‘If you touch her she’ll think she’s being attacked and she’ll kill him. She’s not as experienced as the rest of us. She’s too focused and not taking in her surroundings. She shouldn’t have come. We need to try and talk her down without freaking her out.’
He knew Johnny was right. Aurora hadn’t seen her first birthday as a Rose and yet here she was with a boss, four captains and two second-in-commands. She wasn’t ready. He gave Johnny a single nod and Johnny let his arm go. Sirens were approaching and he knew they had to talk her down fast.
He turned back in time to hear her say, ‘Don’t even think about it.’
Carlos stopped struggling.
‘Who are you?’
She pressed the point of her knife deeper into his throat.
‘The Grim fucking Reaper.’
Thirty
Aurora stared into Carlos’s eyes and felt a thrill go through her body. His life was in her hands. Even with all the smoke that was lacing its way out the back door, she could still smell the blood she had drawn. She inhaled the metallic scent and found herself wanting to slash the knife across his throat to draw more. She wanted to watch it pour down his neck as he struggled for his last breaths. In the distance she could hear police sirens but the sound of her heart pounding overshadowed everything and she wanted to take the time to etch the moment into her memory.
‘You killed my best friend.’
Even if he hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger, he had played a role in Mike’s death. Carlos didn’t respond but she wanted him to. If he spoke, his Adam’s apple would move and her knife would dig in deeper. She wouldn’t even have to twitch, he’d be killing himself. He stared down at her, his breath shallow as he tried to stay still. She twisted her knife and drew more blood. She watched as his eyes widened and she felt his body tremble under her arm. She could hear someone calling her name but she had everything under control.
‘Then you killed my father.’
Her grip on her knife was getting stronger as she stared into his eyes, wanting to carve them out of his skull. She hadn’t thought she could get angrier but she’d been wrong. She bared her teeth. It was a primitive act and some part of her wanted to rip his throat out. She finally understood why Bo preferred his knife and why Vivienne’s weapon of choice were Sais. It was the thrill of hand to hand combat, the opportunity to feel the life of your opponent slip away. She heard her name called out again.
‘But that wasn’t enough for you. You tortured my brother…. Oh, wait a minute,’ she slid her knife down his throat as she watched the sweat drip from his forehead, his skin turning raw from the sharpened blade, ‘that wasn’t really your doing was it? You’re a puppet Carlos, a nobody who’s easier to play than a fucking tambourine.’
He opened his mouth to speak and she pushed the blade in deeper, the blood starting to trail down his neck in a steady stream. People were talking to her and she began to recognize them one after the other. Johnny, Bo, Cross… and then Hawk. It was only when he spoke that she replied.
‘I know what I’m doing.’
‘I know you do, but we need him. After we’re through with him you can cut him up into as many pieces as you like but not yet. We need to know what he knows. Aurora, your boss is asking you to pull back…’
Johnny said that? She hadn’t heard him…
‘… and when your boss asks you to do something you listen. You need to put the knife away and let us take him in for questioning. Now.’
She swallowed but didn’t move. She had ignored a direct order from Johnny and she knew she was in serious shit. She hadn’t even heard the order to begin with! She sensed that the others were in the back alley and had been for a while but until Hawk had spoken, she’d heard no one. It’d been his voice that had brought her back. Up until that moment, she’d thought her and Carlos were alone. She’d let her guard down. She’d run after him with no back up, putting herself and their whole mission at risk, and as if all that wasn’t bad enough, she’d almost killed the one person who could tell them what they needed to know. She was out of her depth and drowning fast. But she didn’t want to hand him over because once she did that, she was sure Johnny wouldn’t let her finish him off. That would be a reward and there was no way he was going to be rewarding her any time soon. Then she thought of a way to leave her mark.
She grinned, pulled her knife away from Carlos’s throat and rammed it into his thigh. He screamed out and her grin widened as she pulled the blade up through his muscle before twisting it and yanking it out. As Honor and Bo jumped forward to haul him to the SUVs, Hawk pulled her back, the sirens blaring, the police cars having reached the front of the club. Vivienne looked at Hawk.
‘Cross and I will take this one, I know how to run it.’
‘Do you have cash?’
Johnny cut in, his eyes locked on Aurora.
‘Cross has more than enough, we need to get out of here now.’
She swallowed as Cross started running up the alleyway to get around to the front of the club. But instead of following him, Vivienne gave her a shove with her shoulder and a quick salute coupled with a wink before taking off after Cross. Johnny stepped forward. Aurora looked up at him even though her knees were almost knocking, showing that she was ready to take whatever he was going to throw at her because really, that was all she had left. If she shied away, it was the end of the line for her as a Rose.
‘Never do that again.’
Johnny’s voice was lethal. She tried to apologize but he wouldn’t have it.
‘Shut up. I don’t want to hear another word come out of your mouth tonight. I’ll decide what to do with you later.’
Then he told Hawk and Ty he would ride with her and Bo and leave them to ride with Honor. It was a show of trust. Johnny was letting them know that he believed they’d played no hand in the matter, despite the fact that their relatives were behind it all.
‘Follow us, there’s an empty Hannam apartment nearby, it’s more private than a warehouse and a hell of a lot smaller.’
Hawk and Ty both agreed and as Ty made his way to the Escalade, she began to follow. After a few steps she realized that Johnny had grabbed Hawk’s arm and that they hadn’t moved. She cringed, wondering if Johnny was going to ask Hawk about what was going on between them, but the thought left as quickly as it had arrived. The alley behind a club that they had just destroyed was not the place to play big brother, especially while their only lead was waiting to be questioned. She resisted the urge to turn around. She was in enough trouble as it was.
Thirty One
When they reached the apartment, Hawk helped Ty haul Carlos up the stairs. He locked eyes with Johnny on the way and remembered the command that he tell Aurora the truth, both about his feelings towards her, and his role in Mike’s death. He hadn’t bothered arguing or asking how Johnny knew about the former. The apartment was a studio loft on top of a take-away pizza parlor, part of a long strip of beat up stores and dingy apartments. It was three thirty in the morning by the time they got there and the temperature had plummeted. Or maybe that was just how he felt knowing what was coming. Once inside, Honor pulled out a wooden dining chair from a set of four and he pushed Carlos onto it. No sooner had his ass hit the chair than Ty had his arms cuffed behind his back and his feet tied to the chair legs.
‘That bitch stabbed me!’
Honor backhanded him and sent two of his teeth flying across the room. Hawk moved to stand in front of the kitchen, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms. Besides the wooden dining table and kitchen, there was a double bed tucked into the corner of the room, a flat screen TV and a small bathroom with no door.
‘Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way.’
Honor stood in front of Carlos and accepted a pair of knuckle dusters from Ty. She made a show of making sure they were in place before she continued.
‘The easy way is…’
‘Fuck you.’
Honor smashed her fist into Carlos�
�� thigh and he ground his teeth, fresh tears falling down his cheeks as blood poured out of his wound. She clicked her tongue.
‘Ty, would you say that’s the easy way?’
If Hawk wasn’t so stressed out he might have laughed at the look on his second’s face. He had to hand it to him though as Ty collected himself and choked out a hoarse response, his eyes never leaving Honor’s face.
‘Sorry man, that ain’t the easy way.’
Ty was in love with Honor as deeply as Hawk was in love with Aurora. Poor bastard. As he watched the interrogation, Aurora hopped onto the counter beside him.
‘You ok?’
Across from them, Honor punched Carlos and broke his nose. He heard the bones crunch under the impact but wasn’t surprised when Carlos didn’t cry out. The man may have been a fake rogue captain but he’d been a real one for ten years, plus a soldier for another five, and that took balls. Carlos smiled at Honor, his front teeth knocked out, and then spat at her face. She stepped aside to avoid the spit and shook her head.
‘Why do you insist on making life so hard for yourself?’
‘They’ll come for me, I’m a captain, they have to…’
‘You’re nothing to them. If they come, it’ll be for your head. Now, I have a proposition for you. We know that my uncles and cousins are behind this, so, if you tell me which ones are involved, I’ll make your death quick and painless instead of handing you over to the Da Silvas.’
He felt Aurora move closer to him and ask again if he was alright. She was looking at him with those deep green eyes he knew he’d remember forever and he had to look away. Carlos was sweating and struggling against the ropes. Honor rolled her eyes, slamming her heel into his left kneecap and smashing it. He gritted his teeth and his eyes rolled back in his head, then he stared at her.
‘Do you really think I’m stupid enough to tell you who’s leading the rogues? You Masons, you’re the most messed up, power hungry family I’ve ever come across. You kill your own blood to get to the top, that’s disgusting. But hey, your uncles are treating me pretty well so I ain’t complaining.’
‘So it’s several uncles?’
‘Carter failed because nobody backed him up. You really think any of your uncles would repeat his mistake? They’re working together now and your father is about to fall off his throne.’
‘All of them?’
Honor frowned and her body tensed.
‘Like I’m really going to tell you. When they come for me…’
Honor smashed her fist into Carlos’ gut and Hawk turned back to Aurora, running his fingertips down her cheek before taking her hand. He took a deep breath.
‘How much do you know about Michael’s death?’
Aurora looked taken aback and he wished he didn’t have to do what he was about to do. As she took her hand out of his, he felt the warmth leave his body.
‘Why are we talking about this now?’
‘On the night he was killed, Michael and his friends were at a club and they were asked to leave. The person who asked them to leave knew what was going to happen. He didn’t know which of them was going to die but he knew that by the end of the night either one or all of them would be dead. The person that asked them to leave was me.’
Aurora sat staring at him as Honor continued her interrogation in the background. He felt his heart turn to dust as he waited for her to say something. When she didn’t, he tried to explain himself.
‘I didn’t stop it because it was business. All I knew was that one of them was going to die and I couldn’t let it happen in our club.’
She said nothing. He wanted her to hit him, or to pull out a weapon and attack him. He wanted her to do anything except sit there and try and collect her thoughts while her world crumbled around her, all because of him. He didn’t know how much time passed before she spoke.
‘If you had known who he was, would you have saved him?’
‘Yes,’ he replied without hesitation, ‘I would have saved him for you.’
She looked away, watching Honor do her thing. Just as he thought she wouldn’t say anything else, she spoke without looking back at him.
‘I loved you.’
He closed his eyes and wished he could trade places with Carlos.
‘And I’ll love you forever.’
There it was, he’d finally said it. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Aurora took off towards the door. He watched her go, knowing he had no right going after her, until he saw the red dot reflecting off the fridge. It danced its way across the stainless steel, heading towards the center of the room and he had just enough time to yell out a warning and tackle her before machine gun fire tore through the apartment from the windows.
He pulled her behind the kitchen counter and lay on top of her, using his body to shield hers. From the end of the counter, he craned his neck and stared into the center of the room. Bullets were going through Carlos, entering from his back and tearing through the front. His body shook in the chair as it was ripped apart, his chest opened and his face destroyed. Underneath the window he saw that Ty had tackled Honor. He lay on top of her, his forearms and head covering hers, his body pinning her to the floor as bullets just missed them. Across the room, Bo had pulled Johnny into the bathroom and they stood side by side against the far wall. The bullets approached the bathroom and Bo moved to shield Johnny. Johnny pushed back but Bo was unwavering, the bullets making it halfway into the small space and missing them both.
When the shots finally stopped, the apartment was destroyed. Carlos was still sitting in his chair, his body no more than a carcass, muscles hanging off bones by ligaments, his blood spreading across the floor. Hawk checked on Aurora, who was still lying beneath him. Her clothes were covered in blood. He sat her up and patted her down to make sure she hadn’t been shot, but as she scanned his body, her eyes stopped on his shoulder and her face went white.
‘Hawk, you’ve been shot!’
She grabbed his tee and ripped it straight down the middle. He hissed as the blood started pouring from his exposed bullet wound. She yanked off her top and tied it around his shoulder. He gritted his teeth when she applied pressure and told her he was ok, maneuvering around the counter so he could see the rest of the apartment. He called out to Honor and found her and Ty sitting side by side under the window, Honor with her back against the wall and Ty sitting forward. They were breathing heavily and he watched as Ty ran a bloodied hand through his hair and winced in pain.
‘Ty, are you alright?’
Ty gave him a single nod but when Honor sat forward and took a closer look, she didn’t agree. He had shards of glass embedded in his back. As Honor moved to sit behind him, a leg on either side of his body, Ty reached for the bottom of his tee and arched his back. He gasped and she put a hand on his shoulder, then ripped his tee in half, exposing his back before starting to pull out the shards with a slow and practiced ease. Hawk watched and Aurora called out to Johnny, who called back and confirmed they were unharmed. He and Bo both moved into the center of the bathroom so they could see into the apartment. Hawk looked at Carlos again and knocked his head against the counter, one knock for each word he spoke.
‘So fucking close.’
He wanted to stand up but stopped himself. They didn’t know whether or not the shooting would start again, and he was beginning to feel lightheaded. Everyone was quiet, listening to see if there were any steps outside the apartment. From across the room, Honor’s cell rang and she stopped pulling shards out of Ty’s back long enough to hit answer and balance it on her shoulder. She didn’t bother checking the caller ID. Hawk couldn’t hear what was said but Honor grabbed for the cell and almost dropped it in the process. She looked up at him and hit loud speaker.
‘Who is this?’
She maintained her composure despite the fact she was shaken.
‘Have you got me on loud speaker cousin? I want to make sure whoever is left hears this.’
The voice was distorted, spoken thr
ough an electronic device that rendered it unrecognizable. He couldn’t tell if the voice was male or female or how old they were, let alone which one of their cousins the voice belonged to. But the sarcasm and the patronizing tone dripped through the cell and he knew without a doubt it was a Mason.
‘You’re on loud speaker bitch.’
The voice on the other end of the line laughed.
‘Is that any way to speak to family? Now, I see you finally discovered Carlos was a decoy. I suppose we’ll have to choose more carefully next time. See, this is where I’m supposed to offer you a deal, tell you that I’d be willing to put an end to the game if Uncle Mario steps down. But we all know I’d be lying and frankly, we’re family, you know your uncles too well to think they’d let any of you survive this war.’
‘You’re calling a war? Be careful, don’t start something you can’t finish. Although come to think of it, the family plot has a lot of places free beside Carter and his sons.’
‘I’m going to enjoy watching you tell the other Families that the rogues are led by Masons. You know they will all turn against you. You don’t actually think they will believe you have no involvement in this do you?’
‘My Family has no reason to want to disturb the peace, so yeah, they will believe it. And how do we know you’re Masons anyway? We’ve seen no proof.’
‘Don’t be in denial, it doesn’t suit you. Are you sure you don’t want to bow down now? Or would you rather suffer the way your sister did?’
‘Go to hell asshole!’
Honor snapped, losing her composure at the mention of Angelina’s torture.
Poisoned Rose (Dark Roses #1) Page 16