It could be real. We have no idea where her sister is, but that doesn’t make it an outright lie. Ezra hasn’t gotten back to any of us all night. So for all we know, she’s in her room at the motel as we speak. “Drastic times…” I say, refusing to back pedal.
I don’t regret my decision. As soon as I mentioned her sister, Stevie’s eyes flickered back to life. Slowly at first, so slowly that I worried the things we said pushed her past the point of caring about us. But as soon as she started moving into action, I could see the old Stevie slowly resurfacing. Right now, she’s warring within herself. Caught between wanting to kill us and wanting to thank us for bringing her to her sister. That is much better than how it stood between us only a few minutes ago. The way we treated her in front of Dimitri was necessary, albeit pretty fucked-up, but I’m hoping it isn’t anything a little heart-felt reunion can’t fix.
“What happens if s… she’s not there, you dumbass?” Tristan grumbles. “Then what?”
I hadn’t really thought that far. I just assumed Alex would come back to the motel once it got late. I mean, it’s not like she has shit to do this late at night. She’s a kid, for Christ’s sake.
“Then we’ll wait.” I offer smoothly. Hell, I’ll wait in that shitty motel parking lot for an eternity if it means Stevie will come back to us after the shit with Dimitri.
Dimitri should’ve never been alone in our home to begin with, and Tris has already deactivated all of our access cards to ensure the motherfucker won’t be able to cross that line again. We still don’t know how the hell he got a hold of one of our cards, but it’s all too convenient that he shows up here the minute he knows we aren’t home. Especially when he was the one who orchestrated the whole thing.
Apparently, Dimitri received an anonymous tip that one of our guys running the cocaine transition warehouse was skimming ounces off during transit. We wanted to wait until morning to deal with it, but Mitri offered for his team to handle it, giving us no choice but to go. If he was right, he’d use it against us to make it seem like our power was weakening and if he was wrong, he and his guys would probably pull some shady shit to make it seem like he was right.
Leaving her alone was the last thing any of us wanted to do, especially after almost losing her today. But he specifically requested for the three of us to be there. With Ezra MIA and Dimitri still trying to assert himself as the new head of west coast operations, we couldn’t risk ignoring his demands. No matter how ludicrous they were. If we did, we’d feel the fucking fallout.
“Do you believe her?” I ask, glancing in Stevie’s direction as she re-emerges from her closet on the other side of the room. “About Dimitri.”
She takes a seat on her bed and pulls on the black ankle boots Tris picked out for her. She kept on the band shirt Ez chose and tucked it into the cutoff denim shorts I bought that show off her sun-kissed legs. The coat she picked out is Atlas’ choice, an oversized black wool coat that hits just below her thigh. It’s almost ironic. Even when she doesn’t realize it, she’s choosing a bit of all of us.
Tristan lets out a breath and sits back in his seat. “I honestly d… don’t know what to believe. I want t… to.”
I want to, too. If Dimitri so much as laid an unwanted finger on her, I don’t know if I’d have it in me to stop from killing the bastard. Just seeing his vile hands wrapped around her soft waist was torture. All I could think about, all I could envision, was ripping his digits off and feeding them to the motherfucker one by one.
“Ready to go?”
The sound of Stevie’s voice catches us both off guard and we quickly cut the conversation short. We’ll table the Dimitri issue for now, but only because we have more pressing problems to tend to.
I jump to my feet and gesture for her to lead the way. “After you, Princess.”
She steps out of the room and Tristan stands up to follow a few feet behind her. As he moves past me he pauses and levels a serious look at me. “You better pray we fucking deliver on everything you promised.”
I’ve never been a religious man, but if there’s ever been a time for me to pray for a miracle, it’s now.
Ten
Silence fillsthe drive down through the city, but for once, it isn’t an uncomfortable one. Tristan is too busy trying not to kill me for putting this whole thing into action, while Stevie isn’t doing much of anything besides staring at the road ahead. She seems determined to get her sister, now more than ever. I just hope we aren’t setting her up for another fucking disappointment.
We reach the business district, and Stevie’s undeterred gaze on the road finally wanes. Her eyes flick up to the luxurious high rises surrounding us and she stares at them with a mixture of wonder and amusement in her eyes. She says nothing, but she doesn’t need to. Her face says it all. She loves our city.
It’s hard to picture Stevie’s life before us. Living on the other side of town in a shitty two-story with an abusive meth-head stepfather. She’s been out of that environment for weeks, but she still hasn’t really gotten to see much outside of the walls of our home. It’s the first time she’s seeing Caspian Hills in all its glory and it’s bittersweet to know that we’re the ones who robbed her of seeing it for so long.
The air in Caspian Hills is cleaner, the roads are smoother, and the sidewalks are free of the trash and needles we all grew up around. It’s everything Caspian Valley isn’t, which is why my brothers and I set out to own this city so many years ago. It’s clear that Stevie, too, has fallen under its spell.
Stevie rolls down her window and sticks her head out and smiles into the breeze. The action is charming as hell and as I stare at her through my own rolled-down window; I realize it's the first time I’ve ever seen her without a guarded expression on her face. She’s fucking beautiful, so beautiful that I sit back and soak that shit up like it’s the last time I’ll ever see it.
Who knows, if shit goes south tonight, it just might be.
I fight the urge to smile as her long dark wavy locks reach into my window and whip against the skin on my face. The sensation feels familiar, but before I can fully place it, I’m taken back to a bitter memory. One I thought I buried a long time ago.
“Nervous?”I ask, squeezing her closer to my body.
Instead of answering, she stares up the driveway and visibly scowls. Her soft features distort into a grimace and a need to protect her fills my chest. All I want to do is throw her back on my Ducati and get her as far away from here as possible, but that would completely defeat the purpose. Besides, we’ve put this off for long enough.
The autumn wind stirs up again, carrying her emerald green dress with it. Her long brown tendrils gently whip across my face, enveloping me in a strawberry-scented cloud that makes my mouth water. Fuck, this girl, this fucking strawberry scented mythical being doesn’t even realize how tightly she has me wrapped around her finger. How I’d do anything to make her happy.
“Let’s get you inside, yeah?” I offer, rubbing her soft, bare shoulder.
“They’re all in there?” She asks, glaring at the mansion in the distance.
