Accepting it, I smile, “I’m Syren. No need to call me anything else.”
“Got it,” he smiles. “I’m Ace, you’ll see me around more often than not. Shadow can’t do without me.” A laugh falls from his lips, and he continues his work as he and Shadow banter like teenagers.
Ace is young, probably the same age as Shadow, with dark scruff on a square jaw. His hair is chocolate brown, tousled, with strands hanging over his forehead, and a piercing in his lower lip. He has ink on every exposed inch of his skin.
“Shadow,” Blade saunters over to where his brother is now stitched up and smoking a cigarette. “We didn’t find anyone else. Are you sure there—”
“The girl,” I break through their conversation. “She was in the cell with me. I swear. She was so tiny, skinny and malnourished. Her hair was matted to her forehead, and she said she knows you,” I say, pointing to Shadow who stills at my words.
The still lit cigarette hanging between his full lips, and his eyes shimmer with knowing. He does know who she is. She must be his girlfriend, or . . . something.
He glances at Blade, turning his attention away from my penetrative gaze, and tells his brother, “Get Stryker to search the computers I saw on the way up. I want Amelia found.” Finally, he admits he does know her. But why doesn’t that fill me with happiness? Instead, my heart pounds heavily with jealousy.
The moment we’re alone, Shadow looks at me. His eyes bore into me, driving right down to my soul. It’s strange having someone look at me that deeply. A small kick up at the corner of his mouth is the only evidence that he even wants me near him right now.
“Come here,” he orders, but I don’t obey. He has a girlfriend, and he kissed me. God, I kissed him back. What the fuck was I thinking? I wasn’t. Stupidity got the better of me and I allowed myself to believe he wanted me.
Spinning on my heel, I ignore him calling to me. I walk right up to Talon, who’s deep in conversation with Blade, and push my way between them. Leaning up on my toes, I press my mouth to Talon’s with my eyes firmly glued to Shadow’s.
Darkness swirls around him when he sees my hands on his best friend’s shoulders and our lips touching. I don’t give a shit if he’s angry, he has someone else in his life. I’m not going to be used while she’s not around and then forgotten the moment he finds her again.
I pray she’s alive, that she’s safe, but I’m nobody’s second choice. Talon’s lips are warm and soft, but his kiss doesn’t fill me with the same neediness that Shadow’s did.
When I finally break my lips from his, he chuckles. “Jesus, little one, you’ll get yourself killed.” He rakes his fingers through his hair at the back of his head as he turns to regard his best friend’s rage.
“He has a girlfriend,” I bite out, waving my hand in the air toward the man who’s hobbling toward us on his bad leg. I suddenly feel guilty for making him have to do that, but it slowly passes when his hand reaches for me, gripping my arm and he tugs me violently behind him.
Even wounded, the asshole is still stronger than I am.
“What the hell are you doing?” I tug free of his hold, causing him to turn on me. His glare is red hot and my skin feels the blaze.
“Do you think that’s funny? I’m not here to play childish fuckin’ games with you, Syren.” His tone is feral, animalistic, like a savage attempting to drag me by my hair to his cave.
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“If you ever put your lips on one of my men again, I’ll send you back to your precious dad in a fuckin’ cage.”
“Fuck you!”
“Okay, kids,” Talon steps between us, his hands holding onto my shoulders. “Look at me,” he speaks softly, gently even. When my eyes lift to his, I find blue staring back at me. “Go sit with Blade. I’ll sort this out.”
When I reach Blade, I settle beside him on the back of another truck that arrived about an hour ago. He doesn’t speak for a long while as I sit and stew over Shadow’s stupid outrage at my kiss with Talon.
“You know,” Blade says suddenly. “My brother’s not the easiest man to be around, but when he has his sights set on something, or someone . . .” he allows his words to filter into nothing, and I turn to look at him.
“I’m not his to claim like a possession. And who is Amelia?”
Blade smiles, then shakes his head. “That’s not my story to tell. But what I can say is that he’s had his heart torn out and broken, and yet, somehow, he’s found it in himself to care for you.”
“He doesn’t care. He’s acting like a caveman.”
Blade laughs out loud, causing a few guys to turn and look at us. Slowly, each bike leaves the grounds and I notice there are no bodies anymore. Not even the ones who were only injured and not killed. There aren’t any blacked-out SUVs, and only a handful of bikes left.
“Yeah, he’s pretty savage when it comes to those he cares for,” Blade whispers conspiratorially.
“The only reason he’s acting like that over me is because he knows my father will cut his head off if something were to happen to me.”
“Perhaps,” he nods, “or maybe you’ve gotten under the big man’s skin.” I have to giggle at that. Thinking about Shadow as the big man doesn’t seem right because even though he’s the VP, Blade is double his brother’s size.
“Why aren’t you VP?” I ask suddenly as the thought occurs to me. Generally, the next in line is the eldest child of the President. And that would be Blade, not Shadow.
He doesn’t answer me for a long time, and I think he won’t bother responding. But when he leans back, his hands shooting out behind us to prop him up, he glances at me and smiles. “For most of my younger years, I thought it would be something I wanted. When I was growing up, I wanted nothing more than to please my father, but as my brother got older, I saw the alpha gene in him. His personality was that of President, whereas I was happy to fly under the radar. Also,” he glances at his brother before continuing, “less responsibility falls to me. Shadow’s got it, he’ll be the best Prez after our dad.”
I can hear the love he has for his brother. Glancing at Shadow who’s still talking to Talon, I watch him as he watches me. We’re at odds, warring with each other with a mere stare.
Talon glances over his shoulder and offers me a wink before he turns his attention to his best friend and they shake hands. He then makes his way over to us, stopping short of where I’m perched on the back of the truck.
“Go talk to him,” he tells me. “He wants to apologize.” Somehow, I don’t believe Shadow would say sorry for anything he’s done, but I give Talon the benefit of the doubt and hop down and to my feet.
Glancing over my shoulder at Blade, I smile. “Thanks for the pep talk. I’d say you’ve got that gene just as much as he does.” And then I head over to the man who’s burning me with his blatantly hungry stare.
11
Shadow
I watch her as she sways her hips. She’s taunting me and that will get her fucking ass spanked so hard, she’ll rethink sitting down for a week. I know why she’s angry. Amelia was with her in the cage and must’ve said something. Unless this is just Syren putting two and two together.
One thing about this beauty is that she’s not some stupid teenager. She’s more than that. She’s intelligent, feisty, and she’s not a pushover. All three of those characteristics make for a perfect President. Someday, she’ll be heading up the club and I’m intrigued to see how she handles it.
“Talon said you wanted to apologize,” she says as she stops in front of me. Her gaze is deep blue, like an endless ocean that holds emotions so deep, it could drown a sane man.
“If there’s one thing you’ll learn about me in the days to come, Princess,” I chuckle. “I don’t apologize for shit.”
“You’re a raging asshole. You know that, Draven Hawke?” Once again, she folds her arms across her chest, and I can’t stop my gaze from falling to her cleavage for a second before pulling it back to her eyes.
>
“If you keep flauntin’ your tits in my face, I may have to bury my dick between them to see if they feel as good as they look,” I tell her honestly. I’m not one for beating around the bush. If I want something, I take it. And I want her.
“Jesus, do you always have to make everything about sex?”
“When it concerns tits that perfect, yes.” I shrug while tapping out a smoke and pressing it between my lips before I flick my Zippo. Inhaling a deep drag of the cigarette, I regard her through the billowing white that separates us. “I didn’t mean to act like a douche.”
“If that’s your apology, you’re sorely lacking, but thank you.” She smiles and her face lights up causing the smoke to lodge in my throat.
Fuck, she’s beautiful.
“Never said I was good at this bullshit.” I offer her the white stick, knowing she doesn’t smoke. I’m testing her to see if she’ll give in, but she shakes her head, long dark hair swaying this way and that. “What did that asshole do to you?”
She furrows her brows at my question.
“Marques.”
“Nothing actually. I kept waiting for the attack, but we sat and spoke and that was that.” She doesn’t seem too perturbed that I killed him in front of her, and she doesn’t seem bothered that there’s blood everywhere.
Somehow, I’m not convinced that this was all there is to them making their move because something is niggling at me. It was too easy. Marques was always known as the head of the Cartel, at least to us.
So why wouldn’t he have more security?
Something isn’t adding up and I don’t want to scare Syren with my thoughts, so I shake it off for now, hoping we can get to Arizona as soon as possible. I need to call Trigger and let him know Syren is safe.
“We’ll talk on the way home, there are a few things I need to ask you about your time in the cell,” I tell her.
I think she’ll agree, but I should’ve known better because she throws a question at me, “Who’s Amelia?”
How do I talk about a woman who I thought broke me when there’s another woman standing in front of me who I wouldn’t mind learning more about? This is ridiculous. I’m not some teenage boy, I’m all grown up, and yet Syren makes me want to get to know her, even if half of that need is physical and the other half is emotional.
“She was someone I was involved with.” It’s the easiest answer. There’s nothing more I can tell her because she surely has figured out that Amelia and I weren’t just a one-night stand.
“Okay,” she drags the word out, watching me with her shrewd glare.
“It’s almost your birthday,” I change the subject, hoping she’ll let it go. “Did you want to do something special? I can call ahead and get my mom to bake a cake or some shit.”
She shakes her head sadly before telling me, “No, my dad should’ve been here, or there,” she waves her hand. “I don’t like celebrating when he’s not around. It’s a big day, you know, eighteen.”
“An adult,” I say. “Now you can do all those things you wanted to do for so long and just couldn’t.”
She lifts her eyes to mine as Stryker settles in the driver’s seat of the SUV that we’re sitting in. He doesn’t say a word. Asshole is waiting on her to tell me to fuck off or something. He loves watching me squirm.
“Like?” she finally asks me, but she keeps her voice to a bare whisper. She’s embarrassed to be talking near a stranger.
“Oh, I don’t know, getting’ to third base, fourth, maybe even a home run,” I chuckle. It’s my attempt at lightening the mood, and it works because she blushes a deep red which only makes my cock jolt against my zipper.
“Shut up,” she bites out.
“Let’s go, kids,” Stryker calls from the front of the car.
“Who are you callin’ kid? You’re only in your thirties, asshole,” I tell him as I shift my legs so they’re more comfortable for the long drive ahead. A second later, I notice Syren slip along the backseat closer to me.
“Respect your elders, and they’ll offer you sage advice for the rest of their lives,” Stryker chuckles. He’s one of the men that I trust with my life. Being one of the most talented hackers, as well as part of our family, he’s never let me down.
“Yeah, whatever, old man,” I tease, even though he’s only thirty-five. The man looks younger than that, he could easily pass for twenty-five.
When he first patched in, Dad made him Treasurer. He isn’t only good with electronics, but with numbers as well. Ever since, we’ve been up to date with every sale that’s been done. Cash flow has been easy, and I don’t know what I would do without him.
Adrian Stryker is a good guy. He does have a history. I know his past is littered with darkness, but he’s never been one to confess anything to me, or the guys. Dad knows what his story is, and even though I don’t, I know he’s someone trustworthy.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I know who it is before I pull it out. When I glance at the screen, I find Trigger’s name flashing at me like an ominous cloud promising a storm.
“Hi,” I answer, hoping to keep Syren in the dark about who it is until I can figure out what the hell is bothering me.
“Good evening, Mr. Hawke.” A voice that’s not Trigger’s comes through the line and my body goes cold. It’s the lightning striking the ground just before the storm hits. And I know nothing good is going to come of this.
“What do you want?” I look toward the rearview mirror where I catch Stryker’s stare. With a small shake of my head, I tell him everything in that one slight movement.
“I’m just visiting an old friend,” the man tells me. He doesn’t sound anything like Marques, and I wonder just who he is, but I don’t have to wait long to get the mystery solved because he continues, “I just got news that you’ve killed my brother. Marques was a good man, a family man.”
“Like fuck he was,” I bite out, not caring who’s listening to me because the tension that’s racing through me is like a hurricane about to hit. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I’d like to see the infamous Shadow in person.” Why the fuck does he want me? The guns are Trigger’s business, not mine. “If you don’t arrive back here in . . .” he goes silent and then says, “two hours, the whole club will be dead.” He hangs up before I can respond.
“Turn the car around. We’re headin’ back to Miami,” I order Stryker, who gives me a what the fuck look in the mirror. “Now!”
“What’s going on?” This comes from Syren. I turn my attention to her, finding bright blue eyes wide and filled with fear. I hate having to tell her anything bad, because I don’t want her to look at me like she’s looking at me right now. “Shadow, you have to tell me.”
It takes me a long while to tell her what I know. I realize that as much as I would love to push her away because I’m not good for her, I can’t. Not right now. Perhaps I can be there for her through this difficult time and then, the moment I kill the asshole that’s threatening us, I can walk away from her.
“Marques’s brother has your dad,” I finally respond to a gasp from her beautiful pouty lips. “But it’s goin’ to be okay. He wants me. I don’t know why, but once we get there, I need you to stay in the car. Okay?”
“But—”
“For fuck’s sake, Syren, just listen to me this once,” I roar, the words bounce around us in the back of the car. She wants to refuse me, to say something more, but instead, she nods. Perhaps she can see the tension that’s gripped me, or maybe she knows that if she doesn’t listen to me, she could be dead.
Silence hangs between us as I tap out a message to Talon and Blade. The bikes follow behind us in a low humming of thunder and I lean my head back and close my eyes. I’m tired, fucking exhausted. It’s been a long day and night. I’m not even sure what the time is anymore.
All I can hear is my breathing, my erratic heartbeat pounding against my ribs. Warmth covers my hand which is resting on my thigh causing me to look up and I find Syren’s small ha
nd on mine. I lift my gaze to meet hers to find fear sparkling in those blue depths.
I can’t promise her everything is going to be okay, because I don’t know if it is. These men are dangerous, they’re volatile, and even though I can be a savage, I know that a man who’s lost a brother will be even more ruthless than ever.
“I know you can’t do much more than what you’re already doing,” she says. “But please don’t let my father die.” The plea grips me in places I locked away. Those emotions are meant to be hidden in the depths of my darkness, not right here at the forefront where she can find them.
She’s not yours. She’s not yours.
Even though the chant continues in my head, replaying itself like a threat, I know I want it to be a lie. I crave to take her and claim her. The youthfulness and innocence that stares back at me is intoxicating, like a drug I need to keep taking.
“I’m goin’ to do everything I can to get all those men out of there.” That’s the only promise I can make. I never go back on my word, ever, but this time, I’m afraid that this might be bigger than both of us realize.
My phone’s shrill ring interrupts us. I grab it and slide my thumb across the screen. “Dad,” I answer.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“I wanted to call you. Things have taken a turn for the worse. We’re headin’ back to Miami,” I tell him, all the while my grip on Syren’s hand has tightened and her fingers are gently tracing the lines of my ink as she focuses on that instead of my words.
“I heard.” Two words in that gruff tone. “I’m sending more men down.” Silence hangs between us. My father isn’t the affectionate type, he’s never made it known that he hurts, or he’s scared, but even now in the quiet, I can feel that he’s worried.
“Thanks.” I don’t know what else to say to him. If I tell him I’m scared, that I’m worried I can’t do this, he’ll only lose his shit with me. Even though Blade is older, I’ve always been the one that’s more like our old man. It’s as if he can see his younger self in me.
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