From The Ashes (The Knights of Mayhem Book 3) (15 page)

Emily scoffs.  “It’s a show in arrogant extravagance.”

I turn to her, shocked.  “Really?”

“Oh yeah.  Nothing but a bunch of cheap looking shit that collects dust, but they pay well for me to dust it.”  She comes to a stop at the crest of the circle driveway, right in front of a set of small steps leading up to a purple door.

“You ready? The supplies are in the back and I think we should divide and conquer.  There are three floors. I’ll start at the top and you take the bottom so we can meet in the middle.  They only use three of the seven bedrooms.”  She stops to snicker at my shocked look.  “So we just need to clean the linens in those rooms and make sure the bathrooms are spotless. Mrs. Hodge is weird about the bathrooms.”  She exits her side of the vehicle and I do the same.

I meet her at the back of the SUV and help her out with the buckets.  She points to a pink bucket, my favorite color.  “That’s yours.”  She smiles, pleased with herself.

“You got me a pink bucket?”  I know it’s the most trivial of things, but she remembered.

“I did … you like?”

I hug it to my chest.  “I love my cleaning bucket.”  We both laugh.  I follow her into the house and stop to admire the opulence of the home, but Emily is right—the decadence is ridiculous and gaudy.  The gold overlay is everywhere from the lions heads adorning the larger than life fire place to the plastic covered gold couches.  It’s more a museum than a home. 

“See what I mean?”  She comes to stand beside me in the sitting room.  A fucking sitting room, really?

“Yeah, let’s get this done.”  I hold up my bucket.  “Point me in the direction you want me to start.”   We’re alone in the house. The Hodges’ are vacationing at one of the other homes they own, somewhere up north.  I busy myself with the tasks Emily had assigned. Getting lost in my duties, I lose track of time.

The front opening gets my attention.  “Hello?”  It’s Roman.

I stick my head out the door of the bathroom, smiling at his reaction to the overdone decorum.  He is perfection, from his Knight’s Security Henley, perfectly pressed and tucked into his jeans, to his freshly polished black combat boots.  He could fit in with this house with his beauty.  I close my eyes and imagine him in a tux, holding a glass of bourbon as all the well-to-do dressed ladies surround him, vying for his attention. 

“Hollis?”

My eyes fly open and I can feel my face burn from embarrassment.  “Yes?”

“What are you doing?”  He asks as he walks towards me.

“Cleaning a shitter.  What are you doing here?”  I peel off the nasty yellow rubber gloves I was wearing, tossing them into my bucket.

He holds out his hand that contains a perfectly new IPhone.  “Bringing you this.”

“A phone?”  I prop my hands on my hips.

“Yes, Hollis, a phone. Here, take it.”  Seeing my apprehension, he scoffs.  “See it as my way of controlling the shit around me.”

I laugh at the reference and hold out my hand.  “Okay, give it to me.”

Emily comes bounding down the steps.  “Hey Hollis, I thought I heard you talking to someone.”  She sees Roman and stops.  “Oh, hi Roman. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I was just dropping off Hollis’s new phone.”  He rubs his hand over his perfectly messed hair.  “I gotta get to work, but I’ll talk to you later?” 

“Yes, I’ll call, I promise.”  I tuck the new phone in the back pocket of my jeans. 

Emily turns back up the steps.  “Catch you later, Roman.” 

He leans in to give me a kiss.  “Don’t work too hard.”  He smiles down at me.  “See you tonight.”  He turns and leaves.  I go back to cleaning and before I know it, I have the downstairs looking like a shiny new penny.  I head upstairs to the second floor to find Emily stripping all the beds that were used, so I jump in to help get us out of here quicker.

Roman

I walk through the office door to find Eno sitting at his desk, tapping on the keys of his computer.  “Hey, man,”  he greets me without looking away from the screen. 

“Hey,”  My tone stops the clacking.

“What’s up?”  Eno asks as he leans back, lacing his fingers behind his head.

I shake my head and take a deep breath.  “Just waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

He looks at me puzzled.  “What other shoe?”  I want so badly to tell him about Megan, but I don’t think it’ll help the situation so I keep it to myself.

“Markus, I know he’ll come for her.”  Feeling helpless is not something I like experiencing.

“And when he does, we’ll be ready.”  Eno tries his best to reassure me but the look of concern on his face gives his worry away.

“That is horseshit and you know it.  How the hell can we be ready?  We know nothing.”  I begin to pace the small office, back and forth like a caged animal. Her being away from me is making me more desperate than I’m comfortable with. 

Eno stays silent, letting me work through the fog hanging around my head.  The door banging open pulls me out.  “Hey man, when did you get in?”  Leo shuts the door behind him, stopping when he sees look on my face.  “What?”

Eno points his pen at me.  “Worried about Markus.”

“As we all should be. That’s why I came in here to let you know I put out the word he might be coming back around.”

“Unfortunately it’s not a might, it’s a fucking sure thing.”  I stop my pacing to look up at him.   Dalton and Cowboy join us in the small office to the side of the shop. 

“What did we just walk in on?”  Dalton slumps down into one of the leather chairs. 

“Markus?  Is he here?”  Cowboy doesn’t need to be filled in, he can tell what’s going on.

“Shit … where?”  Dalton jumps to his feet.

“Nowhere yet.”  I roll my head around, hoping to break loose the tension.  Cowboy and I exchange knowing glances, but neither of us offer up the real reason Markus will be gunning for Hollis. 

Leo rests his hand on my shoulder.  “Don’t worry, brother. His days are coming to an end.  He’ll not touch her or anyone else again.”  His coal black eyes have murder in them.  He’s saying it more for himself and Avery just as much as he’s saying it to reassure the rest of us.  God forbid Markus harm Avery. Leo would move heaven and hell to find him, then there would be no saving him from the torturous wrath that would be brought down upon him.

“I hope you’re right, brother. For the sake of all of us, I hope you’re right.”  We all disperse and try to act like there isn’t a knife at our throats again.  I spend the day sending and receiving texts from Hollis. 

Me:
 
Hey

Hollis
:
Hi!

Me:
 
Busy? 

Hollis:
 
A little, but I Love You.

I read her last words over and over again.  She loves me, and from her confession the other night, she always has. 

Hollis:
 
You don’t have to say it back, so don’t freak out!

I’m not freaking out, Hollis. I love you too. Why can’t I say it out loud or at least type it back to her in a text message, is a mystery to me.  I’m such an ass. This woman has laid her life in my hands and trusted me more than she should, but she did and I can’t even say three little words back to her. 

Not sure what to say, I give her a cold-hearted response.

Me:
 
See you tonight.

Wanting to kick my own ass, I tuck my phone back into my pocket and try my best to focus my attention on my job. I start sorting through my emails, but after about an hour of trying to concentrate on anything, I give up. I get up and head out to the garage.  Walking through the bays, Dalton and Beeker are busy working on a few cars, but I don’t see Leo anywhere.

I catch Dalton’s eyes.  “Leo?”

“Office.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey, did you hear?”  Dalton stands, wiping his hands off on a rag from his back pocket.

“Hear about what?”

“Kent called Leo. He has an assignment for us tonight.”

“Really … what is it?”

“Some drug den off forty.  CI told them that they were pretty sure there were a few women there too.”

“Do we know who it belongs to?”

“I don’t know, but Leo does, I’m sure.”  He slaps my back then goes back to working.  I head into the office to find Leo behind his desk on the phone.  He nods, finishing his conversation, so I take the seat opposite him and wait.  I pull out my phone to find another text message from Hollis.

Hollis:
 
Hey, babe. Just checking in like you wanted me to.  Halfway done with the house.  Don’t think we’ll do another one today.  See you at home.
I read it again, debating on telling her about tonight before I get all the details. 

The click of Leo hanging up the phone has me slipping my phone back into my pocket.  “So, what is the deal for tonight?”

“Fucking gossip queen.”  He throws a glance out the window to Dalton and shakes his head.  “Yeah, Kent called.”

“Is it Markus’s?”

“Kent seems to think so.  He’s hoping we can get information of Markus’s whereabouts.”

I stand and go for the door.  “Count me in.”

“Be at the shop by six.”  He calls to me as I exit the bay doors into the chilly air of early fall.  I stop, shoving my hands into my pockets and tilting my head back to let the sun warm my face. 

“Dear God, Hollis, what are you doing to me?”  I ask the sun, quietly knowing damn good and well what she’s doing—the same thing she’d done six years ago, twisting my head up and putting my heart in a vice.  I want it now just like I did then, but there seems to be more at stake this time around. 

I check my watch as I cross the lot, back over to my office.  It’s only 2:30 pm, too early to leave and get Hollis to take her back to the house and lock her away from the world and its occupants.  I pull the glass door open, meeting Eno as he’s coming out.

“Where you headed, man?”  I step to the side so he can make it out around me.

He walks by, shrugging on his coat with a cocky smile on his face.  “Ms. Joy just called, said they were having problems with the system at the joint so I told her I would be right there.” 

I laugh, shaking my head.  “You’re just as dumb as your brother. Neither of you two can learn anything.  Your sister-in-law gets wind you’re tapping that ass, there’s no telling what she’ll have her little minion do.”

It’s his turn to laugh at me.  “Not gonna lie, Piper scares the shit out of me, but Joy gives some great head.”

“Damn, Eno. Think with something other than your dick for a change, will ya?”  I start to let the door close then it hits me, so I jerk it back open.  “Hey, if this isn’t a legit billing call, you better not turn in your fucking time.”

“I didn’t say anything about fucking.”  He answers back over his shoulder.

I turn for my office, hearing the bell over the door chime as it shuts all the way, leaving me here alone making the urge to leave even stronger.  The buzzing in my ears has me tapping my pen as I cruise the internet for a story that might mention some criminal aspects that would be right up Markus’s alley, but I find nothing, making me very nervous. 

I pick up the phone and call Leo across the lot.  “Hello?”

“Hey, did Kent by any chance mention who the CI was that called in the information?”

“No, not that I can remember. Why, you thinking something’s sideways?”

“I just think it’s a bit too convenient, don’t you? We haven’t heard anything from anyone about Markus in months, yet now, out of nowhere, someone calls and the bureau calls us in?”

“So you think it’s a trap … or that he’s baiting us?” 

“Think about it. All the shit that went down with Hollis and now the drug traffic hotline, which has been dead for months, lights up like a damn Christmas tree.”

“Get over here and bring Eno. We’re at the table in twenty.”  He hangs up the phone and I send Eno a quick text, hoping he isn’t balls deep in skank pussy.

Chapter Thirteen

Hollis

I send Roman another text and get no response for the third time.  I think it’s odd seeing as how he made it a point to bring the phone to text him with.

Emily comes out of the last bathroom that needed cleaned to find me holding my phone again.  “Still no word?”

I look up at her, puzzled.  “No, he brought me the damn phone and now I get nothing?”

She throws her lemon yellow, rubber gloved hands up into the air.  “Hey, I’ve been trying to figure this bunch out for years until finally I gave up.”  She peels off a glove and reaches around to her back pocket.  “I’ll shoot Cal a text and see if he knows what’s going on.”  She taps on the screen.  “There, now we wait.”

We both stand in the foyer of the grand home looking at our phones, waiting, but nothing happens.  Emily gives me a nervous grin before doing a few things on her phone and raising it to her ear.  “Hey, have you heard from Leo in the past few hours?”  She waits for Avery and then answers.  “See you there. Piper’s out of school so call her too, okay?”  She shoves her phone in her back pocket.  “Get your stuff and let’s go.” 

“What’s wrong?”  I feel panic freezing my feet to the floor.

She’s moving frantically around the house.  “I don’t know, but Avery hasn’t heard from Leo in a while.”  She stops in front of me.  “And if you haven’t noticed, it’s a bit weird if they don’t check in every so often.”  She takes my hand.  “Let’s go, Hollis.” 

She practically drags me out the door to her SUV, stuffing me into the passenger side.  “Buckle up,”  she demands before she slams the door behind her and goes around to the driver side.  She tears through the town until she sees the gates of the clubhouse. She slowly passes through them, parking beside Avery’s blacked out SUV.  Avery and Piper stand beside the door, hugging their arms around themselves as they wait for us.  Piper gives me a bitchy once over and turns her back to me.

“What the hell is going on?”  Piper demands when we all four meet up.

“I don’t know, but how many texts from Dalton have you gotten today?”  A thoughtful look comes over Piper’s face as it hits her.

“Not many.”

“I stopped getting them from Roman right after lunch.”  I pull out my phone and go back through all the messages we’d exchanged before the radio silence. 

“Well hell, I can’t take it anymore.”  Avery storms past us all, throwing open the door to an empty clubhouse.  “What the fuck?”  she yells.  The rest of us file in behind her, looking around, hoping for a sign of our boys.  The room is silent and eerily still.  Piper takes off in the direction of the kitchen and Emily heads towards the rooms.  I follow and stand to where I can see both.  Emily opens every door and right when she gets to the end of the hall, the big door is thrown open.

“What the hell is wrong with you four?”  Leo comes storming out to Avery who’s sat down on the couch.

I step out as the others file back into the main room.  “It’s me and my stupid paranoia.”  I gesture towards Roman.  “He hadn’t texted me in a while and I couldn’t get a hold of him so I got Emily all up into a panic, then it just steamrolled from there.”

Leo comes over to me.  I feel myself melt under his coal black stare.  “I need to know if you’re familiar with an address, Hollis.”

“Fuck no. We are not involving her, Leo,” Roman says as he busts through to come stand in front of me. 

Leo holds his hand up.  “By calling you, she’s involved all of us, again.”  He redirects his attention to me.  “Address. Can you help?”

“I might if you tell me what the hell is going on.  I can’t read minds, Leo. That’s not one of my superpowers.”  I smile at him.  “But I am willing to help anyway I can.”

“No, you’re not.”  Roman jerks me around by my arm.  “I told you that you’re not offering yourself up as bait, ever.”

I lay my hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating a thousand miles a minute.  My chest swells at the feeling. I know he loves me. Even though he can’t say it, I know.  “This isn’t me offering myself up, it’s me helping where I can.”

“Roman, brother, we would never put her out there to get hurt, but her being where she’s been for the past six years gives us an advantage.”  Dalton tries to talk sense into a very focused Roman.

“Baby, it’s okay.”  I take his face and push up to my tiptoes to kiss his lips.  “I can help, so let me, please?”  I turn to all the eyes in the room.  “Give us a minute, okay?”  I take Roman by the hand and lead him back down the hall to his old room.  Closing the door behind us, I look around at the dusty remnants of our old life.  Dropping his hand, I turn around, taking it all in.  “Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve been in here.”

“Me too.”  He sulks by the door.

“Roman, look at me.”  I halt the overly nostalgic feelings taking over me.  He lets his eyes drift up slowly, taking my breath away.  I have to step back from his determined glare. 

“You’re not doing this, Hollis. You’re not going to sacrifice yourself … I won’t let you.”

“Where do you get me sacrificing myself from helping out with an address?”  He walks over to the chest, running his finger down the top, collecting the dust that’s settled in his absence.

He spins around to face me.  “With the agency, there’s no “just helping” with an address.  It snowballs into another address, help with finding a location, and before you know it, you’re wearing a wire.”

I shake my head at him.  “Roman, it’s not going to go that far. I know you won’t let it.”

“Sweetheart, I don’t know who you think I am, but what I want means shit to the higher-ups, so fucking forget it. You’re not going to do it.”  His stern tone telling me what I can and can’t do burns all over me.

“I don’t give a shit what you think. You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do—I’m doing it.”  I rush the door before he can catch me and storm down the hall with Roman close on my heels.

“Damn it, woman. Do you not remember me asking you to think before you fly off the handle and do stupid shit?”  I stop short when I realize that we have an audience.  Roman takes me by the arm, turning me into him.  “Listen to me, Hollis.”  His eyes spear me.

“I am, and I’ve given what you’ve said some thought, but it doesn’t matter.”  I turn to Leo.  “I’ll help.”

“Son-of-a-bitch,”  Roman screams.  “Fuck it. Go and get yourself killed then.”  He drops my arm, holding his hands out to either side of him as he looks at Leo.  “Have at it.”

Leo rubs the back of his neck, looking hesitantly at Roman and then back to me.  “Look, Hollis, maybe it isn’t such a great idea.”

“Leo, it’s not up to you or Roman.   It’s my decision and I’m either gonna tell you what I know, or I can go down to headquarters and unload on them.”  I look between the both of them.  “I have to do this.”  The women stay silent … everyone stays silent.  “So, am I gonna do it here, or are you gonna take me down to see Kent?”

~~~~~~

They finish up documenting the last bit of information I gave them.  Roman raises his head in shock at the wealth of knowledge I have of Markus’s dealings.  They all sit silent, staring at me.   I look around the room, waiting for one of them to comment on what I had told them.

Leo is the first to speak.  “Wow, Hollis.”  He starts to go over just his notes.  “Thank you. This will keep us busy for months, if not years, busting all these rings.  I didn’t know, hell, none of us knew his operation was so extensive in the states.”  He organizes the sheets as the boys pass them down. 

I look at the clock and realize I’ve been talking for the past two hours non-stop, and they’ve been writing just as long.  “You should really look into getting a digital recorder. Your carpel tunnel hands will thank you for it.”  I point out as I stand and turn for the door.

I get a smile and a slight laugh out of Leo.  “Thank you, Hollis, for what you’ve given us. I mean it, thank you. And you have my word no one will ever know where this information came from.”  His black eyes for once are not menacing or scary, but sincere.

“The thought never crossed my mind.  I trust you.” I stop and look around the room at all of them.  “I trust all of you.”

Roman stands, rushing over to me. “Where are you going?” 

I glance down at my watch then back up to him.  “To help with dinner while you boys talk about all the knowledge I’ve dropped on you.”  I reach up to kiss his nose.  “Love you too.”

I turn, leaving with the feel of his eyes on my ass as I disappear into the kitchen to be with the girls. I brace myself on the island and let a long breath.

Piper sets a shot of whiskey in front of me and takes a deep breath.  “I still think you’re a bitch, but …” she looks around at all the other women in the kitchen.  “I understand what you did helped my brother and my honey tonight, and I thank you.”  She offers me a glass.   “Need this?”  I look at her bewildered.  “Take it. I didn’t poison it, not that I didn’t think about it though.”  She levels her blue eyes at me, the same blue eyes I stare into when I look at Roman.

I take the cold amber glass in my hand and sling it back.  Wiping the dribble from my lip with the back of my hand, I level my eyes back on her.  “More than you know.”

“You were in there a long time.”  I don’t break eye contact with her.

“Yeah, I was. I had a lot of secrets to share.”  I take a carrot stick off the vegetable plate laid out on the bar.  Snapping off the end of it and chewing, I wait for the venom I always expect from her.

She leans over, leveling her cold blue eyes on me.  “Hope it helps all this shit.  I am so over it, looking over my fucking shoulder all the damn time. It’s for the fucking birds.”  She smiles a genuine smile at me and I forget how she and I used to verbally spar. 

“Me too.”  I look around the room at all the concerned eyes, hoping to reassure them.  “I hope it does end here. I’m tired and want to lounge.”

Emily tops off the last wine glass on the bar and picks it up, saluting all of us.  “To lounging and enjoying the spoils of our labors.”  She point to Avery’s drink.  “Virgin ‘til you pop,” she says, saluting our pregnant friend who accepts with a smile.  We all salute then kill the wine and finish off dinner as the boys go over all the information they now have in their possession.

Roman

I let out a long sigh of relief, hoping to expel some of the shock I’m feeling.  “Well, I guess we know she knows her shit and she has information that can keep us busy for months.”  I sit back, throwing my pen on the table.  “But no one can ever know where this information came from.”

“It will stay with us always, brother,” Leo states as he leans back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head with a peaceful look in his eyes.  “This could bring this to an end, boys.” His voice sounds hopeful. He glances up at the clock.  “It’s nearly time, so let’s go have dinner with our women and get our game faces on.  We’ll send the ladies to my house to hunker down and wait it out.  We don’t know if this is a trap or not, but let’s take all the precautions necessary for everyone’s safety.  Kent’s going to meet us there, and we’ll have eyes on my house too.”  Leo stands, followed by the rest of us.  We exit the room with a heavy burden on us all.  We have to go about this whole situation with kid gloves, handling it very carefully. 

We all walk down the hall in silence, but we move as a unit, as we have so many times.  Leo first, me second, followed by the rest of my brothers.  We walk with purpose. There’s a meaning for everything we do and again, it’s to keep everyone safe.

All the women and Caden are waiting for us in the lounge area.  The air hangs heavy over everyone, no one needs to speak of the importance of the things we have to do tonight; they all know.

I go straight to Hollis and kiss her forehead.  “I’m sorry, baby.”  I encircle her neck with my arms and hold her close to me.  The stories she’d told us has my heart aching for her.  The shit this woman has been through in her years away from me … I don’t think I will ever be able to wrap my mind around completely or scrub my memory of. 

I tug at her, leading her over to the table.  “Come on, let’s eat.”  We all sit down to eat, but the air is tense with no one talking.  Hollis, being the one who hates awkward silences, or just silences all together, is the firsts to speak.

“Emily, where will we be cleaning tomorrow?”  She takes a bite of the enormous hamburger she has.

Emily finishes chewing and swallows, giving Hollis a grateful smile.  “We have Roman’s house, his office, and then we go over and help out Avery a little.”  I smile, knowing that tomorrow will be a short day seeing as how the last time I’d been left alone, there’d been a cleaning day for me.

Avery leans up so she can look at the both of them from the other end of the table.  “Not by choice either, Hollis.  Leo insists on it until I can touch my feet.”  All the men start to laugh.

“How about until you can see your feet, sis?”  Eno interjects across from her. 

Avery tosses a french fry at him in retaliation then stops.  “No wait, give that back.”  She holds out her hand for the tossed fry.

Eno hurriedly shoves it into his mouth, smiling at her.  “Nope.”  They have successfully lightened the mood a bit and the rest of the dinner is enjoyed with light banter.  I can still feel the tension right between my shoulders.  We help the ladies clean up and we’re all in the kitchen when Leo clears his throat.