Gears laughed at that, picking up the cigarette from before and setting it in the ashtray, perfectly perpendicular to the rest of them. “Yeah, I didn't either, but she sure is beautiful, right?”
I smiled up at him, signing slowly as I exaggerated each syllable.She is gorgeous. I paused before I followed with,Let’s not fuck it up.
He smirked as he sat back down to tinker on the bike again. “Agreed.”
I stayed, shooting the shit with him for a little bit until I heard the familiar roar of two bikes, and I knew Rabid and Duce were back, and that was my cue to go back to the house. I rubbed my hand over my heart; a dull ache started as I hoped that Celine wasn't too angry with me.
As soon as Rabid swung his leg over his bike, he told us to all meet him in the war room. Something must’ve happened because Duce looked like he wanted to murder someone. His hands were balled into fists as he was looking at the ground. I could tell he was trying and failing to get his anger in check, which made me even more curious.
I guess Rabid had also called out to Celine because, right as I turned the corner, she was walking down the hallway. Our eyes met, and, for a second, I could see the raw feeling in them, then she shut them down like shutters. Closing me off to seeing in and looking away.
I was stunned still, not expecting to be gutted so easily, but I was. My heart twisted up inside as guilt flooded me. I knew it was the right thing to do at the time, but it didn't help to have my wolf in the background growling at me.How could I have treated our mate like that? How could you have run out on her?
She moved to go into the room, passing by me to get there, when I noticed something was off. Her face was flush, and her eyes were glossy. My hand struck out before I knew what I was doing, gripping her biceps before she went into the room.
What's wrong?
She took a long inhale before looking up at me. "Nothing. I'm perfectly fine. Is something wrong with you?"
I could tell she was deflecting, feeling the muscles move as she clenched her fist and yanked her arm back. "Even if I told you, it wouldn't matter, would it? You would just run away."
She walked into the room with her head held high as she left me there, gutted. I deserved that. I did, even if I had to, for her sake. Then why did my stomach muscles seize up and my heart feel so heavy I wanted to topple over?
"Bricks?" I turned and saw Rabid at the door, everyone else seated, Celine's back to me. I nodded, sluggishly working my way into my seat as nausea crept up my throat.
"Okay," Rabid started as he shut the door and strode to his seat. "We are set up to do this in two days. He is going to text me their warehouse location, and we are to go."
Dino puffed out as he leaned back in his chair, "God damn, he just wants us to sing and dance for him at the snap of his fingers?"
Duce shrugged as he folded his arms on the table. "I don't know if it's that. My guess is it has more to do with trust than just being an overall prick."
"Did you meet the backer?" Celine's voice was all business as she looked at Rabid.
Rabid slowly nodded, and I already knew from his face she wasn't going to like his answer. "We did, but we didn't get his name."
Celine immediately went still. Not a hair on her head moved, and her face went cold, impassive, but her eyes were a different story. They drilled into Rabid's, the blue that was usually vivid and bright darkened to an ice blue. The air around her grew thick with violence and rage. Everything about her made us all in the room tense up or lean back, not wanting to get in the way of this deadly assassin in front of us. She was showing us exactly who we were messing with in all her fearsome glory. It was both exhilarating and frightening.
Anyone that crossed this woman wasn't long for this world.
"Celine," Duce started, keeping his voice soft and calm, although we all heard the plea for her to listen to him. She faced him slowly, giving him the same look she just gave Rabid, and he winced.
"We both felt like if we pushed them for his name, they would've been suspicious, and that would ruin what we were trying to do." Duce's eyes begged her to believe them, to believe him.
When she still hadn't said anything, Rabid sat back, unfazed, as he threw out, "But something weird did happen with the buyer. We were trying to leave when a large gust of wind blew through, and his eyes suddenly went red, and he started to freak out."
I thought that was odd until I noticed Celine whip her head toward him. "Did he have ashy blonde hair and a tattoo of two vampire fang holes on his neck?" All Rabid did was nod, and she slumped back into her seat, the two of them leaving the rest of us in the dark.
Duce looked like he also knew what they were talking about, and Dino spat out, "And what the fuck does that mean? Who the fuck is this guy?"
The three of them turned towards him, but Celine was the first to speak. "That would be the vampire that went into a bloodlust at the club," she flicked her eyes towards me, "the night we met."
My blood ran cold. I now knew why Duce was so pissed. That fucker had a taste of our girl's blood and went into a frenzy over it. I even got a few calls from people at the bar asking if we had seen her and who was the girl we left with. I covered my tracks, telling them it was a hang around from our club, but if he smelled her on one of them, then he would guess she was here.
I knocked on the table to get their attention as I signed quickly.Did he ask you anything about her?
Rabid shook his head. “No. He looked like he was barely keeping a lid on it and only answered in short, clipped words.”
“What are we going to do?” Gears’ passive voice asked, his face not showing what he was thinking, but I knew it had to be more along the lines ofwhat are we going to do to help Celine.
