Chapter 26
Tatum
I gather my strength and force myself to stand, my eyes are red and puffy from the tears but I don’t care. My heart is breaking inside my chest. Not only am I terrified for what may happen to my brother, but I’m scared Alex won't come back. My mind and heart are warring—one is telling me being with Alex is wrong, he’s a serial killer and plans to murder my brother. But the other part, that part is telling me that he is a good man and is just driven by his pain.
Loving me is like loving time, you’ll never know how long you have.
His words play on repeat in my head. Is this what it will be like being with him? Him sneaking out before the sun has even risen so he can go off and kill people while I sleep soundly in his bed?
Tatum, my heart may now beat for you and you alone, but it beat for her first.
I don’t think I can compete with a ghost. I hold no ill feelings toward Elenor or anything like that, but just knowing that he is starting a war for her, makes me second guess everything. I know Nexus admitted to hurting her but what if it was all just words to hurt me because I wouldn’t leave with him?
I love you, Tatum Lawson, but my heart isn’t in charge today, my head is, which means your brother will die by my hands.
Bile rushes up my throat and I turn to the side to empty the contents of my stomach. Once I’m finished, I stumble inside the main house and grab a glass of water to rinse the acidic taste out of my mouth. I splash some water on my face and try to gain control of my thoughts and formulate a plan.
4221 means forever together to love one another.
I jerk in surprise as Nova’s voice rings out in my head. I remember asking her about what the numbers meant that Vox had tattooed and then showed me hers, and told me that it was something her and her best friend had always said to each other. At that time, I had no care for anything or anyone so the numbers and their meaning meant nothing to me… until now. My chest constricts and I gasp for air. I reach up and clutch at my heart.
Holy fuck, am I in love with Alexander Denver?
I stand up straight and take a deep breath, trying to center myself.
“I mean, I do have feelings for him but love?” I say aloud to no one. Is that why him leaving and me being scared I’ll never see him again hurts so much? He just told me he loved me and I said nothing! But, love doesn’t change the outcome of what’s going to happen, does it?
I pull my phone out of my pocket and start texting him as I make my way over to the sofa and drop down unceremoniously.
Me - Did you mean it?
I nibble on my lip as I wait for him to reply. When the three dots don’t appear after nearly an hour, I start typing out another message but my phone rings, cutting me off. I frown at the sight of the random number. It’s only like five in the morning but I answer it because it could be a work emergency.
“Hello?”
“Does it bother you that he left you alone and unguarded?” I lurch to my feet at the sound of her voice and look around the room as if expecting someone to be in here with me. “He thought he was smart, but you and I both know women are smarter than men.”
I scoff. “You have no fucking idea what I am capable of,” I seethe.
She tsks and it grates on my nerves, but I refuse to allow my emotions to get the better of me. “Oh, but you see, Tatum, I know everything he does because he wasn’t the only one watching you.” My veins fill with ice. “From the very moment Nexus came to me and told me Alex knew everything, we started tracking you and watching,” she purrs in a smug tone.
“Why?” I breathe out, feeling more defeated than ever hearing from the cunts mouth that my brother really isn’t innocent. I can no longer pull the wool over my own eyes and try to deny that my own flesh and blood is a monster.
“Because he was powerless when it came to you. I’m sure you know by now that you look similar to her, different colored eyes but everything else is the same.” A silent gasp escapes me. “Nexus wanted to bring you with him but the second he showed me a photo of you, I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist.”
I take a deep breath and force myself to ignore her taunts and play her game. “Hmm, does it bother you he didn’t kill me?” I say in a cocky tone.
“Not at all, I had hoped he would, but him leaving you breathing meant he finally had a weakness.”
“You see, I don’t believe you.” It brings a smile to my face when I hear her growl. “It must fuck with you every single day knowing he’s sliding his cock inside me every chance he gets.” I moan just to drive my point home. “I bet you enjoyed it just as much as I do when he flips you over on your hands and knees and eats your pussy from behind while sliding his thumb over your ass driving you insane, wondering if tonight is the night he finally?—”
“I’m going to slit your throat while he watches.” Laughter comes from me.
“Aww, don’t be like that, Desire. I thought we were friends?” I mock.
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?”
“I know I am.”
“Hmmm, did you wonder how I knew you were home alone?” My eyes widen and my breath hitches but I refuse to crumble now, I won’t let this bitch beat me.
“Not really, I’m too occupied thinking about where I’m going to fuck Alex tonight.”
“Oh, well that may be a bit hard considering the man himself is cuffed to the seat beside me.” I falter for one fucking second and that’s all she needs to know she has won. “Oh come on, we were just getting to know each other! Don’t go silent on me now, Tate.”
I drop all pretenses and force iron into my tone. “If what you're saying is true, I’ll come after you,” I vow.
Her mocking laughter only serves to grate on my nerves. I hear the sound of a car and rush toward the other side of the house to peak out the window to see one of the cars from this morning skidding to a stop. Omen, Vatican and Carnage both jump out then rush to the trunk of the car. I frown as I watch Pope and Halo both climb out covered in blood, carrying Alex’s guy Damon. I look at the driveway waiting for the other two cars to appear.
“I think you’re starting to believe me now, aren’t you?” The guys all bust through the door and go straight to the living room. Carnage and Omen both stop at the sight of me and frown. I mouth Desire. Both their faces morph into unfiltered fury and anger radiates off them. “Oh, did my brothers just get home?”
My own emotions begin to feed off theirs and I latch onto it. “They aren’t your brothers, they are Alex’s.”
“I think?—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you think,” I say, cutting her off. “What I know is that you are going to die, very fucking slowly if you don’t give him back to me.”
“You listen to me, you little cunt. You are nothing but a hole for him to sink his cock into. You are nothing. He will be punished for breaking the rules of our agreement and then I’ll come for you.”
I smirk, forcing Omen and Carnage to frown at me. “Hey, Desire? Do me a favor and tell my boyfriend I love him too and that I’ll be seeing him real, real soon.”
“You stupid—” I end the call before she can finish. I take a minute to center myself and get my thoughts together before meeting Omen’s gaze.
“What happened?” My tone is firm and filled with strength which surprises me given how rattled I am.
“It was a setup, they knew we were flying out this morning. Adrian and Marko didn’t make it. Damon is hanging on by a thread. She only got Alex because Desire threatened to kill the five of us if he didn’t go with her. Plus, all our men are trapped in Chicago .”
“Why are they trapped?” I ask.
Omen sighs and runs a hand through his hair clearly agitated. “We don’t know who is leaking the intel, we can’t risk moving them or going after Desire until we figure that out.” I gnaw on my bottom lip as I mull over her words. Omen and Carnage stand there watching me as I try and work it all out, the shouting from the other’s in the living room becomes white noise.
“I’m just going to point out that you just went and became my sister’s sole focus,” Carnage says.
“Why?” I push.
“You just declared Alex as your boyfriend and I quote, you told her to tell him that you love him too . Alex has never said those words to anyone before.”
I narrow my eyes at the bastard. “Well he said them to me this morning.”
He nods. “I don’t doubt it. I could tell from the second I saw him with you that he had fallen.” His declaration has warmth filling me but I tamper that shit down and latch back onto my anger. I need to focus and all thinking about Alex will do is cloud my mind with worry, and I can’t have that shit happening.
“She knew I was here alone,” I mutter and start to think of all the possibilities.
“Yeah, she saw all of us?—”
I cut Omen off before he can finish. “No. She knew that all the guards were gone. How would she know that? No one in Chicago would know that either, would they?” Both of them mull over my words for a moment before they both shake their heads. I keep wracking my brain for a minute until it hits me. “It’s not a someone!” I shout as I barge past them and head for the living room.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Carnage snaps. I ignore him as I move around the guys who are… yeah, that is so gross! Halo is stitching Damon’s chest closed. I grab my laptop then head back to the kitchen. I hold it out to Omen who just looks from it to me with a frown.
“No one snitched, she knows everything because of me,” I admit bitterly.
Omen’s eyes darken. “What the hell does that mean?” he growls.
“I sent an email to Vivian last night after Alex told me he was leaving me here alone.” Omen just stares at me confused. When Carnage growls I turn to him.
“Her laptop is bugged!” he snaps.
Omen shakes his head. “No, Halo checked it and?—”
“You idiot, it’s a fucking iMac, you can download apps on that thing. Did he check every fucking one?” At Carnage’s outburst, Omen reels back and stares at the laptop like it might leap out of my hands and bite him. I roll my eyes and throw it as hard as I can to the ground. It cracks and bounces but I’m not done. I stomp on it a couple of times before Carnage shoves me backward, picks up the broken thing and then dumps it in the sink and runs water over it. I pull my work phone out of my pocket and toss it to him. He dumps it in the sink as well.
“That phone was linked to the laptop, the only one I have left is the burner Alex gave me to call him,” I tell them.
“Damon is patched. He’s gonna be down for a few days but he’ll survive,” Halo says as he comes to stand beside Omen. “And to answer your question, no I didn’t check the apps. Alex didn’t want me to go through her things.”
My heart constricts hearing that. “How did she put a bug or whatever in my laptop?” I ask him.
He smacks his lips together and tilts his head side to side. “She would have had to have had the laptop with her to download the app. The firewall I put in place can’t be hacked so it would have had to have happened?—”
“Months ago,” I utter. Halo purses his lips. “Desire wasn’t the one who bugged my laptop,” I confess.
“You know who did it, don’t you?” Carnage hedges.
I nod. “The only person who had access to my laptop months ago was my brother. I think Nexus was the one who bugged it. I think that’s how he knew which club I would be at because my phone and laptop are linked.” Now that I’ve said it aloud, it makes sense and I fucking hate that it does, because it means from the start of all of this he used me!
“Everyone, give me your phones. I’m going to run a deep clean on all of them to make sure.” Halo turns to focus on me directly. “Do you have any more of those burner phones?”
I shake my head. “I tossed them all when I got back here and made my decision to trust Alex.” He smiles sadly and nods.
“I hate to say it but you chose right. He would never use you, Tate. You can trust him.” I hear the truth in his words but I already knew that. Alex has proven to be overbearing and controlling but he’s always had valid reasons. Like kidnapping me. He just wanted to be closer to me. In the start I thought he was crazy and out of his ever loving mind, but now that I know him, I know he only did it because he cared about me. If he didn’t take me, I would have still been living my life blissfully unaware that my brother was a lying, scheming piece of shit!
“Fix the phones, sort Damon out, then we need to formulate a plan and get our asses to Chicago pronto.” All five of them swing their gazes at me in shock. “What?”
Omen smiles proudly and nods. “Leadership looks good on you.” I feel heat creeping into my cheeks.
“You can’t come with us.” I glare at Carnage.
“Why the hell not?”
“Do you even know how to fight?” he fires back.
I smirk. “I was raised in the system, of course I know how to fight, and I plan to use all the skills I have learned throughout my life to murder your cunt of a sister, who Omen should have absorbed in the womb.”