Chapter 16 Santos #2
Sometimes that wasn’t the best way to deal with Ronan. If you let him get his rage out without fighting him on it, we could all move on and get back to how we should be.
Most of our issues were minuscule compared to the dark haired goddess locked up downstairs.
“She helps my head,” he said, shrugging his hands into his pockets, but he didn’t look at either of us when he said it.
It was a cheap shot, but Zerkos would give our brother anything if it meant taking away some of his pain. I just didn’t know if that would extend to Cecilia.
“How long are you going to keep her in the box this time?” I asked, turning my attention back to Zerkos.
“Until she breaks,” he said, not looking back at me.
I shook my head and Kane scoffed at his response, “And what are you gonna do when she does break? Get all your answers and free her?” I asked knowing damn well that Cecilia Gomes likely didn’t have a breaking point.
“I’m gonna continue to do what she’s asked of me. Keep her safe,” he said with a coldness to his voice that reminded me he was still very much bruised from his past.
I raised my eyebrow at the suggestion that he’d been keeping her safe and he pressed his lips into a thin line, then let out a heavy exhale.
“Believe it or not, asshole. At the end of the day, she’s safer here than she is out there if someone is after her,” his admission made me realize my brother really was too far gone to reel back.
He was completely haunted by her presence here, but the thought of her being in danger out there was one that he couldn’t accept, even after she had broken his heart and his trust.
“You big softy,” I said flatly, sounding more annoyed than joking.
“And we’re sure she’s not already broken?” Kane dropped his elbows to his knees where he was seated, and we both shifted our attention to him.
“Are you saying that because she chose me, even though you’ve been clearly drooling and pissing all over her like we wouldn’t notice?” My annoyance slipped out, and like Zerkos said, we were doing this.
I had my right to say my piece as well and let the cards fall where they may. She was fucking with all of our heads, and she didn’t even know it.
Or did she?
“I’m saying that because only a broken girl fucks someone who locks them in a box for hours a day,” Mateo said, kicking the laptop off the table, his anger and jealousy so apparent that Zerkos couldn’t hold back anymore.
“You have a thing for my girl, Kane,” he didn’t ask, he stated it as the obvious truth it was.
“She hasn’t been your girl for a long-time brother.
And if she had been mine, and walked in here for me she wouldn’t be sitting in a box downstairs.
That’s for damn sure,” Kane said darkly, his attitude changing again as he got more visibly upset with every word he exchanged with Ronan.
“And like I said, she makes my head not hurt.”
“Well lucky for both of you, she chose me. So, when you’re done throwing tantrums over it, let me know so I can go get her out of there,” I turned my cup of coffee and down the rest of it before getting up from the chair, but Zerkos grabbed my arm as I was passing by him, not letting me go.
“She stays downstairs until she tells me who she’s hiding from,” he burned his gaze into mine and I grunted a response before shaking him off. “And you stay away from her.” He pointed to Mateo, who just shrugged before he made his way down to the gym.
I'd spent the majority of the afternoon watching the camera feed in the kennels. Cecilia was still locked up in the box and the other two sat quietly on their beds without so much as glancing at each other. She’d been in the box for almost eight hours now and I knew I was going to have to go down there and get her out soon, despite the shitstorm that would blow back my way.
He hadn’t given her so much as water, or a bathroom break and I wasn’t willing to dehumanize anyone to that extent, no matter what it cost. I’d gladly face Ronan’s wrath for that, for her.
He was too wrapped up in finding out the truth, and the hurt of his past kept fueling him to make terrible decisions when it came to her.
Mateo’s words kept crossing my mind, and I didn’t know why but it angered me to think she’d let Ronan fuck her.
Was she really that damaged that she’d let the same person who was hurting her, have access to the most intimate parts of her?
Or was it something else? Was there still love there after all this time?
I didn’t want to keep thinking about him and her together anymore, as much as I loved my brother unconditionally.
I wasn’t sure he deserved her anymore.
I knew why she chose me, I was the safe option.
The choice that she could count on and predict, even if she didn’t exactly understand what she was choosing.
But under the surface, I was reaching a tipping point, and I didn’t feel so predictable anymore.
I did my best to hide it and conceal my reactions and emotions, but I could only handle about an hour at a time of her presence.
Anything longer and I’d start fumbling at accidental touches and I couldn’t take the risk of her, or anyone else watching and noticing the lingering looks.
My phone buzzed and I picked it up to see a text from Ethan.
Ethan: Two giant Bratvas with face tattoos personally escorted what’s left of Anya out of surgery into some imported car with blacked-out plates.
Me: Any idea what kind of car?
Ethan: Black, looked like the front had “Aurus“ on it, they pulled in and out quick.
Me: Have the guys down in tech look up and see who’s imported any Russian cars that cost over $250k in the last year. That should get us a start.
Ethan: Roger that boss.
There was a good chance this was going to turn into a much bigger situation, but I didn’t want to hyper-fixate on something I couldn’t control.
Not yet at least. Maybe they weren’t Bratva, maybe she did have family out here, or maybe the Bratvas had a tighter hold on their merchandise than we thought.
Were they waiting for us to mess up again so they could take the other one too?
Or maybe they weren’t merchandise.
Maybe I had seriously fucked something up this year.
Zerkos locked himself in his room, metal was blaring through the speakers so loudly I could feel the vibration of the music through my walls. I would bet anything that he was drinking himself stupid and watching the feed of her in that tiny black closet, punishing himself for punishing her.
That was their thing, hurting themselves while hurting each other. It was an annoying by-product of them growing up together, where sometimes they acted more like brother and sister instead of lovers.
They knew the other so well they could push a boundary or button without so much as uttering three words to each other.
Ronan always said I didn’t get to know the real relationship they had, that those last three years were just a sham, a ticking time bomb that was counting down from the moment her father told him that she’d one day leave him.
They were constantly at each other’s throats, fighting, yelling, and fucking until he’d go off on another job, leaving her with me.
It was like they’d picked up exactly where they left off and the only way out for them at this point was through it. They had so much unfinished business, if one of them died the other would probably stick around just to haunt them.
The problem was that going through it might wreck us all.
We were all keeping so many secrets from each other that the entire Black Crow Brotherhood would probably burn before we could get any answers.
Guilt ate at me at the thought of endangering any of our people or their family.
We had always taken care of our own here.
What tugged at my conscience the most was my own raging feelings.
Was I supposed to tell my brother that his girl wasn’t as safe with me as he thought she was?
I opened up a new tab and pulled up the live feed for the box, it was separate from the feed for the rest of the kennels because Ronan didn’t want any of our guys to have access to it.
He was so consumed with jealousy and possessiveness that he wasn’t even letting our top guys handle the kennels as much as they usually did.
It was like he didn’t even want anyone else so much as looking at her.
She sat there in the corner, arms slack as she rested her head on the corner of the wall, knees up to her chest because there wasn’t room to stretch out.
She was looking straight at the camera, barely blinking, breathing so softly you couldn’t even see her chest move.
I decided enough was enough and I was going to go get her out of there.
Before I could act on it, the door to the kennel opened and she was pulled out of it.