I watch his face pale and he swings his gaze from me to Carm. “This can’t be right, you can’t murder a Head.”
“Yet you tried just that.” Carm grits out between his teeth.
“I did not!” He finally stands and yells across the table.
“I’ll see you tomorrow night, Wade.” I say as I walk back towards Trent and the door. “May the best man win.”
I hear his voice behind me, begging Carm to make me reconsider. He sounds earnest and sincere but I can too if I need to be. I think my presence within the Head organization intimidated the fuck out of him and he would rather see me as a fighter than a leader.
The others look confused and slightly fearful as they watch me leave and the door swing shut. Perfect, they need to understand I am not one to fuck with.
Ember lays naked beside me, her hair fanning out over the pillow and her fucking makeup all over the bed and me. I finger over the pattern she tattooed under her left breast, an infinity symbol with our initials inside of it. An exact match for the one over my heart on my chest.
“He looked like he was telling the truth, is my fucking mind playing tricks on me?” She whispers as she looks at me.
“Do you think Carm’s guard acted on his own?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “Maybe if he was offered enough money?”
“Even knowing it would definitely come back to him?” I question. “If it were something I agreed to, I would ask for help to get out of here and never look back. Why would he stay?”
“And Trent?” She asks in a hushed voice. “He has no loyalty to me, but when he speaks to me, he seems like he truly cares.”
I see her inner turmoil flashing through her features. This is hard shit, the most likely person to want her Head is Wade and obviously he is getting what’s coming to him but I can see that Ember saw something to make her doubt that.
“If it wasn’t Wade, then it’s Trent.” I tell her. “If there’s something bothering you then you need to get answers before you take a life undeserving of death.”
“I know.” She whispers, sounding tortured.
“Do what your gut tells you.” I kiss her head and pull her into my chest.
Her huge heart is pounding against mine and I know as sadistic as Ember can be, she also would never want someone to die if they didn’t deserve it. It’s the boundary she laid out for herself from the very beginning and she hasn’t once deviated from that.
I feel her breathing even out and look down to feel her heavy with sleep in my arms. I match my breathing to hers and drift off as well.
I feel her rustle as she gets out of the bed, since we’re underground I can’t determine the time but I have a feeling it’s still night or early morning. Ember is creeping around, so she’s trying not to wake me and I let her continue without alerting her to my knowing. She pulls on a pair of sweats and swipes her hair up into a bun on the top of her head. She sneaks out the door and I throw the blankets off my body. I also scramble into clothes and hurry to open the door behind her.
I catch a glimpse of her turning the corner to my right and begin to follow. A couple turns later and I see her talking to a guard outside of Carm’s office. He permits her entry inside and I blow out a breath of relief. She’s probably going to talk shit out with him and figure out what he thinks about the whole situation. Now that I know she isn’t putting herself in any immediate danger, I turn around and go back to our room. I may let Ember fight her way through life as I sit and watch, but I am watching, and if at any point I feel like her life is in jeopardy, I will step in and berserk the fuck out.
About an hour later she comes back into the room. In her hands she hold a file that she immediately pops into her bag. I watch as she removes her clothes and crawls back into bed beside me.
“Everything okay?” I ask her.
“I had to talk to Carm.” She says. “But he wasn’t in his office. I found some shit though. I will tell you about it tomorrow.”
I nod and kiss her cheek.
4
I don’t get the chance to speak to Vin about Wade in the morning because Emmett comes through like a motherfucking tornado and demands our attention. We spend the day with everyone at Coney Island and it brings back memories of my mother and also memories of when Emmett and I went there, as well.
The day is fun but all too soon I have to go and prepare for my fight with Wade. I found a few interesting things in Carm’s office, one of which was about Wade. He has been linked to a kidnapping ring in Long Island. Mostly snatching up teenage girls that come from broken homes, runaways, and homeless. Drugging them for a few days then selling them overseas. Am I surprised? Fuck no, this is nothing new. I knew the Head organization was a dirty one and I have plans to gradually change that but this is killing two birds with one stone.
Wade inherited his position from his father-nepotism at its finest-and instead of cleaning up what his corrupted old man was doing, he decided to keep capitalizing on the lower income families in his area. Pushing drugs to single moms and then taking their children to be sold to sex trade or to sell more crack to other disadvantaged homes.
Whatever reservations I had about him yesterday have
