by Smith, T. L
“Hunter, why are you here?” I ask, trying to defuse the situation.
“I don’t have who you wanted, but I know where he is right now.”
Butterflies instantly swarm in my belly with excitement. I look to Stefanos and smile. He shakes his head, but he has a small smirk on his face.
“Where is he?” I ask, turning my back to Hunter.
“Currently he’s in his restaurant, though I suggest waiting to go there till it closes.”
He looks at me then back to Carmen. I notice she hasn’t spoken, she’s just standing there. Which is not like her at all. My eyes travel to where she’s standing and I notice she’s looking at us with lust in her eyes. I can’t work out why.
“I think the blonde needs to leave,” Hunter says, looking her up and down.
She looks surprised at first then straightens her stance. “Fuck off, blondie,” she snarls at Hunter. This gets a full on belly laugh from him.
“She has to be related to you, Krinos. That mouth is just like yours,” Hunter surmises.
I don’t know if I want to let him know she’s related or not. I still haven’t gotten my head around her. Just as I’m thinking of something to say, Carmen pipes up.
“Of course, you fool. I’m her sister,” Carmen says, stepping closer to me.
“Lovely, now that I can’t have her anymore, maybe I’ll give you a go?” Hunter declares, while looking her up
and down with approval.
“Fuck off, I’m much more than you can handle.”
Hunter belly laughs again. Stefanos and I are just standing watching these two battle it out about fucking each other.
“You obviously don’t know your sister that well, because let’s face it, she’s a great fuck.”
As soon as those words leave his mouth, Stefanos is moving before I can stop him. He grabs Hunter’s shirt and doesn’t give him a chance to speak before he punches him, sending him flying backwards. He goes to step forward again, but this time I reach him.
“He’s only shit stirring. Leave it,” I say, grabbing his hand and trying to pull him back.
“One more word, Hunter, and I’ll have your fucking head,” he threatens, and then steps back to wrap me in his arms, breathing me in.
“Can I have me one of him?” I hear Carmen ask.
I look over Stefanos’ shoulder and watch as Hunter gets up, looks over at Carmen and grabs hold of his junk.
“You can have some of this, blondie,” he says, groping himself to get his point across. Carmen looks up and smiles at him.
“If you weren’t such a dick, you could have some of this,” she says, grabbing her snatch with a smile.
This leaves Hunter stunned. He has no words, which is a very rare thing.
Stefanos kicks Hunter out and tells him we’ll meet him later. He wasn’t happy about it, but we will need all the back up we can get because I don’t know how many men Alberto will have with him. We find that Carmen still hasn’t left, and is still sitting in the same spot we had previously left her.
“Time to go home, Carmen,” I say, pointing towards the door.
“I have nowhere to go! I can help you.”
“What do you mean you have no where to go? And there’s no way, on this earth, you’ll be helping with anything I do.” She’s dreaming if she thinks she can come with us. She has no idea what we do and how dangerous it is.
“Mom kicked me out when I said I wanted to get to know you. So, here I am.”
“Why would she kick you out, Carmen? That makes
no sense.” I still haven’t worked her out yet. I don’t know if she really wants to know me or if she’s using me for something.
“She knows who you are, and what you do,” she says, shrugging her shoulders like it’s common knowledge.
“Your mother doesn’t know me, Carmen. I haven’t seen her since I was a child.”
“She knows what you do, and that you are taking over our father’s business. As well as the fact that you are ruthless,” she says, raising her eyebrows.
“She’s right. You don’t belong here. Go to college or do something people your age do.” I turn to leave and just as I do she yells out.
“I’ve already moved my stuff in, so I’m staying. I’m twenty-one, not a child. You can’t boss me around.”
I ignore her and keep walking. The only way I’m going to deal with this situation is after I have a chat with my father. And right now is not the time to do that.
I only see Carmen once for the rest of the day. I have no idea where she’s gone or what she’s doing. I saw her leave in a skimpy outfit, but I just shook my head. Stefanos and I, plus a few of my men, are currently driving to the restaurant Alberto owns. Rock is in the car with us because he refused to stay behind since my father is well enough. I look at him and wonder if he knew about Carmen. My father trusts him with his life, as well as mine, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he had known. Put it this way; if anyone knows, it would be Rock.
“Rock, did you know about Carmen?”
He turns around to look at me in the back seat with Stefanos. He nods his head once, and then turns back.
“Why the fuck didn’t I know I had a sister?”
Rock grunts at me. I know he’s being a smart ass, so I slap him in the back of his head. He easily catches my hand and pulls it away. This earns a laugh from both him and Stefanos. I cross my arms over my chest and slouch back into the seat. Fuck them and their secrets. I feel Stefanos’ hand on my thigh and I watch as he leans over and kisses me on the cheek. I know he’s trying to cool my temper, but I don’t think that will be happening anytime soon.
We pull up about a block away from the restaurant to meet up with Hunter. I see him pacing. I jump out as soon as we stop. He’s usually the calmest person I know.
“Thank fuck you’re here,” he says, waving his hands around.
“I’m not late Hunter. What’s wrong?”
“Your fucking sister is what’s wrong. Fuck,” he screams. He’s lost me. I have no idea what he’s talking about. He sees my confusion and explains.
“Fuck, this makes it even worse. By the look on your face you have no idea.”
I shake my head, hoping that he’ll stop the rambling and just spit it out.
“Carmen is inside the restaurant right now, all over Alberto.”
Fuck, is my first thought.
This is not how tonight is meant to go down. I will kill her myself if Alberto doesn’t. Just as Hunter finishes telling me about Carmen, I get a message on my cell.
Unknown:
Come inside in ten.
I’ll get him away from
his men. C xx
“What a bloody idiot!” I scream, making everyone look at me. I hand Hunter the cell and once he reads the message he shakes his head as well.
“I guess we have to wait now, thanks to your fucking sister,” he says, clearly pissed off at the situation.
I make my way back to the car where Stefanos and Rock are waiting and slide back in. Stefanos asks me what’s wrong and I simply hand him my cell. He reads the text and his face turns red. He’s definitely as pissed as I am.
“She wants to prove to you that she can do this because she wants to be just like you. What a fucking fool,” he says, shaking his head.
“She better not fuck this up, Princess, or I might have to kill her myself.”
“Get in line. If you don’t, I fucking will.” I lean back and lay my head on the back seat massaging my temples while we wait. My cell beeps.
I grab my cell as quickly as I can, and I look down hoping its Carmen saying she’s grown some brains and left. But my luck isn’t that great tonight.
Unknown:
Come now.
Fast. C xx
Oh God, I think I might kill my own sister. I jump out of the car and wave to Hunter. He jumps straight into his and we all take off.
As soon as we reach the front of the restaurant we’re all out of our cars. A few of our men go
out back and the rest of us go through the front. The first thing I notice when we enter is that everything is dark. I can hardly see where I’m going, so I just follow the light with my gun in hand.
As we reach the door, Stefanos goes to go in first. I
stop him with a hand on his shoulder and bypass him to enter first. I hear him hiss at me, but I ignore him. Before he can get the chance to stop me, I’m through the door.
The first thing I see is Carmen and Alberto, making out in a booth in the back corner. I cringe and lift my gun. Just as I do I hear multiple other guns being loaded, and they’re all pointing toward my head. I freeze, contemplating shooting him from where I stand while possibly taking a bullet to my own head in the process. I watch as the sick bastard turns around and smiles at me.
“I knew it wouldn’t take you long to come see me, baby,” he says, pulling Carmen to his side.
“I told my men not to kill you on sight because I wanted to play with you. Like you played with my son,” he snarls. I smile, which makes his face turn even angrier.
“Yes, he was so much fun to play with,” I say, not letting my gun drop.
“Watch what you say, Krinos, or I will change my orders and make them shoot you to the ground like the piece of shit you are.”
“That wouldn’t be any fun, now would it? Then I wouldn’t get to tell you how much your son cried like the bitch he was.”
He stands up from the table and flings it so it knocks over to the ground.
“Fuck it, kill the bitch,” he says, and just as he says it, everyone bursts through the doors and people start firing. I have no idea who’s firing at who. The only thing I do realize is that I haven’t been hit. I keep my eyes trained on Carmen and Alberto, and watch as she raises a gun to his head.
“Stop or I’ll shoot him where he stands,” she yells out, and surprisingly everyone listens.
Though one guy still has a gun trained to my head. A few more men come rushing in through the front door with their guns raised high. I watch as they hold them up at us, and in particular, Stefanos.
“Well, seems we are in quite the pickle, now doesn’t it?” Carmen asks, laughing.
No one is finding any of this the least bit funny.
“Tell your men to stand down, and we’ll let you leave with them,” Carmen says to Alberto.
He turns to her, and assesses her for probably the first time.
“She’ll not let me leave and I’ll not let her,” Alberto says. His eyes are shooting daggers my way.
“Alberto, don’t be fooled. I could kill you where I stand if I wanted to. Though you will tell your men to drop their guns and leave, and then you can go with them.”
I hear a grunt behind me of disapproval and I know its Rock. He’d be happy if I shot him right now. I can’t though; Carmen is standing right next to him and she could get hurt.
“This isn’t over, Krinos. I will have you and when I do, you’ll wish you were never born,” he says, through gritted teeth.
“So many men say that to me. If you want to make a threat, please get some new material.”
He tells his men to drop their weapons, finally giving me a chance to look around to see who’s here. Hunter is positioned close to Carmen, Stefanos is to my right, Rock is behind me and we are clearly outnumbered against the number of men Alberto brought with him tonight.
I nod my head to Carmen, but she doesn’t remove the gun from her hand or let it drop. She walks backwards giving Alberto the chance to leave. Once all his men are outside, we make our way to the front of the shop and get straight into our cars and drive off.
Carmen is not in the same car with me, she’s with Hunter. But as soon as we get home, I’m going to give that girl the ass whopping she deserves.
“Don’t be too mad at her, Princess. If she didn’t have that gun at his head, I could’ve lost you,” Stefano’s says, grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze.
“I wouldn’t have hesitated to shoot him if she wasn’t there, so I’m fucking pissed she was there.”
“Just don’t kill her before you get the chance to know her.”
Once we pull up at the house, I run straight in and find her out back lounging around the pool with Hunter. I slowly walk over and get right in her face.
“Don’t you ever go behind my back again! Next time I will shoot you where you stand.”
She looks a bit shocked at first, and then shakes that off and comes straight back in my face.
“If you would’ve let me fucking help, I wouldn’t have had to go behind your back.”
My blood is boiling and before I can stop myself, I hit her straight in the nose. She stumbles backwards and grabs hold of her face. She looks at me in utter shock. She removes her hands from her now bleeding and possibly broken nose, and charges at me. I hear, “oh, shit,” coming from Hunter, just as she reaches me. She doesn’t get the chance to lay a hand on me. I have her flipped to the ground as soon as she swings a fist. I twist her arm, not to break it, just enough so she doesn’t move. Just as I’m about to talk I’m hoisted from behind and thrown over someone’s shoulder being carried away.
I recognize that leather smell anywhere, and start to yell at him to put me down. He does. He throws me in the pool. Once I come back up for air, I see him remove his shirt, which shows his defined upper body and when he turns around I see his MC tattoo across his shoulder blade. He jumps in after me and swims across to me. I look around for Carmen and notice she isn’t there anymore.
“Lover boy took her inside,” he says, obviously answering my thought.
I look back at him and realize how close he’s standing to me. We are so close I can feel his breath on my skin. I notice his beautiful green eyes lusting over something he definitely can’t have.
“How come him and not me?” he asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
“There was never a choice, Hunter,” I tell him honestly.
“You never looked at me the way you look at him when he enters a room. He steals your thoughts. It’s like you only train in on one thing, and that’s him.”
I can see how hurt he is, and I don’t know how to explain to him that it was never a choice.
“What you and I had was different, Hunter. We were just sex. Yes, there may have been some feelings there, but we had too much going on to deal with them.”
He looks down at the water and then back to me.
“It was never just sex for me. I told you once I’d stop it all if I knew I could have you.”
He did tell me that, and at the time, I thought he meant sex with other women. His father’s club means too much to him to give up.
“I never wanted to be an old lady Hunter. I’m more than your fuck toy. Stefanos gives me more. He is what I need.” I place my hand on his shoulder, lean in and kiss him on the cheek, and start to make my way out of the pool.
“I could have been what you needed, Kalon, and so much more.”
I don’t look back at him. I don’t want to give him hope, because there is absolutely none to give.
Once I open the door, I see Stefanos standing there. He looks pissed, which I don’t understand.
“Go to your sister and look after her,” he instructs and storms off out the front door, slamming it on his way out.
I have no Idea what just crawled up his ass and died. Did he not hear me talking to Hunter? He’s acting like I have betrayed him.
I finally find what room Carmen is in and surprise, surprise; it’s the one right next to mine. She sees me come in, looks away quickly and then goes back to her cell.
“Carmen, you can’t do what I do. It’s no place for a girl,” I tell her, trying to make her see reason. She gives me her best ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ look.
“What do you think you are, Eliza? You are a
fucking girl, last time I looked.”
“Yes, but I’m not like most. I’ve seen the bad and the good, and I accept the bad. Fuck, I thrive on the bad. Carmen… most people wouldn’t
be able to live or sleep with the knowledge of the things I’ve done, seen or been through. This is not something you want.”
I watch as she shakes her head in disagreement. I realize pretty quickly she isn’t going to budge.
“This isn’t all guns and rainbows, Carmen. You could get kidnapped, tortured, or raped, amongst other terrible things. Trust me when I say, you don’t want this life.”
“Has anything like that happened to you?” she asks, looking like my words are finally sinking in. I think back to when they held me hostage. They beat me and stabbed me. I shake that thought from my mind and look back to her. I lift my shirt and show her the marks that still mar my body. I watch as she takes it in and shakes her head, like she’s trying to disagree with what’s in front of her.
“When did this happen?” she asks in a shaky voice, looking back up into my eyes.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m fine and still alive. But you wouldn’t be.” I pull my shirt down and walk out of her room and head straight to mine, hoping Stefanos will be back soon.
It’s late when a noise wakes me up. I feel his side of the bed and realize he never came back. I sit up and turn on the lamp and notice him sitting at the end of the bed watching me.
“You know my heart and soul only bleeds for you?”
I nod my head and keep my eyes trained on him.
“I saw you kiss Hunter in the pool. I heard him call you his Kalon again and you did not correct him,” he states.
So, he did listen, but obviously he only heard what he wanted to hear - the last part.
“You told me you love me, and I believe you. I just don’t think our love is equal,” he says.
I go to say something, but he starts back up again.
“You make me want to kill, when there is no reason to kill. You make me want to scream at you and tie you to a bed to make you realize your love for me is as strong as mine is for you. I need you to see it! I need every last piece of you! No matter how broken or small that might be. I need it to survive!”
My heart just broke. I have no words for him. I thought the love I gave him would be enough no matter what size it was. I always thought when something is so broken, how can it love? Obviously I was wrong, because I think he just stole that last piece of my heart that I was holding onto.