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“Zhara,” I say, hoping he doesn’t ask me my last name.”
“Well, Zhara,” Axel says. “I may not know you personally, but you look like a bright girl. A bright girl who’s going to pass along a message. And I need you to do it word for word, okay?”
I swallow hard, my gaze straying to Jackson and Wilder. Jackson has his hand in his pocket, preparing to retrieve his knife. And Wilder is reaching into his vest, probably to withdraw whatever weapon he’s carrying.
Not wanting a fight to break out, I give them a pressing look before saying, “Okay, I can do that.”
“Very good.” He places one of his overworked hands on my leg and the cool metal of his other rings bite at my skin. “You are to tell your guys over there to tell their boss that if any of his men enter my tunnels again, there will be a price to pay. I’ll start with his bodyguards and work my way to his family, picking off everyone he cares about one by one. By the time I’m finished with him, he’ll have nothing left. And this includes your little friends too. I know they were part of the group that used my tunnel as a shortcut to get drugs in—They’re lucky I’m going to let them walk away right now. But that won’t happen again. Now, do you understand the message?” His fingers dig into my leg roughly, and it takes all of my willpower not to fling his hand off my leg.
I feel a soft prick, like a pinprick, but am too dang terrified to flinch or even glance down at my leg. But I feel the warmth of blood seeping out of my skin. “Yes.”
“Tell me, Zhara, have you ever tasted the poison of the devil?” he asks. “Because your mom sure did.”
My heart nearly dies in my chest. My mom. He knows my mom.
“Don’t utter a word.” He gives my leg one final squeeze before leaning back and removing his hand from my leg. “Sorry about that. My overworked hands sometimes get the best of me.” He smiles as he says it, though, and a chill slithers down my spine.
He mentioned my mom. He knows my mom.
But how?
No! There’s no way my mom would ever be around a man like Axel!
Giving me one last grin, he directs his attention back to Jackson and Wilder while flipping a small lever on the door. “Well gentlemen, it’s been a real pleasure. But as I’m sure you know, I’m a very busy man who’s got many things to attend to.” He glances at me again. “Zhara, it’s been a pleasure meeting you. I have a feeling we’ll be crossing paths again.” The car rolls to a stop and he opens the door.
Relief washes over me as I spot the Chevelle on the side of the road.
We made it back alive.
But my relief immediately nosedives.
He spoke of my mom. The woman who told me to be good all the time. The woman who raised me. And he said she tasted the poison of the devil.
But what does that even mean!
Maybe he was lying. He has to be lying.
But then why did it feel like I knew the man who let us into the car? And why did the circle’s crest look familiar?
Jackson nods for me to get out and I more than willingly dive out of that car. Wilder slips out right after me, his hand instantly finding mine through the darkness. Jackson stays in the car for another thirty seconds before joining us on the side of the road. Then the car drives away into the night, leaving us standing in the darkness.
While I can’t see anything other than the outlines of hills and the stars and the moon, I swear it feels like the world is spinning.
He knows my mom.
Axel knows my mom.
But the words slowly fade from my mind as haziness envelopes me.
“Well, that was interesting,” Jackson muses as he fishes his phone out of his pocket, flips on the flashlight, and shines the light at my face. “Are you okay?”
I bob my head up and down and the whole world moves too. “I… think… so.”
Jackson’s mouth promptly curves to a frown. “Shit.”
“What…?” I struggle to keep my balance, my sandals scuffing in the dirt as I stagger to the side.
Wilder slips an arm around my back and pulls me against his side. “What the hell? I didn’t see him do anything to her.”
“Yeah, I know, but with someone like Axel, he might have access to something….” Jackson trails off, shining the light down at my leg. “Shit.”
“You already said that.” I laugh. I don’t know why I laugh. It seems like such a strange time to laugh. “Just like Axel said my mom.” Shaking my head, I track Jackson’s gaze to see what he’s freaking out about. Blood is pooling out of a tiny cut on my thigh and running down my leg. It’s not a lot and most of it has dried, but still… “Hey, that’s what the pinprick was…” I slump against Jackson’s shoulder. “Oh yeah, I’m… supposed to pass along… a message.”
I start babbling, but can make no sense of what I’m saying or if I even recap Axel’s message correctly.
“Fuck, this is bad,” I hear Jackson say before everything goes black.
Benton
“This is probably the worst case scenario that could’ve happened.” Jackson paces my living room, yanking his fingers through his hair.
Usually the guy is all about being calm and sees humor in most situations unless it has to do with someone getting hurt. Then he freaks out and loses his cool. But considering his horrific past, his reaction is understandable.
“It’s not the worst case scenario.” I watch him pace, taking a sip of my drink. “Zhara’s going to be fine. The drugs will fade out of her system within a few hours and Ridge assured me there would be no side-effects.”
Wilder stops abruptly and reels to face me. “It never should have happened to begin with… She was tranquilized for fuck’s sake. And while I was sitting two feet away from her.” He commences pacing again. “The worst part is I didn’t even fucking notice.”
“It’s not your fault,” I repeat for at least the tenth time. “From what you guys told me, Axel probably was wearing a ring injector.”
A ring injector is basically what it sounds like—a ring that has a hidden needle on it that injects drugs or poison into someone with a simple prick of the skin.
“You’re too calm,” Jackson accuses, pointing a finger at me. “How can you be so calm when you’re the one that brought her in this mess? Don’t you feel responsible? Because I sure as hell do.”
“Of course I do.” More than I can ever admit. It’s been a long time since I felt such guilt... Probably not since… I force the memory out of my mind with a shake of my head. No, I promised I’d never think of her again. Blowing out a breath, I stand up and get in Jackson’s path, mostly to get him to stop pacing. “Look, we all fucked up. We didn’t see Axel’s men’s ambush until it was too late. But there’s nothing we can do except be more careful. And we need to start staying out of the tunnels. I don’t want any more surveillance happening down there, got it?”
When Jackson had told me the message Axel passed along through Zhara, I couldn’t believe he’d even let the three of them out of the car alive. They were lucky he did, but I have a feeling Zhara getting tranquilized was part of the message as well—a warning of what could happen if we entered Axel’s tunnels again. Honestly, I was never fully on board with running surveillance on Axel’s drug trafficking tunnels, but my boss—my real boss—had insisted it needed to be done. He never explained why, though, but I know better than to question him. If I do then I could lose my job, which is another reason why I’m holding up on telling him about Zhara. If he tells me to let her go, I’m not sure I can, especially now that she’s completely buried in this mess, even if she doesn’t realize it yet. Axel giving her that ring proves that. It was a silent message, stating that he wasn’t done with her yet. I just wish I knew why.
“What do you think about that thing Zhara said?” Jackson asks, dropping down onto the coffee table and lowering his head into his hands. “About Axel saying he knew her mom.”
“I’m not sure.” I chew on my bottom lip, feeling unnerved. “He could have just been mess
ing with her.”
“But he might not have been.” Jackson raises his head to look at me. “Perhaps her family has a connection to his circle. You did say you found some odd information about her family’s past, right?”
I nod, massaging the back of my neck. “But none of that implied any sort of connection to Axel or his family.”
“Then what did it imply?”
I sigh, lowering down into the chair. “That her family might have been involved in one of our organizations but that they went rogue.”
“Shiiiittt,” Jackson drags out the word. “Do you think she knows?”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t.”
Silence stretches between us.
“So, what’re we going to do?” he finally asks. “Because if the boss finds out her family might be Rogues, there’s going to be extreme consequences.”
I release a tense exhale. “Yeah, I know, which is why we’re not going to let him find out. We’re going to keep Zhara’s identity a secret while we try to figure out exactly how she’s tied to all of this.”
“And what happens if she doesn’t want to be part of this anymore?” Jackson questions. “After tonight, I doubt she will.”
“I’m not sure she really has a choice anymore.” I hate to say it, but it’s true.
With a Rogue running around town, her next-door neighbor being a spy from another organization, and Axel Marelli taking an interest in her, there is no way in hell I’m letting her out of my sight.
Not until I know for sure that she’s safe.
