SEBASTIAN
“Hey,” I heard someone whisper. I instantly swung out my free arm, but it was caught mid-strike. “It’s Tristan, you nance.”
I rolled my eyes. He had the weirdest fucking sayings.
“You mean ‘nonce,’” I whispered back.
“Whatever. Come on, something’s happened.”
I groaned but slowly and quietly pulled myself free from Scarlet. She had turned around and curled herself into my chest, gripping tightly onto my worn T-shirt. Once I worked her fingers free, I was able to roll out of her bed and pad silently across the floor. If I was gone too long, she would wake up. She would never admit it, but she needed one of us to sleep with her. I’d learned early on that her nightmares visited her often, and it seemed like they got better the longer she was with us.
I knew she thought we were all just heartless gangsters, but she was starting to worm her way into our hearts. I wasn’t lying when I told her I wanted her to want to stay with us. If we could trust her, we would happily let her have her freedom back. But she’d need protection out there once word got out that she was with the Triad. She couldn’t go back to living the life she had before, not that I thought she would want to. Who wants to be constantly on the run, living in slums, and watching your back?
“We’ve been hit. The loft in the city was broken into and trashed beyond belief,” Tristan said as I joined both him and Elliot in the hallway. I clicked Scarlet’s door shut.
“What the fuck? Her family?” I asked, nodding my head towards her room.
“Has to be,” Elliot said in hushed tones. “We don’t have a bounty on our heads with anyone else. And Derek wouldn’t have the balls.”
“Anyway, we need to go down there and take a look.”
“Who is staying back with Scar?” I asked.
“There are five of our guys here, Seb,” Tristan said, rubbing his eyes. He could act like he was pissed I was asking, but I knew he was worried about leaving her here alone just as much as I was.
“Five isn’t enough,” I countered.
“Five is fucking plenty, Seb,” Elliot groaned.
“All three of us need to go. If anyone sees us out there this late at night, separated, they’re going to be suspicious or see it as a perfect opportunity to strike.” Tristan gave both of us a stern look. “We go together, yes?”
Elliot nodded, but I looked back at her door one more time, debating on how much I actually wanted to fight them.
“We could just bring her,” I said half-heartedly. I knew they wouldn’t go for it, and I really didn’t think it was the best idea either. She needed her rest, and I didn’t like the idea of keeping her up all night just to go take a look around a vandalized loft.
“Really? You really want to wake her up in the middle of the night? She would probably chop your balls off. You know how she loves her sleep,” Elliot said. I cringed, and I swore my balls shrunk up inside of me. She definitely would, my lethal little thing.
“Fine. But I want someone outside her door for when she wakes up wondering why we left.”
“Done. Get dressed. We leave in five.”