Page 14 of Darkness

I have to be convincing.

For the sake of my club.

If I don’t and we go to war with Andrés, I’ll also have Torque from Chicago to deal with. Of that, I can be sure.

As I pull up to Andrés’s hideout, his guards notice Spark and I approaching. The guns resting at their sides don’t aim at us or move in any kind of threatening way, so for now, we’re okay. I pull up to the gate, my engine rumbling at a dulcet tone.

“Nycto, Andrés is expecting you. Head on through to the main room. He’ll be waiting,” the guard instructs.

Shit.

I tilt my head without saying anything, then hammer down. My tires slide along the pebbled path as I pull into the driveway of the lavish mansion. A short ride later, we park in front of the concealed-from-view two-story home—a hideout in plain sight.

The sun is now rising in all its sinister monstrosity. Some might call it beautiful. I call it the death of darkness. The light only causes to bring me chaos.

I slide off my ride, and Spark steps close, his gaze focused on me. Like the rest of my club, he knows how uneasy the light makes me. I can get a bit… unpredictable.

“You good, Pres?”

I roll my shoulders. “Fine. Let’s do this.”

The front doors fly open, and Andrés barrels through them, appearing fucked off to high hell. “Nycto, you wanna tell me what the hell happened? And why the fuck it’s taken you this long to come to me?”

I raise my hands, placating him. “Before you start… we’ve been out searching.”

Andrés licks his lips, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Well, did you find them?”

“No. After they escaped, they fled into the water. Hell, they’re probably dead by now, drowned or frozen to fucking death.”

“You expect me to sit on this, Nycto? They were paid for. How am I supposed to inform the buyers their packages aren’t being delivered? That they were lost in transit?”

“Fuck, man, you have girls shipped in all the time. Find replacements.”

Andrés exhales. “They were both special. But one… one was a rare diamond. Hard to come by. In fact, nigh on impossible. She’s irreplaceable, Nycto.”

Eva.

“Why?”

Andrés scoffs. “Is that your biggest concern here? It should be how you’re going to compensate the buyers for their lack of delivery.”

“Me?”

“You lost the packages…” Andrés chuckles, “… in a way I’m yet to understand.”

“The older one, she was feisty. She kicked my prospect in the balls, while he’s still recovering from a gunshot wound, slipped from his grip, and took off, grabbing her sister as she went. They were nimble. Quicker than us. Slipped every man I had and fled into the water before we could nab them. After the water, we couldn’t find them.”

Andrés grunts under his breath. “Why the fuck did you have an injured prospect with you?”

“An oversight.”

He rubs his chin like he isn’t one bit impressed and exhales. “This isn’t good enough, Nycto. Never have we had a problem with your transportation services. The one time we have truly precious cargo, you’ve screwed it up.”

“I’ll transport a couple more packages for you. You get them, I’ll deliver them personally to the two buyers who missed out, free of charge, to make up for the two we lost.”

He scoffs. “Like I said, they’re irreplaceable. The buyers will need cash compensation.”

Maybe me buying them is a good thing. Them being with me is the only way, and if their debt is paid, the buyers can’t come asking for them back if it’s discovered they’re alive.

---