“I heard her story.” He blew out several rings of smoke. “But remember not to play too close with fire, Alyson Little, don’t get burned. I don’t take part in criminal activities of that nature, and I don’t fuck with that implication, you feel me?”
“I do. I’m sorry. But I just almost got snatched and shoved in a van – you’ll have to forgive my impropriety,” I told him, nostrils flared.
“Already forgiven, any friend of young Maddox is a friend of mine – every friend of the kid can’t say that though. I don’t like that.”
“Meaning what? One of his friends did this?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth Alyson Little, I don’t like that.”
I sighed. “Do you know who did this? Or why?”
“I don’t know who did this Alyson, and I don’t like that. I got a vital tenet for you though – you got a price on your head. Heard it this morning from my scouts – you shouldn’t be exposed like this without protection. If I know, Ches knows. And if Ches knows, she didn’t tell young Maddox. He wouldn’t have let you out the house.”
“Do you think Ches is behind this?”
“I can’t speak on that – all I can tell you is that a snake in the grass will eat however many birds it finds in the bush, and take the bird out of your hand too, you feel me?”
My eyes narrowed as my brain twisted and turned around his words, finding the underlying meaning in Blue’s blended idioms. After a moment, I nodded.
“Yeah. I feel you. And I need a favor.”
“Lay it out there, Alyson Little, what is it you need?”
“I need to call someone.”
“Which one do you think I should reach out to first?”
Ches posed that question from across her desk, where a map of The Americas was spread out. This was a specialized one – the Divisions, one through ten, were clearly marked, but this one had the added details of listing the people who ran them, the way their territories were laid out, and the valuable resources each division produced.
I was proud of her.
This was more like the shit she used to do – actual strategy.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said, about needing to mend fences, and I think you’re right,” she admitted, after a deep sigh. “Once we’re armed, I want to rebuild alliances. I sent Tremaine’s husband back to her, and I won’t tell Sula that her people sold me the weapons,” she said, dead serious. “So those are possibilities, right? And what about Mal? Division five.”
I nodded. “Mal is a possibility.”
The only possibility.
There was little chance either of the other women would spit on Ches if she was on fire, let alone align themselves with her. But I wasn’t going to blow her vibe when it was obvious she was trying.
“And maybe Lowe, from seven. Or Hunter, up in two. The men don’t get bogged down in the pettiness, you know? They want to make money and maybe get a little sniff, huh?” she joked, which… wow.
“What has you in such a good mood?” I asked, and she grinned.
“Just looking forward to the next few weeks – this will be an exciting time, Mad – we’re building, without stopping to ask permission. I’m going to need you focused.”
“As long as there’s a plan, and we’re keeping shit legitimate, you don’t have to worry about me.”
Whatever she planned to say was interrupted by her pager going off. A few seconds later, Mos burst through the door of the office, out of breath and panting, holding up a tablet in his hand. “The Apex put a bounty out, on Nadiah and Aly,” he announced, turning the screen in our direction. There were pictures, in the braids they’d both abandoned since then, but still.
“How the hell did we not already know this?” I asked, turning to Ches, who looked up from her pager, eyes wide.
“This is the kind of things my scouts in the Apex should have warned me about. What is that you’re looking at?” she asked Mos, pointing to the tablet. “How did you get that?”
“Nadiah and I were putting in some work, after hours. Not just to get our own internet going for the Burrows, but to see if we could tap into the Apex. I didn’t want to get any hopes up, but we got it this morning. Well, we almost got it, but then Nadiah was meeting up with Aly, and I wanted to keep going – to keep working on it. I pulled up their news, and this is the first thing I saw. They’ve turned them into some public enemy, and even if the APF can’t operate here…”
“It doesn’t mean someone won’t try to deliver them, to get the money,” Ches finished, saying what I was thinking. I looked down at my pager, buzzing at my waist. “Many people around here wouldn’t blink an eye about it, if this gets around.”
“It’s already around,” I barked, standing up as my eyes scanned the message on my screen again. “This is from Blue – Aly and Nadiah are there. Somebody tried to grab them on their way to breakfast, in a black van.” I turned to Ches. “How the fuck did we not know about this?!”
“I’m trying to find out now,” she said, pointing at her own pager. “In the meantime, you need to go get them – bring them here, they’ll be safe. No one will try anything here.”
She was right – they’d have to be crazy, and even crazy motherfuckers could end up dead.
I grabbed a set of keys from the wall, knowing I’d want the protection of a vehicle instead of my bike, and I’d need the room too.
“You coming with me?” I asked Mos, who agreed.
“He’ll be right back,” Ches said, stepping forward. “If you’ve got internet access inside the Apex, we need to talk.”
“That shit can wait.” I motioned for him to come on. “Like you said – we’ll be right back.”
I knew Blue was good people, no matter how much he got on my nerves. He wouldn’t let anybody touch Aly or Nadiah, and I was beyond relieved that they’d got to him. But the more I thought about it, the more I grew concerned about Aly’s mental state.
In just a short time, she’d been through a lot.
It had to be taking a toll on her.
Mos and I were headed downstairs when the front doors to the compound opened. I took the last steps two at a time, already pulling my gun from my holster – nobody came through the front like that unannounced.
Except, apparently, Aly and Nadiah.
“Go get your stuff,” Aly told Nadiah, wearing a stony expression that didn’t change when she looked in my direction. It took a second to realize she wasn’t looking at me – Ches had come out of the office and was a few steps behind me.
“Well, we’re glad to see you’re safe, but what is this about?” Ches asked, stepping forward. “You burst through my front door, demanding people around my house… it could be considered rude.”
Aly’s face broke into the slightest smile. “Yes, I suppose it could. We’ll be leaving shortly. Nadiah?”
Nadiah had stopped moving when Ches spoke, and now appeared torn. It was obvious she wanted to follow Aly’s directions, but didn’t want to offend Ches, since this was her house.
Ches saw it too.
“Nadiah,” she spoke, her tone coated in honey. “I thought I’d been a gracious host. You’ve had the run of the house, we’ve kept you fed, and warm. I’ve never once questioned your relationship or access to Mos – you’ve been treated well. What on earth would make you want to leave like this?”
Nadiah straightened, giving Ches a curious look. “Leave how, Ches? We came through the front door. I’m getting my things. I’m going with my sister. Is there something offensive about that?”
I looked to Ches, wondering the same thing, and she shifted under the weight of everyone’s gaze.
“No, I guess not. It just seems rather abrupt. Especially after you supposedly got chased down for an attempted abduction.”
Aly scoffed. “Supposedly? There’s no question about it. There’s a bounty on our heads. Blue knew about it. He was surprised you didn’t.”
“Maybe his scouts are better than mine,” Ches shrugged. “B
ut a bounty on your head only makes it more ridiculous for Nadiah to pack up and leave – it’s safer here than out there. For both of you as a matter of fact. You should stay too, Aly. Here with your sister.”
“We’ll pass.”
Ches smiled. “Oh, but I insist. See, you’re affiliated with me, and it’s not good for business if people think I can’t protect my own. You’ll stay. Both of you.”
“We won’t,” Aly countered, stepping forward. “Nadiah – get your shit and let's go. Thank you for your hospitality, Ches, but you can consider any ‘affiliation’ my sister and I have with you, dissolved. Your kindness has been appreciated.”
You could hear a pin drop.
I defied Ches all the time, because I had the leeway to do so, built up over years of loyalty. Nobody else – besides Mos – went against her like this, because they were all scared.
But Aly wasn’t scared of shit when it came to protecting her sister.
Nadiah scurried off to the room she’d been using, with Mos right on her heels, to help, and to talk. I moved toward Aly, wanting to know what had her ready to force the issue of Nadiah not staying with Ches anymore. And if the plan was that they’d both be staying with me.
“So where will you be staying now?” Ches called out before I could ask myself. “Since my home is not good enough for you and your precious sister anymore.”
Aly turned to her, stone-faced. “Ruby’s.”
If looks could kill, Ches would have dropped Aly with the glare she gave upon hearing Ruby’s name. “Ruby Hartford? The woman who had your sister working as a whore until you came to her rescue?”
Ches knew that shit wasn’t true, but she threw the jab anyway, thinking it would land – that first day in the Burrows, it would’ve.
This wasn’t the same Aly though.
This Aly grinned at that shit. “Yeah. Ruby Hartford. Says a lot, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, you’ve started wearing big girl panties now, have you?” Ches asked, stalking down the rest of the steps. “This is cute and all, but take heed, little girl – I’m not an enemy you want.”
“You’re right, Ches. You’re not. Which is why there hasn’t been a single shred of unprovoked hostility on my part. So if the venom is getting to be too much for you – I would suggest you put away your own fangs.”
With her face pulled into a snarl, Ches opened her mouth to counter Aly’s response. Whatever she was about to say, it was interrupted by the buzzing of her pager. She whipped it in front her face, eyes narrowed at whatever she saw on the screen.
“I have something to handle. Make sure your sister takes all her shit when she leaves.”
“Won’t be a problem,” Aly countered.
One last eye roll and Ches was gone, leaving me to turn to Aly with my eyes wide.
“Damn – did you have to come at her like that?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Yes, actually. Ches is the type of woman you can’t show any fear. I had to make it clear to her I wasn’t scared, and wasn’t backing down, even though…” She sighed, and shook her head.
“What?” I asked. “Why are you so hell-bent on going to stay with Ruby, of all people?”
“Because Ruby isn’t trying to kidnap me!”
My eyes went wide. “Aly, you can’t think Ches…”
“I don’t know what to think, Mad. All I wanted to do was have breakfast this morning, and instead I’m throwing chair legs!”
“What?!”
She shook her head. “Nevermind. Just know whoever tried us this morning? One of them will have an ugly knot tomorrow, and the other will have a sore dick.”
“You fought them?”
“I had to,” she insisted. “Not that I’d call it fighting so much as quick instincts. But whatever you want to call it, I am sick to death of having to do it. I thought I would be safe here, Mad, and it doesn’t look like that’s the case.”
I grabbed her hands, squeezing them between mine. “I get your reservations, I swear I do. But you don’t have to pack up and leave, go all the way out to Ruby’s. She lives on the other end of the Burrows! I know you don’t like Ches, but you will be safe here.”
“Maddox, what if I told you I saw one of those kiss print neck tattoos, on one of the attackers? Would that change your mind?”
“Did you see one?” I countered.
“Maybe.” She sighed. “They had on masks, covering half of their faces. But I struggled with one, before I tried to put my knee through his pelvis. The mask got pulled up, and it could’ve been something else. Could’ve been. But I need something more concrete than that. I know Ruby wouldn’t do something like this. I can’t say the same for Ches.”
I didn’t want to let the shit go.
At all.
But I knew it wouldn’t go the way I wanted it to go if I pressed.
She and Nadiah would both be safe with Ruby – I didn’t doubt that for a second. My only other reasons for pushing the issue would be trying to force her to trust Ches, or forcing her to do what I wanted her to do, and I wasn’t trying to drive down either of those lanes.
I knew better.
“Okay. Let me take you.”
She smiled and shook her head. “Our ride is waiting outside. I contacted Ruby from Blue’s place, and she sent someone to meet us here.”
“Damn. So you were pretty decided, huh?”
“I was,” she nodded. “And I hope that’s not something you’re going to take personally.”
“Not at all.” I grabbed her chin, tipping it so her head was held high. “I like it. Good girl from the Mids fucked around and got a little bad girl in her now.”
She smiled.
Beautiful ass smile.
“Actually, I fucked around and got a little bad boy from the Burrows in me, and I mean… you see how that turned out.”
I laughed, leaning in to press a kiss to her lips. There was more I wanted to do – and say – but I heard Mos and Nadiah approaching, so I tucked it in for another time.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, kissing her temple.
Her smile melted into a smirk, and one of her eyebrows hiked up. “Are you telling me, or asking me?”
“Telling.”
She bit down on her lip as she looked at me, then pulled in a sigh.
“Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Eighteen
I was in front of Ruby Hartford’s house at the crack of dawn.
I paged Aly, and she came through those regal front doors smiling, ready to go.
Like she’d been waiting for me.
She was wearing the same jacket and boots as the first time I met her, but the braids were gone now, replaced by her crown of natural hair, styled into a fro.
Her eyes were different too now – that wide-eyed wonder was gone, replaced with the practicality and cynicism that would keep her alive in a world like this. But there was something else too when she met my gaze.
Deep affection.
Mutual affection.
“You came to get me on your bike,” she said as she approached. “I’m surprised.”
“I came to see you,” I corrected. “I didn’t think you’d want to leave.”
She shrugged. “Nadiah was wrapped up all night back and forth with Mos on some tablet he gave her, and while I trust Ruby not to hand me over to the Apex, she’s not the warm and fuzziest company.”
“Ah. So you were bored?”
Aly shook her head. “Not exactly. For the first time in a while though, I felt a little lonely.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“How, on the pager? Isn’t it for emergencies?”
I reached for her hand, pulling her close enough to tuck under my arm. “Do you think I don’t consider your feelings an emergency?”
“Mad…”
“I’m serious,” I insisted. “If we’re apart, and you need – or want – to talk, I consider it a priority, because I consider you a priority.”
�
��We’ve known each other for like two seconds.”
I scoffed. “Okay, so tell me the appropriate length of time for me to feel how I feel about you. Can you write a timeline for me?”
“You know I can’t.”
“Okay, then stop playing and accept my untimely feelings for what they are. I don’t care if we’re not level with it right now, you’ll catch up.”
She tipped her head back, a smile on her lips as she met my gaze. “I didn’t say that.”
“Didn’t say what?”
“Didn’t call your feelings premature or unreciprocated.”
I frowned. “Okay then, ‘we met two seconds ago’ was…?”
“An observation.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “I have an observation too.”
She tipped her head to the side. “What is it?”
“You are really fucking beautiful.”
“Stop,” she laughed, wriggling in my arms as I planted a kiss against her neck. “You play too much.”
“I’m not playing. You play too much,” I countered. “Ms. Pointless Observations.”
“Pointless?” Her eyes went wide. “There was a point, excuse you!”
“Okay then, tell me your point.”
“It was going to be that it was sweet, and flattering, that you felt that way about me after such a short time, but nevermind – it’s pointless,” she said, ducking under my arm to escape my hold.
“Nah hold up, I take that word back, let’s rewind.”
She laughed as I stepped away from the bike to catch her again, this time wrapping both arms around her waist. “Nuh-uh, Mad, you said what you said.”
“Did I really though? You have a witness to back that up?”
“See,” she giggled. “Like I said – you play too much.”
“Stop trying to put that on me. I have something for you.” I released my hold on her to go back to my bike.
“Like a present?” she asked, and I laughed as I went into my trunk on the back.
“Damn, do I already have you spoiled like that?” I pulled out her backpack, holding it up. “I’ll make sure it’s a present next time, but for now, this will have to do.”
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