Page 53 of Poisoned Pawn

“Will do.” I turn away, but Rick stops me. “Rox— ”

“Yeah, be careful. I’m always careful,” I say with a smile, then I leave.

I’m ready to go get my sister back.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

CARTER

Ican feel her thoughts and the words she’s choosing not to voice out loud thrumming through her. I know she doesn’t understand how I view her scars any different from mine. But they are.

She didn’t choose to be kidnapped and abused no more than my sister chose to be defiled and almost burnt to death. I chose to kill Craig. I didn’t understand the consequences of my actions until after, but I still made the choice to accept Lennox’s offer of life. Not for me because I knew once I accepted his offer my life would be over. But for Erica, it meant living. Sometimes I wonder if it was the best decision though.

A life spent trapped in a body disfigured by flames and a mind ravaged by her memories.

Star relaxes beside me, and I know she’s asleep, but I remain with my arm wrapped around her for a little while longer, happy to draw some comfort away from my dark thoughts.

Only I can’t stop thinking about the brand on her skin, so similar to the one I wear. It’s a reminder that we were both once owned. She covered hers with a tattoo, but I still wear mine. The Shadow Guard insignia. I might be out but I’ll never be completely free from their grasp. Death is the only way that ever happens.

I noticed hers the first night we were together, but I didn’t give a shit beyond fucking her then. Now though? We are far beyond just fucking.

I lower my lips to her perfectly tanned skin, kissing along her shoulder and breathing in her scent. She pushes her arse into my crotch, and my dick, already at half mast, comes fully to life. I can’t ignore the need to grind against her, or how much I’d love to sink my dick back inside her. But after a couple more rolls of my hips, I reluctantly pull back and force myself from the bed, adjusting my dick as I go.

I grab the iPad from the bedside table and take a seat in the tub chair in the corner of the room. The screen lights up displaying the last message from Lennox.

You want answers, meet me.

“The fuck I will,” I mutter, swiping the message away and opening the browser. I hesitate for just a second, knowing that doing what I’m about to do is an even bigger risk than scanning the web earlier.

The login flashes at me on the screen, just begging for me to enter my details. I slowly type them in, then look over to Star as she rolls to her back in my bed, stretching out like a damn starfish.

“Fuck!” I mumble beneath my breath, rubbing a hand over my scruff covered chin. I hit the sign in button, confident that we’ll have at least five hours before anyone can get here.

I don’t waste time and head straight to the news site. The less time I spend on here the fucking better. Koda being compromised means this site isn’t safe, but I need information. Information I can’t get anywhere else. Not from here anyway. If I was still in Manchester and half the city weren’t looking for me, I have a number of contacts I could hit up. The thought just confirms that I need to go back to Manchester.

I open the weapons forum and quickly scroll through the latest thread. Most are just requests for single use guns, nothing to indicate a deal on a supply of guns.

I switch back to the main screen, tapping my fingers on my knee as I think. I mindlessly scroll through a couple of other forums and the news forum, which is full of shit about sightings of Star. There is no mention of me, which is strange. Admittedly all the guys that came after her at Gambino’s are now in the ground, courtesy of me or the Lawlers and Kavanagh, so no one to report back that I was involved.

I don’t like it. Not one fucking bit.

There are a few possible sightings of her mentioned around the area she lived, but of course they’re bullshit. And nothing new in the last twenty-four hours. This is no off the cuff hit. It’s orchestrated, planned, but I still don’t think this is one person. The person who tried to hire me to take Star out isn’t the same person who sent the other Shadow after her, and they certainly weren’t the ones who set up the bounty and hacked into Koda’s server. I exit Koda’s server, and trawl through half a dozen other sites for just a fucking nibble of something tasty.

There’s chatter about shootings and stabbings between the smaller fractions, and several about attacks on properties inside Orlov’s territory, which the underground rumour mill is citing as the work of the 51 Squad. The 51 Squad haven’t claimed responsibility for the attacks, but it’s not a stretch to think it was them. They are Orlov’s biggest threat right now.

I’ve done a few jobs for the leader Fraser Mack, but the guy is a viciously ruthless narcissist whose people are completely disposable to him.

He and Pavel Orlov aren’t so different, but at least Orlov has a code of honour. Fraser’s seems to be if they don’t like it, kill the fuckers. If unaliving them is the only way to get it, do it.

Orlov runs a small gun supply, but his main focus is drugs and racketeering. Whereas Nick wants his fingers in all the pies, wants in on anything that will make him some fast cash, including a couple of whore houses that are run by Priscilla Queens. I’ve had the misfortune of meeting her once, and I couldn’t wait to get the fuck home and wash the stench of her off me after only being in the same room as her for less than thirty minutes. The way she eye-fucked me said she didn’t feel the same, but I’m not, nor ever will be, desperate enough to tap that.

There is nothing here that’s going to help me figure this shit out. The dark web is good, but it doesn’t beat street chatter or a nice face to face with whomever holds the info you need.

I log out and think about climbing back into bed with Star, but I’m not interested in sleep and don’t want to disturb her. She looks so peaceful. I take the iPad and myself downstairs to make coffee.

Feeling restless and wanting to be prepared, I head out to the barn. I sort through the trunk of weapons Star came across the other day, taking out a nice AVM sniper rifle and a box of cartridges, and I also set aside a couple of smaller knives, including a favourite of mine the KA-Bar D2, which is perfect for close combat, some hand grenades and smoke bombs.

I load them into a duffel bag ready to take back to the house, but first I need to expel some of this frustration at not being able to figure out this crap.