Page 20 of The Devil After Dark
I could have stayed with Liana all day. I could have kept her in bed all day. Unfortunately, after our shower, I had looked at my phone only to find a message from Jason that one of our warehouses had been broken into. He had already sent Zac to take Liana to work and I begrudgingly got on my motorcycle to meet Jason and Remi at the warehouse. Rome was there when I arrived—not that it wasn’t normal for Rome to be there, but I was irked by the way he had taken a special interest in Liana.
Jason had been following up with everything that was happening after the shooting. He had taken it harder than I hadthat Kalvin had been killed and finding out who was responsible seemed to be his single focus. I would let him have that. Jason needed that to heal. He had even revealed the death of the other witness from the night of the shooting was blatantly unrelated, but that Rome had called for patrols for each of the living witnesses anyway. I felt like Rome was hiding something, but was not about to blow up my best bought contact in the police force over a hunch.
“Well it seems like someone is really coming after you guys,” Rome said as we all stood in front of destroyed crates of drugs. Whomever had done this hadn’t stolen anything, just destroyed it. Which meant it was a message. “Who did you piss off?”
Remi let out a small snort of a chuckle. “Who haven’t we pissed off?”
He was right. We had a target on our backs. Success always brought a target. Any number of the other council seat holding families could be responsible, but when I had looked them in their eyes after the shooting, it appeared none of them were responsible. The way they had responded to my new proposals also made me think none of them had ordered the hit. If it wasn’t any of them, then any of the lower level gangs could be to blame. Maybe someone was trying to climb the ranks. But why would they destroy the product? I would have expected one of the gangs to steal the product and sell it to fund their war against me.
“Do you have any ideas, Rome?” I asked cooly as I casually tore away scraps of crates to reveal more damaged product.
“Not a clue, Cassio. I have a few informants I can put the word out to, see if they can drum anything up,” Rome replied. Wood splintering filled the air as Remi tore the front of another crate off. Damaged drugs spilled onto the concrete floor.
“Don’t bother. We don’t need to broadcast that someone got in here,” I said, tossing a piece of wood onto the pile. “Just keep an ear out for us and I will let you know if we find any leads.”
Rome nodded slowly before asking, “What are you going to do about the supply?”
I huffed a laugh to myself. One warehouse of supply ruined would not put a dent in our business. I wasn’t sure Rome could actually wrap his head around the extent of my empire. I had hundreds of employees ranging from street level dealers up to managers and a C-Suite for my legally acceptable endeavors. Kalvin had been the one who oversaw the managers for the drug distribution and the warehouses. Both Jason and Remi were versed in every aspect of my businesses. Jason as my second and Remi because he was “me” for many meetings. Remi had stepped up to fill in where needed after Kalvin died and Jason needed to recover. They were both indispensable. Then there was Zac. Everyone assumed he was just my driver, but he was probably the scariest motherfucker of all of us. “I’m not concerned,” I responded and gave Rome a look that told him it was his turn to leave.
“Right,” he breathed. “Well, until next time.”
I watched Rome leave the warehouse then turned to Jason. “Don’t fill him in if you find anything. I’m starting to have a few concerns about our relationship with Officer Hawthorne,” I said. Jason’s eyebrows raised, then he simply shrugged. He knew about my concern regarding Rome visiting Liana and even if that was a motivator, I didn’t care. We needed to keep this close to home. Merrick was too nosey and I didn’t want him finding out more than he needed to. I really just needed him to leave my territory, but I wasn’t about to start a pissing match by kicking him out. Plus, him being distracted in my club most nights meant my guys had more access to intel. Merrick was a loose lipped drunk.
twenty-three
LIANA
When I woke up,I was disappointed Cassio hadn’t visited in the night. He hadn’t even messaged me since he stayed the night and woke me up for sex in the shower. Okay, I hadn’t sent him a message either. How could I be mad at him when I hadn’t reached out either? I pulled on my running shoes and tied the laces. I needed to clear my head and my morning was free of meetings. My plan was to take the bus and train to the edge of the city and run up the hill to the Moon Goddess Temple at the top. Well, I might walk the two mile path that led up the hill, but I would try to run it.
Thirty minutes later I was staring up the dirt switchbacks that snaked their way through the beautiful gardens below the temple. The sun was rising and the air was cool and crisp. It had been a while since I went for a run. I used to come here all the time, but one day I just stopped. My feet crunched in the dirt as I started up the hill. Sooner than I wanted to admit it, I was breathing heavily. My lungs and thighs and calves and ass all burned.
A few people passed me on their own runs up the hill. Each timeI pretended I wasn’t gasping like a fool. About three quarters of the way up I finally gave in and slowed to a quick walk. I made a mental note that I needed to come run the hill more often. At least while walking I could enjoy the flowers that were starting to bloom. Eventually, the path flattened out into the ancient and abandoned amphitheater and ruins below the temple. The temple had survived, but the buildings below had somehow been destroyed or abandoned and left to deteriorate. I crossed above the amphitheater and followed the stairs up to the temple.
As I opened the door, cool air met my sweat covered skin. I slipped inside and wandered down the center of the temple before sliding into one of the pews. I just sat and admired the stained glass windows that reached all the way to the ceiling. The sun was now high enough that it filtered in and painted colors across the nearly empty temple interior. The silence was healing. There were a few other people enjoying the quiet of the temple this morning, but besides the soft sounds of shoes on the floor, the temple was quiet.
“You ran up the hill, didn’t you?” A voice said quietly behind me and I whirled around to see Cassio leaning back casually in the pew behind me. I hadn't even heard him sit down. His dark hair was messy and his leather jacket was half unzipped revealing a plain black t-shirt underneath. I let out a relieved sigh. I hadn’t expected anyone to talk to me here and I certainly did not expect to see Cassio. Cassio leaned forward and brushed a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “Good morning.”
“Good morning to you,” I responded in a whisper. “Do you come here often?”
A grin pulled back the corners of Cassio’s mouth. Then he leaned close to my shoulder and pointed towards the front of the temple. I followed the line of his finger as Cassio whispered into my ear, “I do. That window on the right is one of my favorites in all of the temples.” His warm breath on my ear and neck made me swallowas I tried to focus on where he was pointing and not on the fact that just his presence made me wildly horny.
All of the windows here were beautiful. This particular window depicted a large white wolf and a person, likely a man, standing beside the wolf wearing a dark hood that shadowed their face. I turned my head slightly back to Cassio. “Do you believe the story that a wolf led people here to escape persecution?”
“That is the story for our existence isn’t it?” he replied.
“But do you believe it? What if it was made up?” I pressed. Our written history began a few thousand years ago. What or where our people were before then was vague. One story included a white wolf and a hooded man delivering people here for their safety. The stained glass window depicted this origin story. That story always elicited sadness from me and I was not sure why.
“Do you have another theory?” Cassio asked with a small chuckle.
“Not necessarily. But where did we come from before? Why did we have to leave? What if the true story wasn’t ever written down correctly? You know, just normal questions I spend too much time thinking about,” I said and turned back to the windows.
Cassio’s fingers brushed my ponytail away from my sweat-sticky neck. “Come with me,” he replied as he stood and slid out of the pews. I stood and followed him. His hand closed around mine as he led me from the temple.
Cassio led me back into the ruins, weaving into an area that was quite private. “I love walking through here. It’s always so peaceful,” he finally said.
“Me too. I used to run up the hill and then sit in the amphitheater and watch the sunrise,” I told him. “Do you know what it was used for? The amphitheater? I didn’t really look into the history much when I moved here.”
Cassio stopped walking and I felt his body tense. It took him a few moments before he answered. “Magic wielders used to use thisfor their … entertainment,” he said carefully. “This was one of the earliest sites and it was destroyed by the lesser humans. Obviously it was never restored.”
