Everyone stood back a ways beyond the edges of the parking lot at the Old Tile company.They could all see dim lights on in the first level and someone moving around.
Cassie was there too.She refused to be left at home.She stared at the windows praying she would see some sign of Peaches but of course she couldn’t see inside the building and there was only one shadow walking around.
She stepped back further into the dark.
Deke grabbed her wrist before she got too far away from his side.“Don’t you dare, Spitfire.”He growled under his breath.Warning her not to get any bright ideas about doing a rescue herself.
Cassie raised her gaze to his and didn’t say a word.She just shook her head but stayed where she was.
Deke pulled her into his arms and rested his chin on the top of her head.“Look sweetness, I know you want to take her place but I can’t allow that.I love you too much to watch you die.I won’t give you or him the benefit of chance that he really will let you go if you tell him what he wants to know.You’ll go in good faith but you can’t trust the man inside that building.He wants something from you and he wants to get away clean.Before prison he may have been a different man.But now...he can’t leave a witness behind.Right now, you are the only person who knows where his gold is.He can’t leave you alive to tell anyone else.He’s kept that gold secret for so long that he can’t bear the fact that someone else even knows it exists.”
Cassie nodded.“I know that but I also know that he is pushed by something else and it is not greed.He needs to protect what his family has been hiding from the rest of the world for decades, for generations really.His grandfather started getting it together, then his own father put some more gold in the pot, then it was turned over to him and his brothers.Robbie killed two of the three brothers in search of something he had no right to hold in his hands.Now Robbie is dead and that gold is still missing.Banger got out of prison and he’s looking to get back what he lost.Originally, he deserved to get it back, but he made two stupid moves.”She ticked up one finger, “One, he took me hostage.Two...”She ticked up a second finger.“He came back and grabbed Peaches.That’s the one thing that’s gonna cost him big time.”
Deke shook his head.“We didn’t put them into the ground the first time they tried this shit because we would have ended up killing more than a dozen men.That was too many bodies to bury.The MC looked like they had learned their lesson as well.And it appears that much was true anyway as I don’t think any of them came back here.But Banger’s sanity has totally slipped and he will pay for it.We should have been like Leon...”
Cassie shook her head.“Baby, you guys are not the mob.And I don’t want you to kill anyone unless it is in self-defense.It’s just not good for your soul, baby.So no, you cannot do what he does.”
Deke shook his head and gazed upward.
“I know that will be hard.You can hurt him, but no killing.”
“...how badly can we hurt him?”Deke asked.
Cassie sighed.“Badly but he has to be breathing when you’re done.”
Iceman growled.
Looking over at him, Cassie sighed again and told him, “I know that Peaches feels the same way, Ice...”
He nodded as he looked unhappy.“She has told me this before.I’m just not happy about it.She didn’t have my protection and now...”
Cassie shook her head.“It’s not that she can’t defend herself.She can and we all know this.And the whole time we were at Janelle’s place everyone called her a princess and she had me to step behind.I think over the years, she’s learned to protect herself more but between then and now her life has taken on new meaning.”
“What the hell does that mean?”Iceman asked.
Cassie turned to grab his hands and held them tight.“She has changed because of you.”
“Me?”Iceman stared at her.
Cassie smiled.“Yes you, big guy.You chose her among all the women you could have chosen, and you’ve shown her that who her family is didn’t matter to you.Then you moved from Boston to Troy because she asked you to.You asked her grandfather for respect the night you and Deke found us.He offered you more money than you could ever spend, but instead of all that, you simply asked for respect.”
Iceman shook his head.“Just so you all know, Peaches has more courage than most think.I wanted her from the moment we rescued you both.But I was the one who did not have the courage.Her family are not the Smiths or Jone’s, ya know?So I didn’t go after her.No...She came after me.She had no real fear.She just came in and dropped the gauntlet in front of me.”
Six years ago...
Heading in, she went further into the main room.Peaches looked around among all the men there and her gaze halted.
Iceman then turned to look at her.
She took him in.He had the coolest blue ice eyes she’d ever seen on a man and dark hair that contrasted them.Tall as all hell with broad shoulders.He wore jeans, a T-shirt and of course, his cut.His leather boots looked well-worn but they matched the whole image he had going.
Those cool blue orbs were taking her in too.If he was surprised to see her here, he hid it well.
She suddenly had doubts.Now that she was here and all the men in the room as well as Iceman were staring at her.A Vincinti, head on into it, no matter what.She squared her shoulders and marched over to where he stood.
As she drew close, she could feel goose bumps rise on her arms as his sapphire eyes deepened in color while they roamed over her body.
Finally, she came to a halt in front of him.
