28. Nitro

TWENTY-EIGHT

NITRO

A long night, I mean every night is long when you don't sleep, but it's even longer when you spend all night looking through the files then going to bed for an hour. Emily's first night in my bed, and I didn't even get to touch her. This was not the way I was planning my first night with her in my bed.

The commissioner's name was in a few of the files which we put to the side. THe guys wanted to look into the files, but I told them we need to at least shut our eyes for an hour or so. Fresh eyes in the morning or after work. All the letters were looking the same to me, by the time we had them in piles.

When I went to bed, I knew Ares wasn't going because the man had just filled up on coffee and a notepad in hand.

Making my way downstairs, I go straight to the kitchen, and give Emily a kiss. "Morning, little tiger." It's so good to have her here now. I get to kiss this beautiful woman whenever I want.

"Morning. Scrambled eggs on toast?" she asks, giving me a nod. I grab the coffee pot, and fill the mug to the rim. "How much did you sleep?" she asks which makes me laugh.

"We don't. I got an hour." Walking away from her I join Esha and Tic at the table. "Where are Nyx and Ares?" I ask, they don't have work this early. My first client isn't in for about two hours, and Nyx still has a while too. So they aren't in the shop.

Esha points, and I look over at the door leading to Tic's bedroom, they're talking but quietly. Turning back to Esha I glance over at Tic to ask if he was okay last night, if it was bad I would have heard something.

"He was fine. Ares didn't come to bed last night, he was up all night reading. I've not even said morning to him." Esha looks back over at them both, and I lean back in my seat, taking the joint from Tic.

"It's fine, they...they will...tell us." Tic leans closer to the table and drinks his coffee.

"You good?" I ask him, and pull out the chair for Emily as she sits down, placing the bowl of scrambled eggs, and toast on the table. "Tic, you good?" I ask him again.

"Good." He smiles, and looks over at Emily, and says nothing and starts eating. Tic takes some time to adjust to people but once he does, the man is loyal to them.

Leaning back in my seat, I watch Ares and Nyx talking. It doesn't look like a good conversation, because Ares is pissed off, he's waving the book around as he is trying to get through to Nyx about it.

"I promised!" Ares shouts.

"I know, you're right," Nyx replies, and then they both look at the table, and Ares shakes his head. They walk over to the table, and I hope they will share with the group whatever it they've found.

Nyx pulls out a chair, and sits down leaning back on the chair, Ares sits next to Esha and rolls up a joint. The man needs to fucking sleep, even an hour will help him. Looking for my parents, and now Emily's sister, it's too much for him.

"Commissioner Patrick Hills, is a founding member of the Organisation, handed down from family-" Ares starts, and I stop mid air as I plate some eggs for myself. "- his dad, and grand-dad were also the Commissioners." He stops and everyone at the table stares at him.

"So, they brought themselves to the top of the police department?" Esha asks, because I'm trying to work out where all this is going.

"Have we just found another family?" I ask.

"We have found another family. The Hills are the Eros family. That's not all-" Ares shifts his chair, turning to Nyx before turning back to everyone at the table. "Patrick's dad, who I found out is working within the government,-" Ares stops again, and shakes his head. "The notepads say he was one of the members who liked the company of the younger girls. He got one girl pregnant, she had twins. A boy and a girl." He stops and locks eyes with me, and my whole body goes numb, the spoon drops from my hand. I knew I was born in the hell hole, there wasn't any doubt about it in my head. "Your-"

"They aren't anything to me, I just wanted to find out...where I came from. Now I...know." I pick my spoon back up and eat my breakfast.

The blood running through me is of those sick bastards. I shake my head trying to get the thoughts out of my head.

"Do you want to know more?" Ares asks.

I continue to eat my breakfast, because I don't know if I do. I wanted answers, just didn't think these would be them.

"They gave her a choice, you all stay there, or she picks one and leaves. There is no name on her, but-" Ares stops talking when I look up at him. "-I'll look-"

"I'm heading out." I push my plate away, kiss Emily and walk towards the door.

"No, I'll go." I hear Ares, but I leave the house, get on my bike, and ride off. Fuck knows where, but I need to clear my head.

I can't believe this is where I come from. The blood which runs through my body is of those sick bastards.

My headset beeps letting me know Ares is close enough to talk to me, but I don't hear him talk. He doesn't know what to say, because he doesn't know what I'm thinking.

I'm riding around until I'm at the spot I like to go to when I need a moment to myself to clear my head.

Maybe I should have stayed with my brothers, talked to them, but my head is so confused even I don't know what the fuck to say to them.

Taking my helmet off, I turn the engine off and take in a deep breath, as I take in the view in front of me. Ares stands next to me in silence, lighting up his smoke, then handing it to me.

"I should have left it-" I say, taking in a long drag of the cigarette. "-answers just fuck with your head."

"And we all know you wouldn't have rested until we found something." Ares turns to face me, but I continue to look at the view.

This place is always somewhere I come when I need to clear my head. With everything we do, the thoughts in my head, here I get some sort of peace for a moment.

"I have evil-"

"Don't even finish that sentence," Ares snaps at me, and I finally turn to face him.

"How can I look you three in the eyes and not think what he did to-" I stop when Ares pushes me hard, knocking some air out of me. "-what the man whose blood is in me did."

"Shut the fuck up, Nitro. What are you doing? You have his blood, so fucking what? You're not them, you don't know them, they are fucking nothing. You're my brother, we are your family. that's all that matters, nothing else."

"My head is all over the place," I take another drag, letting the smoke settle in my lungs, and it escapes as I talk. "I wanted to know, I just didn't think it would be a founder. I was hoping it would have been some random woman, they fucked up-"

"Nitro it was a random woman-"

"No Ares! I prayed you'd find out I was taken. My mother and father loved me, they looked for me. But no, a monster is my-"

"A piece of shit, Nitro. He is a fucking monster, yes. But that's not you, you save kids from people like him." Ares steps closer to me, grabbing my face so I look at him. "You are not him, fucking hell, Nitro. If it wasn't for you Emily would be dead, does a monster fight for someone only because they knew it felt wrong. No." Ares lets go of my face and I stare at him. "This is a lot of information, it's fucked up, but you're not them, this is your family. This is the family who will kill for each other, and would never let each other fall. Remember that."

Turning my back on him, I look out at the view. I know Ares is right, they are my family, and that's all that should matter, but why do I keep thinking about her, the woman who left me.

"Do you know who she is?" I ask, then light up a smoke, because I need to numb as much as I can in my body. Because I can feel them crawling to the surface.

"You want me to find her, I'll start looking." I hear him behind me, and I shake my head.

"Leave it, she left me-" I turn to face him, and take his jacket off already knowing what I need. "I didn't mean enough to her to care, so why should I?" He locks eyes with me, also not believing the words I've said. I don't know what to say to him, I want to know, but a bigger part doesn't care about her enough to give my brother the headache.

"You say the word, today, tomorrow, a month, a year, and I'll find her." Ares walks closer to me, takes the joint from me, and places it between his lips.

"We get to kill another family." The thought of killing another family of the organisation, does bring a smile on to my lips. I can't believe we found a family, the fucking commissioner, killing him will not be easy. The things I had planned for a family, we can't do that to him, or can we?

"We just need to figure out how to kill them, even how to get close to him." Getting close to him will be hard as he is never in public alone. "We also get something from the eye tonight." Ares looks over at me, as I throw my jacket on the ground.

Knowing who my father is, knowing the bastard who birthed me is also the bastard who hurt me is killing me. He threw me to the devil and enjoyed it. Knowing he watched them touch me, makes me want to burn my skin off. So I can burn his touch, burn everything evil crawling through me.

Taking my shirt off, I turn to Ares watching me, eyes on my bandage which I'm still trying to heal from when I punched him and felt like shit. Fuck I still feel like shit about it. The brother who hasn't slept, hasn't spent time with Esha, the brother who would burn anything which came in my way for me, I hit him. I regret it so much.

Shaking my head, I take a long drag of the smoke, closing my eyes for a moment, hearing Ares walk closer to me.

I don't flinch when I feel the tip of his knife on my skin, he rips the bandage off. Opening my eyes, Ares stares at my burn, before looking up at me, and taking the smoke he shakes his head, and then blunts out the joint on my already burned skin.

Fuck that hurt more than is fucking needed to. My skin isn't healed, not close to being healed,and Ares knows it too. He won't stop, not until he knows I feel a little better about this fucked up situation.

Digging through his jeans pockets, he pulls out a small flame lighter, and I smile to myself when I hear it come on. We don't have the cream which lets me take on more, so I know this is going to hurt, and burn bad.

I jolt my body back when the flame hits my skin, the millions of nerves sending a panic to my brain, but I don't move. They need to burn. My hands are balled up into fists, holding the pain in.

I can smell the skin burning, and the pain from the torture is stopped, but the lingering pain through my nerves starts to make my body shiver.

I collapse to my knees and Ares walks behind me. My hands are on the ground, I'm panting for some air, as I fight the pain, fight the burning sensation that is moving over my skin.

Before I can get used to the pain, I scream when the skin on my back burns, my hands giving up on me, as my body begins to crumble. I'm not even sure if I'm screaming anymore, not able to hear myself, as the smell of burning flesh hits me.

"Enough!" Ares shouts, but I think he's been shouting it for a while now, because he's sitting in front of me, and cups my face. "Nitro?" he shouts.

"I'm good, you've never gone too far, I know you won't now." I sit on the grass, and close my eyes wanting to feel the pain moving over my skin for a little longer. Wanting the demons to burn, wanting them to scream in pain.

"I know we have to have a clean kill, but I can't. I want him to feel what they did to me, want him to know he didn't break me." I roll up another joint, sitting up straight so my skin doesn't wrinkle up with the burns.

"I know, and he will. Let's get some back story on them and we can go from there." Ares flicks the flame torch on and I light up the joint, then take the torch from him. "Don't even think about it, all this is going to take weeks to recover."

"I know, just want to look at the flame-" I stop when his phone starts ringing.

"Hello...I'll take his clients, he will be resting...we'll talk tonight, pub?" Ares ends the call, and leans back on his elbows. "I can see why you come here, a little bit of peace."

"Yeah, I found it years back. Are you going to be nice to Emily?"

"I am nice, and I'm not the one who left her in the house on her first day-" Ares lets out a roar of laughter, and I smile. Fuck she's going to hate me for a while. "And you can't even make it up to her, you're body is fucked for at least two nights."

"Don't worry, I'll figure something out, you didn't answer my question." Ares is loyal, but the man is not easy to win over. I give it to Esha who got him locked in from the start.

"I am nice-" I burst out laughing, if this is him being nice, don't want to see him being an ass to her. "Come on, get cream on them. Get Emily to make you feel better. I've got your clients today." Ares gets up, and I take another look at the view before I grab my shirt, which is going to be a fucking bitch when I take it off.

"Ares-"

"If you're going to say sorry about the other night, I'm going to fucking punch you." He turns to face me, and all I can do is give him a nod. He doesn't want to hear it, this is just something I will have to forgive myself for.

Now we work on a plan to get rid of another family, and hope to save some kids along the way.

The pub is quiet today, which isn't the worst thing after the day I've had. Emily was so happy when I told her we were coming to the pub tonight., It's the first time in awhile she's been out in the public and not hiding. Ares said he would be over once he finishes up the client, which should be any minute now.

Once I got back to the house, Emily put cream on my burns, and asked about how they got there. I explained to her how Ares and Nyx help us when we need it, and I thought she would say something, but no, she just started crying.

I asked her what was wrong, and all she said was how the four of us have the best family she has ever seen. I told her we are there for each other, then she just lied down next to me, telling me about how her life was before the organisation took her sister, and her.

She did have the life anyone would have loved, and they took it from her.

"Esha, you okay?" I turn to face her, rubbing her forehead, when Nyx asks her, and she nods her head to the door, making me look over my shoulder.

"Oh fuck," I whisper to myself, but Emily hears me and looks over to see who it is.

"Detective, how can we help you?" Nyx is the first to speak. It's best Tic and I don't speak, because we both want to kill him.

"I'm looking for Ares." He looks between the three of us, then holds his stare on Esha, which pisses me off.

"As you can see she's not him, get your eyes off her," I snap at him, making him laugh at me.

"Or what?" He taunts.

I stand up, taking a step closer to him. "Nitro, leave it." Nyx tells me, but I keep my stand for a moment. The asshole is pushing it, there has to be a way we can get rid of him.

"Mr. Black!" Asshole shouts, and I finally take a step back.

"Detective, are you starting to miss me?" I hear Ares walking to the table. He leans down and gives Esha a kiss, orders himself a beer before sitting down. "You wife need fucking?"

The detective is up to something, we just don't know what. It's starting to piss us all off. We have a feeling he is watching us more, which also makes our night activities harder because we have to make sure checks before we leave.

"I'm going to enjoy wiping that smile off your face." He starts digging through his pockets and throws a piece of paper on the table.

Ares doesn't touch it, but thanks Owen for his beer and sips on it. Nyx leans forwards, takes the paper and reads it, while I watch to see what game the bastard is playing.

"Mr. Black you are under arrest-"

"For what?" Ares smiles at him, acting as if this hasn't pissed him off, but it has. It's pissed us all off.

"There was a hit and run, a bike matching yours so we have to ask questions." He gestures his hand for Ares to stand up, but he continues to drink his beer.

"And what time was this accident?" Ares asks.

"Oh, you can ask you questions at the station-" Oh fuck the smile he is giving Ares is not good. I quickly glance over to Nyx, then Ares. We all know what this means. "-stand up, hands behind your back."

Ares takes in a deep breath, and turns to Esha leaning in closer to her, and he whispers something to her, and she gives him a nod. Ares stands up, turns around and smiles while he gets cuffed.

Ares looks towards me and Nyx, and without him saying a word I reply.

"I'm on it." We need to call Wesley to get his brother at the station quickly, before he can have fun with Ares.

He takes a quick look around and stops at Emily. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself in for with this lot." Emaily moves closer to me as they leave the pub, and I've got the phone to my ear before the pub door closes.

"What was that?" Emaily asks.

"Someone who hates Ares, and does a few fucked up things to him too-" I stop talking and look at Nyx who looks at the time. "You need to get to the station, he's taken Ares." I end the call, and shake my head. "An hour, maybe two."

"So he just has fun with him whenever he likes?" Emily looks over at Esha as we all do, who checks her watch too.

"Yeah, then he goes to a dark place for a while. Esha, are you going to be okay when he gets home?" Nyx asks her, and I put my hand up to let Owen know we would like a few more drinks.

"Yeah-" she gives us a smile, which none of us are buying. "-just hope he's back so I can help him and not you." She looks at Nyx, and he takes her hand and pats it a few times.

"Can...can we...kill him?" Tic asks, and I laugh. If only it was that simple.

Esha put in a complaint about him, but he is still there, which we knew was going to be a long shot, he seems to have some power in the department.

I lean in closer to Emily and give her a kiss on the cheek which makes her smile.

"So, is this the fun you guys get up to?" Emily asks, and everyone at the table starts laughing, even Esha.

"You need to watch them do a show, it's the craziest thing I've ever seen," Esha answers Emily's question.

"A show?" she questions, and I lean back grabbing my beer as I do.

"When we first got out we didn't know what we wanted to do, Wesley told us about this man he knows and how he owns a stunt show. The show travels around England, we went to watch it and loved it. We spent a few years with them, before we got the shops." I take a sip of my beer, and Nyx continues the story.

"We do high flying bike stunts, Tic and I are doing the next show, it should be fun. This crazy fucker has a stupid idea, which he will do even if I say no."

"I...it will be fun." Tic finally joins in on the conversation. "And you...you will catch me."

I shake my head, now we do some fucked up shit, but what Tic has planned even has me worried about it.

"The show I went to," Esha hands Emily her phone, and I lean in closer. "Ares and Nitro." Emily presses the play button, and I watch what we did, smiling remembering how it felt flying through the air. Sometimes I do miss that life.

"Oh my God, when are you doing these things?is Nyx doing this?" Emily looks at me, and all I can do is smile. Best part of the show. "Are you fucking kidding me? Is this what you do for fun?" Now I do laugh, and she shakes her head watching the video again. "You four really do put your life in each other's hands." She hands the phone back to Esha, and leans in closer to me.

Looking down at my watch, I turn to Nyx. "What time are you leaving?" I ask him. She should be finishing work soon.

"I'm not, not until Ares is home-" I start laughing at him, which pisses him off. "-fuck you, she has a boyfriend-"

"Who you don't like or trust." He looked into this boyfriend the moment he found out his name, and hated him within thirty seconds.

"You're a prick." Nyx grabs his beer, and turns to Esha. "Hey Princess, he'll be fine."

Esha smiles at him. "If you sounded more believable I might believe you. You guys want another drink?" Esha gets up once we tell her we do.

The three of us look between each other, but say nothing. We don't know what will happen when Ares gets back, but we know it won't be good.

"Tic, go help her." I look at Esha struggling to get the drinks over. "She's going to be worried all night, hope it doesn't cause a migraine."

"We've got her, we look after each other." Nyx stands up taking the glasses off Esha, who thanks him.

"Do you know when the next show is, Jaya wants to come?"

"I'll ask Kai, he wants it in the summer. Do you want to go watch a film?" I ask her, and a small chuckle escapes her mouth, and she shakes her head.

"You have an appointment with the doctor, I'm sure we'll get a number from it tonight, unless you have better things to-" She points to me, then looks over at Nyx. "And if you're not going to check on your long distance girlfriend, I'm sure you have research to do on the commissioner, because I was going to help you and Tic, drink some even more, or smoke something. You're quiet, and I don't like it." Esha looks between the three of us.

The three of us burst out in laughter, a full on laugh. "Soon we're going to have two of them, god help us," I say leaning over to grab my beer.

"And you love me, so how about we stop worrying about me, and get the job done." Esha looks at me and Nyx, because Tic is too busy watching some show. "I have a notepad ready to write everything down, Nitro you better get going if you want to be there when he takes the lens off." She taps her wrist, even though she's not wearing a watch and it makes me smile.

"I'm going." I stand up and take Emily's hand so she follows me out. Leaning on my bike, I pull her closer to me. "It shouldn't be too long, depending on how long it takes the doctor to get it out. Do not leave the house without one of them-" I stop talking when she kisses me, her hands wrapped around my neck, moving along the tattoo we all have.

"I won't leave, but when you get back do we get to have some fun, I'm starting to miss something." Emily presses her body against mine, making sure my friend in my pants gets excited.

"Fuck yes, do I get to fuck your mouth tonight?" I kiss her again, it will be fucking nice to have a night in my bed with my girl, which I don't seem to be getting at the moment.

"Ready?" Nyx asks as he exits the pub, and I give him a nod. "Before you go, when is the next appointment with the doc for Emily?"

"Tomorrow, why?" I grab my helmet from my bike, I parked it here knowing I was going to see the doctor tonight, just didn't expect this shit to happen with Ares.

"New plan. She needs to take her back to them, where they lived, make sure she listens to the conversation. Anything, she's blocked things out, maybe she can open that part." Nyx turns to Emily and smiles. "You might give us a location and we need it."

"I'll do it. Anything to help, anything to find my sister." Emily gives me a kiss. "Don't be too long."

"Don't plan on it."

"Mask on, and drive by Wes' house." Nyx pats my back, giving him a nod. I get on my bike, and hope the doctor can give us something. A fucking full number would be amazing to get, because then we can track where it was brought from, and with me and Nyx can find anything out on the computer .

We are going to be one step closer to killing another family.