to the tile floor and steps on it with his heavy—yup you guessed it—snakeskin shoe. That’s like, cannibalism, I’m sure.
“I can’t promise anything, but sure, go ahead.”
He chuckles, his eyes narrowing. “So cocky.”
“Trust me when I say, my bite is ten times the force of my bark.”
“I’ll take your word for it—for now. Because I’m not in the killing mood.”
“How generous of you.”
“You have no—”he steps closer“—idea.” I feel the bulge of his crotch brush against my stomach and my abs tense. My jaw clenches and my eyes harden. He laughs. “Relax, Ella. I’m not here for that. Yet. But don’t test me.”
/> “What the fuck do you want?” My temper is beginning to wear out, and I can hear the internal clock that hangs above my cage begin to tick.
One.
“Back to what I was saying.” He takes a seat back on the chair and I relax slightly from his proximity being taken with him. “First of all, congratulations on your daughter. That’s an achievement, running from the baby daddy, I mean, that’s asking for a bullet, but when that baby daddy is Frost? Well, damn,” he whistles, shaking his head, “I almost can’t believe he let you walk. Which brings me to my next thing.” He lights up another smoke, then exhales. “You broke what was going on with him and Taylor, now I’m not a happy man, or father. Frost, obviously, would make a great son-in-law for someone like me, but also, his loyalty is unmatched, and then there’s the fact that he has inside notes for The Operation which is rightfully mine,” he seethes, his eyes slanting in on me in hate. I don’t ask him what he means by rightfully his, but whatever, I’ll let him continue. “Which I will explain to you right after I let you know the most important thing of all… Frost knew about Taylor and her association with me.”
I still. Every muscle in my body seizes. “Lies.”
“I don’t lie, child. What have I to gain by lying about something so tedious?”
It doesn’t make sense. Why would Frost willingly be playing with Snake’s daughter.
“Frost is loyal to my brothers before he’s loyal to anyone else, so if he knew, then trust me, they all knew.” That would explain it. There’s no way Frost would be working behind their back. For what cause?
Snake waits a minute, searching my eyes, then chortles. “I’m not impressed with the bite, child. I’m feeling it’s more like a Chihuahua bite and less of a Rottweiler, like I was expecting.” He stands, then walks to the back of the room, bringing back a laptop. He sets it on the table which was beside the chair he was sitting on. “See for yourself. He’s been working with me for hmmm, the past two years.” He pushes play on a video that shows them both laughing in an office. I’m excellent at reading Frost’s body language, and it is that of ease. His shoulders are relaxed, his eyes, though I can’t see much from here, seem to be elated, and his legs are spread wide on either side of him, too, showing his comfort.
