Page 12 of Believe In Us

My voice heightens, my frustration getting the best of me as I turn in my seat. “So that’s why I’m asking who the fuck is Kane?” He doesn’t bother looking at me, doesn’t even acknowledge me sitting beside him as his gaze remains directed at the road before us, his lips twitching in anger. But I’m not satisfied with his answer or lack thereof. “Bass?—”

“Nobody you need to worry yourself with,” he finally says, interrupting me. “Fuck Jade, it’s none of your concern.”

Now it’s me who’s pissed at his dismissal of my question and the obvious frustration of my own curiosity. But he’s not the one who was almost kidnapped, I’m the one who needs answers. “Like hell it isn’t, need I remind you I was the one that was about to be taken and—” I pause, unable to finish my statement, not wanting to think about what they might have done to me. Bass stops at a red light, turning to me and reaching out to cup my face in his palm, his demeanor instantly shifting from furious to placid.

“Shh,” he mutters, bringing his thumb to rub against my lip. The rough tip of his finger grazes the soft sensitive skin of my lips opening them slightly as I fight the urge to dart my tongue out to lick it. “I will never let them, or anyone for that matter, hurt you Jade.” His confession stuns me, and I am unaware of how to respond to that. So I don’t, I just stare straight in his eyes, into the deep gray clouds, past the rage, past the worry, and far down into the small glimmer of something I can’t quite decipher.

“ButI—” He leans forward, closing the distance between us as he brings his lips a mere inch from mine. I instinctively stick my tongue out to wet my lips, my mouth suddenly dry and needy as I stare down at his thick, plump lips. In my peripheral vision, I see the traffic light turn green, then switch to yellow, and finally turn back to red as we sit here in silence only the roaring of the engine heard in the distance.

“Can’t you just thank me instead of hounding me with questions you have no business asking,” he mutters breathily, the huskiness of his voice coated in lust and desire as his eyes are fixated on my lips.

“Thank you,” I whimper, practically moaning from just his closeness. He darts his tongue out to lick his lips softly grazing mine as he does. I ache to feel his lips on mine, nearly giving in to my urges and taking his mouth in an electrifying kiss but I don’t.

“That’s my girl,” he says, slowly retreating and adjusting himselfin his seat as the traffic light turns green once again. He steps on the gas, accelerating and speeding off into the darkness of the night. “Now let's get you home.”

I move to sit straight forward, leaning my head back against the headrest as I close my eyes and compose myself before I do something rash like jump over to straddle him and make us crash. But as his hand moves to lay upon my thigh, his fingers coarsely tracing circles around my goosebump covered skin before gripping me tightly, I sit back and let the feeling overwhelm me. He called me his girl once again, but this time, I didn't want to correct him.

Chapter

Five

BASS

Isaw red. Bright fucking crimson. Like ardent flames and grisly bloodshed, the fury in me rose to the top ready to bubble, boil, and erupt, when I saw the fool with his hands on her. I was already pissed off at her tacky attempt to make me jealous by flirting with a bartender of all people, one I’d make sure would be fired tomorrow. I recognized him from the New Years Eve Party, he was tending the bar Jade and I were at, which means I know he saw us together. The asshole knew she was mine yet he made the terrible mistake of flirting with her.

I was more than ready to haul her over my shoulder and smack that tempting, perky ass that swayed in perfect rhythm to the song blaring on the speakers. The way her turquoise outfit rose up nearly revealing that perfect little cunt of hers as she shimmied and shook her ass like a fucking dancer would at a strip club. If I weren’t so hypnotized by the way her body was moving, her hips swaying in the most tantalizing of ways, I would have been furious at all the eyes glued on her.

I didn’t get the chance to rip her a new one when I followed her out of the club through the hotel entrance. She’d snuck away from me for a second, but as soon as I turned the corner toward the parking lot, the hairs on the back of my neck stood in alarm.

I heard the voices first—deep, and crass. The screams came next—high pitched and terrified. I’m not sure why but I immediately knew it was her. It was like something in me snapped. My blood rushed to my head, my limbs grew numb, my body trembled ferociously when I saw them.

The taller of the two assholes, the one with broad shoulders and a bald head that looked like it’d been shined with wood polish, had his arms wrapped around her waist, forcing her dress over her ass to expose the sweet porcelain skin he had no right being near. The other one, the shorter, less burly guy, stood in front of her using his hand to muffle her screams.

I knew I had to get her away from them no matter the cost, and that’s exactly what I did. I beat the shit out of the two of them, my anger only intensifying when one of the men mentioned The Order—the pretentious, self-righteous, anarchists my father likes to keep on his payroll.

Run by their sanctimonious President Kane Dalton, The Order is an elite organization of outlaws in Brioni suits, disguising their unlawful, illicit businesses behind briefcases and handkerchiefs. In reality they are some low-level scumbag elitists who keep Hillcrest Hill’s neighboring town of Galen Grove,cleanfrom all crime and debauchery. In reality, they just ensure the competition stays out of their territory.

Even the great Wesley Servite is on Kane Dalton’s shit list. However that may be because unlike Wesley’s little gig at The Gallows, his club where he uses underage girls as entertainment for his wealthy and powerful clients, Kane likes his girls foreign and of legal age. It makes his whole human trafficking scheme on the black market slightly less immoral, in his eyes of course.

To me they’re nothing more than the scum of the Earth.

Devils equally guilty and fated to find the same end.

However, one thing Wesley doesn’t know is that my father, his right hand man, is in deepwith The Order, has been for months now. A secret I only know because I found him and Kane having a secret rendezvous in his study, behind Wesley’s back.

I can still picture the smug grin on Kane’s face when he saw me, he knew at that moment as I discovered my father’ssecret, that he had leverage on him therefore ensuring my dad would never double cross him. He was right, because the only thing more frightening than the wicked Devil of Hillcrest Hills, is the almighty, blasphemous God of Galen Grove. Luckily for my father, I’m sworn to secrecy, therefore forever keeping what I saw to myself.

As one of the Four Horsemen—the soldiers Wesley Servite and my father Stephan Silver, two of the current heads of the founding families of Hillcrest Hills, created to protect our family legacy and empire—I have a duty to him. And that is to obey and execute whatever Wesley may request of me.

Loyalty. Obedience. Silence.

Although as a member of the Silver Bloodline, I have a code of my own to live up to.

Family. Glory. Legacy.

Kane and his pharisaical henchmen keep my father’s various businesses, including his casinoThe Nova in Galen Grove, protected. Meanwhile in exchange, Stephan keeps his nose out of their drug and trafficking schemes.

Even though the drug Kane distributes,TranQ—a dangerous cocktail of diazepam and amphetamines which when taken with any other substance results in the same effects as a roofie—rivalsThe Devil’s Kiss—the drug Wesley and my father created and continue to distribute—they figure out how to make it work.

---