Page 19 of Darkness

“Hayden should be getting the tattoo soon.” Uncle David turns around to look at Hayden, and I do the same.

He’s about to kill for the first time, and when that happens, you get the family tattoo. A scorpion. You normally get them on your hand, but I got mine on my arm by the wrist, so if anyone were to see it, they would never put two and two together.

Anything to protect my family from The Pit.

“You ready?” I ask him.

“Been looking into him. Want to follow him for a few days to make sure I have his day all planned out, then done.” Hayden gives me a nod. Once he’s done this one, I know he will be ready to start getting rid of people who get away with everything.

“Going to the club for a fight tomorrow. You want to come?” Mason asks. The club is Blake, Logan and Travis business, which I have to admit it’s a good business, but I know their grandads are the ones who started it up. They’ve just done a good job not running it into the ground.

“I’ll give it a miss. I have some other things to do.” I enjoy watching Mason fight. I taught him well. Always good to watch your students, and he’s one crazy fucker too.

“The Pit?” Miles asks.

“Sort of.” They’ve never asked to go down there. It’s a place I never want anyone to go. But if they asked, I’d take them so they can see for themselves what a fucked up place it is.

“How is Declan getting on?” Uncle David asks.

When I came out of The Pit and stayed here for a while, I told him I wanted no part of the business, but I’d teach his kids what they needed to be the cleaners, the hitman he needed them to be.

Hayden can kill a man from miles away. Mason is my crazy man with a baseball bat covered in barbed wire. That was his idea when we want information. He is the one to do it. Miles can hack into any software in the world, took me a while to teach him all that, but now the fucker can do it all. Then there is Declan. I have plans for him, just need to make sure Uncle David and Aunt Jane are on board for it.

“Good, needs to stop the fucking moaning,” I joke, which makes them all laugh. “He will be good once I’m finished with him.”

“I already know the answer, but you want to stay?” Uncle David asks, and he does already know the answer as he walks to the door with me. “Cain, I know it wasn’t easy for you to come here, but please know I’m always here when you want to talk. Not just about dad, but with what happened to you too.” He has told me a few times I need to talk to someone about what happened, because the silence will one day make me go crazy as it will eat me from the inside out.

“I know. It’s not that you’re not ready to hear it. I don’t think I’m ready to live through hell again.” Walking out to my car, I take a look around to see if I can see a lash of a camera or anything, but nothing. I normally have a feeling when I’m being watched. There is something which always hits me. Plus, Uncle David has this place on lock down.

The security is probably better than the white house.

“I…There might come a day The Pit might come for me, and I don’t think the day is very far-”

“Cain Crawford, when that day happens and you tell us, the six of us will stand together and fight, just like Crawfords do.” He pulls me in for a big bear hug, god the man is strong. “Have faith.” He smiles, and I get in my car and get back to the apartment, to watch the woman sleep peacefully, because I know I won’t be.

Nine

Cain

Lookingthrough the week’s paperwork to make sure all the rooms have the right amount of staff or not overbooked anywhere. I have someone doing all this, but with how busy this place gets now, even they get confused. So I like to look through it all myself to make sure there isn’t anything going wrong.

The sixth floor seems to be a lot busier this week than normal, a lot of them are male parties which makes me up the security for the staff. One too many drinks and they get a little over the top.

The sixth floor is V.I.P but I still have to make sure my staff are safe. I won’t let anyone fuck up my business by harming my staff.

I hear the door open, and I glance up and am surprised at who’s walking through the door. I have not seen him since I helped find his girl. Throwing my pen in the notebook, I lean back on the chair.

“How can I help you tonight?” I ask Travis, who’s come by himself. Which is another thing that surprises me. The three of them never go anywhere without the others close by.

“Just wanted to come see you.” Travis sits on the chair on the other side of the desk.

“What help do you need now?” They only come to me when they need help with finding something.

Other than that I’m nothing to them. I tried to build something with Logan and he’s throwing that in my face, and Travis, well if his sister was still here, he would have been my brother-in-law. But the universe had other plans for her and left me alone.

“Don’t need anything from you Cain, I only wanted to catch up. I thought maybe you’d want to show me the business. Remember, I made a promise I would look after this place if you ever needed me to.” I have to laugh a little to myself with his words.

I asked Logan. I wanted Logan to be part of this business. Being my half brother, I thought I would help him build a future. So when Travis wanted help to find his girl, all I asked was Logan to look after this place if I ever went to The Pit, and at the time he said yes.

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