Scars (The Triad 1)

“Okay, there’s definitely something to unpack there.” I trailed kisses up his chest and across his collarbone into the hollow of his throat. It was impossible to be so close to him and not have my mouth on him. “You said you didn’t have a great start to life,” I said, changing the subject. “Tell me about that.” I felt him hesitate, but if they wanted me to trust them, I was going to need them to open up to me. I needed to feel like a part of them.

“I was dropped off on the doorstep of an orphanage when I was a baby.” His fingers drifted mindlessly in circles up and down my back. “Once that place shut down, all us kids were put in different foster homes. I never had a kind one. As early as I can remember, I was always with someone who couldn’t afford to feed us because all the money was going towards their drugs and/or alcohol. I had one foster parent who used to keep us locked in the basement all night and most of the day. Showers were a rarity, and our toilet was a single bucket that was kept in the corner.”

I was appalled. The thought of Tristan as a little boy, kept in a basement, never knowing what love or family was like was enough to have my throat aching against the threat of tears. I knew I couldn’t look at him or he would see the sadness written all over my face. He had compared our lives, but I grew up in a life of luxury. My parents may not have been the best. My dad may have eventually tried to kill me, but I was never locked in a basement, deprived of life, with a bucket in the corner.

“Anyway,” he continued. “I was on the brink of just running away around the age of fourteen. Honestly, living on the street sounded better than living in any of the homes I was forced to live in as a kid.” He sighed. “But then Elliot came into the picture. He became my friend, my brother. He gave me a place to go when life at my place was too much.” He shrugged, and his hands moved to my hair.

“And we did what we had to do to survive. His parents were into some bad shit, and we kind of just followed their lead. We discovered we were good at it, really good at it. This whole thing just grew from there. Sebastian, the crazy fuck, came in later,” he laughed to himself, and I found I really liked the sound.

“And you said the meeting tonight went too easily. So what do we do next? Where do we go from here?” I rolled onto my back, but his arms stayed around me. For cutthroat gangsters, they really liked to cuddle.

“I’d like to get you trained up. I want Elliot to get you to a point where we know you can handle your own shit. Not that we can’t protect you, but we won’t be around every minute of the day. I need Sebastian to get your marksmanship up to par. I don’t expect you to be a sniper, but I also want you to be able to shoot and hit a moving target where they need to be hit.”

“I’m excellent with a gun, thank you.”

“You are. But you could be better.”

I punched his bicep half-heartedly, and he just laughed. “Do you have anything good to say?”

“Hmm,” he debated. “You’re pretty good with your mouth.”

I punched him again. Harder, this time. “Fuck off. When do I get to do some real stuff? Get out of this house with you guys on some real business?”

“Soon.”

“Noncommittal.”

“Get stronger. Get better. Earn our trust. I’ve got some people that will have eyes on your father, watching and waiting to see what his next move might be. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him. And I couldn’t throw that fat fuck very far.” I rolled over again and pressed my back flush against his front and took some comfort in the solid build of his body.

“I just want to belong somewhere,” I admitted. “I want a family.”

“I know, Scarlet. I know,” he whispered into my ear. “Get some sleep. We can talk more about this stuff later. We have nothing but time.”

“You say that,” I said through a yawn. “But he could come for me at any time. Don’t let your guard down. He’s smarter than he looks. And he knows where I am now.”

“He might know we have you, but he doesn’t know where you are.”

I shrugged. He kissed the back of my head, and I eventually drifted off to the sound of his even breathing and the circles he drew lightly up and down my arm.