Page 34 of Rise By Sin

A tension built between us as Deacon just stopped and locked his eyes with mine. It wasn’t a bad tension, it was good, like sparks were flying between us in some bullshit romcom. Then I found myself moving closer to him. Just one kiss. I already knew he would be the most amazing kisser, and I wanted that. I wanted to remember what it felt like to feel young and free. I wanted the thrill of romance and kisses that set you alight and made you feel alive, even if just for a few moments.

The crash of the front door of the apartment being thrown open violently stopped everything and Deak and I pulled apart like we’d been shocked with electricity.

“Jesus Ava! Are you alright? What the bloody hell happened?” Jack demanded as he came barreling into the apartment looking panicked and panting like he’d run all of the way there.

Deak and I shared one more heat filled glance as he lowered me down to the sofa so I was laid across it, then Jack was there, hisarm planting on the back of the sofa as he leaned over me and looked me over with worry.

“She’s okay, Jack. She’s not hurt,” Deacon assured him as I tried to calm my racing heart and catch my breath. “Where’s Mason?”

“He was at a crime scene. He had to wait for someone to come and take over so he sent me. He won’t be far behind me,” Jack explained as he dropped to a crouch at my side and smoothed some hair out of my face. “What happened, love? You’re shaking?”

“I’ll get the file,” Deacon said as he left the room.

“What file? Did you find something?”

“I think I know who has Colt, Jack. I think it was the fucker who hurt me,” I told him shakily.

MASON

“What the fuck was Colt thinking?” I growled, struggling to keep my voice dpwn when I was so pissed with my idiotic best friend. “Why wouldn’t he just bring this to me?”

I’d been at Colt’s place for over an hour and Ava had been passed out on the sofa the whole time, Deacon and Jack having convinced her to take some of her pain meds, which had knocked her out. Jack had told me how upset and exhausted she’d been when he arrived and I was seriously worried about her. I knew how strong she was - how strong she had always been. She had been through so much and yet she never stopped pushing to keep going. It was a huge part of what I had loved about her when I first met her, and it was still a huge part of why I still loved her. But physically her own body was workingagainst her. She was shaky all of the time, and I had seen the struggle she faced just to walk, let alone tackle obstacles like stairs. The stab wound to her shoulder had just made things even harder, and I was at the point where I felt the need to stamp my foot down and stop her from working the investigation to find Colt. I needed her to be safe and as healthy as she could be.

The problem was I knew her pretty well, and I was pretty damned sure if I tried to do that, she’d just ignore me and go it alone behind my back, and that was an even more terrifying prospect, especially when the Owen crime family could be mixed up in it all.

“I have no idea. He never said a thing about all of this to me. I knew he was upset about Helen, of course. We all were. She was a sweet girl, but Colt never said anything about this,” Jack said as he waved a hand towards the papers I had spread out on the floor around me.

“Ava was sure whoever murdered Helen was the guy who attacked her all those years ago,” Deacon said. He’d been quiet since I walked in and he’d barely moved from the armchair closest to Ava. I was beginning to think he was under Ava’s spell, just as Jack and I had been ensnared so ong ago. “She…she showed me how she knew,” he went on as he looked between Jack and I, his face set with tension. “She showed me that…” he pointed to one of the crime scene images from Helen’s murder. It was a close up of a word that had been burned into her skin. “…on her stomach. That exact word. That murdering psycho…h-he branded her with that word, just like he did Helen.”

“What? Ave…she…she has that, on her skin?” Jack uttered and when I looked over to where he was sat on the floor before ourgirl, his back leant against the front of the sofa she lay on, he looked like he was going to throw up.

Deacon just nodded, like he couldn’t even bring himself to speak anymore about it, and I got it. Just the idea of anyone hurting Ava that way had me wanting to forget everything I stood for as a detective. It had me wanting to hunt this fucker down and inflict every injury he put on Ava’s perfect skin before I sliced his fucking throat.

“So whoever hurt Ava, killed Helen. We know that now, but the others are different. There’s no bodies. I think Colt could have been onto something with the sex trafficking angle on them,” I surmised, just needing to focus on something other than the rage and blood thirst pumping through my veins.

“So it could be the traffickers who have Colt, or they might not even have him. Maybe he did just disappear when he realized they were coming for him, to protect us all from it all,” Deacon mused.

“It’s a theory,” I nodded. “It would explain why he left those weird voicemails. He didn’t want us to worry, but it doesn’t explain why he wouldn’t just come to me with all of this.”

“He was protecting Ava,” Jack spoke up. “He didn’t want to break the promise he made to her that night, not to tell us what happened to her. He didn’t want to betray her trust. Maybe that’s why he was trying so hard to get in contact with her. Maybe he knew he was getting in too bloody deep and wanted her permission to talk to you about what he found.”

“Either way this is bad,” I admitted as I glanced to Ava to make sure she was still out. “Either a psycho murderer grabbed him for getting too close, or the Owens have him, or are searching forhim. If he’s not dead already, he will be soon.” Just that thought shook me. Colt had been a part of my life for as long as I could remember. He was family to me. Losing him would mean me losing a part of myself.

“We’re running out of time,” Deacon uttered.

“Huh?”

“That’s what she said to me,” Deacon explained as he turned to Jack. “Ava, she said we’re running out of time. She knows how bad this is. That’s why she was so distraught.”

“She’s smart, and from what I’ve heard about her she was a really fucking good detective. She knows,” I agreed.

“We have to do whatever it takes to get him back if there’s any chance, Mace. If she loses Colt it will fucking end her,” Jack said emotionally, keeping his voice low. We all looked to where she was sleeping. She seemed peaceful for the moment, but all three of us knew that was simply because of the drugs. Since the moment she walked intoTemplea few days before I had seen nothing but pain and suffering from her. She tried like hell to hide it, but I knew her every micro expression from the countless times we had scened together at the club when we were younger. Jack did too. We saw her pain and her constant struggle beneath her smart ass remarks and mask of indifference.

She had been through hell and it was plain to see in her eyes every time she looked at me. She was barely holding on as things stood. Losing Colt would be that final push over the edge and into the abyss and I was pretty sure we all knew it.

“We don’t let that happen,” I announced stubbornly. “I’ll do everything I can to get Colt back, but if I can’t…if it’s too fuckinglate then we do whatever it takes to get her through it and we don’t let her give up. We’re not losing her again, Jack.”

“Just fucking find him, Mason. I know you guys have history with her, and I know she has feelings for both of you, but you need to know I’m not walking away from her without a fight either.”

---