by S King
When we had gotten word about working with Gold on the red and black orders for the night, none of us were too excited about the ordeal. Still, it was our duty to protect society and guard rivalries had no place in the how and whys of what we were doing.
Luckily—for all of our heads—I had assigned Lovett paperwork duty for the night and demanded he stayed glued to his seat for the entire shift. The last thing any off us, but especially me, needed right now was his ability to say one wrong thing and piss off Demir.
I rubbed my forehead as I stared at the sidewalk and sighed. The two of them could argue about the taste of water and still get into a battle for the death before either point was made. Why they didn’t get along was something beyond my realm of thinking. Still, the curiosity lingered in my mind, nonetheless.
Finally, after what seemed like forever and a day, Karina emerged from the stairwell door and huffed out a breath as the cold air hit her again.
“Why did winter have to come so soon?”
I raised a brow at her, feeling my muscles tighten, preparing for the fight ahead.
“You are aware this isn’t winter just yet, right?”
“We just had snow on the ground. What the hell do you call that?”
I looked at her with a raised brow, “it’s almost seventy right now, Rina. That’s not winter weather.”
“Anything below seventy is winter to me, Lumi.”
Smirking, I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall, “I love this weather.”
“Yeah, well nobody said you were playing with a full stack of Oreos to begin with. Besides, the only good thing about the cold weather is the evidence would disappear come daybreak.”
I shrugged an idle shoulder, vaguely agreeing with her.
Karina didn’t like anything that made her shiver or forced her to wear more layers of clothes than necessary. I had a feeling it had to do with one of her injuries she got when we were younger but wasn’t about to get on the jolly train of Karina’s complaining and rants.
I loved the woman till death and beyond, but when she got on one? It was like pulling eye teeth with a needle to get her off of it.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to ask this,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest as our shoulders touched. “But what do you make of this gig?”
“Explain,” keeping my eyes trained on Demir, I didn’t bother to scan the roads.
The men we were after tonight would be stupid and come rolling down the street with their high beams on in their stupid Ford pickup.
“This whole thing about working with Gold. Why all of a sudden?”
Tilting my head, I considered the question. It was an oddity for the courts to randomly assign us a joint order. In fact, it had never been done; so, echoing Karina’s inquiry, why now? Then again, as I remembered the way the judges and Roxy looked at me when the order was passed down, I knew my answer.
In turn, I’d just keep my mouth shut and not tell Karina anything. I didn’t need the worry for her life to be an added bonus to the already overwhelming amount of stress in my life.
“It could be we’re missing something,” I finally mumbled.
She scoffed, “obviously, but what is it?”
“Who knows.”
We fell silent, watching from across the street at our guard’s enemy.
Gold and Silver had never gotten along except for during the one night we were allotted to be anything else than what we were. Something in the pit of my stomach told me the courts had bigger plans and knew about a situation before it even happened. But for the life of me, I couldn’t shake the feeling their bigger picture had something to do with me and Demir. Dead.
No matter how many times I tried to convince myself otherwise, the looks, orders, and everything in between from the judges made me question their inner workings and thought process. More importantly, I’d be a liar if I said, I wasn’t worried about my own safety when it came to blindly following OE’s instructions.
“Time to dance,” Karina jerked her head toward a Jeep coming down the street at a sedate pace.
“Well, I guess they’re not as stupid as one would believe,” I grumbled taking note of the compact SUV and its high beam bar mounted on the roof.
Pushing down the worry of what I couldn’t control, I let a low whistle flit through the air, nodding at Demir’s raised brow as I sank into a crouch.
The faster we got through this night, the better for everyone. Namely for one reason. As I caught sight of Demir moving away from his post, I also noticed Svenia. I didn’t like how she was shooting me a dagger glare from across the street.
Obviously, someone was still mad about getting a lashing—or whatever punishment Gold gave for insubordination. If I had to take a guess, I would assume her anger was strictly because I forced Demir to acknowledge his guard’s weak link.
The thought brought a sarcastic smile to my face as I tilted my head in challenge to her, begging her to do something she’d regret in two minutes, flat. To my surprise she simply rolled her eyes and followed her boss’s instructions.
“How are we going to fight side by side with them?” Karina hissed as she pulled out another C4 pack from her duffle bag and started wiring the thing for sound.
“I don’t know, and I don’t care, but right now we have to do it.”
I watched the men strutting down the street in their camo garb, looking proudly at each other for not getting caught with their mass killing spree. The redneck jackasses.
“All I know is that kid better keep his distance from me.”
I frowned at her for a second, “who?”
Flicking her hand toward Dristan, she scowled as she looked across the street to the offending party she was talking about.
“That idiot.”
If it wasn’t Demir against Lovett, me against Svenia, then it was Dristan against Karina.
Fighting the urge to roll my eyes at her, I raised a brow and asked the obvious.
“Why do you hate him so much?”
“Because I know what he’s thinking about and trust me, Lumi, you do not want to know the things I’ve seen in that man’s mind.” A visible shiver of disgust forced her to shake her head as if she were banishing the thoughts from her mind.
I scoffed, pretending to be uninterested in just what went on in Dristan’s mind. In reality, I wanted to know.
Thanks to the genetic modification all of us went through before birth, each of us had a talent or sixth sense, so to speak.
Karina had the ability to see into people’s minds and become an embodiment of that person; Lovett on the other hand was able to manipulate emotions and I had a photogenic memory. In comparison to my friends, my talent was nothing special. Remembering every detail of everything I’ve been through wasn’t pleasant on a good day, but at least I didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to lie to me about what they had done or said while I was with them.
Tilting my head, I stopped and frowned. If Karina and Lovett were able to become embodiments of people and manipulate the mind, I wondered. What in the hell could Demir, Dristan and Svenia do?
Shaking my head, I brushed off my veiled jealousy for my friends and curiosity toward our three partners for the night and narrowed my eyes on the cult leaders making their way to the entrance of the building.
“Just stay away from him and everything will be fine,” I hissed and pushed off the wall of the parking garage, running toward the back entrance of the building in question.
“That’s easier said than done,” Karina shot back before darting off to the other direction.
Our end goal tonight was simple; execute the red orders on two of leaders and drag the other two leaders back to the courts for execution of their black orders. Simple, easy to remember. However, given Gold’s and Silver’s inability to work together any other time. Tonight could pose a serious problem and one neither me nor Demir could talk our way out of.
Before I rounded the corner of the buildi
ng, I caught sight of Demir whispering orders to Svenia and Dristan. Maybe he was giving the two of them the same pep talk I had just given Karina. I’ll admit things would go a hell of a lot smoother if we all could work together for the next two—maybe three hours.
Judging from the looks from Dristan and Svenia, I may just get my wish. For now, the relationship between all of us was copacetic. However, if I were being honest with myself and everyone else, it was really just a matter of time before everything fell apart.
Sending a silent prayer to the heavens, I found the back door of the building and dropped to my knees. Grabbing the pick-locking kit from my back pocket, I started working on the steel padlock rusted into place on a brand new loop. All the while mumbling to myself.
“Everything’s going to be fine, nothing’s going to happen.” Over and over, I kept repeating the words, hoping it wasn’t just a futile hope.
Lost in my own thoughts, my instincts kicked into overdrive as something crunched in the alley and forced me to react first. My fist swung out only to connect with Demir’s hand and leave me staring into those damned dull-gold pools of sin.
Narrowing my eyes at his smug smirk, I hissed, “a little warning next time will take you a long way.”
He cocked his head to the side and nodded to the padlock, “I was trying to make sure you knew what you were doing.”
“Don’t question my abilities.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he crossed his arms over his chest, watching me as I returned to my pick-locking endeavors. “I’m curious of one thing, however.”
I rolled my eyes and cursed the high heavens for putting me in this situation.
Karina was more than likely climbing through the airducts right now, planting her C4 packs and itching to drive her stake through Dristan’s quick mouth. Svenia was probably doing what Svenia does, whatever that was. And here I was picking a lock while trying to hold my temper in check.
Truthfully, I wished I had followed my best friend when it came to our training. We both could’ve been working on blowing the building to hell but no, I had to choose the skills needed for breaking and entering. I didn’t have anyone to blame but myself. Turning around to the door, I blew out a frustrated breath.
“What’s that?” I asked, popping the lock and shoved the thing in my pocket as my hood fell from my head.
“You could’ve chosen to back out of our deal and yet you didn’t.” His voice sounded haunted and seemed like he wasn’t saying something or wanted to tell me something. Nonetheless, I wasn’t in the mood for games or guessing what was going on in his haunted mind.
“Ok?” I made a face at him as I reached for the door, “what’s your point?”
He slammed the door shut and locked me between the barrier and his body. Staring down at me with a look I couldn’t figure out dancing in his dull-gold eyes, his face became hard.
“I have never known anyone from Silver who swore by their word, nor do they repay favors. So, I’m asking you why you decided to be the anomaly in your guard?”
Staring into his eyes, I almost got lost before I instinctively shut down and remembered what the courts had said to me when I was standing in front of them for the second time in less than a month. Like with Karina I wasn’t going to say anything to Demir about what had happened with the judges or the reason behind the orders.
Steeling my nerves, I narrowed my gaze on him.
“Because I don’t like owing anyone anything and if you were so smart you would remember,” I motioned between us. “This is nothing more than a simple order from the courts. Don’t think there is a hidden motive behind tonight, Demir Losett and don’t ever,” my hand shot out, catching him off guard for a moment. Grabbing his dominate arm I twisted the thing stopping in time to not snap the limb. “Think I will owe you, of all people, anything beyond a nod of respect. Do I make myself clear.”
He smiled, his eyes becoming hooded with a deeper, darker emotion than I cared to acknowledge before he leaned forward. With our mouths only inches away from each other he whispered in a lethally seductive tone.
“You and I will not have to interact ever again after this night, so, if I were you,” his eyes travelled over my face, down my body before landing on my hand still locked around his arm. With a raised brow, he continued. “I’d make sure to get my feel while you can.”
Jerking back from him, I pushed a few loose strands of hair from my face. Ok, maybe I had liked the feel of his forearm in my grip. The way the solid muscle felt more like a solid pole than an extension of the man before me. Not to mention, just the touch of his arm had me thinking about Karina’s earlier statement.
Demir was corded in nothing but muscle from years of training and fighting, he was nothing shy of a G.I. Joe come to life. Now if I could just find out what the rest of him looked and felt like my life would be complete.
Mentally, I slapped myself for thinking such things and gritted my teeth as I looked at him. A part of me half expected him to step back and tell me to never touch him again. But what he did next was not what I had even imagined in my wildest fantasies.
Moving faster than my tired mind could comprehend, he laced one gloved hand through my hair and pulled me toward him. Our lips crashed together as his other hand rested on the small of my back and pressed me into his body.
Liquid fire ignited my insides as I tried to resist the urge to kiss him back. But who was I kidding? Demir had lips of silk and Karina’s earlier words about a man’s muscles came exploding to the forefront of my mind, even after I had tried to push the curious thoughts aside.
I could feel the hardness of Demir’s pecs through the black turtle neck he wore and even though he was wearing his leather duster, I knew his biceps were straining against the fabric. Just like his forearms were straining.
Pressing my body into his, my own gloved hands slithered their way up his chest and around his neck. None of the others would be ready for a fight just yet and there was nothing to say things between Demir and I would even escalate to the point of needing more time. For now, I was just going to enjoy the feel of this powerful man cloaking me with his body and how his lips demanded more from me.
Pushing me into the wall, the hand in my hair tightened to almost painful levels. A surprised moan escaped me as one of my hands slid from his neck and gathered his shirt in my fist.
Something knocking against a drain pipe, snapped me out of my sexually frustrated haze and brought me back to reality. I shoved against his chest hard enough to make him step back.
A look of shock mixed with amusement lifted the corners of his mouth as those dull-gold eyes ignited with a fire I had never seen in anyone else before.
“Is there something wrong?” He asked, his voice thick with emotion.
I didn’t know what came over me, but for a moment, I lost my ability to speak and simply reacted. Slapping the hell out of him, I stabbed a finger in his shocked face.
“If you ever think about doing that again, I will kill you.”
Even though I had just bitch slapped the man almost twice my size, he still looked at me like now was the perfect time to advance what we had just started and promptly ended.
“How many times have you said that Luminous?” He raised a challenging brow at me as his eyes continued to narrowly trace over my body.
“Don’t fucking think about it, Demir. I’m warning you.” Nice one, Luminous, I berated myself before letting my muscles tense and glared at him.
A lion smile covered his face as the moonlight shifted and casted his face in shadows. Nodding to the door, he simply said, “ladies first.”
“How chivalrous.” I quipped, throwing the door open and stepped over the threshold.
With my back to him, I was able to take a deep breath and focus my mind on something other than the obvious. Thankfully, the task wouldn’t be so hard to do given the circumstances.
The old pawn shop was the normal junk store for those wanting to buy second hand. TVs, Computers,
tablets, sound systems, everything electronic lined the entire back wall of the back room. Some with tags, some with plastic and some still in their manufacture boxes. Along the adjoining walls, safes filled with guns and weapons all categorized by their serial numbers and value rested in darkened corners.
Of course, household appliances and nick-nacks filled the remaining space, but it was the steel door leading to the showroom floor Demir and I were most interested in.
Ignoring the clutter and valuables we stepped through the opening only to be greeted with Dristan and Karina’s voices floating toward us. Of course the two of them were fighting already and the night hadn’t even begun yet.
Fighting the urge to sigh in irritation, I narrowed my eyes on the scene unfolding as Demir came to stand beside me in silence.
“…now look where you’ve gotten yourself.” Karina was saying as she spread her arms wide and stared at one of the bloodied and bruised cult leaders.
“What happened?” Demir had lost his flirtatious and seductive tone, his voice now taking over a strictly lethal warning hugging every word.
Karina narrowed her eyes at the other sect leader, before slapping the man in front of her with a backhand, “this grimy, lowly mother fucker likes to beat up on poor dogs.”
Demir glanced at Dristan and Svenia for some type of backstory on the incident before looking at Karina again when they gave him the universal, I don’t fucking know shrug.
Looking at my best friend, Demir frowned at her, “ok and?”
Slowly, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. If there were ever a peaceful unity between the five of us, it just went down the drain thanks to those two simple words. Thanks Demir, I rolled my eyes internally as I counted down the seconds for Karina’s explosion.
Karina glared at the other sect leader and twirled her spike, letting the sharpened end point at Demir’s heart. “And? Are you kidding me right now?” She scoffed and shook the spike at him, “you’re one arrogant son of a bitch, you know that?”
“Karina—” I started warning.
Holding her hand up at me, she continued to stare at Demir, “the point to all of this, you self-righteous jackass, is I don’t play that shit. So, he’s going to get a little extra pain for his stupidity.”