DAX
“Iwarned you the Ringburner wasn’t a joke,” I teased as Picasso glared at me when he came back from the bathroom.
“It wasn’t that spicy to eat, how was I supposed to know the exit was gonna be worse?” He grumbled.
Harper and I just laughed as we picked up things heading into the kitchen.
“Ah I forget how much fun it is the first time someone eats that pizza,” Harper sighed a smile on her lips. “The sauce on the wings was extra in the best way tonight too.”
“Do you two even have a stomach lining left after eating shit like that?” Picasso asked.
Sticking out my bottom lip at him I walked up and rubbed his stomach. “Poor baby was it too much for you to handle?”
Brushing my hand away he frowned down at me. “Only a demon like you would enjoy something that fucking spicy, you could have at least warned me before I ate one.”
Grinning I divided the leftover wings and gave half to Harper as she grabbed her stuff to head out.
“Thanks for making time for me in your sex filled life,” Harper said kissing me on the cheek and winked at Picasso. “Hopefully I’ll get to meet his brother and friends sometime soon.”
“You never know, stranger things have happened,” I shrugged, walking her to the front door.
As I opened it I noticed the gun the man had was still on the stoop. So I walked out with her to her car making sure she didn’t notice it. Harper was my one pure goodness that I allowed in my life and I wanted to do everything in my power to keep it that way.
“Talk to you soon, love ya’ babe,” Harper said, blowing me a kiss as she got in her car.
Waving I head back to the house wracking my brain trying to figure out how I was going to deal with this stranger in my basement.
It was too coincidental that the night I got home with one of the Phantom Saints that a stranger showed up at my house armed.
This needed to be handled without Picasso knowing until I could figure out what I was dealing with.
Finding him in the kitchen putting the dishes in the dishwasher I couldn’t help but smile.
His brother has trained him so well he just can’t help himself, even when it’s a strangers house.
“Come on let me show you where you’re sleeping,” I called waving for him to follow me.
I brought him all the way up to my floor and stopped at the little living room that I had.
Walking over to the couch I pulled off the cushions and pushed the coffee table out of the way.
Seeing what I was up to Picasso grabbed the handle for the bed and pulled it out.
It was brand new no one had ever slept on it before so I had no idea if it was comfortable or not.
I headed for the closet in my art room where I kept the extra sheets I bought for it.
When I turned around I almost crashed into him as he stood taking in my studio.
“You did all this?” He whispered walking up to the piece I had been working on before I got kidnapped.
“Nope I just rent the space for someone else to use right outside my bedroom door,” I deadpanned.
Ignoring my passive aggressive comment he moved deeper into the room where I had finished art stacked. I was supposed to drop off new work for the art gallery and just hadn’t gotten to it yet. Picasso flipped through the paintings until he stopped and pulled one out holding it up.
The painting was of a woman who had clearly just had sex but was left alone in the bed.
Curled into a ball arms wrapped around the pillow and the sheet barely covering her ass, a tear shimmering on her cheek.
The same emotions I’d been feeling as I painted that came rushing back, this is why I didn’t want anyone to know that I was the artist. Raw emotions were bled over every canvas, it was the one place I allowed myself to feel everything.
Now having Picasso a fellow artist seeing into my soul it was too much.
Leaving the room I set to work on getting the bed made refusing to let the tears that welled in my eyes fall.
I was stronger than this, I didn’t need anyone to coddle me and tell me everything would be alright.
We could survive without romance, physical need was just that, a need.
There didn’t need to be emotion to scratch an itch and move on with your life.
It was the world and society that said everyone needed to have a special person that you connected with romantically.
Why? All it did was make things complicated and messy.
I didn’t have time for that kind of shit in my life.
As I tucked in the last corner of the sheet I went to grab pillows from my room when arms wrapped around my waist pulling me to his chest. “So the little vixen has a soft side.”
He leaned down and brushed his nose along the shell of my ear sending a shiver down my back. “Tonight you showed me the person who painted those pieces. Harper makes you vulnerable in ways I haven’t even seen around Weston. So tell me which one is the real Dax?”
Turning in his arms I looked up at him, his chocolate colored eyes filled with desire and fear.
“They both are, but the Dax that Harper sees died a long time ago with her twin. Harper is the only person that I still know and keep in contact with from that time of my life. That was back when I still had rose colored glasses and thought I would travel the world with my paints. Seems the universe had different plans for me and decided to teach me the hard way that the world will take everything from you unless you fight to keep it safe. I won’t risk that happening again Picasso no matter what it costs me to do it. ”
“Don’t you get it Dax, we are the same in this, we need to fight together not against one another.
The woman who can paint like that is just as strong as the enforcer for an under-lord.
Not everything needs to come with bloodshed and brutality,” Picasso pressed his voice raw with the emotions he was feeling.
I stood there searching his face trying to see what he saw in me to say something so very innocent.
He still had his whole family, they might not agree with what he is doing with his life but they are still alive to care.
There is no way he could know the pain of losing the other half of your soul.
Weston and Harper helped me patch what heart I had left together but it was scarred and tainted.
The things I’ve done to keep my people safe would leave anyone blemished and it wasn’t going to end any time soon.
“It’s pretty to think that Picasso but that isn’t the world I live in, and one of these days you’ll have to take your own blind fold off and see it isn’t yours’ either.
Thinking that people won’t do whatever it takes to survive will get you killed.
I can’t protect you from yourself— no one can.
” I whispered and pulled out of his arms.
I walked into my room, grabbed two of the forty pillows I had and brought them back to him. “I’m gonna work on a few things down in Weston’s office if you need anything just make yourself at home.”
Picasso opened his mouth as if he was going to say something more but then thought better of it.
After an hour or so catching up on emails and things for the Silver Bullet I decided it was time to deal with my surprise house guest. I stopped on the landing listening but the house was silent making me feel fairly confident Picasso was asleep.
Glancing at the clock in the kitchen I saw it was one am and from what I noticed these boys were early to bed early to rise.
Back out in the garage I shifted the shelves and flicked on the light as I headed down.
Each step I packed away all the emotions that Picasso had pulled out of me and readied myself for what I needed to do.
This is who I am and the life I chose for myself, no point in thinking of what could have been.
Reaching the basement I saw the delivery man was indeed awake and thrashing in his bindings.
When he saw me his eyes went wide and he struggled even harder, but the leather restraints wouldn’t budge.
I walked over to the counter and pulled open a drawer revealing a pair of thin spandex gloves with a coated palm for extra grip.
Slipping them on I then grabbed a few other items I thought I might need depending on how much trouble this guy was going to cause me.
Selecting one of my thin knives I walked over to the man flipping the knife watching his eyes track the weapon.
“Hello, I don’t think we were properly introduced, I’m Dax.
I know you're wondering why on earth you’ve been brought down here and strapped to a chair.
The thing is that the owner of Lucifer’s and I have an arrangement that Tino is always the one who delivers to me.
Unfortunately I have some major trust issues and just can’t stand the thought of unknown people knowing where I live.
So imagine my surprise when you showed up with a gun hidden in with my order,” I bent over so we were eye level.
“I’m sure you can see the dilemma here.”
The man nodded his head and tried to talk around the gag but nothing he said was decipherable. Reaching around I unhooked the gag and let it fall from his mouth as I brought my knife up to his throat.
“Okay let’s try that again and let’s be honest the first time around, I’m not really in the mood to torture you tonight,” I sighed.
“Look I had no idea that this was your house, I was given instructions to take out the driver and to take the pizza to the address. Then I was supposed to grab a girl named Harper and bring her back to another location,” The man blurted panic bright in his eyes and sweat poured off his brow.
My blood ran cold at his words— I wasn’t their target Harper was and I just sent her home.
“Who gave you these orders?” I demanded through clenched teeth.
“I don’t know, honestly, I was given a burner phone and told to wait for instructions.
There wasn’t another choice for me, I was short on my sales and when I couldn’t pay my part they were going to kill me.
When they offered me the choice of doing a job with no questions asked I took it,” The man babbled.
I growled at the man letting my knife dig into his fleshy neck. “Tell me who your drug boss is then. I also want the location that you were going to take Harper once you grabbed her.”
“Little Fingers is who I deal for,” The man squeaked out. “If you pull the phone out of my pocket you’ll find the phone and the address they texted to me. Please I just needed to clear my debt, I didn’t mean to get mixed up with Two Tricks.”
“How do you know that I work for Two Tricks?” I barked, grabbing his throat with my hand and squeezing. I was too mad to use my knife and end up killing him accidentally.
Gargling the man tried to answer but my grip was too tight. Letting up slightly he wheezed out the answer that would change everything.
“Mastiff knows you're working with the Phantom Saints so he sided with the De Leon cartel and their coming for you… then Two Tricks.”
The man might have had more to tell me but in my rage I screamed out letting my knife slice easily across his neck.
Needing to do something with my anger I stabbed him in the chest until I was out of breath.
Gasping for air I shook back my blood soaked hair when I heard a sound.
Looking over to my left I saw Picasso standing at the bottom of the stairs horror written all over his face.
“Dax. What have you done?”
“Putting the stamp of approval on the deal between you and Tricks. You’ve gotten what you wanted Picasso now it’s time to see just how far you’ll go to keep everyone safe,” I said tossing the dagger and watched it bury itself into the wall as I walked over to the shower I had installed for easy clean up.
Stripping out of my bloody clothes I turned on the water as hot as it could go and stepped under the stream. The water ran red as I scrubbed my body removing all traces of what had just happened in this room.
“I don’t understand Dax, who the fuck is… was that guy? How did he even get down here? Was he trapped here the whole time you were gone?” Picasso demeaned, his tone full of self righteous indignation.
Rinsing the soap from my hair I charged at him, finger pointed right in his bitch ass face.
“That man was here to kidnap Harper and use her against me. It seems we have a rat in both our groups because your pal Mastiff knows that we are hanging around each other and assumed that meant we teamed up. Now the De Leon cartel and the Mad Dog’s MC gang have started their own partnership and that means we are completely and utterly fucked. ”
Picasso stepped back at the venom in my words looking back at the man I killed slumped covered in blood. “You didn’t have to kill him, he didn’t do the job he could have just run or gone into hiding.”
“God. Wake the fuck up Picasso,” I screamed.
“We are now at war and that is only the first of deaths that will be on both our hands. This is what it means to do what is necessary to keep our people safe. Do what you want with the situation but I need to go find out if they sent another person after my friend. If they did I’ll kill that mother fucker too. ”