Poisoned Rose (Dark Roses #1) (9 page)

Fifteen

              Hawk watched as Vince helped Aurora to her feet and out of the office.  She avoided eye contact but Vince gave him a nod before exchanging looks with Johnny.  The warehouse echoed their steps and the room remained silent until the footsteps receded and the door slammed.  Bo was the first to speak, slinging his right leg over the chair and making his way towards the tool table.

              ‘Well that was different.’

              Cross moved to help him but Hawk crossed his arms in front of his blood smeared chest and turned to Johnny.

              ‘Are you gonna stand there and tell me that she has the stomach for this? She doesn’t belong here.  She’s twenty two John, she’s never been exposed to this life and your father…’

              Johnny stepped forward and snarled.  If Hawk had been wearing a shirt he knew Johnny would have grabbed it and the night could have ended in a brawl.  Sometimes it paid to be half naked.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bo wince and look across the body at Cross, who gave him an almost imperceptible shake of the head.

              ‘I’m going to say this again and you better listen carefully because it will be the last time.  This is none of your fucking business.  She belongs here, end of story.  Your sisters all had their first kill in their teens so Aurora’s age means nothing, and if you try to bring my father into this again we’re going to have serious issues.  Let it go and get used to seeing a lot more of her.’    

              He wanted that more than anything, but not the way it had been that night.  He let out a long breath and Johnny pressed his point.

              ‘Do we understand each other?’

              Hawk could either tell Johnny he was in love with Aurora and wanted her as far away from their world as possible, or pretend he was just pissed off that a junior soldier had been permitted to attend an interrogation.  Since option one wasn’t a real option, he gritted his teeth and lied.

              ‘Clearly.  But what I meant is that she shouldn’t be here because she’s a junior and this was a senior interrogation.’

              Johnny seemed to buy it.  He repeated that it was his Family and his choice and told Hawk to get over it.  Then he got back to business.

              ‘Dealing with rogues changes everything, we can’t trust our own soldiers anymore.  Did he say anything about the soldier who shot Mike? Anything that might help us identify him.’

              ‘Only thing he said about the guy was that he didn’t speak and whenever he tried to look at him he was hit.  The others spoke for him, creeped him out.  Said he’d never met anyone with that much power before.  Must be pretty senior.’

              The question he was unwilling to voice was whether it was possible for a Family captain or advisor to be involved.  He knew Johnny was thinking the same thing.  The man they’d killed hadn’t been affiliated with any of the Families, which meant it was possible that he wouldn’t recognize a ranked soldier.  The situation had just gotten a whole lot worse.  Johnny sighed.

              ‘Alright, I’ll call a Sit Down.’

              He said goodbye and left.  Bo and Cross had taped the corpse’s head and shattered knee to stop the blood flow, and had the body on the floor wrapping it in plastic sheeting.  Cross threw a wet towel at Hawk and without saying anything, he ran it over his upper body and tousled his hair until there were no traces of blood left.

              ‘Are you alright to dispose of him?’

              Bo made a show of sighing and rolling his eyes.

              ‘You do know we’re captains too right?’

              Hawk couldn’t help but snort and shake his head. He picked up his leather jacket and helmet and left them to do their thing.  As he rode, the events of the night replayed in his head, over and over until he felt sick, and he decided to go to Ty’s place instead of home.  It wasn’t the beating he thought of and it wasn’t the execution.  It was Aurora.  The way she’d looked at him when he’d first turned around.  It hadn’t been with fear or repulsion.  There hadn’t been any sign of disgust.  She’d looked at him with awe, with recognition… and with love.  He’d felt like she could see what was inside him, who he used to be and maybe who he had the potential to become.  He’d felt naked in front of her, as if with that one look she had knocked down his defenses, and he knew in that moment that he would do anything for her.  She owned him.

              But as he had his whole life, he’d pretended that she didn’t affect him.  He’d made a show of his rage and callousness and blew the guy’s brains out while his eyes were locked on hers.  Then he’d smirked as she’d thrown up when all he’d wanted to do was fall to his knees and beg for her forgiveness.  He told himself he’d done the right thing but that didn’t make him feel any better. He pulled into Ty’s driveway, dawn breaking across the horizon.  The sky was the color of hope, the welcoming orange of the new day washing away the black of the night before.  He breathed in the morning air and waited for it to calm him.  It didn’t work but hey, it was worth a shot.

              He left his helmet on the seat of the Ninja and started walking towards the house, taking off his jacket as he went.  Distracted by his thoughts, he didn’t realize that Ty had opened the front door and was watching him.

              ‘Why are you stripping in my front yard at six in the morning? I have neighbors you know.’

              Ty let him in and shut the door.  He asked if he wanted a coffee or a shower and Hawk threw himself face down on the couch without replying.  Ty was about to walk back into his bedroom when Hawk spoke up, starting to tell him what had happened.

              ‘Are you speaking to me or the pillow?’

              He sat up and Ty sat across from him, listening to everything that had happened and nodding.  Hawk chose to leave out the part about Aurora.  He’d gone to Ty planning to talk about it, needing someone to turn to so his head didn’t explode, but his presence had done what the morning air couldn’t do.  He was calm and clearheaded, and at that moment, all he wanted to do was sleep.  Ty stood up.

              ‘I forgive you for leaving me to do the runs on my own again, but next time, call.  I’ll call Halo, she’s going to want a heads up before the Sit Down.’

              Hawk swore and tried to apologize.  He’d been on his way to Hunter’s when he’d stopped at the lights and had been so caught up with the chase that he hadn’t bothered letting Ty know what had happened.  Ty waved away the apology and walked out of the room to get his cell.  Hawk lay back down and counted himself lucky once again that Ty was his second and he hadn’t ended up with someone neurotic like Halo.  He had his arm over his eyes, slowing his breathing and trying to coax his body into falling asleep when Ty walked back into the room.

              ‘Get up, we’ve gotta go to the compound, you can sleep in the car.’

              He threw a tee at Hawk and started strapping on his weapons.  How the hell was he already dressed?  Hawk pulled the tee over his head and when he asked what was going on, the response made his mouth go dry.

              ‘Dallas De Matteo has disappeared.’

III

              Ten year old Hawk watched as Dante grabbed Aurora’s Barbie and ran to the back of the theatre room, holding it above his head.  Aurora screamed and ran up the stairs.

              ‘Give it back!’

              Dante stuck his tongue out and Aurora stamped her foot.  She’d been sitting at the front of the theatre room below the big screen, playing with her toys as Hawk and his sisters watched a movie with her brothers.

              ‘Dante, give her the damn Barbie so we can keep watching the movie.’

              Johnny called out over his shoulder. Aurora jumped and tried to grab the doll.  When Hawk stood up to help, a loud roar caught Dante by surprise and his eyes flicked up to the big screen, the color draining from his face.  Aurora took the opportunity to kick him in the shin and grab her doll.

              ‘Ow!’

              Dante grabbed his shin and started crying. Aurora stuck her tongue out.  Hawk laughed and shook his head.

              ‘You deserved that.’

              As Dante continued to cry, Hawk took Aurora’s hand and helped her down the steps, sitting next to her instead of returning to his seat.

              ‘Come back and watch the movie, the guy with the muscles is fighting the monster!’

              Vivienne called out as she shoveled popcorn into her mouth and patted the seat beside her.  He looked up at the screen to see the hero running through the jungle and throwing himself onto the ground, rolling in the mud to cover himself so that the monster couldn’t see him.  It was a good movie, he’d been enjoying it.  But just as he was considering going back to his seat, Aurora handed him a Ken doll.

              ‘Here, they’re going shopping, but she has to get dressed first.’

              Aurora started undressing her Barbie, her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she tried to force the doll’s hand into a tight sleeve.  She was a funny girl.  She loved playing dress ups and her favorite color was purple, but her first reaction whenever Dante teased her was to hurt him, and she loved playing sports as much as she loved her dolls.

              ‘Here, can you read this to me?’

              She also had a short attention span.  Having thrown her Barbie on the floor, Aurora picked up a book and shoved it into his hands, sitting next to him and leaning over to turn the page.

              ‘Hey, how about you read it to me?’

              Aurora looked at him like he had lost his mind.

              ‘But I can’t read.’

              ‘I’ll help you.’

              She seemed to consider his offer, chewing on the inside of her mouth.  Then she smiled, took the book away from him and settled it into her lap.  He leant over and started reading.

              ‘Ok, repeat after me.  Once upon a time, in a kingdom far away, there lived a beautiful princess, with hair as dark as ebony and eyes as green as emeralds…’

              ‘What’s ebony?’

              Aurora looked up and he laughed.

              ‘It’s like your hair color.  Now, are you going to repeat after me?’

              She turned her attention back to the book and repeated after him, pretending to follow the words with her finger and not realizing that he was retelling their fairytale instead of the story in the book.  He could hear Dante whimpering for attention at the back of the room but when Johnny swore and stood up, the door flew open. Vince paused the movie as the hero started yelling at the monster.  Everyone turned their attention to Santina.

              ‘Boys you stay here with your sister.  Girls, can you please come here. Hawk you too.’

              He remained seated, as his sisters exchanged confused looks and headed towards the door.  Vivienne also remained seated.

              ‘Can we finish the movie first?’

              Santina shook her head.

              ‘You can finish it later honey, come on.’

              Vivienne scrunched her nose and looked over at him, standing up and motioning for him to follow.  He closed the book and stood up, telling Aurora they’d keep reading later.  As he followed his sisters, he heard Aurora and her brothers disobey their mother and follow.  Even Dante had picked himself up off the floor.  When they reached the foyer, Tony was waiting for them and ushered them outside while Santina stood at the front door wringing her hands.  Hawk wasn’t sure what was going on but as they were walking to the SUV he remembered he had left his cap inside and ran back up the stairs in time to hear Santina ask Tony what had happened.  Without knowing that Hawk was behind him, Tony answered.

              ‘Fae’s been murdered.’

              Hawk froze, staring at Tony as he realized that Hawk had heard him.  Aurora was in her mother’s arms and her brothers stood around them, looking at Hawk and not knowing what to say.  As Tony bent down to take Hawk by the shoulders, he heard Aurora ask her mother what murdered meant.  But Santina didn’t respond and he burst out of Tony’s arms to run back down the stairs, tears clouding his vision and causing him to stumble on the last few steps, landing on his knees and the palms of his hands.  Angelina was the first one out of the SUV, helping him into the car, and when he told them what he’d heard, his sisters started crying, Vivienne throwing open one of the back doors and vomiting. The SUV started up and he looked out the back window.  Tony had his arms around Santina and Aurora.  It was the last time he and his sisters would leave the Hannam household as innocents.

Sixteen

              ‘Johnny, I want to express my apologies.  I was looking for someone to blame and I put your brother’s head on the chopping board.  Now my son has also been taken by whoever is behind all this.  The De Matteo Family have changed their stance and support the Hannams.  We believe Dante and Dallas are alive and innocent and we will do whatever it takes to find them.’

              Hawk was amused at Jackson’s groveling.  The boss had done a complete one eighty after Dallas disappeared.  It had taken three days between the disappearance and the time he found himself once again in his father’s warehouse, the fastest turnaround time for a Sit Down that he had experienced. Johnny took the floor, ready to share with the other Families the consensus they had reached following the interrogation.

              ‘Jackson, I accept your apology and thank you for your support.  Now, earlier in the week, the Hannams and the Masons interrogated a suspect.  We discovered that he was involved in the murder of my sister’s fiancé, but that he also played a role in setting up my brother and murdering my father.  He was a civilian but during the interrogation, he admitted that the man who killed my sister’s fiancé was a soldier.  With this information, as well as the fact that whoever he was working for had to have internal knowledge of who we are, we came to a mutual conclusion. We believe there are rogues within the Five Families.’

              Hawk had expected chatter among the leaders of each Family as they contemplated the proposed theory.  Instead, he was surprised to find an eerie calm.  Juan sat tapping his fingers against the table.  Several seats down, Jackson was nodding his head, while across the table Vlad was listening to Xenia as she whispered in his ear.  Juan was the first to break the silence.

              ‘I have a question.  Has anyone experienced… let’s say discrepancies… in their business dealings?’

              The question was loaded and Hawk knew that the Da Silvas were on board with the rogue theory.  Mario was the first to speak.

              ‘Juan, I’m going to be straight with you and I expect you to be straight with me.  The answer is yes.’

              Then Johnny concurred, followed by Jackson and Vlad.  The bosses were working together at a whole new level.  Juan nodded.

              ‘We’ve noticed several soldiers displaying strange behavior, nothing too obvious but enough to rouse suspicion.’

              So that was the reason behind the increased Da Silva turnover rate.  The Cartel were known to churn through soldiers but over the past few months they had amped it up.  Unlike the other Families, the Cartel liked their work to be on display, and bodies of Da Silva soldiers were turning up all over L.A.  It meant they had to pay excess money to the Masons for keeping the cops at bay, but Hawk wasn’t complaining.  The only thing that pissed him off was knowing that their captains wouldn’t bother interrogating the rogues.  They’d ask a couple of questions, grow bored, and shoot the traitors in the head.  Any useful information would die with them, all because the Da Silva captains were too dumb to consider the big picture.

              ‘Have you learnt anything from them?’

              The Da Silva captains refused to make eye contact and Juan shrugged.

              ‘We don’t waste too much time interrogating the soldiers, we learn more from those out in the field.  This brings me to my next statement.  Unauthorized drugs are appearing on the market, resulting in a decrease in my profits.  Seeing as nobody here would be circulating any product, we can only conclude that, as you said, there are rogues.’

              ‘Somebody is hosting poker games without our permission.  We have lost many of our high rollers to these events, not to mention any interest we would be making in loans, and one of our regulars was murdered, costing us more in debts than I want to think about.’

              Jackson admitted, surprising the table with his candidness.

              Vlad cleared his throat but while everyone was waiting for him to say something, it was Xenia who spoke.

              ‘One of our boats which was filled to capacity was intercepted and we haven’t been able to locate the smugglers.  Also, not all the whores who are on the street are on our payroll.  We’ve been tracking the ones who aren’t but as soon as we narrow in to interrogate, the whore will turn up dead and… well…’

              Xenia paused, looking around the table before admitting, ‘Twice their bodies have been discovered with notes nailed to the foreheads.  One read ‘Nice Try’ and the other read ‘This is fun’.’

              ‘And you didn’t think to share this with us?’

              Johnny directed his anger at Vlad and was joined by Jackson, their rage plastered across their faces and reflected in their body language.  As they accused Vlad of sitting on his high horse and waiting for others to disappear, Hawk leant back in his seat to meet Honor’s eye behind Mario’s back and he could tell she was thinking the same thing he was.  Wow.

              ‘Calm down,’ Mario cut in before Vlad or Xenia could respond.

              Hawk knew his father had to get everyone to continue to play nice, and while it seemed that everyone was willing to work together for the moment, there was only so much you could push each boss.

              ‘Two cases of explosives have made their way onto the streets without going through us,’ Johnny admitted, his eyes still narrowed at Vlad as the other boss avoided eye contact.

              ‘We’ve had soldiers fall off the radar.  One night they’re working their shift, the next their homes are empty and their phones disconnected.  The fact that we’re having trouble locating them adds to our theory of an organized plan,’ Mario contributed, ‘It’s only been a handful up to date, but this is bad news… All of this is bad news.’

              Everyone at the table nodded.  It was a strange Sit Down, all the Families collaborating and sharing insider trading information.  It was a Sit Down for the history books, something Hawk hadn’t believed was possible let alone that he would be a part of.

              ‘Well,’ Mario concluded, ‘it seems we’re in agreement.  We’re facing a group of rogues.’

              Murmurs went around the table and Jackson cleared his throat. Then he paused for a second too long and Hawk groaned.

              ‘Maybe we should consider if the Carter Masons are involved?’

              The table went quiet. Scenes flashed in front of Hawk’s eyes, haunting replays that were reserved for his nightmares, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbing his eyes with his fingers.  Beside him he felt Halo tense and he knew that she was seeing the same things he was.  He wished Honor was sitting beside him, or even beside Halo.  Then she would know she wasn’t on her own in the flashbacks, their body language betraying their pain more than their father’s ever could.  All eyes turned to Mario.

              ‘The Carter Masons were obliterated.’

              Mario’s voice was so cold and brutal that Hawk could have sworn the temperature in the room dropped.  Then his tone reverted back to its usual poised confidence.

              ‘From now on, we will work together to identify these rogues and their recruits.  And, one by one, we’ll kill the bastards and leave their bodies to rot.’