“That’s … sad.”
I shrugged and dropped the duffle, and it met the ground with a thud. “Times were different then.”
Piercing the soiled earth beside the tomb with the tip of the shovel, I dug about two feet until Mia’s flashlight glared off of the black plastic bag. Mia stood from a nearby tombstone, and I lifted my eyes until it hit hers. “Jackpot.”
She crouched down beside me with the flashlight between her teeth, holding the duffle open as I ripped open the plastic and dumped handfuls of banded notes inside. The night was colder for May, below seven degrees Celsius, where our breath came out in thick clouds. Paranoid, Mia’s eyes darted around her.
“You scared, love?” I asked, leaving no empty space inside the bag.
“No.”
I worked the zipper. “You sure?” The place was creepy, especially in the middle of the night. It took me a few shots of liquid courage to come here alone last time, but I’d never admit that to her.
She cocked her head. “I don’t get scared, especially of ghosts.”
“I wouldn’t say that too loud. You’ll hurt their feelings.”
I laughed as Mia’s eyes bulged, and she shoved my shoulder.
Fuck, was she beautiful, even surrounded by death like a wilted rose in the winter.
I patted the side of the bag before standing and filled the hole back in.
Our feet made quick work of high-tailing it out of there and disappearing into the woods. The moon wasn’t our friend on our way back, and I depended on the little light put out by the flashlight and a sense of direction. It took us over an hour to find the door, which we’d left open, but now it was closed and airtight. “Shit.”
“Don’t say shit,” Mia whispered from behind me.
“Fuck,” I uttered in a breath, working the handle again.
“What?”
“The wind must’ve closed it shut.”
“So, open it.”
“I can’t.” I dropped the bag and planted my palm over the stone wall for leverage as I tried again.
“Ollie …”
“I’m serious, Mia. The bloody thing is stuck.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I knew it. You’ve gone and pissed her spirit off,” she huffed beside me, “What do we do now?”
“Plan B.”
“Which is?”
“Camping out.”
“You meaning to tell me, you show me our beautiful home today, and I’m spending my night in a cemetery.” Mia groaned, but I couldn’t see her anymore against the pitch-black night. “And I have to pee.”
“You’ll have to hold it, love. It’s illegal to urinate on sacred ground.” And I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth.
“But it’s perfectly okay to hide forty-three thousand dollars beside a famous dead novelist?” She gritted out in a whisper-yell, and I was sure her hands were flying, and I could only imagine her expression. “Is anything we’re doing right now legal, Ollie?”
Her tone only meant I was in trouble. “All right, you’re right,” I pushed my hands through my hair and turned in place, “pop-a-squat, princess.”
“Here?”
“I would rather you do it here than back at a grave.”
She shone the flashlight on my face. “Okay, don’t look.”
“Mia, I can hardly see my own hand.”
“And plug your ears.”
Chuckling, I turned and hung my head, thinking maybe I should ring Travis to rescue us, but remembered I’d left my mobile back in the car. Mia shuffled inside her jeans, and a tree limb fell. I jerked my head around. An owl hooted overhead. The taunting night wasn’t on our side. “Mia, are you finished?” I was ready to get out of the choking vegetation and back under the moon.
Another twig snapped. I whipped my head around.
“Mia?”
The silence screamed, playing tricks on me. I scanned the forest for her flashlight.
“Dammit, Mia. Answer me!” A hand grabbed my shoulder, and I twisted in place to see Mia jump from behind with the flashlight in her face, giggling. “Christ,” I let out a breath and clutched my hammering heart. “That’s not funny. You are not funny.”
“What’s wrong, Ollie? Are you afraid?” She laughed.
I shook my head and scooped the bag from the ground. “No.” Yes. But only of losing her.
We walked back through the thick, overgrown brush to higher ground, Mia trailing close behind. We couldn’t have been out here for more than three hours, which meant sunrise would come in no more than two. Tossing the bag at the nearest headstone, I took a seat and leaned back against the rock looking up at her.
The wind hadn’t slowed and only blew more fiercely against her, sending twisted chocolate-brown strands to stick to her chapped, rosy-tinted lips. But the wind didn’t throw her off-kilter. It was as if she summoned it, and nature followed her. The force in the air snatched dead leaves from the ground, floating and swirling around us, dancing right in her hair.
A night’s spell.
I pulled my knees up and dropped my head back, mesmerized as she spoke, entirely captivated with the way her lips moved, the way the moon complimented her. Her black jeans hugged her hips so tight it could rip the skin. And I had to tear my eyes away to prevent myself from stripping her bare under the moon. We were probably already going to hell, and fucking her in a cemetery would grant us a one-way ticket.
Plus, Mia was the kind of girl to take your time with. An art. A canvas that deserved a Da Vinci. But I was weak against her, already gone. I reached for the flask I’d hidden with the money from the duffle, needing a shot of some booze—brilliant idea at the time, finally serving a purpose to calm the raging hormones Mia tended to call upon whenever she was near. I unscrewed the cap and felt the burn.
Mia tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Are you even listening to me?”
“Honestly, no. I can’t hear anything over all that sex appeal.”
Mia’s shoulders relaxed, and her lip turned into a simple smile
“Come sit down,” I offered, pointing to the space between my legs, and she eyed me skeptically, taking the flask from my hand. She twirled in place, drinking from the antique bottle, then stopped in front of me and pushed her thumb to the corner of her mouth to catch a drip. As if she were snow, Mia drifted between my legs and anchored her hands to my thighs, her head falling back against my chest.
It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep. It also didn’t take long for the sun to rise and fight through the clouded skies and canopies. I wanted to stall a little while longer. And I held on to five more minutes of her in my arms before waking her and gathering our things. Sleepy, Mia sluggishly walked behind me through the brush and back to the secret door.
When we reached the stone wall, my gaze followed the length until they fell upon my secret door—wide-open.
I turned to face Mia, who had confusion painted over her face. “I thought you said it was stuck.”
“It was.”
I didn’t want to leave Mia. I hated to leave her. But Dex Sullivan was where I drew the line. I had to keep Mia far away from him. Dex knew her name, which was enough to want to shove her into a box, lock it, and push it under my bed to keep her safe. Of course, I had not done that, but Mia had a way about her, putting herself in the aim of fire. And Dex was a different breed than Dolor.
Dex didn’t have any reservations when it came to murder.
Instead, I took her to the hardware store in the village and let her pick out paint and supplies. She hated the white walls. Said it reminded her of a mental institution. Why didn’t I think of that?
Mia had picked a moss green named Nature’s Cure, and I’d left her in the living room with the furniture pushed in the center and covered in plastic to keep safe from her. When it came to talents, anything paint-related didn’t make it to her resume. Her fingers were created to only touch piano keys, a camera, and my skin.
I’d already had the number for
a painter from London to touch up. Just in case.
I drove to the Links property in Grays South and parked on the curb. Adrian was hunched over on the front step, smoking a cigarette when I walked up. His eyes lit up when he lifted his head and immediately got to his feet to greet me. Our hands linked, and he pounded his fist against my back. “Oliver, you look like a whole new man. Where have you been, mate?”
Adrian’s lip was busted and swollen, and a cut below his right eye.
“Around. What happened to your face?”
He snatched the cigarette from the edge of the step and pulled it to his mouth. “It’s nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing,” I probed, and Adrian shoved his hand into his pocket and offered me a cigarette. “I quit.”
He raised a brow. “Just like that?”
“Just like that,” I gripped his shoulder, “how are the other two nitwits? Staying out of trouble.”
“You could say that.”
James was the one to worry about. Adrian had an honest heart and good head on his shoulders, Reggi had already burnt his brain cells to a crisp, but the way Dex looked at James was the same way Oscar used to look at me. A project. A slab of wet concrete, begging to be molded and shaped into the perfect criminal. But I couldn’t be everyone’s hero.
“Dex is mad you left,” Adrian warned, and then it dawned on me. Did Dex tear up his face because of me?
“I’m paying myself off and done for good.”
“You can’t just leave.”
“I was never staying, Adrian. Dex and I had a deal. I’m following up on my end.”
I entered the run-down house, and Dex Sullivan was aware of my visit. I’d texted him earlier that I’d meet him here with the profits from White Fox, enough cash to fund the makings of a new empire. It was everything he’d ever wanted.
Dex Sullivan wanted to be a king.
Except, the wannabe king was nowhere to be found.
“He’s in the hot tub,” James stated, coming from a back room. He barely looked at me, grabbed a beer from the refrigerator, and left through the back door. I followed after him.
Dex’s arms were sprawled out on each side of him, head resting back against the tub, and eyes closed. I cleared my throat, and he lifted his head. Mischievous eyes met mine. “Nice of you to finally show up here, Oliver.”
“You didn’t leave much of a choice,” I scoffed.
He held up a finger and fisted something below the water line before pulling up a hand full of blonde hair. The woman it was attached to spun around to face me and curled inside his arm—my mum.
I turned my head. “Mum, get out.”
“Anything we discuss can be discussed in front of her.”
“Like how you killed her son?”
My mum twisted her head, and Dex laughed. “I did no such thing. We both know I’d never hurt my best friend.”
“I’ll leave your package inside. We’re done here, mate. I don’t owe you anything anymore.” I turned to leave.
“Mia Jett,” Dex called out, and I froze.
Turning around, I flexed my shoulders back. “What did you just say?”
“You promised me White Fox.”
“I’m giving you what’s left of White Fox.”
Dex squinted his eyes. “No, what you’re giving me is fucking chump change. I want power. I want the same fucking prostitution ring that used to control this territory, the same ring you owe me. You know who reigns over east of London now? The fucking Links. Imagine my bloody luck when the bloke I currently work for is now my competition.” My brow raised, and he continued, “The deal was White Fox, and the only way I can have it is if you kill the boss of the Links. You have to kill Ghost.”
Dex had lost his fucking mind. Ghost was untouchable. No one knew who Ghost was, hence the nickname. His identity has been hidden for years. “What you’re asking is impossible.”
“I’m not asking you. I’m ordering a hit with no questions.”
“Have you gone mad? What makes you think I’d do this? That I’d kill for you?”
Dex held up three fingers. “Mia. Rose. Jett.” He smiled. “You’d kill for her, wouldn’t you? If I’m not mistaken, you already have.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“When your mum mentioned you went off to Dolor, I did a little digging and found a police report that you stabbed a young woman in the neck with a pencil after she attacked your girlfriend. Bravo, baby Oscar. But I found your weakness.”
I slid my gaze to Mum, who dropped her chin, eyes fixed on the water. “I could just kill you, call it a day.”
“But, you won’t.”
“Yeah? And what is stopping me?”
“Killing me doesn’t protect your girl,” he snickered as if he knew me. “You see, if anything happens to me, I have a man waiting to put a bullet through the back of her head. It shouldn’t take much effort to find her. Surely, just follow your love-sick heart around.” The single threat turned my blood to lava, and my heart plunged into my stomach at the thought. “Don’t look so glum, Oliver. It should all work out.”
The fury rising caused my hands to shake, and I crossed my arms over my chest to conceal my weakness for Mia, and the lengths I’d go for her. I didn’t have it in me to kill another human. Murder was a job for Ethan. Not me. “I’ll do it. I’ll kill Ghost,” I lied, buying myself time to figure this out.
“I know you will, and I have a little friend here to help. Consider it my gift to you and your way in with Ghost. She was quite forthcoming when she found out she’d be working with you. I think you have yourself a fan.” Dex blew out a whistle, the door behind me opened, and seconds later, fingertips gripped the side of my arm.
In my peripheral, blonde hair soaked my vision. Leigh. “What are you doing?” I whispered to her. She was innocent in all this.
“Leigh claims she’s a virgin,” he laughed, and my head jerked back toward him, “No, seriously. I can’t believe it myself either. And rumor states Ghost fancies pretty young virgins.”
“She’s a child,” I gritted out.
“I’m seventeen,” Leigh argued.
I turned to her and clutched her shoulders. “This is ludicrous. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”
Dex interjected, “Calm down, Oliver. You’ll kill Ghost before the exchange happens. Leigh will be safe, but you have to check her.”
“Check her for what?”
Dex lifted his palm from the hot tub. “Well, her virginity, of course.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
“Either you will, or I’ll make James do it, and I’m afraid James may take more than what’s needed. Trust me, baby O, you don’t want your virgin corrupted. She’s your easiest way in, and with or without her, Ghost still has to go.”
I grabbed Leigh’s hand and yanked her back inside through the door, slamming it behind me. “What the fuck have you done?”
Leigh’s hand rested over my bicep, and she looked up at me through sincere eyes. “I want to help you.”
“You could get yourself raped or killed. You don’t know what these people are capable of. And how did you end up in this mess?”
Leigh seemed insulted, and she dropped her arm. “I was looking for you! The last time I saw you was here and Dex promised you’d come back if I helped him. And you’re back. You came back.”
“Check that pussy, Oliver,” James called out, coming through the door with a gun in his waistband.
I snapped my gaze at him. “Are you his bitch now?”
Ignoring me, he slapped a pill over the counter and shoved an open beer into my chest. “This is to help you through the night, mate.” And I contemplated my options, which was close to none. I slammed the pill into my mouth and chased it with the beer. James slapped my shoulder before leaving, and I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.
“You really want to do this?” I asked, turning to Leigh and raising a brow. “You’ll let me touch
you? You’ll let me drag you into this mess? Risk your life? All for what?”
“I trust you. You won’t let anything happen to me.”
We walked into the bathroom, and I locked the door behind me and took out my phone, scrolling through Google search. “Take off your bottoms,” I ordered Leigh, typing a question I’d never thought I’d ask into my phone and wondering how the fuck I was going to explain this to Mia. “How was your day?” “Great, babe. Had to check a girl’s hymen, how was yours?”
After reading over the two-finger test with vision already blurring, I turned back around and glanced up from my phone to see Leigh standing shyly, completely naked. A perky set of breasts stared back at me, hard pink nipples, and teenage curves. “You didn’t have to,” I clutched my hipbones and dropped my head. “Never mind, just come here.” I tucked my phone back inside my pocket.
Leigh stepped forward, her head coming to my chest. I wanted to get this over with, and picked her up at the waist and set her over the sink. Looking over her young skin, I shook my head. “Fuck, I can’t do this.” I backed away and pinched the bridge of my nose. It was wrong on so many levels. Mia, first and foremost. Legal, but still only seventeen. And a virgin, nonetheless. “I need to make a call,” I mumbled, shoving my hand into my pocket.
Dialing Mia’s number, she answered on the second ring, “Picasso, here.”
“I’m in trouble,” I admitted.
“What’s wrong?”
For starters, a naked girl was staring at me. “It’s not over, Mia.” I wanted to scream as soon as the words tumbled out. “Fuck, I have this girl here. They want to use her because she’s a virgin—”
“Leigh,” the virgin piped up, and I narrowed my eyes.
“What does he want you to do?” Mia asked on the other end.
“Stuff you wouldn’t be proud of.”
Mia sighed. “Whatever it is, I’ll forgive you. Just do what you have to and get home to me in one piece.”
I fisted the phone and wiped my face into my shirt, turning around. “I’m on some kind of drug right now,” I wasn’t going to lie to Mia, “I don’t trust myself with this position I’m in.”
“Ollie, I don’t want to know. Just remember, it doesn’t mean anything.”
Now Open Your Eyes (Stay With Me series Book 3) Page 21