‘Welcome Vivienne, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of you. Now, back to why we’re here. How are we going to manage this? How will we identify who we can and can’t trust?’
The man sitting across from Aurora was stocky with white hair and small blue eyes. On his right was a blonde with pale skin, black framed glasses, and pink rose tattoos on both her collar bones. Aurora shifted closer to Bo.
‘That’s Vlad Romanov and his niece Xenia. His captains are his sons.’
Mario took it upon himself to answer the Russian boss’s question.
‘We will need to be selective in who we reach out to. I’d like to say we can start with our longest serving soldiers but at this moment nobody is past suspicion. I think it’s best that each Family decide for themselves how they wish to manage the request for action.’
The table murmured in agreement before another man spoke.
‘We need to make sure that our soldiers know that whoever they identify as possible suspects are to be brought in alive. We need as much information as we can get from them in order to bring Dallas and Dante home.’
The man in the navy shirt wearing a large gold cross nodded towards Johnny, and Johnny nodded back. Even if she hadn’t taken into account the empty seat beside his female advisor, there was no one else he could have been besides Jackson De Matteo. It was clear that the captain sitting beside him was his son, who was broad with chiseled features but with brown curls instead of his father’s slicked back hair. The petite blonde sitting next to Jackson, with the purple rose tattoo sleeve from her right shoulder down to her elbow, was also the only woman in the warehouse wearing a wedding ring. Bo leant towards Aurora.
‘In case you couldn’t tell, that’s Jackson. His captain is his son Jamie, and his advisor is his daughter Maggie. She gets her looks from her mother.’
Mario clapped to get everyone’s attention.
‘So it’s settled. Each Family will decide who they wish to involve in the search. Once we have identified who we believe we can trust, we must ensure to instruct them that should they see, hear, or come across any suspicious activity, both from within or outside of the Family, they are to detain the suspects and contact their captains. They are not, under any circumstances, to kill the suspect. The more we work together, the faster we’ll bring these bastards down.’
She almost expected everyone to give Mario a standing ovation, but instead, they scraped their chairs back, rose to their feet and started saying their goodbyes. She stood up at the same time as Bo, but her eyes remained on where Hawk was still seated, engaged in a discussion with his father. She knew she was staring but she couldn’t help herself. After a few moments, Hawk stood up and Mario turned to speak with Halo. Aurora started to follow her Family back to the Hummer, but she stopped when a hand grabbed her bicep. Out of habit she spun around and reached for her gun, only to find there was nothing there, and she didn’t need it anyway.
‘Can I talk to you?’
She knew her surprise was plastered across her face as she stared at Hawk.
‘Ok.’
‘Do you wanna go for a ride? We can head down to Santa Monica and take a walk on the beach.’
She could hear Vince’s words in the back of her mind, to never trust anyone outside the Family. But Hawk had risked his life to save hers, and if that didn’t earn him some level of trust than nothing ever would. Plus, there was no way she was turning down that offer. She just hoped she could find her tongue before they got to the beach. She knew she had to ask Johnny first and found him standing beside the Hummer talking to Bo, who was trying to engage in the discussion while pulling his helmet down over his head. She wasn’t sure what he was going to say but he gave her the go ahead.
She strapped on her weapons before saying bye and found Hawk seated on his Ninja at the entrance to the warehouse, a helmet cradled under one arm. His thumb was flying across the screen of his cell and his eyebrows were knitted together. He wore black jeans, a white tee, boots, and a black and red leather jacket. Straddling his bike and with his arm over the helmet, she could see the hard muscles in his thighs and the full width of his chest and biceps, and she realized she could spend the rest of her life staring at him. She cleared her throat as she approached and Hawk slid his phone into the pocket of his jeans. He grinned and passed her the helmet, reaching for a second one that was cradled between his legs
‘Honor and I keep a spare in the Escalade.’
She smiled, then climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso.
‘Have you ever been on a bike before?’
Hawk called out to her as he bought the engine to life.
‘No!’
‘Then hold on tight!’
He sped away as she tightened her grip around him, her hair whipping out from underneath her helmet as they picked up speed. The scenery rushed by, the concrete jungle giving way to tree lined streets. Her heart was racing, the thrill of being on a motorbike for the first time heightened by the fact that she was with him. She squeezed her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. They slowed down to a set of lights and he put one of his hands over hers and squeezed back. It was that moment that she decided to tell him how she felt. The decision terrified her and even though she didn’t think he felt the same, she knew she had to try. It was time to put her heart on the line.
Twenty Three
The Ninja purred as Hawk pulled it in to a car park close to Santa Monica beach. He chose a spot that was walking distance to the sand yet far enough away that they could still have privacy. Then he killed the engine and the ride was over. He wasn’t sure he was ready for what was about to come next.
‘That was amazing!’
Aurora took off her helmet and beamed. He felt honored that her first ride had been with him. That she had trusted him with her life. He smiled and took the helmet from her, resting it on the passenger seat of the bike as he hooked his own through one of the grips.
‘Let’s go for a walk.’
‘Won’t someone take the helmets?’
He was surprised by the question. The number of helmets he and Honor went through a month was in the tens. They were always tossing them somewhere or leaving them on some club manager’s desk and not bothering to go back. But when Aurora looked at him with concern, he realized that it wasn’t the material possessions she was worried about, it was what the result would be if someone stole them. He realized she was worried that he would feel a loss, and once again he found himself wondering why he was about to do what he was about to do. Was he really about to step away from the one person who could make him a better person?
He shook his head and took her hand, entwining their fingers together and reassuring her that it was no big deal if someone took them. His words seemed to satisfy her and they settled into a slow pace on the pavement. The night felt different than usual. To him, night was the time when evil roamed the streets. Protected by the cloak of darkness, the monsters that lived inside every human came out to play, shirking away and burying themselves into the far recesses of their owner’s mind when dawn broke. Things happened during the night that would be unforgivable come morning.
But when he looked out at the ocean, he saw no monsters. The water lapped at the shore, reflecting the moonlight, its soft melody background music that he could hear without having to listen. The fresh breeze carried the smell of the ocean and it enveloped him in its embrace. It was peaceful, though it wasn’t what calmed him. It wasn’t what made him forget the horror that was his life. Aurora calmed him. Her hand in his was what made his world seem normal, and he was about to throw it all away. Her voice broke into his thoughts.
‘I never said thank you for saving my life.’
‘You don’t have to thank me, you killed Marcus yourself, you didn’t need me.’
‘Do you always make it this hard for someone to thank you?’
He avoided eye contact but smiled.
‘I’ll always save you.’
‘I’m glad I was the one to do it. I’ll learn to live with it.’
‘You shouldn’t have to.’
‘I don’t want it weighing on my conscience every time I kill someone.’
‘No I mean you shouldn’t have to learn to live with it because you shouldn’t have to kill anyone else. It’s not too late to tell your brothers you don’t want to be a Rose.’
Her eyes narrowed and she raised her chin.
‘If you’re trying to convince me to leave the Family you’re wasting your breath.’
‘Aurora, I was thirteen when I first killed someone. My grandfather was here on business and he thought it was time for me to become a man so I executed someone for no other reason than I was told to.’
He said it to shock her and waited for her reaction, but she didn’t flinch.
‘But everyone you’ve killed since then has given you a reason. You know what the people you kill are capable of.’
He let go of her hand and turned to face her.
‘I’m sure you’ve heard about the Carter Masons, well I’m about to tell you what happened. Carter was my uncle, younger than my dad by six years. Seven years ago he kidnapped Angelina and threatened to kill her if my father didn’t hand over his position as Boss. My father refused and once we proved it was Carter, my father received approval from my grandfather and other uncles to kill him. We hunted him and everyone else in alliance with him right down to the very end. Not only did my father kill his brother, my sisters and I killed his sons, our cousins. It didn’t save Angelina but we went on to kill another thirty people anyway. I killed my own blood and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Can you stand there and tell me you’re ok with that?’
He waited for her reaction but once again she held her ground, refusing to break eye contact even though the color had drained from her face. When she didn’t answer his question, he turned away.
‘That’s what I thought. We’re not good people Aurora.’
She grabbed his bicep and forced him to face her.
‘We’re business people. I know it must have been hard for you to kill your own blood but you weren’t wrong. You did what you had to do.’
Why did she have to be so logical? He knew she’d make a great advisor one day, and the thought made him sick. He’d thought she didn’t have the stomach for their life but she was proving him wrong. She was smart and brave, with her feet on the ground and her emotions taking a back seat to her responsibilities.
‘You’re making us sound like heroes.’
‘We’re not heroes but we’re not evil either.’
He let out a breath and started walking back towards his bike. He’d known it was going to be hard to convince her to stay away from him but he was in agony, and when he felt her hand slip in to his, and their fingers once again entwine, he thought his heart would explode. He knew he should let go but he couldn’t. He wanted her hand in his, even if it would only be for that night. Maybe it was selfish, but he wanted that memory. When they reached his bike she turned to look at him.
‘What you did was just business.’
Unable to stop himself he took her face in his hands.
‘Why are you so convinced that there’s good in me?’
‘You saved me when you didn’t have to and… I care about you. I’ve always cared about you, ever since we were kids.’
He felt his heart being squeezed in his chest. It was what he wanted to hear and what he didn’t want to hear all in one. She was waiting for him to say something but the words wouldn’t come out.
‘Do you care about me?’
That was his chance to say no, to push her away. Hell that was his chance to tell her that he could have saved her fiancé, he knew he couldn’t keep that a secret forever… but he couldn’t do it. Instead he did the stupidest thing he could do.
‘Yes.’
His lips were against hers before she could take another breath and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He sat her on the bike, and she wrapped her legs around him, pulling him in to her body. He pushed her blazer and let it drop to the ground, and she pushed off his jacket. Her hands went to the bottom of his tee and they broke their kiss long enough for her to pull it over his head before he took her face in his hands again and deepened the kiss. She ran her hands down his back, her fingernails scraping his warm skin. He groaned and his kisses turned to bites down the side of her neck. Then she moaned his name as he grabbed her hips and he was knocked back into reality. He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers, both their breaths ragged. He stepped away and she had to brace herself on the bike. He didn’t trust himself anymore. It was time to end it.
‘I’m not for you. You and I will never be together.’
She bristled and he felt the final nail being hammered into his coffin.
‘Ok, you just said that you care about me yet you don’t want to be with me. Fine, whatever, that’s your prerogative. But you don’t get to tell me that this life isn’t for me, so when I get up and walk away, you’re not going to stop me. You’re going to let me, and then you’re going to stay the hell away from me.’
She jumped off his bike, grabbed her blazer and whipped it over her shoulder, shoving him as she walked towards the street. He grabbed her hand and she ripped it out of his grasp.
‘Stay away from me Hawk, I mean it.’
She stormed off and he followed at a distance, not caring whether she knew he was there or not. He continued to follow her until she flagged down a cab, then he stood and watched as she was driven out of sight. He told himself he’d done the right thing, but the truth was that his heart had been crushed when the cab had driven off with the woman he loved.
Twenty Four
Aurora groaned and let her head fall back onto the seat as Hawk’s words rung in her ears. The cab had shown up at just the right time and she’d thrown herself in without turning back. After all, why should she have turned back? So she could watch what she would never have and always want get further and further away from her? How could she have been so stupid? Hawk had never given her any indication that he had feelings for her. Maybe he cared about her, but he’d told her he didn’t want to be with her and she couldn’t force him.
She’d asked the cabbie to take her home but realized she didn’t want to go there. She needed to expend some energy and there was only one place she could do that. She gave him the address of the training center and slumped back into her seat, staring out the window. In her head, all she could see was Hawk, stepping away from her, the moonlight reflecting off his tight pecs and flawless abs. She groaned again and closed her eyes. What Hawk did to her was indescribable. Her body, her heart, her soul, everything ached to be with him. It was a physical pain, and when he’d said they would never be together… The cab pulled up in front of the center and she saw that the lights on the third floor were on. She paid and pushed through the gym’s front door after holding her palm up to the reader. Her boots click clacked up the steps, but she knew that even if she wasn’t wearing heels, Cross would have known she was there.
She reached the top and found him beating the shit out of a boxing bag. She could see him watching her out of the corner of his eye but he didn’t stop his onslaught and for some reason that pissed her off and she decided that he was the perfect outlet for her anger. She had almost reached him and he was still pounding away at the bag so she did what came to her first. She kicked him in the back of the knee. Hard. But he didn’t fall. Even though she hadn’t known herself that she was going to do it, Cross had anticipated the move. He spun around but before he could do anything she began laying into him. A spinning reverse kick to the head, an upper punch to the gut, a round house kick that hit him in the back and when he hunched forward a knee to the gut, a rain of punches to h
is side followed by a sliding drop to the floor and an attempt to sweep his feet out from under him.
It almost worked, but he was too good. He grabbed her by the bicep and pulled her up before throwing punches back at her in quick succession. She blocked them all but he backed her in to a corner. Then he grabbed her arm, whipped it behind her back and shoved her face first into the wall. She grunted as her face greeted the brick but tried to push herself off, rearing to go another round. But she couldn’t move. Not only was her arm held behind her, his weight was holding her in place and there was no way she’d be able to shift that mountain.
‘What the fuck is your problem?’
Cross growled in her ear, lifting her arm higher up her back. She tried to elbow him in the gut but he caught her elbow and squeezed. She gasped then groaned as the energy left her body.
‘If I let you go are you going to act like a civilized person?’
She murmured a muffled yes and Cross let go, stepping back and giving her space to turn around and rub at what would be bruises in the morning. She scowled at him and he motioned for her to start talking so she gave in and told him what had happened. Cross didn’t say anything and she leant back against the wall, rubbing her arm and bracing one foot up behind her. She didn’t know what made her confide in Cross, they’d never spoken about anything other than business, except for the random topics at Johnny’s birthday. But for some reason, she found it important to know what he thought. He rubbed his head and after a few moments he shrugged.
Poisoned Rose (Dark Roses #1) Page 12