17. Devin
Present
I stand right outside of my bathroom, listening to the water run and imagining how it looks cascading down Lena’s body. My dick twitches, the need to rush in and fuck her right against the shower wall is almost unbearable. But, as much as I want that, I need to let her have a moment of peace and pull herself back together.
Her pale face on the elevator ride back up here was enough to stop any of my advances in their tracks. Just by her reaction, it’s pretty obvious that she never saw any of the carnage that little Matty left in his wake and really was kept under his thumb. And while I’m worried about her, because that is quite the traumatic experience, I’m more worried about Tony.
In the years I’ve known him, I’ve only seen him snap once—and it was fucking terrifying. I don’t know what that fucker tied to the chair said to set him off, but it burrowed under his skin and really got to him. He’s always been able to shut his emotions off, but watching him go nearly lights out is unnerving. Hell, there’s more light in his eyes when he lets his own demons take over than what I saw tonight.
A throat clears behind me, and I look to find Tasha’s lean frame blocking the doorway, a duffle bag in her hand. “Quit being a fucking creep, Dev.” She throws the duffle on the bed, unzips it, and removes the clothes she brought up to replace Lena’s now brain-splattered ones, that have now been properly incinerated. Which is a fucking shame, because that dress was something of wonder on her.
I look back toward the bathroom door, listening for any crying or unsettling sounds coming from the other side. “She’s handling it well if that was truly the first person she’s ever seen be killed,” I say, crossing my arms and pressing my fingers into my skin, lightly pinching just to make sure that I feel something.
Tasha remains silent behind me until I feel her hand on my arm. “She isn’t handling it well .” I look down at her, and while she doesn’t look pissed, she doesn’t necessarily seem pleased by tonight’s events. “She watched a person be murdered, Dev. And to make matters worse, had brains splattered all over her. She’s not like us. So, please, don’t be surprised when she falls apart from it. Okay?”
My jaw tenses. “Do you think she’ll want to leave?” The question is like ash on my tongue because I just fucking got her here.
Tasha shrugs. “She didn’t go running in the other direction after it happened, but she was in shock. Just give her time to breathe and process everything.” She comes around to stand in front of me, cupping my face in her hands. “What is it about her that’s got you and Big T wound so tight?” She reaches up, smoothing my hair back from my face. “I’ve never seen you two like this. Especially not about a woman.”
I relax my jaw as Tasha’s hands drop to my arms. I look down and stare at her long, red nails, the exact same color as the blood splattered across my clothes and skin. How do I answer her when I don’t even fucking know? I don't know why this woman has been on my radar for over a year other than she is truly a thing of beauty and that I could draw her out of Obsidian and snatch her for myself. And then pin her down and fuck her until she gave away all of their secrets and be done with her.
But now…Now that she’s in front of me and I see that she is no thing like the woman I thought she was, I can’t figure it out. She has no information to give me and like Tony said, she’s more of a liability to the cause.
But I fucking want her.
I take in a deep breath, trying to settle my now racing heart before I answer. “She’s innocent in all of this.” I look back at her face, expecting a look of disgust or something similar, but instead, she has a small smile on her face.
“From what I can tell, she might be innocent in this, but she’s not a damsel in distress like you want to make her out to be.” She squeezes my arms, pressing her nails lightly into my skin, but making sure I feel it. “She seems to be struggling with who she really is and what she wants now that she’s free of Matt’s clutches.” Tasha’s phone vibrates where she left it on the bed, but doesn’t give it a glance, her eyes staying glued to me.
“She spent the last half of her twenties under the thumb of a controlling, abusive, asshole who ended up being a leader in Obsidian.” My own phone buzzes in my pocket, but it can wait. “She’s an enigma. She should be cowering in the corner like a damsel in distress, but instead, she walked into that room with us tonight and never left. She had a man’s brains splattered onto her and she never moved. Grown men have run from that room for less action than what she saw tonight.”
Tasha closes in and wraps her arms around me, embracing me as she lays her head on my chest. I let my arms relax and pull her to me. She’s one of the last things left of my old life, the best thing to be dropped on my doorstep all those years ago, and she has a way of knowing exactly what I need even when I don’t have a fucking clue.
We stand there in silence for a beat before she goes on, her low voice vibrating against my chest. “You know, Dev, she can be fucking terrified, but still willing to put herself on the line.” She pulls back slightly, watching me as she speaks. “She knows this is bigger than her, but that she’s a key player in the game, whether she wants to be or not. ”
She leans back farther. “But you want to know what I think?” She doesn’t give me time to answer. “I think you know that she’s not necessarily choosing this path but that she feels like she has to find herself, and you find that fascinating. And she’s igniting something in you and Tony that neither of you has felt before.”
I scoff. “Tony doesn’t?—"
She presses her fingers to my lips, cutting off my words. “If you saw the way that Tony looked at her when she stepped out of the shadows and demanded answers from that creep, you would have started that sentence differently.”
Her fingers fall away, and I cock my head to the side. “So, what is it that you think she’s igniting in us?” My voice is quiet because, for the first time, I’m scared of what her answer might be. What cards might I have shown?
She pats my cheek and pulls herself from our embrace. “Why don’t you tell me.”
I open my mouth to say something, anything to change the subject, but before I can, the bathroom door creaks open. Steam rolls out, swirling around Lena as she stands in the doorway wrapped only in a towel. The bright bathroom light behind her makes her look angelic. I can’t help but look her over, taking her in as she stands there, her damp hair sticking to her skin that’s flushed from the hot shower. She looks absolutely radiant.
Her eyes find mine and she goes to take a step into the room but pauses when she sees Tasha. She smiles as if she’s seeing an old friend for the first time and a little bit of life was brought back into her. “Oh my God, please tell me you found me something to wear so I don’t have to put that dress back on.”
“That dress is nothing but ashes now, love,” I say, but when her eyes cut back on me, they widen in disbelief.
“You…you burned it?” she asks as a look of terror starts to take over her face.
I look at Tasha who is watching her, dumbfounded at the reaction .
“Why would you do that?” Her voice becomes sharper with each word, and her face becomes panicked.
I narrow my eyes at her, trying to understand this reaction from her. “Because it was covered in a man’s brain matter, Lena. Why would you want it back?” I ask calmly.
“Because it’s not mine ,” she screeches again. She drops her head into her hands and groans. “Bri is going to fucking kill me,” she says through her fingers, her voice muffled.
Tasha giggles, actually giggles , at Lena. She crosses the room to her and wraps her fingers around Lena’s wrists lowering her hands. “Your friend will get over it when a new one shows up at her doorstep in the morning.” Lena looks at her, a red flush covering her face. “In fact, I will call the owner of the boutique across town and send over additional pieces.” She winks. “For good measure.”
Lena’s face is priceless as her mouth hangs open and her eyes widen. “I-I can’t afford that.” Her voice is barely a whisper, embarrassment coating every word.
Tasha cups her face, giving her a kiss on both cheeks. “It’s on the house, baby girl.” She looks over her shoulder at me. “Besides, I doubt that you’ll be made to pay for anything with this guy around.” She smirks as she pulls away from Lena, grabbing her hand and leading her to the bed. “Now, as to the matter of clothes for you .”
Lena’s eyes twinkle as she reaches down and picks up a lacy black top. “This is stunning.” She lays it down carefully and picks up the dark denim jeans, holding them to her waist. “And just my size.” She looks at me in wonderment over her shoulder. “Is this all for me?” she asks as if she’s never been given a gift before in her life. Or, one that didn’t have strings attached to it, like I’m sure everything did when she was under Matt’s roof.
“Of course, love.” Lena looks as if she’s about to cry as her eyes shine. “And like Tasha said, it’s on the house.”
Tasha gives her a scandalous look as she pipes in. “I’m sure there’s room in the closet next door for you to keep them in if you want.” Lena tenses, her head turning slowly, looking from Tasha to me, but doesn’t say a word.
Lena seems to have completely frozen in place, her chest not even rising or falling like she’s holding her breath. Her cheeks redden a deep crimson, and tears appear in the corner of her eyes. Shit . I am not prepared for her to have a breakdown. This is why I have spent years with a man who shows next to no emotions. I have not practiced this level of empathy in a fucking long time.
I just stare as Tasha steps in and picks up the pieces. “It’s up to you, baby girl,” she says sweetly. Her ability to become a mother figure is a part she plays well. She gently picks up the clothes and duffle bag off the bed and leads her back into the bathroom. The door closes behind them, and I’m left standing alone.
Fuck, could this night get any fucking worse?
And as if on cue, my phone vibrates in my pocket again. I pull it out and am greeted with multiple messages from Tony, each one getting more curt than the last.
TONY
Found shit on the Cameron guy. Get the fuck down here.
Get the fuck down here.
Now.
I almost chuckle, because as patient as he may seem on the outside, that man has none. But I see the final message and my heart drops from my chest. I look to the bathroom door and hear the women talking on the other side, their voices light and their giggles turning into actual laughter. Instead of breaking down the door, I type out a quick text to Tasha so she doesn’t think I just ditched them.
As much as she wants to be a part of this, I need to get as much information as possible before I actually involve her. She’ll more than likely be pissed, and I imagine I’ll be in worse trouble from Tasha, but right now, it’s about keeping everyone safe.
I stare at the bathroom door again, my body fighting to leave, but I give it another second to see if they’ll come out. They don’t. My phone vibrates in my hand, knocking me from the trance I was slipping into. My legs are moving and I’m out of the apartment's door in a matter of seconds, closing the door quietly behind me, leaving them with their brief moment of bliss.
I throw open the door to the basement and am met with the stench of bleach as it infiltrates my nose. The concrete is still damp from where it had been hosed down. Cameron’s body is nowhere to be found, and like the rest, he’s been properly disposed of, with nothing left but ashes.
I cut across and punch the code to the small office that we keep down here. Tony is at his desk, a wall of screens shining bright in the room, his large body taking up most of the space. He swings around in his chair, glowering at me. “About fucking time,” he bites out.
“Sorry, I—" He cuts me off by pulling up CCTV footage from outside of Lena’s apartment. I grip his shoulder and lean over him, my eyes glued to the single screen. “What the fuck is going on?” I grit out as panic blooms through my chest.
The street outside Lena’s apartment building is surrounded by flashing lights. It seems as though every responder is parked right there, including ladder trucks. Road barricades and yellow tape already block off the street, and the media is posted up as close as they’re allowed to get.
EMTs and police officers surround what was once one of our stakeout vehicles, the outlines of two bodies under white sheets at their feet.
My jaw tightens and the sound of my teeth cracking fills my head, along with my pounding pulse. My skin burns from the fire torching through my veins as I take in the smoke that filters from one of the upper floors. “What the fuck happened, Tony?”
“Retaliation.”
I watch and wonder how many of those responders are wrapped up in Obsidian and how they plan on covering this shit up. “They move quick,” I say as I watch them move our men into body bags, seemingly not giving a shit how they handle them. I will make sure to hunt those men down and give them the same treatment.
“Real fucking quick. This happened within an hour of me posting that video to their little corner of the web. If only I could have seen their reactions, but they’ve managed to keep me blocked from their forums for the most part.” He curls his fingers into a fist, lightly hitting it on the desk as he leans in to watch more of the cleanup. “It’s almost like they were lying in wait for us to make a move or were waiting for Lena to come around the apartment and grab her.”
A pang hits me in the chest at his words. “What about her friends?” The question is quiet as fear starts to squeeze my throat, nearly choking me. “Where the fuck are they?”
Tony freezes as if he’d completely forgotten about them and starts furiously typing, the screens in front of him moving in a blur as the facial recognition goes to work. I run my hand through my hair and tug on the roots. “They have to be somewhere close,” I say as I find myself praying to a God that has never once listened, even when I throw myself down at the altar and beg at his feet.
One screen stops, and I see Bri as she walks around a convenience store on the far end of town, earbuds in her ears and a basket full of miscellaneous goods. I blow out a breath as Tony pulls up his chat, sending messages for someone to pick her up. Responses are almost immediate, and we watch the GPS systems of two of our vehicles head straight there.
The tension in the small room grows to near suffocating as Tony types furiously trying to find Kate, the screens flashing so quickly in front of me that I start to feel motion sick. “She has to fucking be somewhere, goddammit,” I bite out, my phone vibrating incessantly in my hand. I hold it up and see the unknown on my screen. My hands tremble slightly as I slide my finger across it to answer, putting it on speakerphone.
I don’t say anything as a deep, electronic voice fills the space, causing Tony to jerk around toward me. “You take one of ours.” The blood in my veins freeze. “Now we take one of yours.”
The call ends, and almost immediately, I receive a new message containing a video. Tony, who has always been hacked into my phone, pulls the messages up onto the screen and presses play. The sight in front of me has bile crawling up my throat.
There, in the middle of a room, similar to our basement, is Kate, tied to a chair. Her head is slumped, but I see the crimson coating her long, blonde hair as blood trickles down. Two men enter the screen, both wearing ski masks, and look straight into the camera, flipping us off. One of them grabs her shoulder and shakes her until I hear a groan from her.
Her head lolls before she slowly lifts it, looking around the room. Her dazed look becomes panicked, and she tries to scream, but those motherfuckers have taped her mouth shut. One of them bends down in front of her and grabs her face, wrenching her head to look at the camera. He points at it with his free hand and gives us a malicious grin as he says, “You have the men on the other side of the camera to thank for this.” His taunting has Tony’s fist pounding the desk harder, and the screens are starting to shake in front of him, ready to topple over.
“And because we’re gentlemen, we don’t do to you what they did to our friend Cameron, but the end of this video will be the same as his.” She screams, with the muffled sounds of her begging amplified in the microphones.
“No.” My voice is no more than a croak, my grip on my hair tightening, nearly ripping it from my scalp. “No!” I scream, the sound deafening in the small room. Tony just stares at the screen, his gray eyes glowing in the screen’s light, his body frozen in place.
We watch in horror as the other man in the room steps up and pulls a gun from his side, pressing it to her forehead. I watch as tears roll down her face and her body starts to convulse as she screams and fights the bindings holding her in place. The man looks at the camera and smiles, showing nothing but teeth right before he pulls the trigger and the video goes black.