Page 20 of Haven

“I need you to take Parker and Fang and make sure the warehouse is secure and protected. If Axel wants war, we need to be prepared.”

They nodded. “Axel getting bold?”

I looked at Mal. “We don’t have the technical proof to retaliate just yet, but there was a dagger through a black viper.” Everyone knew what Axel did to Diesel. I heard the rumors in prison and got the final confirmation when Cinder visited me two weeks after. I never saw my best friend as broken as that day.

Cinder was distraught when she visited me. It was a few weeks since she saw me last and she was working on getting her sister home. Today, she looked like she went through hell and back, but failed to fight the devil. She could barely stay on her feet and she collapsed into the chair at my table.

“What happened?” I knew she was saving Aurora, but did something else happen? Did she fail? Was she hurt?

“Diesel’s dead,” she forced out, but before I could say anything, she added, “and Rory tried…” Her voice broke. “F-fuck. S-she tried k-killing herself. S-she’s in the ICU.”

“Cin—”

“I killed him,” she hissed the whisper. “I killed the bastard who abused her. He…God, Widow, you don’t understand what she went through. Four years. She was tormented. Widow, I need to get you out. I can’t…I can’t do this.”

I reached for her hand. “Yes, you can. We can do this together.”

“I’ll grab Parker and call Fang. She can meet me at the warehouse. Do we need to send someone to Crestview to scout?”

Cinder shook her head, grabbing her laptop. “No, I can get Parker to assist with hacking into the systems and see if we can find anything. Axel is going to regret his choices when we are done.”

Mal left the room, leaving Vesper and I alone with Cinder. “I can get some Molotov cocktails ready,” Vesper said. “It’s been a while since I got to play with fire.”

“Not yet. I hate it, but you’re right; we can’t retaliate without proof. Do we know of anyone else who wants to start a turf war? Are there new gangs in the surrounding areas we don’t know of?”

“I don’t believe so, but I can get with Jo and Fang. They scout the most,” I explained, but I also knew if there were new gangs or a growing threat, they would tell us.

Cinder ran her hands down her face, the vein in her temple throbbing. “We need to make sure Rory is safe. If this is a new threat or if it is Axel, someone will try to hurt her to get to me.”

While she had a point, Rory wouldn’t enjoy the extra protection on her. She already hated the hovering as it was. It was one reason she snuck out and ran the roads. Rory thought Cinder wouldn’t notice, but she questioned it daily. Cinder’s paranoia would make her go grey and cause rifts, but so far she hadn’t done anything intense.

“Cin, you know Rory can protect herself,” Vesper hinted.

Cinder narrowed her eyes on Vesper. “Can she protect herself if she’s drugged? Or bound? You know exactly what would happen to her if the Predators got their hands on my sister. Axel is Luke Callahan’s partner. I am not losing my sister because they want to hurt me.”

I glanced at Vesper who pressed her lips together. While I knew where Cinder was coming from, Rory had a limit and she would snap one day. “Cin, you know Rory won’t do anything to put herself in danger.” I saw Vesper shift out of the corner of my eye. She knew something, but I didn’t question it just yet.

“Have you met Rory?” Cinder laughed, the smile not meeting the stress in her eyes. “Rory is the embodiment of reckless.”

“She can also kick ass,” Vesper added. “Rory isn’t fragile. You made sure of that. Maybe you should tell her of an impending threat?”

Cinder let out a forced breath. “I don’t want to scare her. Or make her anxiety skyrocket. She’s doing good. I just want her safe.”

Sometimes her safety can be suffocating.

“We will keep her safe, Cin. We always do,” I told her. And we would. Rory was the jewel of the Vipers.

Nineteen

Rory

Cinder knocked on my door around four in the morning while I was awake, sketching at my desk. She looked like hell, which told me something happened. I heard her when she came home and yelled at Mal. I dropped my pencils, removing my earbuds and smiled at her.

“Not sleepy?” she asked.

I smiled sheepishly. “I tried. It didn’t come. There’s a lot going on in my head right now.”

I ended up dozing off for an hour, but I had a nightmare. It was the reason I didn’t sleep much. Other than having insomnia, my complex PTSD made life hard. Sleeping meant I mingled with my monsters. If I kept moving, kept my mind busy, nothing could hurt me. It wasn’t healthy, but I was working on it. Resting was a battlefield and Izzy told me it wasn’t a weakness to struggle.