Elicit (37 page)

Ember

Eagle Elite Book 5

Ember:
A small piece of burning coal.
Origin:
Old English, Germanic. Example: All it takes is a one tiny piece of Ember to start a flame, one small flame to burst forth into a fire. One spark, and a man’s world may implode from the inside out.

PROLOGUE

Phoenix

“
D
O IT,” MY FATHER
spat. “Or I will.”

I looked at the girl at my feet and back at my father. “No.”

He lifted his hand above my head, I knew what was coming, knew it would hurt like hell but had no way to fight back—he’d already starved me of my food for the past three days for arguing, for trying to save the girl.

His fist hit my temple so hard that I fell to the ground with a cry. The click of his boots against the cement gave me the only warning I’d have as he reared back and kicked me in the ribs; over and over again he kicked. The girl screamed, but I stayed silent. Screaming didn’t help, nothing did.

I waited until he was done—I prayed that he would kill me this time. I prayed so hard that I was convinced God was finally going to hear me and take me away from my hell. Anything was better than living, anything.

“You worthless—” Another kick to the head. “Piece of shit!” A kick to my gut. “You will never be boss, not if you cry every time you must do the hard thing!” Finally blessed darkness enveloped my line of vision.

I woke up from the nightmare screaming, not even realizing that I was safe, in my own bed. With a curse I checked the clock.

Three a.m.

Well, at least I’d only had one nightmare—that I’d remembered. I’d been living with Sergio for the past week, his house was so big that I basically took the East Wing and he took the West, said he’d hated living alone anyways. I wasn’t stupid, I knew the guy wasn’t exactly a big fan, but it worked, I needed to stay in the States while I figured shit out.

And I wasn’t ready to leave. Not when I needed to learn all I could from Nixon. Not when I had responsibility.

“Hey!” Bee barged into my room.

“Damn it!” I pulled the blankets over my naked body, my heart picking up speed at her tousled hair and bedroom eyes. Tex’s sister, Tex’s sister. My body wasn’t accepting that—physically it wasn’t accepting any information other than she was beautiful.

And it was dark.

I looked away scowling.

“I heard screaming.” Bee took a step forward, her perfume floating off of her body like an aphrodisiac or drug, making me calm, making me want something I had no business wanting.

“Yeah well.” I gave her a cold glance. “Clearly I’m fine, so you should go. Actually, why are you here? You know you live with Tex right?”

She shrugged and sat on my bed. I clenched my fists around the blankets to keep from reaching out to her.

“He’s with Mo, and they need privacy, I’m not stupid, so I asked Sergio if I could move in for a while.”

“You did what?” I asked in a deadly tone.

She grinned. “I’m your new roomie!” Bee bounced on the bed and gave me a shy look beneath her dark lashes. “Admit it, you miss our slumber parties.”

Forget the nightmare—I was looking at it.

CHAPTER ONE

Phoenix

I
F THAT GIRL TEXTED
me another picture of herself one more time I was going to lose my damn mind.

I drove like an insane asylum escapee back to Sergio’s then speeded to a stop right in front of the gate, waiting impatiently for it to open, tapping my fingers harshly against the leather steering wheel of my Mercedes C class coupe. Another gift from Luca… I would have rather had his life, than the new car every guy on the planet was salivating over.

I wanted a lot of things.

But want didn’t really belong in my vocabulary anymore.

The gate opened, slower than I would have liked since I was pissed off. I sped through the minute I saw an opening, not caring that I could possibly scratch the ridiculously expensive car and pulled to a stop right before hitting Bee.

“Damn it!” I threw open the door and slammed it as hard as I could. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You curse more now.” Bee’s eyebrows furrowed. “You know that?”

Yeah I was picking up bad habits where she was concerned, really, freaking awful bad habits. “What do you want, Bee? And didn’t we talk about the pictures? I don’t have time to respond to pictures of goats and sheep and ugly dogs. I have a business to run, a family to protect…” My voice trailed as her face scrunched up with hurt.

“I just…” She shrugged. “Thought they would cheer you up.”

“How is a turtle making it through traffic then causing a ten car pileup cheerful?” I challenged.

She smiled wide, hitting me square in the chest. “Because the turtle made it!” She danced around in front of me and clapped, then paused and arched her eyebrows in my direction.

“I’m not clapping.”

“It’s worth clapping for.”

“Turtle power,” I said through clenched teeth. “Now, was there anything else? You said something about an emergency?”

“Oh.” She waved me off. “I need help picking out my first day of school outfit.”

“Call a girl,” I snapped, walking past her.

I felt warm fingers on my arm, and before I could jerk away, I was rendered completely paralyzed by her tender grasp. Shaking, I swallowed the terror and gave her a pointed look.

Her face fell but she didn’t remove her hand. “I just… I heard they wear uniforms at Elite I just don’t want to look stupid, I only have a few choices, I mean it’s not a big deal, I just…”

Well, damn me to Hell. I sighed and hung my head. “Fine.” I’ll just try to ignore the way that the clothes hugged her body then when she was done twirling in front of me, I’d go puke in the bathroom and run ten miles to get the image out of my head. Sounded like the time of my life. Bring it on. After all, I deserved that type of torture, didn’t I?

“Yay!” She clapped again then looped her arm in mine. “Thanks, Phoenix, I knew I could count on you.”

Funny she should say that… after all, I wasn’t that guy. The trustworthy one, the accountable one, the mature one. I may as well be a body without a soul. I
t’s what I felt like most days and she did nothing but remind me… that I’d once had it all and lost it.

“Hey.” Bee nudged me. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Every day in the mirror, Bee, every day.”

“What?” Her smile fell.

I forced my own. “Nothing, let’s go pick out shoes.”

“Awesome!”

Bang Bang

PROLOGUE

Amy

“
A
X?”
I
KNOCKED
on his bedroom window and waited.

Nothing.

Fear gave into panic as I knocked harder this time. The sound of glass breaking made my palms sweat. I could still hear my parents fighting. It was always the same with them, my father wanted to be more than just an associate… A made man, that was his dream. A made man for the De Lange family. One of the worst families in the American mafia. They didn’t play by the rules anymore and my dad wanted to be a part of their game, rules or no rules.

I knocked harder. “Ax, please, it’s Amy.”

The screaming got louder. I fought the urge to cover my ears as I glanced back at the house. Slinking further into the shadows I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. I hated Chicago. As soon as I was eighteen I was going to move. I wanted to be warm, just once in my life, I wanted to be warm.

The chill of fear and death surrounded me—choked me from birth until now. I was seventeen. I only had one more year, one more year and I was running away. Ax said he’d help me, though I wasn’t sure what he could do since he was nothing but a mechanic.

Teeth chattering, I knocked one last time and prayed he was home. I’d already tried his cell but it had gone straight to voicemail.

Finally, I saw a shadow move in the window.

And then I saw his face.

It was always like the first time with Ax. He had sharp defined cheekbones, a strong jaw, full lips meant for kissing, though it’s not like I would know, I was his friend, nothing more. He was beautiful. Like the prince from a story book. I’d always thought of him as my own personal prince and he’d laughed it off saying princes in the stories never worked on cars and had grease on their faces.

“Amy?” He jerked open the window, his shirtless body stole my breath away as his muscles flexed to push the last part of the window up. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? Why the hell do you have a bruise on your cheek?”

“Too many questions.” I forced a watery smile, “Can I stay here tonight?”

He sighed, his shoulders slumping over with sadness, guilt, pity? Who knew. “Amy, this has to stop, why don’t you just move in?”

“Right.” I laughed, “Move in next door with the enemy.”

He rolled his eyes, “Just because I’m related to the Abandonato family does not make me the enemy, I’m not in the business, neither is pops, you know that.”

“Help?” I held up my arms.

Laughing, he reached over the ledge and hauled me into his room. His warm chest was all I needed, he was all I needed.

“Same fight?” He released me onto my feet, I fought the urge to sway into his arms, to lie and say I tripped. Just being in his embrace made me forget about the pain on my cheek… and the accompanied pain in my chest at the fact that my dad had hit me, again.

Ax steadied my shoulders with his hands, then softly grazed his fingers tips over my face as he reached up and touched the bruise. “I’ll kill him.”

“With a wrench?” I teased pulling away from Ax even though it was the exact opposite of what I wanted.

“Ames…” Ax swore and ran his fingers through his messy dark brown hair, “Hitting you is not okay, it’s never okay for a man to touch you in a violent way. I don’t care if you yell in hise face, I don’t care if you kick him in the junk and pull a freaking gun on him—it’s never okay for a father to touch his daughter in a way that isn’t an expression of pure love and devotion.”

“Nice words…” I bit down on my lip to keep myself from bursting into tears, “They sound pretty… a little too pretty for someone like me.”

“Amy,” Ax gripped my chin with his hand, “You deserve more than nights crawling into a losers house just because you have to escape your dad.”

I jerked away, “You’re not a loser.”

“I’m not exactly a winner either.” He smirked, “But I’m glad I’d get your vote for Homecoming King if it came down to it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hows work?”

“It’s work.” He said in a serious tone, something flashed in his eyes before he looked away and pointed to the bed, “Right or left?”

“Middle?”

Rolling his eyes he asked again, “Right or left?”

“Middle.”

“I can do this all night, Ames.”

“Funny, me too.” I crossed my arms and smirked.

He burst out laughing, “Fine, you can have part of the middle and I”ll just try not to fall on the floor, but no promises.”

I moved towards the bed, “If I hear a loud thunk I promise not to scream.”

“Right, it’s just my head shaking hands with the nighstand, no big.” He winked and pulled the covers back. “Need something to sleep in?”

“Uh, yeah.” I looked down at my jeans and white t-shirt. Self consciously pulling it over my stomach. My dad yelled at me for wearing skanky clothes but it wasn’t for lack of trying to wear normal clothes. We had no money, and I didn’t exactly have funds to keep shopping. How was it my fault I hit a growth spurt?

I hoped Ax didn’t notice the blush on my face. I was ashamed that I couldn’t even afford to go to Wal Mart.

I was even more ashamed that my father blamed me for his inability to stop gambling.

“He a made man yet.” Ax asked once we were settled into bed.

“No.” I wrapped my arm around his chest, my usual position when I spent the night. “And it’s not like things would get better even if he was, but you aren’t supposed to know any of that. It’s not like the mafia smiles on people who know their business.”

He snorted, his body tensed. “Right.”

“I mean it, Ax. I can’t lose you.”

“I’m a mechanic, hardly a threat.” He kissed the top of my head, “Now try to sleep.”

I closed my eyes and took a relaxing breath just as a loud gunshot rang my ears, jolting me awake.

“Stay down.” Ax pushed me against the bed, his body hovering over mine. His entire face changed from calm to rage in that instant. His muscles flexed as he reached into the nightstand and pulled out a .45.

“Ax?” I whispered, “Why do you have a gun?”

“Shh.” He held the gun to his lips. “I need you to be quiet.”

I nodded. Tears already pooling in my eyes.

Another gun shot rang out and then his bedroom door flew open. It was his older brother Sergio. “Time to go, covers blown.”

The door slammed shut behind him.

I stared at Ax.

He stared right back.

More gun shots.

More bursts of light.

And then Sergio was back in our room, slamming the door behind him. “So we have to go to plan B, they’re pissed we’ve been spying on them, we have to go, now!”