Page 6 of Rise By Sin

I watched Deak as he rounded the counter where Jean-Pierre used to stand each evening. He picked up a phone and started dialing a number. The whole time I was fighting not to fidgetwith the nerves of being back in that place, and the hope that Colt would just answer the call.

“Hey, it’s Deak down at the front entrance. I got a pretty girl down here asking for Colt. Says she’s his sister,” Deak said into the phone and I tensed even more.Please let that be Colt, I pleaded over and over.

“Okay. Manager’s on his way down, says you know him,” Deak said as he set the phone down and looked to me.

“My brother?”

“Jack said he’s not here.”

“Jack?” I questioned as my heart started to pound too hard. “Jack Hilton? He’s still the manager here?”

“He is. He’s also part owner now too,” Deak told me. I had no idea how that had come about, but Colt had never mentioned Mason or Jack to me in the years I’d been gone. Maybe because he suspected there had been something between us and he didn’t want to upset me. Either way I knew nothing about the two of them any longer.

“And should we talk about you calling me a ‘pretty girl?’” I added more firmly as I stared him down, in an attempt to hide my internal panic from him. I hated people seeing my weaknesses.

“Just stating a fact,” Deak said as he held his hands up in surrender again, then circled the desk and headed for the door he was stationed at before. “Boss will be here any minute. Just wait there, okay?”

I nodded, but the second Deacon was back outside, I was considering running. I didn’t want to face Jack after all of this time.What if he was married now? What if he had kids? Whatif he took one look at me and was repulsed?I tried hard to convince myself I didn’t care about any of it, but I did. I had feelings for Jack and Mason and I still felt the sting of their betrayal that night when they had been with that other sub and not me. Part of me, a very irrational and hateful part, blamed them for what happened to me that night that I had foolishly fled the club alone just because I was jealous. But it wasn’t their fault, It was mine. That was the past and I needed to focus on now. I needed to find Colt.

“Ava?” I hadn’t heard Jack walk in from the club, but when I glanced up, there he was, standing over me and looking just as sinful and sexy as he always had. My brain was overloaded just trying to take him in, but then Mason stepped out of the club too and it was just too much. Mason looked almost the same. His neatly cut afro hair was shorter now, standing just a centimeter or so off his head, and he had a neat, short, trimmed beard and moustache which just added to his appeal. He didn’t look any older, but he was definitely even more in shape that he used to be, his wide biceps, ripped chest, and strong shoulders clear to see beneath the close fitting thin, dark green sweater he wore.

Jack was just as I remembered him. His wavy hair hung down to just above his shoulders, the front of it falling down from where he had likely just pushed it back from his face. His bright blue eyes were locked on me and taking me in carefully. He was dressed in tight fitting black jeans, and a white shirt that clung to his lithe, muscular body beneath in all the right ways. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows and I could see his tattoos peeking out beneath both sleeves and up his neck from the open collar. He was covered with tattoos all over his torso, back, arms, and neck, and when I’d seen him naked I’d always considered him the most spectacular work of art I had ever seen.

“Ava?” Jack repeated as he rubbed at his lightly stubbled chin, then lowered to his haunches before me. “What are you doing here, darlin’? What happened to your face?” he asked as he reached out his right hand and held my chin, moving my face side to side as he took in the bruising, then turned an angry glare to Mason behind him.

Finally sense returned to me as I batted away his hand and glared hard at him.

“Don’t touch me!” I growled. “I need to see Colt. Is he here or not?”

“Not,” Jack told me with a shake of his head, but he didn’t move from where he was crouched before me. “He’s away for a fortnight,” Jack added.

“Away where? He didn’t tell me he was going anywhere.”

“He said he was going to Chicago, to spend some time with you. He called and left me a voicemail last week. Asked Jack to handle things here,” Mason further explained.

“No,” I shook my head as I tried to make my sluggish brain think straight. “He’d have called if he was coming to see me, and he didn’t. He hasn’t even called me this week.”

“Yeah, we thought it was a bit odd that he didn’t tell us before he went, but he has been worried about you. We guessed he just decided last minute,” Jack shrugged.

“Something’s not right. I need to get in his office,” I demanded as I grabbed my stick and used it to push myself to my feet. It wasn’t until I was standing and I looked to Jack to let me pass, that I realized both he and Mason were looking to the stick, and my shaky position with confusion.

“What happened?” Mason demanded as he stepped forward and stood at Jack’s side now.

I sighed deeply as I looked between them. I didn’t have time for this. There was no way Colt came to see me and didn’t even call me when he got to my place and discovered it abandoned.

“I got shot, okay? Spinal injury. I’m fucked up and have the mobility of a hundred year old granny, but hey, I retained control of my own bowels and bladder, so that’s a win huh? Least that’s what everyone told me. So lucky. Go me! ” I blurted with a fake cheer.

“Why the fuck wouldn’t Colt tell us that?” Mason asked in a gasp.

“He doesn’t know. No one did until right now. So can we just get over it, and find my fucking brother, please? I plan on kicking his ass when I get my hands on him.”

“Fuck no, Ava,” Jack barked. “You don’t get to charge in here bruised and injured, lay that shit on us and pretend nothing bloody changed. What the fuck? Why haven’t you told Colt? A fucking spinal injury and you didn’t even tell your own brother?”

“You know what? I don’t have time for this. Colt’s in trouble, and now he’s fucking missing. I need to find him!” I snapped as I shoved my way between them and headed for the back of the club where I could get up to the office. The stairs were going to be a bitch, but determination alone would get me up them.

CHAPTER 2

AVA

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