Page 39 of Frosted Hearts

"Fine," she huffs, taking a step back into the safe room.

"Thank you," I give her a soft smile and wait until she has the door shut completely once more before I once again begin to drag the body out of the room. "Jesus man, how much do you freaking weigh?" I grunt, exerting myself to pull the man's body down the hall. The other guy I helped move was a lot lighter than this one. I swear this guy's vest has to be made of rocks or something.

"Do you need help?" Steel calls out when I reach the end of the hall where it opens up to the other areas of the house.

"Nope," I grunt again, giving a hard tug. "I got this." Okay, that may not be true, but I'm stubborn and I refuse to let him injure himself more by trying to help me.

As I make it further into the room, I turn my head and see him sitting on the arm of the armchair in the corner of the room. His eyes don't leave me as I finish dragging this last body into the room and leaving him near the others. Walking around the dead bodies, I come to a stop in front of him, reaching out to place a hand on Steel's cheek. "Are you okay?"

He just glares at me before sighing and his body begins to relax under my touch. His arms come to wrap around my waist as he leans forward to lean his head against my chest. "I'm as fine as I can be, Princess."

"Can you please just sit still until the others get here?" I ask, worried about how pale he's looking and the fact that he is sweating profusely even though it's not super hot in the house.

Steel pulls back and looks up at me, giving me a look like I'm absolutely crazy. "Go hand me those phones I placed on the coffee table. I'm going to see if I can find anything. Can you kneel down next to the men and check their tattoos, anything that may show who they belong to?"

I knew that was the best I was going to get out of him. At least he is going to be sitting still while I'm the one who is kneeling down and moving through the bodies. It's a win in my book. Pulling out of his arms completely, I head to the coffee table to grab the phones and hand them over before kneeling next to the first man to begin looking over all their tattoos. Every time I find a tattoo, I tell Steel what it looks like. Each one on the first body he says doesn't mean anything. That was until he handed me a knife to cut the man's shirt open and before I could open my mouth, Steel let out a string of swear words as he pushed himself to stand and walk over to me, glaring down at the body.

"Do you know what the tattoo means?" I ask, looking between him and the man's body. On his right peck, he has a large tattoo with the letters SDM in a fancy print. Above the letter is a design of a skull with a knife between his teeth. I have no idea what the logo means, but clearly, he does, and he's pissed about it.

"I should have known who was behind this. It isn't the first time Rockport has had a run-in with these assholes. It looks like instead of just dealing in small-time politics, they are going all the way up to the Senate level. I need my phone," he states, holding out his hand to me.

Standing, I reach into my back pocket and hand him his cell phone. "Do I need to check the other bodies?" I really don't want to, but if he needs me to, I will. Glancing down at my hands, I already know I will need to scrub them really well. There's blood all over them once again from this. It's a really good thing I'm not squeamish, or we'd be cleaning up more than just blood.

"Knox," Steel grunts as soon as the phone connects. "The Silent Death Mafia is behind the hit. One of these assholes has their tattoo on him. Looks like they graduated from small-time mafia to the big deal if they are going after Senators and not just Mayors."

I really want to ask Steel what he means by that. He already said they dealt with them once, but now I want to know how. He said they were mafia, which I know means this is bad. Maybe even worse than what was already happening unless the whole thing is connected? Why would my father have anything to do with the mafia? He's a Senator. That would put him at risk of going to jail. Plus, my father is supposed to be one of the good guys. He wouldn't have anything to do with them. That's not something I can believe. Maybe they are trying to gain leverage on him and force him to do something. Yeah, that has to be what is happening. It's the only logical reason.

"I have the phones right here. I was about to start going through them, but before I got too far into the first one, Illeana found the tattoo," Steel answers, whatever Knox asked him. The only reason I started paying attention is because Steel raised his voice, yelling at Knox right before. "How long until you all get here? I don't trust that the Silent Death Mafia won't be sending more men. This was just their first try. There has to be more coming, especially if they don't hear from their men soon. I'm sure they’re already past their allotted check-in time."

"Fine. Just hit the gas. We'll be ready," Steel states before clicking the phone off. I watch him take a deep breath before he speaks once more. "Chaos Brotherhood is about ten or fifteen minutes out. Knox is right behind them. Is Grace still in the safe room?"

"Yeah, I told her to stay there until I go get her," I answer, watching him closely.

"Good, go get her and bring her to the kitchen. We need to be ready to move." Rising to my feet I turn to walk out of the room but he calls after me. "Illeana!" Pausing, I turn around to look at him again. "Why did you leave the safe room? I told you to stay there."

Ducking my head, I blush and twist my hands together in front of me feeling uncomfortable. I knew he was going to eventually ask me about that. I disobeyed his order and put myself at risk. At the time it seemed like a good idea because I was worried about him, but now, now, I'm realizing that it was a terrible idea. "I heard all the commotion going on and I was concerned for you. When I checked the cameras and saw what was happening, it looked like you were struggling so I panicked."

"Don't ever do that again. Understood? I can take care of myself, but I can't handle you being at risk. What you did was reckless, especially when you don't have any fighting experience." His tone is cold as he looks at me but his trueemotions are written all over his face. He's scared and worried. He's also pissed off but I'm choosing to ignore that right now.

"I know. I know, I messed up, and I'm sorry." I shake my head, trying to hold back the tears.

"Come here," he states, holding his arms open for me. Rushing back over to him, I let him wrap me in his arms, holding me tight. I'm careful not to hold on too tight and keep my arm above his stab wound as I hug him back. "We'll talk about this again later when we both aren't emotionally and physically exhausted. Go get Grace, and you both stay in the kitchen, I mean it. Maybe make a sandwich for the road. I'm not sure how long it will be before we can get some food. As soon as the Brotherhood is here, I'm putting the two of you in one of their cars to head back to the clubhouse, where you'll be safe." He squeezes me one last time before letting me go.

Doing as he asks, I head back to the office and knock on the door. "You can come out Grace," I call out, letting her know it's time. The door opens slowly and Grace steps out. Her arms wrap around my waist, pinning them to my side as she holds on. "You okay, Kiddo?" I ask softly, worried about her.

"I think so," she holds on for another second or two before pulling back. "Is it time to go?"

"Not just yet, we are going to make some sandwiches real quick and eat. We'll be leaving in about ten minutes." Together, we head to the kitchen and begin pulling out ingredients for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. In no time at all, we have three of them made, and she is sitting at the kitchen island chowing down on hers. "Steel, come eat," I yell. I'm not really sure if he should be eating right now, but it may be a good idea to replenish his body with some sort of nutrients.

"Illeana," Steel grounds out as he steps foot in the kitchen. His stare is dark as he looks at me. Each step he takes in my direction makes my heart rate rise, fear filling my veins. He'spissed, and I don't know why. I thought he said we would talk about me leaving the safe room again later. So that can't be it. Fuck.

"What was one of the first rules I told you when we were coming here?" he growls loudly. His words shock me and make me drop my sandwich back to my plate as I rack my brain trying to figure out what he is talking about. "I said no electronics whatsoever. That meant no using your phones. Only your laptops were allowed to do schoolwork when needed but you were not to communicate with anyone."

I remember him telling us that, and I followed those rules. I didn't use anything. At least not that I can remember off the top of my head. I know I was pissed when he told us that rule and I didn't understand why but I followed it, or I'm pretty sure that I did.

"Oooo, someone's in trouble," Grace taunts from the other side of the kitchen island.

I turn to give her a dark glare, before looking back at Steel. He's now standing inches from me, towering over me as he stares down at me waiting for an answer, an answer I'm not sure I can give him. "I remember the rule, and I followed it." I gulp, waiting to see what he's going to do next. Every part of me wants to bolt away from him, but I have a feeling that is just going to piss him off more. Right now he's the predator and I'm his prey.

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