Chapter 36: Chapter 36

Chapter 36

ASH

Codex.

The dying assassin's last word for where Guilang is.

Exactly what the fuck does it mean?

Can it be a code word for another word?

I've tried re-fixing it into almost a dozen different words and sent out Moro and Lobos to almost every area and street looking for the various names that could stand as whore houses.

There was Code, Docex, Doe, Oder, and so much more.

Unfortunately, they always came back with a no success rate.

Three days, and I still haven't found out what that word means. There haven't been any more attacks on the warehouse where Jia is kept, but Guilang knows, and I know as well that I'm nowhere close to figuring out where he's hiding. The fucker is bidding his time. I'd love to act cocky and say I'm doing the same, but I'm not. I'm working blind here, and he knows it. He's probably laughing to himself wherever he is and making me stew, but he better not forget. . .

I've got Jia as bait.

So the scales are going to tip in my favor soon. It's just a matter of time.

I sigh and close my eyes, and a face pops up in my mind's eye.

Hazel eyes.

I know she's not messing around with another guy, but that dude - the one Night eyes took a picture of - the same one who keeps sniffing around her, definitely wants something from her.

More like he wants to get into her pants.

What red-blooded heterosexual male wouldn't?

She's sex on wheels. A sex goddess who doesn't even know how sexy she looks. She's a bombshell waiting to explode. I smile grimly, realizing she's already exploded with me, and she's going to do more exploding, that's for damn sure. My cock twitches when I remember the feel of her body.

I groan and look down at the tent in my jeans. "Down, boy, down!"

My phone beeps twice and I pick it up.

"Boss!" Tanya's high-pitched voice filters into my ear. "I just sent you an email. It's important.

Please read it now."

And the line goes dead.

Without wasting any time, I open my email, eager to see what information she has for me.

Hi, boss,

I'm doing okay, that is if you care to know.

The Katva brothers have people they call romancers - men they plant in various universities in Los

Angeles. They're all good-looking. Once they set eyes on a girl they think is whorehouse material, they pursue her relentlessly, taking her out on dates and buying expensive gifts for her, and making her feel special.

When the girl begins to fall in love, they'll show their hands by telling her she owes the Ivanov brothers and must pay them back by working in their whore house. But get this, boss - there's no definite time to pay back that money - and so the poor girls get dragged into prostitution and their lives end up being ruined.

Pictures of some of the men are attached.

You're welcome.

I click on the attached files and immediately see pictures of young men who can be mistaken for runway models. They have the same generic looks. Handsome with symmetrical features.

My mind clouds up briefly as my hand stills on one picture in particular. A guy with long blonde wavy hair curling at the nape of his neck. When my mind begins to boot once again, I'm filled with a rage so red, I'm not able to see straight for a few seconds.

It's fucking Goldilocks boy. The same boy that's been sniffing around hazel eyes.

I wait for the rage to simmer before I dial her number. My blood cools a bit when I hear her soft voice. "Ash? What a pleasant surprise."

"Hey, kitty, you done with lectures yet?"

"Not yet, I've still got one more left." She tries to stifle a yawn but it comes out anyway.

"Skip it! Im coming to pick you up now."

She lets out a gasp of surprise. "Are you fucking with me?"

"No! But I'd like to be fucking you."

She exhales sharply before she falls silent. I know my words have gotten her feeling hot. I'd give anything to see her face right now, knowing full well her cheeks would be tinged with pink.

Other girls blush ugly, but she -

That isn't part of her anatomy. There's no trace of ugliness in her. Perhaps, that's where the problem lies.

"Okay," She finally replies. Her voice is small, but I can sense an underlying hint of excitement.

I nod as if she can see me, and cut the call immediately.

There are only three things that revolve in my world - loyalty, money, and death. But then she happened. Hazel eyes.

Do I love her? I don't know.

The better question would be do I even know what love is?

In a moment of weakness, I'd told her I loved her but now I regret it.

Alicia deserves to be loved by someone who believes that love even exists. She needs to be worshipped and made someone's number one priority. She shouldn't take a backseat to anything, because she's everything.

She's what futures are made of.

But I'm a selfish son of a bitch and I want her. So while we're together, for however brief that time is, I want her. All of her.

I shake my head and close my eyes. "Oh, hazel eyes, what am I going to do with you?"

When I open them once again, I dial another number.

"Rip, I've got a job for you and Capo. Listen up. . . "

*

I get to the gate of the school and drive inside. It's a big campus, and if I don't stop to ask someone for directions, I'll probably get lost. That may be so but I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone but her, so I keep driving.

I almost miss her, until I see the jet-black hair flowing down the length of her back, and the black tight Jeans molding those hips. I can look at them forever. . .

That is, until she turns and I see the look on her face.

I swerve the car to a stop right in front of her and come down without even switching off the ignition. "Mia Cara!" The words roll off my tongue before I can stop myself. "What's wrong?"

Her face looks like rain. She's clearly upset about something and also worried. She shakes her head as if she's just coming out from a stupor. "I just witnessed two men taking . . ." Her brows furrow as if she's confused about what next to say. "One of my coursemates. Donald. . . yeah, that's his name."

She looks up at me as if realizing I'm here for the first time. "It's the same guy whose picture you showed me some days ago."

That means Rip and Capo are on the situation. Good.

Although, it still doesn't stop the anger that spikes through me on hearing how upset she sounds about him. I shake my head and grab her by the wrist and walk her to the car. "Get in and belt up."

I walk to my side of the car and put the car back in motion. She's quiet beside me as I navigate the car toward the gate. Students pour out through it as I get close, blocking me from driving further. I horn severally, eliciting annoying looks from some of them. Once I see a clear path, I take it and speed off.

"Please tell me you don't have anything to do with this?"

Her voice comes out small. As if she's begging me to be anything other than the black heart that I am.

I feign ignorance and turn to her with a cock of my brow. "Anything to do with what?"

She closes her eyes and releases a sigh before opening them once again. "The men who took Donald. Are they yours?"

There's no point in hiding it. "Yes!" I reply in a clipped tone. "What about it?"

She exhales sharply. "What do you want with him?" I already promised you I wouldn't sleep around with him or any other person. I mean, I'm not even like that, but kidnapping-"

I let out a harsh laugh, cutting off her words. "Kidnapping? Oh hazel eyes, couldn't you have come up with something more? Something darker, perhaps?"

From the corner of my eyes, I watch as realization settles on her features and her face morphs into a horrific mask. "No! It can't be. Please tell me you're not planning on killing him."

My silence is enough answer for her.

"You're a monster!" She shrieks. "How could you? All because of jealousy?" She begins to pelt me with her fists. They're not doing any obvious damage, but it could cause me to become seriously distracted, which could in turn make us have an accident.

That - I don't want.

I swerve the car wildly to the side of the road and put it in park before I turn to face her, holding her two hands in mine. "Cut this shit out now and listen good, because I'm not going to say this twice. Goldilocks. . . "

Her brows cloud with confusion and I realize she doesn't have an inkling of who I'm talking about. "Donald is a paid personnel of the Russian mafia. He wanted to recruit you into one of their whorehouses. Lucky for you, I found out just in time. That party he took you to wasn't an induction ceremony for the school. It was an induction ceremony for fucked-up rich men to pick and choose whichever girl, or girls they wanted to fuck that night. Lucky for you, I sent Night eyes there just in time before any real damage could take place. Yeah! You're fucking welcome."

I let go of her hands before I turn back to the steering and begin driving once again. She doesn't say a word, not even when I drive to my place and stalk off, leaving her inside the car. I wave off my housekeeper when she asks if I want any food and head straight for the bar. I pour half a glass of whiskey and down it immediately, relishing the burn in my throat and the heat in my stomach. A shadow falls on me but I don't need to look up to know who it belongs to.

"I'm going to bed."

At 6 pm?

"Suit yourself," I say shrugging.

Childish as fuck reply, but whatever.

She walks away, leaving me to wallow in pity by myself. I take another half glass of whiskey before walking upstairs. She's not in the room when I get there but I hear the shower going. My body reacts before my mind does. I have half a mind of joining her, but if I do, I'll fuck her the way she wouldn't like. She might walk out on me after that, and even though I'm pissed at her, I don't want that to happen. So I change into shorts and head down to my in-house gym.

Need to work out this anger somehow.

I avoid the bench press machines, treadmills, and all other electrical devices and head, instead, to the punching bag in the corner. I would much rather have someone else I could punch, but this will have to do for now.

It's hung from the ceiling like a huge brown plastic bat. I pick up the boxing gloves at the foot of it and wear them, wasting no time in punching the life out of it.

You're a monster.

That right there is the source of all my anger.

She sees me as a monster.

Fuck, yeah, I'm one.

Punch.

There are fucking monsters everywhere in the world.

Punch. Punch.

You've got to be a special type of monster to ride this world or you become the prey.

Punch. Punch. Punch.

Fuck if I want to become one.

Punch. Punch. Punch. Punch.

My surroundings disappear as I mentally go back in time to my fighting days.

I don't know how long I punch the bag, but I feel someone behind me.

"Looks like you need someone to spar with." I turn, coming face to face with Lobos. "Let me be that person." He says matter of fact.

I smile grimly because he knows I don't want to spar.

I want to maim and kill.

"It's your funeral." I shrug.

It's his turn to smile grimly.