6. Nitro

SIX

NITRO

I can't believe she thinks she can survive alone, they offered to pay us enough money for us to know they want her dead. Why they hell does she think she can fight them. She can't.

We found nothing about her past, we know nothing about her. Everything has been erased about her whole family, there is nothing about them. Yet, I feel like she's telling the truth.

"I'm going back," I tell my brothers through the mic to my headset.

"She doesn't want our help," Ares is the first to snap at me, and I'm not shocked because he wants to be a prick whenever he can be one.

"You know they will come for her, someone-"

"She's not our problem!" Ares shouts, and I look to my left at him, even though he has his helmet on I know the look on his face. He's pissed off.

"Well I'm going back, I can't just leave her to fight these fuckers." I take the next turning to go back, and that's when I hear Ares.

"Fucking dick, I'll go with him. Tell Esha I don't know when I'll be home."

I don't hear Nyx or Tic reply, which means I'm out of range from them, and I look to my left at Ares' bike pulling up next to me at the lights.

"Thanks." Ares doesn't reply and rides off when the lights turn green.

I know she doesn't want our help, but I won't be able to live with myself if I knew something happened to her, because we weren't there tonight to look over her flat.

We park in front of the building and Ares walks into the pub, while I look up into the window. The blinds are closed, and I check my pocket to make sure my mask is in there. I might want to help her, but she doesn't need to know who we are.

"Here, now the others aren't here, talk to me." Ares hands me a beer, and we both lean on our bike, looking up at her room.

Ares might be the biggest dick I know, but one thing about him. His brothers come first no matter what. I would drop everything if they called me, I would be the first to fight for the three of them, but Ares knows when something isn't right.

"What do you want me to say?" I ask him.

"She's a target, nothing more. So, get your head out of the thoughts they're in." He drinks his beer without taking his eyes off me. I don't reply to him because I know he's right. I know she's a target.

So why they hell am I here waiting to protect her?

"Do you not think something is wrong here, though? Be honest about it." Ares starts laughing, because we all know he doesn't have a filter on his mouth. Tic's the same if you get him in the wrong mood.

"I agree something isn't right. How does a whole family just go missing from the government's system? She believes she has a sister which we can't find anywhere. Something is not right but-" Ares stops and the look on his face always has me worried, because there is always something bad coming.

"But?"

"Nitro, Nyx was looking at the system and she's a drug addict, she might be making this whole life up. Because neither of us can find anything on her." Ares looks up at the window, then takes out his phone, and starts tapping away on it, and a small laugh escapes him. "Esha said, tell Nitro to follow his gut, and to tell Ares to piss off." He looks up at me when I start laughing. "And she says he loves me." Shaking his head, he puts his phone away and drinks the rest of his beer.

"Ares, something is not right here, I just can't see anything right at the moment, but I know there is something I'm missing." I've always been able to see through things to find whatever is missing from the puzzle we get handed but with her I can't see anything.

"You're missing something because you're not thinking with your head, you're thinking with your dick. I saw how you looked at her. I don't blame you, she's a looker, but-" Ares stops and just stares at me for a second. "-Let's take one day, or night at time. Maybe Nyx can find something."

Ares walks back into the pub to get another drink it's going to be a long day. We haven't been to sleep because we came here early in the morning, and neither of us has slept, it's one in the afternoon. If someone was coming for her, they wouldn't be coming during the day.

"The landlord is going to love us when he closes, it's only one in the afternoon, we'll be drinking for most of it." Ares hands me a beer, places his on the floor, and starts rolling up a joint.

I walk over to the table to the side of our bikes, and wait for Ares to join me.

"Did you find anything else in the notepads?" I ask.

"When am I meant to be looking through it? I've been with you all night. Nitro, I promise the second I find something I'll be banging on your door." Ares lights the joint, and takes in a long drag, then hands it over to me, and I do the same.

Crazy how this is one of the ways we can forget the past, and some nights the memories are eating me up so bad. I have to do other things to make myself feel something, feel like I'm taking the demons out.

They made sure they fucked me up enough to want to crave the shit they did to me. We've killed one family, and I felt so good after that knowing the people who scarred me for life are no longer breathing the air around me. We still have more to kill, and we will. I told my brothers I want to kill one family my way, the way they've scared me. Not one of them said no, and will back me all the way.

"We're going to help Kit with another show, Tic and Nyx want to do the big show," Ares tells me, and I give him a nod telling him I've heard him.

"Is that what Tic was talking about the other night, because if it is, not sure Nyx will be up for it." We do some pretty fucked up shit when we do bike shows for Kit, and the moment our name is on the poster tickets sell out like crazy, but even what Tic wants to do is making me think it's crazy.

"I think it will be amazing-"

"You would." I laugh at him.

"And the shit we do to you is normal. Who the hell sets themself on fire?" Ares asks me, and I smile because when we do show it makes me feel more alive than I am right now sitting here drinking my beer.

"How about we just say the four of us are not right in the head." I look down at Ares' hand, and notice the bandage needs changing on his hand. "You want me to change it?" I ask him, and he shakes his head.

"Nah, it will be fine. Plus, it helps me forget when I press into it," Ares looks down at his hand in a fist. "Right, what's the plan? What if no one comes for her, are we here tomorrow too?"

I take a deep breath in and look up at the room which still has the blinds closed. She's not leaving her apartment today. I think we scared her enough for her to realise she's not safe.

"You can go home, I'm not making you stay here." We've always had the rule we never go out alone when we could be in danger, we could get outnumbered. So, I know he will be here until I finally say he was right.

"And you know I'm not leaving. If Tic or Nyx come then I might go back to Esha for a few hours, but I'll be back." He starts laughing, not answering him back I look over at the girl singing on the street. She's singing some pop song.

I haven't thought much about what I'm going to do if I'm wrong about this, the only thing I do know is I won't be able to kill her if in the end we have too.

My attention moves to Ares lighting his cigarette, and I watch the flame dance in front of me, a sight which I desire more than I should. My body shivers at the sight, taking in a few deep breaths when the flame is gone, my body tenses craving to see it again.

Now is not the time to fight my demons, but I can't seem to push them away either. I feel them on my skin trying to crawl into my blood once again, wanting to take over my day. I look at who's around me, knowing I won't be able to do anything in the daytime. I smoke more of my joint to get me through until the day turns into night, and I can ease the pain.

A flame always burns brighter in the darkness, but I have no fear of the flame, because my body craves the fire.

She hasn't left the apartment, I've not took my eyes off the window all day, and it's been a long fucking day. Three in the morning, and nothing has happened. Maybe my brothers were right, I'm overthinking this.

I look over at Ares sleeping on the bench. The man hasn't left my side, he's been on the phone to Esha a few times, but other than that he's been right next to me.

I left around midnight to realise some of the demons crawling over my skin, which made me feel alive again. Ares asked if I needed him, but I didn't. They weren't so bad, nothing I couldn't handle myself.

My eyes move to Emily's bedroom when the light comes on, and I watch hoping I can see whatevers happening inside.

"Ares." I tap him to wake him up, and he tells me to fuck off, but I tap him again. "Somethings happening." Not taking my eyes off the window, I see a shadow, a lot bigger than Emily is. "There's someone in the room."

That gets Ares up, and we both dig into our pockets and grab our masks, and move quickly knowing no one will see us as it's very early in the morning and there is no one around, and Nyx called to say the CCTV isn't working on this street or the four around it.

"How many?" Ares asks, as our computer voice kicks in.

"I saw one large shadow, that's it," I reply, opening the door to the apartment building, and we rush up the stairs.

"You get to her; I'll take the guys," Ares says as we stop by the door. I give him a nod, and kneel to pick the lock to the door.

The moment the door opens, I hear a scream, and we're both running in.

Kicking the bedroom door open, I see two men holding Emily down, while the third holds a pillow above her face. Before he can even move, Ares throws a knife straight into his neck, making him fall with blood escaping his neck. I hear him choking on his own blood, he'll be dead soon we don't need to worry about him.

The other two stand up, and walk over to us. "One stays alive," I tell Ares, who nods his head in agreement. We need some answers about what is happening here. They might be no one, and get paid the same way we did, but they also might be someone who knows who paid them.

Our system is that we never meet unless they want to, and the only time that's happened is when Hunter and Raven wanted to talk face to face. How could we say no to the man who was running for Prime Minister, and we wanted to meet the man who was a fighting machine underground. Other than them, we've never met our clients, so we have no idea who they are.

"You might want to worry about yourself walking out of here alive," one of the guys says. The one with a cut lip laughs which makes Ares and I both laugh.

"You might want to see what happened to your friend." I look over his shoulder at the dead body on the floor. My eyes glance over at Emily who has her eyes locked on me. "I see you got a punch in, little tiger." She wipes the tears away from her cheeks, and I throw a punch landing on the man's jaw.

Ares takes care of the other guy, telling me he will be the one we keep alive, meaning I get to kill a man tonight. My lips curl up into a smile, my hands fist into balls, as I punch the man again knocking him back a few steps.

I duck when he goes to throw a punch, which helps me land one on his ribs. Grabbing my knife from my pocket, and in one quick movement, I slice his chest, then kick him and he hits the wall behind him.

I press my body into his, not letting him have any space to move. The tip of my knife under his chin, taking in a deep breath of his fear. I love the smell of fear, hearing their heart pounding knowing they're about to die, you can feel their body shiver waiting for the last second to happen. This is what I love about being a ghost, the ability to end a life and not feel bad about it, knowing I've killed someone who is hurting others.

I dig the knife into his neck, and he gasps, but I don't end his life quickly, no that would be too easy, they hurt her, and I'm going to make sure he knows what pain feels like.

I dig a little more, making him scream and I feel the blood dripping down my hand, and there is nothing more satisfying than the smell of a fucking asshole's blood.

He tries to fight, but I hold his body with my free hand. Moving the knife along his throat, the cut gets deeper. Staring into his eyes watching his life leave him. Watching the fear build as he begins to take his last breath.

Listening to his breath getting weaker, and on the last breath I dig the knife through the middle of his neck, then I take a step back and let his lifeless body drop to the floor.

"Three, two for clean up, and one to ask questions." I hear Ares behind me, talking to Nyx to tell him what's happened. "We'll wait, make sure mine is okay." Not saying Esha's name, we never say names. Rule number one. No names.

I turn to face Emily who's covered herself up with the blanket, and I look over at Ares before turning back to her.

"Get dressed," I tell her, closing the door behind me as I leave the room. I don't have any worry about her running. She lives too high up the building to jump.

My eyes move to the man lying on the floor, then look at Ares. I thought he was alive.

"He's not dead, he'll come around." Ares walks over to the couch and sits down. Putting a bandana over his neck and chin, and lifting the mask above his nose, and lights a cigarette. "I could have killed him, but I didn't." He lies down, half his body not even fitting on the couch.

I turn to the door when I hear it open. She comes out in a pair of joggers and a hoodie which has rips and holes in it. Yet she still looks so fucking beautiful.

I've fucked women, I've fucked two women at the same time, yet not one of them have grabbed my attention the way this woman has, and I've not even touched her.

"So little tiger, you want some protection now?" Ares asks her, picking up on the nickname I've given her. It doesn't bother me if he calls her it, we all call Esha, Princess now and again.

"I swear I don't know anything. All I want is to find my sister." She ignores Ares and looks over at me. "I had a family, I had a life, I had plans for my life." She walks over to me, standing a lot closer than she needs to be, I look down at her, she's not small, comes to just under below my shoulders. "I know there is a part of you that believes me, otherwise you wouldn't have saved me."

I take a step back from her, because being too close to her is messing with my head space. I agree there is a part of me which believes her, but I'm not going to admit it, because I'm not sure if that part is with my head or my dick right now.

Ares's phone rings and I walk away from her. "Yes, no I'll stay, he will come back. Think he needs to step back for a while." He ends the call, and I could fight with him, but I know he's right. I need to clear my head a little away from her, and look at this situation away from her, with a clear head.

"You think it's-"

"I won't leave." Ares gets off the couch and walks over to me, and Emily walks to the kitchen. "Told you before, you're thinking with your dick, take a step back from her. I'm here, nothing will happen." I can't argue with him, because I'm thinking the same thing.

I give him a nod, and look over at Emily, and without saying a word I leave and look through everything Nyx has found, maybe I can spot something which has been staring me in the face the whole time.