Page 45 of Capturing Ava
I wouldn’t let anyone have her—that little beast was mine.
I groan as I sit in THE BLACK DIAMOND. I never thought I would have to step foot inside of this place ever again. It stained your soul and the longer you spent in its presence, its dark talons would grip your soul, pulling you further into the darkness until there was nothing left but a black hole where your humanity used to be.
“I don’t fucking believe it. Chase fucking Knight in the flesh.” Cole Lopez is just the man I was looking for. His sandy hair falls across his eyes in curls, his deep grey eyes glisten against his tanned skin. A small smile appears on his lips, no longer clean-shaven, with a goatee shapes his mouth. The clean white shirt is almost bursting through the ripples of muscles that cover his body, tribal tattoos crawl up his bare arms and the signature silver dragon ring curls around his middle finger.
“It’s been a while, Cole.” I give him a tight-lipped smile.
“How bad is it?” He asks with worry crossing his brow.
“I don’t know what you mean,” I smirk. “Can’t a buddy drop in to see another buddy.”
“Not your style, what do you need?” Straight to business, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. I was short on time and if Audrey’s calculations were correct, I needed to act fast.
“What do you know about Nikoli Belvedere?”
“Shit. Chase?” He shakes his head.
“That bad uh?”
“Nikoli is a crazy bastard. Tell me you didn’t piss off that son of a bitch.”
“Okay,” I smile. “I won’t.”
“You need information?”
“I need a lot more than that. I need you to secure a safe house. Undetected with no signal to the outside world. Secluded, you know the drill.”
“You need to disappear?” I nod. “Shit. Okay, I can do that. Regarding information, how long have you got? Nikoli is bad news. You don’t want to get on his bad side. He has his fingers in things we would never touch. I can send over everything I have got.” I nod. “How fast do you need the safe house?”
“How fast can you do it?”
“That bad. I got you, man. You know, one day you might drop in and we can have a game of poker instead of life and death shit. One day.” He smiles.
“It’s a date, Princess,” I smirk before I walk away, dreading the great news I would have to tell Damon.
Walking through the doors that had given me so much peace over the last few months. She was like a light. Even Damon had warmed to her and he hated women. It wasn’t always that way. A broken heart will do that to you.
I knew it as soon as I had seen Scarlett Anderson. Long dark hair, tanned skin, and a bright smile that softened the hardest of hearts. She didn’t belong in this world, but Damon thought he could split this life. But the only thing he had done was harden her heart.
When she had left, I expected him to follow her, but he had just let her go. Never found out why she had left. One minute she was there and the next it was like she had never existed. I didn’t want that to be Ava; I didn’t want to feel the sting of her presence disappearing from my life.
Walking into the house, I hear my footsteps pound against the ground as I close the door and walk towards the living area. I hear the laughter ring through the house before I even make it to the room. Her laughter wraps me in her sweet embrace, and I smile before I even enter.
Standing in the doorway, she sits with Damon, Gage, and Miles. With cards in her hands, she throws them down on the table and smiles with glee. “Read them and weep, boys.”
“God dammit, she must be cheating.” Gage spits out.
“Cheating?” She places her hands across her chest. “Why, Gage, I’m offended.”
“Sure you are.” He mocks.
“Now, don’t be sore. Maybe you’ll win the next one.” She winks.
I couldn’t help smiling. She said she didn’t fit in here, that she didn’t fit in anywhere, but that wasn’t true. She fit like she had always been here. She was looking for a family that she didn’t think she deserved, but once I brought her here, they had adopted her whether she felt like she belonged or not.
“Oh, Chase, she’s rinsing us dry.” Miles whines.
“Your playing for money?”
