by CY Jones
“Fuck you, mate.” Cody snarls, flipping Hunter the bird.
“I think it’s adorable,” I assure him, kissing his cheek.
A surge of possessiveness wells within me, the likes of which I’ve never felt before. Mine. I’m growing closer to these guys with each passing day, and I have no clue how I feel about that. Our banter is interrupted by the pilot calling for us to take our seats and buckle up for landing over the intercom.
With the time difference it’s barely twelve in the afternoon when we land. We need to find a place to lie low until the club opens up later tonight, but knowing O’Donnell, he probably has every airport under surveillance. O’Donnell doesn’t possess the resources to watch out for every agent employed by The Agency, but he will definitely have people stationed looking out for me. We decided beforehand that our best option would be to split up and take a taxi to a predetermined location, with one of the guys carrying me inside a large rolling suitcase.
Luckily for me, I’m flexible and don’t mind tight spaces. It doesn’t surprise when the guys decide Hunter will be the one smuggling me out. It seems I’m not the only one growing possessive.
“Do you remember the address to the restaurant we’re meeting at?” I ask Cody.
“Yes, vixen,” Cody placates me with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t worry your pretty little head. This isn’t my first rodeo. I’ll be alright.”
“Fine,” I huff. “Just be careful, OK?”
Eleven
It’s crazy how quickly I went from hating the girl to willing to move the earth itself to protect her
Hunter
For the record, I hate this plan. I do not like the idea of Remy folded up in a suitcase, dragged across town, and left in some random location. When I voiced my opinions earlier on the subject, I was quickly outvoted by her and Cody. The most I could get them to agree on was letting me be the one to carry her out. I understand the need to keep Remy hidden, but I just hate the way we’re going about it. It’s crazy how quickly I went from hating the girl to willing to move the earth itself to protect her.
With Remy safely in place, I gather my things and pull her through the airport, careful to keep my head down and my hoodie up to avoid the airport cameras. Once out front, I hail one of the waiting taxis, carefully storing the suitcase containing Remy in the trunk, and give the driver the address we decided on earlier.
Once there, I wheel Remy around to the alley and partially unzip the suitcase. I leave it on the side of the dumpster, whispering “Be careful,” as I hurry away. Walking the next two blocks to the nearby subway station a bag lighter and a heart filled with worry and pain, I wait silently for the trolly to arrive to take me to the restaurant where we’re meeting.
Remy
Waiting a good thirty minutes after Hunter left me behind, I unfold myself from the suitcase and stretch languidly like a cat. So far everything is going as planned. Hunter was able to travel this far with me stored safely in the suitcase, leaving me behind in the designated spot, and as far as I know, they should already be waiting on me at the restaurant. Sticking to the shadows and keeping my head down, I walk over to the same subway station Hunter took earlier.
When I arrive at the restaurant I can practically see the weight lifting off Hunter’s shoulders when he notices me approaching their table. It’s crazy how his feelings about me have changed so quickly, not that I hate it.
“Did everything go well?” I ask as I take my seat.
“All good on our end,” Cody says. “What about you?”
“No problems so far,” I answer. I’m happy to see them both. I’m even happier knowing they didn’t run into any trouble. If they were lucky O’Donnell has no clue that they were even here.
The restaurant I chose for our meeting is a small Chinese place called The Red Dragon. It’s low key, tucked away in the middle of Chinatown. I ate here with Rowen numerous times before, so I know it’s a safe place for us to speak freely.
“So what’s the plan?” Hunter asks, fingering his menu. I notice that he’s always moving, like a child hopped up on sugar. That little quirk about him makes me smile and gives me a sense of familiarity.
“After we eat, we’ll go over to my place, but for now, we’re just going to act like regular teenagers,” I tell them, smiling.
“But we’re not teenagers, at least Cody and I aren't,” Hunter argues, bringing in his know-it-all logic.
I stick my tongue out at him. “Well, the key word is act.”
Cody grips my thigh in response, making me jump as images from earlier flood my brain. “I like the sound of that,” he says with a wicked smile.
“Behave,” I hiss, shaking his hand off. Trademark flirty Cody, but this is what I want. For just an hour, I want to forget that I’m an assassin, that my brother is missing, and that we’re all on the run from one of the most dangerous men in the world.
Surprisingly, Hunter the grouch chills out and drops his guard a little. Not fully because this is Hunter we’re talking about, but enough that he’s engaging in the conversation, and not constantly looking over his shoulder for any sign of danger lurking in the corner. Maybe he can sense my need to have some kind of normalcy in my life, even if just for a little while.
We all laugh and joke during the meal, Hunter and Cody swapping embarrassing stories about each other, while I told a few of my own. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun, or even opened up to anyone other than my brother and Maddie. It all feels so unreal and normal at the same time. This must be what it feels like to have friends.
Without meaning for them to, thoughts about my brother start creeping in, trespassing on my good time. I keep thinking about how perfect this would be if he were here too. He would love Cody’s carefree outlook on things and talking about their shared passion for coding. With a disposition a lot like Conner, Row’s the easy going twin, and I’m the serious one. I miss my brother dearly, and I’m clinging to the hope that he’s alright. I have no clue if he made it out the compound unscathed, or if he was hurt somewhere on the run.
“Hey, where’d your mind go?” Hunter asks, gripping my hand over the table.
“I’m sorry. Here I am telling you guys to chill out, and I’m ruining it all by thinking about my brother.”
Hunter frowns for a second, but then a sympathetic smile graces his beautiful face. “He’s your brother, your twin. Of course you would be thinking about him in a time like this. You don’t have to apologise for that, siren.”
“I know, but I can’t help feeling like he’s bitten off way more than he can chew. We’ve always worked together. Him going off on his own fills me with dread. It’s not in our genetic make up to work that way, you know, ” I say with a shrug. It's also not in us to be so open, but here I am laying my feelings out on the table.
I hate this. I hate feeling weak. Way too many variables are unknown to me right now, and it’s all my stupid brother’s fault. I swear when we find him, I’m never letting him out my sight again.
“We understand, vixen, and you’re not alone anymore,” Cody says, grabbing my hand from across the table and squeezing it in a show of support.”You have us, always.”
I wish I could feel the action, or the warmth in his hand, but I can’t. Just another thing O’Donnell took from me. I won’t let him take my brother too. I give them both a half ass smile, but like Hunter said earlier, he’s my twin, and they could never fully understand the depth of what I’m feeling.
Blowing out a breath I say, “Thanks you guys. You know, for being here and understanding.”
“No problem. So, where do you want to go from here?” Hunter asks.
“I guess we can go to the flat I share with my brother here in London until the club opens. It’s safe, and if we’re attacked, I would like to have the home base advantage on our side. Plus, the security on the flat will keep us protected and well hidden, so we can stay under O’Donnell radar.”
“How’s that?” Hunter asks suspiciously.
My cautious Hunter is back to play. I wonder what happened in his life to make him so cynical? Can’t he just go with the flow sometimes, or at least pull that stick out his arse and say fuck it?
“You’ll see,” I answer. The house is equipped with the best security money can buy.”
“That just sounds ominous,” Hunter replies, but he still gets up from the booth. I smile at the thought he’s starting to trust me. Enough to make me feel that maybe one day we’ll be ok.
“If anyone told me a week ago that I would one day be a guest in your home, I would’ve asked them what type of drugs they were on,” Cody says, chuckling in his light hearted way.
“Well, if anyone told me I would be working alongside someone besides my brother, I would’ve told them they were bonkers,” I add, laughing as I follow them out the restaurant.
This time we decide to take a taxi together. If The Circus knows we’re here at this point, despite all the precautions we took to get here, then we can’t avoid a fight. After paying the driver, I lead Hunter and Cody towards the warehouse district. Luckily, it’s still midday so most of the people out are busy with work. Early dawn is when this place was the busiest after the fisherman come in from the coast with their catch, unloading it to distribute and sell. This area isn’t the most glamorous place in the city, but for me and my brother, it was home. A home O’Donnell knows nothing about.
All the way in the back, towards the edge of the water, sits what appears to be a four story abandoned warehouse. On the outside the windows are blacked out and shattered in various places around the building. The brick is old and crumbling from both time and weather, and it appears the moss and wild vines that embedded themselves between the bricks over time now hold the building together. Trash, dust, and debris litter the ground, and colorful graffiti covers all the doors.
“Do you see what I see?” Cody whispers to Hunter, and I catch Hunter’s slight nod.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head, Hunt. We want this place to look like a dump.” I grab the extra key we keep hidden between a couple of crumbling bricks and slip it into the hidden lock camouflaged within the graffiti artwork.
While the outside looks like this place is a step away from condemnation, the inside is a whole other story. Pressing my fingerprint to the side panel by the door, a wall slides open and we walk inside. Now they can see what all this place has to offer.
“This floor houses the garage and security room,” I say, gesturing toward the four expensive cars parked inside, and another heavily paneled area where numerous screens are mounted with visuals of the area surrounding the warehouse.
Walking quickly I lead them up the stairs to the next floor.
“This is the living area,” I say once we step off into the living room. “We had the entire building renovated when we bought it. We reinforced the structure on the inside while we left the outside looking like a crumbling dump so this place would appear uninhabitable to keep people from sniffing around. My brother and I own both the building and the land surrounding it, so we never need to worry about the city tearing this building down.”
“Wow, this place is really something,” Hunter whispers.
I smile. Even though we’re always gone, this place is home. It’s my favorite out of all the properties we own. We decorated in Romanesque style with 16 foot beam ceilings, white wash brick walls, dark timber columns, dark hardwood floors, and a steel spiral floating ladder staircase.
“I designed this place myself,” I tell them proudly.
“I love it, vixen,” Cody says as he walks around taking everything in.
We spared no expense on anything in here. The couches are a warm brown, made from expensive Italian leather, and the cream faux fur rugs we imported from Milan. “This floor houses the living room, kitchen, and half bathroom. If you go up the staircase, the next floor is my brother’s, and the one above that belongs to me.”
“I can’t believe no one has noticed this place before,” Hunter says in an odd tone I can’t quite place, like he’s hinting at something.
“Well, besides the condition of the exterior, we placed cameras and surveillance around the surrounding area, as well as set traps around the building. We do what we can to deter people away.
“All the windows in this place let in natural sunlight. They’re DelaCorte windows, made so you can see out, but no one one can see in, plus some of them appear broken from the outside, when that’s not the case. My brother also added some odd security measures that I don’t fully believe in.” I tell them but quickly look away. I don’t even know why I mentioned it in the first place.
“Like what?” Hunter asks, giving Cody another dodgy look.
“Well, my brother said he had a mage place a spell on this building to make it appear abandoned and deter anyone from coming around.” An embarrassed laugh escapes as I tell them this. My brother looked so serious when he told me, but of course it’s all a crock of shite. Mages and spells don’t exist outside of storybooks.
“And you don’t believe him, do you?” Hunter asks. He appears sad for some reason, and I don’t understand why.
“Fuck no,” I laugh. “In fact, I told him he better not have paid this so called mage, or I would hunt them down and slit their throat for conning my brother. Why? Don’t tell me you believe that load of crock?” I ask, raising my brow and looking between the two. More so at Hunter because his behavior has seemed the oddest since we got here.
He’s silent for so long I don’t think he’s going to answer, but finally he says, “Everyone has something they believe in, Remy.” Not really an answer, but it also doesn’t seem like he cares to elaborate on the subject.
“Ok. Well on that note, I’m going to try to get a nap in before tonight. Make yourselves at home.” I tell them, already heading upstairs.
Twelve
I don’t think we should be the ones to tell her she’s not exactly human
Cody
“Do you think we should have told her?” I ask Hunter.
“No,” he answers flatly. “It’s not our place, and I’m sure if her dads wanted her to know, they would have told her themselves before we left.”
“Yeah, but it’s obvious her brother knows. That’s one heavy duty glamour used to hide this place. No random mage did this. It had to be fae, maybe even a full bloodied one at that,” I say, my worry seeping through my tone.
“Like I said, it’s not our place to tell her. Her brother already tried, and she didn’t believe him. With everything else going on, I don’t think we should be the ones to tell her she’s not exactly human.” Hunter whispers loudly.
“But Hunt, don’t you feel it? I know I’m not the only one who feels this undeniable pull toward her, and I think if she knew the truth she might stop fighting the draw I’m pretty sure she feels too. Hunter, I can’t get her out of my head.” I stop my pacing long enough to take in his wide-eyed look at the gravity in my tone. “I think Remy may be my soul bound mate,” I admit, finally uttering the words I’ve been thinking since Remy entered our lives.
“Dude, it’s her pussy you’re thinking about,” Hunter scoffs. “Finding your mate doesn’t happen anymore. It’s just not plausible.”
“No, mate. I know what I feel,” I bite out, pissed that he would act so callous and cavalier about something like this. He knows the seriousness of such a claim and how difficult it is to admit. I’m a pure blooded Fae. We typically don’t settle down, not unless we’ve met our mate. Once we do though, then our bond is unshakable. Death itself couldn’t rip us apart.
Taking in my tone, Hunter sighs and tries to appeal to my rational side.
“Look, Cody, I don’t mean to dismiss your feelings. I’m actually thinking about Remy here. What do you think will happen if you’re wrong, and you run off half cocked and tell her? She just found out the psycho who raised was not her real dad, and that her brother has been lying to her for the last two years. I don’t think telling her she’s not human, a
nd you may be her soulmate will make any of this better or easier to swallow. Let's be smart about this and wait it out. Do you really want to overwhelm her?” Hunter pushes, playing on my compassion.
“Since when do you care how she feels? Just this morning you had her grouped in the ‘stone cold killer, I don’t give two fucks about’ category. Don’t tell me a blowjob changed your opinion about her just that quickly,” I say coldly.
Matching my tone he stares me down as he answers, “I don’t know what I feel, but I will not add to her stress based on a hunch. I don’t know what all this is, or why I feel a pull to her. I do know I will not be saying anything to her unless I’m absolutely sure, and neither will you.”
Ever the dictator this one. The Alpha in him ran strong, always wanting to be the one in control. In the past I didn’t mind, but right now it’s starting to grate my nerves. I don’t think I’m willing to blindly follow orders this time. Not when it comes to her.
“Fine,” I spit, out throwing my hands up. “I concede for now, but Hunter, this better not blow up in our faces. That’s all I’m saying,” I tell him as I stomp away, retreating in the same direction Remy went.
Remy
“O’Donnell is gone on another one of his bloody business trips. Whatever are we going to do with ourselves?” Maddie said in a sing song voice, laughing as he dragged me down the hall.
I laughed along with him, “Where are you taking me?” His giddiness was contagious and I wanted nothing more than to let it consume me. Today was a rough one. Filled with nothing but training and O’Donnell barking orders. It seemed like I would never be good enough in O’Donnell’s eyes. No matter how many opponents I beat in the ring, it was still never fast enough, or creative enough or brutal enough to impress Patrick O’Donnell, my father and overlord of us all.