ROMANCE: BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: At His Request (Bad Boy Alpha Billionaire Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Alpha Male Romance) (49 page)

Chapter 5

Caspien

I didn’t want to see her go, but I knew that she had business to take care of. She wasn’t the only one. My phone had been vibrating the whole time we were together and though I had caught the look of Desmond, I had ignored the look. While she was with me, I hadn’t wanted to take care of anything, but now that she was gone, it seemed I had an hour to take care of it. I didn’t have a number, an address and I cursed myself for not being more prepared. I just wasn’t thinking and now I was just finally starting to get my priorities back. A girl like Eva did that to a guy.

Pulling out my phone in the parking lot, I called back Desmond to see what he had wanted. I just hadn’t wanted to break up what was happening with her and he wouldn’t dare intrude if I didn’t want him to. Now I wished that he had as he told me what was going on.

Cursing out loud, I told Desmond that I would be right there. There had been a shoot out on the other side of town with one of my runners. It was unheard of. Everyone knew that he belonged to the Black Riders. It was clear that it was our enemy and they had taken it to the next level with a kill. I had made it clear before we got to the gym that we were not to kill anyone, but they didn’t seem to be playing by the same rules.

I had to push Eva out of my mind and by the time I got back to the bar, she was all but a memory. I couldn’t think about her and do what needed to be done. She already made me doubt my lifestyle, secretly wondering if it was even possible for me to have a relationship and settle down with the right person. I couldn’t when the business was so out of whack.

When I saw Carlos’ body, I felt a coldness run through me. They were sending their own message and it was clear to me then that they had effectively started a war. I went back to Desmond in the front and asked about his wife and if she knew.

“Not yet. I was going to send someone, but I thought I would wait for you.”

“Was he here when I was earlier?”

“Not yet, but he was on his way. We thought we could doctor him up, but we lost him when they moved him.”

“Sasha is going to freak out. What about his kids?”

I could feel the sadness welling up, but it was quickly replaced with an anger that seeped over everything else. They had gone too far and now it was time to make more widows.

***

I left Sasha’s house with a heavy heart, but I had to admire her courage. She knew that it had all happened for a reason. She had been surer of it then me, but in the same instance, Sasha had demanded revenge that I guaranteed her. I would not rest until my friend’s death was avenged. It was personal and not just that they had the gall to, but that I had lost someone who had been with the gang since he was sixteen. He had felt like a brother to me and there was no way that I could let it go.

I became the man with a plan. I had long since given up on trying to find a semi-peaceful solution. I had always been told that bad peace was always better than good war, but now, things were different. Black Riders had been in bad peace with the Angels for years and Carlos wasn’t the first death. It had always been hard to keep out of each other’s way and now I knew that there was to be no peace. They just had to go.

In a one night sweep, I wanted to get rid of as many as I could and leave the rest to flee, burning everything they owned so there would be nothing to go back to. I saw the looks when I was telling my plan to the rest of my assembled comrades. That was why I was the leader, because I could do what most couldn’t even think of.

The few that weren’t coming to terms with it, I sent them off to do something else unrelated. I didn’t want people there that wouldn’t be able to handle it and if they were turning green from talking about it, they were not the ones that I really needed.

Everyone else loaded up when the supplies were brought in. It was going to be a long night and I yearned for the simplicity of the lunch I had earlier in the day. Lunch seemed so long ago now.

***

Everything was going as planned, most of it carried out within the first hour. I believed in timed attacks and it was going almost too smoothly for my taste. I was getting all the call backs that I needed, the job was done. Listening to the radio scanners, there was only one place that hadn’t been hit yet. It was the most important part of the plan. I wanted the warehouse destroyed before I would be done. It was where they kept their product and I didn’t want them to have any reason to come back. They would all be gone by the end of the night, I was sure of it. Whoever made it better not be in my city in the morning.

The more I called to no answer, the more I knew that I was going to have to go down there and make sure it went off the way it was supposed to. I called Desmond and had him and a few others go in the woods around the place, surrounding it with sniper rifles. I had a feeling that was where they would make their stand and I wanted the ace in my sleeve when it happened.

I tried to foresee what would happen, but it was almost impossible to. There were too many variables and desperation was added in, it was hard to deny the way I had a sinking feeling in my gut. Something was about to happen, but I hadn’t expected the call that I got.

When my phone rang I didn’t recognize the number, but I was hoping that it would be the men at the warehouse, telling me that it was all done. It wasn’t though. It was the soft voice that I had been wanting to hear since I dropped her off hours ago.

“Caspien?”

“Yes, I am here. How did you get this number?”

There was noises on the other line like the phone was being moved around and then knocked against something, and then I heard a deep voice on the other end. It was no longer Eva I was talking to.

“I gave her the number from the man’s phone that was here to blow up my warehouse.”

My heart pounded in my chest and i couldn’t believe that they had her. How did they know what she meant to me?

“If you touch her or hurt her in anyway, I will make sure not one of you lives.”

“This has gone too far Caspien. Meet us here at the warehouse alone or I will kill her.”

“Let me talk to her.”

“No.”

I was supposed to pretend that I didn’t care, but even I could hear the high-pitched quality of my voice. I couldn’t pretend that she didn’t matter. I had just found her and I was unwilling to even consider losing her.

“I will be there.”

“Alone.”

I hung up and hoped that Desmond was already in place with his guys. It had gone too far and all I wanted to do was end it for good.

Chapter 6

Eva

The man that was holding me was talking on the phone to Caspien. It was far worse than the last time I had dated a bad boy. This was far worse than getting cheated on. I have never seen a gun before the two men had come up to me after my class and forced me to get into the back of a car. I hadn’t known then what it was about. They had left me wondering, telling me to shut up when I asked anything. When a man with a gun told me to shut up, there was no other thought but to do it.

When I realized that it was because of Caspien, it all started to make more sense. It didn’t do anything to make me feel any better. I was scared to death and when I was taken to the outskirts of town to an old warehouse, I thought my time on the planet was going to be shortened considerably. There was nothing to say or do, but to wait for whatever was planned for me to happen. They had taken me for a reason. When I heard Caspien on the other end of the phone, I almost felt a small hope grow inside of me. I knew that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me. He loved me and whether I believed in soul mates or not, I knew that it was going to be okay because he certainly did.

Then I heard the dark-haired man tell him to come there and I knew I would see him soon. I shouldn’t have felt so calm. The truth was that I barely even knew the man, but he made me feel safe. If he was coming to get me, then I was sure that everything would be okay. I kept repeating myself, hoping that I would believe what I was telling myself. If not, I was going to lose it and not be good for anyone.

“I don’t know who you are, but you must be something to Caspien if he is willing to come all this way to save you.”

“We are friends.”

“Cass doesn’t have friends, certainly not females. He must not have had you yet or he would be done with you already.”

I tried to ignore his words, but he seemed so certain and it made me wonder if it was true. Was that why he cared so much, because I was some conquest? I couldn’t think like that and I told myself to stop it. It was only going to make things worse. I was sure that Caspien felt something more, he had to. It couldn’t all be a line, could it? A man like that, it didn’t seem that he would have to go through all of that to get a girl. Everywhere I had went with him, there were women practically drooling.

“Then it must be that I mean nothing to him.”

“You had better hope that isn’t true or it is going to be hard to justified keeping you alive.”

I swallowed hard, not thinking of that before I popped off at the mouth. I really hoped he was wrong and I meant more to him than that. I didn’t know what I would do if he didn’t come or I didn’t mean anything to him. It was much too much risk for someone that I hardly knew. I was trying not to question it all, but it was impossible not to wonder. I had wondered when it was just to go out to dinner, now there was more at stake, my life and I wasn’t so sure. I would just have to wait and see, but at the same time, what would happen to him if he came?

“I see you have nothing else to say Eva. That is the smartest decision you have made all day. Getting involved with the Black Riders was not something you should have done.”

“I didn’t, I was just wrong place at the wrong time. Please let me go. I hardly even know Caspien. I have only met him once, we went to lunch, that’s it.”

“What about the kiss? We saw him kissing you in the parking lot of the gym. It didn’t look like a kiss of someone who had just met.”

I sighed to myself. The kiss had felt like more than a first meeting kiss, it had been something more. But was it really worth all of the fuss? I wasn’t so sure.

“It was just a kiss. That’s it.”

“You really don’t know him, do you?”

I shook my head that I didn’t. “I told you, we just met.”

“Well you have to mean something to him or he wouldn’t have kissed you. Caspien is not the type to go out on a date and he wouldn’t have agreed to come here if you meant nothing. I think you are underestimating his attraction to you.”

“And I think you are overestimating it.”

“For your sake, let’s hope not.”

***

I was made to sit on a chair with my hands tied behind my back. The man named Boris didn’t want me getting any ideas of escape. I couldn’t get passed the fear to even think of escape, so instead my wrist burned from the bindings and I felt like it was all over. I had tried to be positive, but it had been a long time since Boris had me call Caspien and it didn’t look like he was coming. Reality set in and I started to realize that he was never going to come.

When I heard a commotion in the front, I knew that I had been wrong. I actually felt guilty that I had given up hope of him actually coming. I should have known that he would come. He had given his word that I would be safe and I believed him.

“Caspien, it’s good to see you.”

Boris walked towards the man I had come to care about and our eyes met. He was ignoring Boris and moving towards me. “You shouldn’t have taken her.”

He looked at me then his hands letting me go while the several armed men around me just let him. I didn’t know what was going on, but he was there and that was all that mattered. When he helped me up, my arms went to his neck for support and even after my feet hit the ground and I was free, I didn’t want to let go of him. I needed some of his strong strength that exuded from him with every breath.

“She is to be let go. Eva is not a part of this.”

“She doesn’t go anywhere Caspien until we work something out.”

“There is nothing to work out Boris. You killed my man. You went over the line and we got the message loud and clear.”

Boris shook his head and I could tell the older man was upset about something. I didn’t know what all had happened, but it was looking like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time once again, though this time, the last thing I wanted to do was hear about what was going on with them. I didn’t want to get involved at all. I just wanted to go.

I let go of Caspien and started to back up slowly from the two fighting men. Caspien looked like he was ready to pounce, while Boris looked tired.

“You have taken most of my men. Let us go in peace. Leave us something to start off somewhere else. I have given up the idea of revenge and would just like to go on another day.”

Caspien looked like he was considering it, but I wondered if he would. There was a coolness that I had seen the day he was in the gym beating their men. There was a recklessness that he possessed and I knew then that whatever his mouth said, his eyes told a different story. I knew then that none of them were going to get out of it alive.

“You expect me to just let it go? Let you go to come back again with more people to seek your revenge?”

“Caspien, you know that I have no one left. What is here, is who survived. There is no one. We will never come back here. This I give you on my honor.”

“And what of taking Eva?”

“It was to only get your attention or we would already be dead.”

I watched Caspien roll it around in his head. He looked like he was deciding, but I just knew that the decision had already been made. The men were not going anywhere and I just waited with the rest of them, for the other shoe to drop.

Cass smiled for a moment, but it was a cold smile. “You let me and her walk out of here unharmed and I will give you 24 hours to get out of my city.”

“Thank you Caspien. You know that I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. It was an overzealous youth. You know how they are, trying to make a name for himself.”

“Well he did. You should be more careful who you have working for you, Boris. A lot of people died tonight that didn’t have to. Carlos was family and I can’t let it go.”

Boris seemed relieved, hell I was relieved. The whole room let out a sigh of relief. I could see the man was just happy that he wasn’t going to die that day and I couldn’t blame him, I felt the same way. When I felt Caspien’s hands go around my arm, I was ignoring how hard he was grabbing me. The one person that should have been relieved was not and I didn’t know what he was still upset about. As far as I was concerned, it had gone well and that feeling was multiplied when I walked out of there with him.

Caspien got on the phone and said a few words that I couldn’t quite hear. “Yes they are all here.”

“Yes do it.”

He stopped and looked back for a minute. There was a decision to be made, I could feel it. Then he said words that made my blood run cold.

“Kill em all. They shouldn’t have touched my future wife. No one gets to live.”