They stop, and I can smell my skin burning.

  “So that is the sound of the devil screaming.” William lifts my face up. I don’t have the strength to keep it up and he has to hold it there. The pain is too much for me.

  I hear the raging sound of the torch again, and I close my eyes as they burn my stomach again. My scream comes out loud. This is a pain like I've never felt before, and I vow to repay them tenfold for this.

  I wake up in an empty room. I must have passed out while they burned my skin. They tallied me, too. My body is in agony. I feel as though my muscles are still numb. When I look down to where they burned me, I see that it's all bandaged up.

  "Angel, hey, you there?" I hear Alice call out.

  I look over to her and see the only person who keeps me from going crazy.

  "You know, one night I'm going to handcuff you to me so I won't wake up to an empty bed." She moves in closer to me, and I pull her tight to me so she is leaning on the rail. My hands settle onto her waist.

  “Can I cuff you to the bed first?” I ask her, and she starts laughing.

  “Sorry, I’m not really into all that, but can I please wake up one morning with my boyfriend next to me?” Alice reaches up and gives me a kiss.

  Boyfriend, a word that has never been used with me. As much as I like her only being with me, I want to change the word boyfriend to something else. Boyfriend sounds very high school to me.

  I don't know how to tell her that I can't sleep, which keeps me awake and restless at night. I have a feeling she already has an idea. She's seen the tally marks on my back, but has yet to ask about them.

  “Vinny will take you to work. I have to go in a little early,” I tell her.

  For the next few days, I'm going back to the dark side, a side I don't really want her to see. I've told Vinny he needs to make sure she is watched at all times. My mind is already on one too many things. I need to know Vinny is watching her so I can have these few days to work on a plan to take down the Young family and find out why they are doing this. I want this part to end, now.

  “You okay?” Alice’s hand moves through my hair. “I’m always here when you want to talk.”

  Her eyes look to mine. If I could have one wish right now, it would be that Alice could read my mind. It would be easier for me than to tell her about my time in prison in words.

  "I know. I have to meet Pike. I will see you at the bar." I give her a kiss, and turn to walk away, but she stops me. "Yes?" I give her a smile as she places her hands on my chest.

  “If we’re not going to be having morning sex anytime soon, I think you owe me, some afternoon...something.” Alice moves her hands down my chest to my trousers.

  Frowning, I know I shouldn’t. Pike is waiting outside. Dad wants to talk. But she looks so beautiful right now.

  “You’re going to get me in trouble.” I pick her up and she wraps her legs around my waist as I make my way back into the house.

  “But it will be worth it,” she says against my lips, and I know she’s right.

  It will be worth it, because I'm about to go into heaven, where nothing can touch me.

  ***

  I lean back in my office chair. The bar opens soon. After my meeting with my family, I came straight here while Pike went to get William.

  Dad got in touch with Uncle Ronnie, and he agreed to come back to the family. He is finding out for us now why the Young family is out for our blood.

  I take in another drag of my cigarette and stare at the ceiling. I think about how my time with William will start. Dad said he wanted to meet the man who played games with the Frost family.

  “William is here,” Pike says as I take another drag. “Angel,” Pike says again when I don’t respond.

  “I heard you,” I snap.

  I hear more footsteps walking into the office, and know it’s my dad and brothers without looking. They all want to see William and show him that my family is here.

  “Hey, you seem off today…”

  "It's nothing," I interrupt. I know I've been a lot quieter with everyone the last two days, but sometimes it is best to only share your thoughts with yourself. Why share the darkness if you don't have to?

  "Son, I know talking is not what you do, but even I've seen that you're more lost in yourself," my dad says.

  "Shall we go tell William what the first part of his time at our place is going to be?" I ask, standing up and grabbing my jacket. I walk over to the window and see Alice and Vinny laughing with some of the other staff members.

  Her smile is my everything. Who knew that a simple smile could save a man like me?

  Walking down to the basement, I give Craig a nod as he stands with the door open. There William sits on a chair in the middle of the room.

  "You've already met my brothers. This is my dad," I tell William. He doesn't break eye contact with me. I smile at his false strength. I can see the fear in his eyes. "Remember when you said ‘you have no family in here'? Well, looks like you have no one here," I say. He has no one looking for him. No one will care that he will die in a few days. No one will miss him.

  ”My wife…”

  "Pike fucked her last night, and every night for the last two weeks," I say, cutting him off. He thinks she loves him, but she's wanted to leave him for a long time now.

  William's gaze moves behind me to Pike, then back to me. "You will be here for four days. Which is kinder than the six days you kept me." I stop, and see that he knows exactly which week I’m talking about. “I’ve made a nice playlist for you. I hope you got your beauty sleep.”

  My dad stands in front of me and punches William in the face, then again and again.

  "We will see you in four days," I say, leaving the room. We all make our way back to my office. "What's the question?" I ask. I can hear them all whispering behind me.

  "Six days, no sleep?" Elijah asks.

  "Six days with almost no sleep I got in an hour or two, no food, and only one bottle of water a day. Going that long with only a few hours of sleep between being beaten and nearly killed each day…it can do funny things to the mind and can really fuck you up," I tell them. I turn around to face them as I lean on my desk. "There are three things that will happen to him. This is one of them. The second will be him spending some time in a freezer, half an hour, then…"

  “You burn him,’ Warren says, completing my sentence. The burn on your stomach?”

  "Yeah. They put me in a freezer, then torched me. I know it would be quicker to put a bullet in his head, but I want to make him feel some of what he did to me, so I picked three of the things I hated the most." I stop for a moment and I break eye contact with them. "That is all you need to know." I push myself off the desk and walk over to the window and I see the bar start to fill up.

  I turn slightly as Elijah stands next to me. "The only thing that made my days go by was knowing that I had you all waiting for me, and the fact that I knew you would be lost without me," I joke to make light of the conversation.

  "I know you don't want to talk to any of us, but if we see that it's starting to get too much for you, she must notice too. Maybe…"

  "No. I can't. Not yet," I say.

  "Maybe some good news would be nice for you then. Gwen and I have been talking, and I told her I want you to be our son's god-dad. If anything happens to me, you’ll make decisions for her and the baby, and Gwen agreed. We have it in writing." Elijah takes a piece of paper from his pocket and I smile.

  “You know I won’t say no.” I give him a hug. Yes, that is a good piece of news that I needed.

  “Are you going to sign it?” Elijah waves the paper in front of me.

  I take the paper and pen from him and sign the papers. "You know I'm giving him his first gun," I say.

  "And if we had a daughter?" he questions.

  "Then I’ll give her, her first gun," I say as I walk away from him.

  I glance around the room at everyone. "So what's happened with the drugs?" I ask as I stop to stand by the chess board. There are more pieces moved now. We have got closer now that we know the Midlands are a part of this.

  "They go up in flames at midnight," Pike replies. He starts to knock down some of the pawn pieces, but I stop him. One thing my grandad told me was to never take the piece off until you know it has been crushed.

  “Not yet,” I tell him.

  He puts his finger to his ear, telling me that one of the guys downstairs is talking to him. “Ronnie is here.” Pike tells the bouncer to let Ronnie up.

  We all look at the door as Uncle Ronnie walks in a few minutes later. "Where is the surprise party? I'm back," he shouts at us. He moves around the room, giving us all a hug. "I see prison left its mark," he says when he reaches me. He gestures at my eyes.

  “Thought I would try something new,” I tell him.

  He shakes his head before getting serious. “So, are we going straight into business, or are we going to have a beer or two first?” Uncle Ronnie asks.

  I wait for dad to answer for us.

  “Give us a brief, first. The Young family?” my dad asks.

  "So far, all I know is that is has something to do with a girl named Catherine. She died and they blame you. She was the daughter of Ross’s sister."

  "What does his niece have to do with us?" I ask. We've never even seen her.

  We've never hurt women. Ever.

  "I've got a picture." He starts looking through his phone, and I look over at my dad, wondering how this involves us. The pieces aren't fitting. "Here," Uncle Ronnie says as he offers me his phone.

  I take the phone and look at the picture. Oh, shit. I look over at Elijah. "This isn't Catherine. This is Amy Holmes."

  "What?" Elijah takes the phone. "They must have it wrong. She wasn't part of the Young family. I was with her for years. I would have known," Elijah says. Just seeing her picture has hit him hard. Her death broke him. It took him a long time to even feel like he could breathe again.

  “I’m looking into the story I heard, but I think it's true. Catherine’s mum wanted nothing to do with the life of the Young family, so when Catherine got older, her mum changed her name and brought her to this part of London. Despite all of that, Catherine still fell in love with a man her mother never wanted her to be with, and paid the price with her life. Even though you killed the ones responsible for her death, they have always blamed the Frost family. They got someone to plant drugs in the car. They wanted Elijah in prison so they could kill him, but Angel took the blame, so they had to change their plans. They're still after Elijah's blood, and won’t give up any time soon." Uncle Ronnie watches us try to process everything.

  “That was years ago,” Warren says.

  “You’re not the easiest family to get close to. Never have been. They tried a few times to get to you, but no luck. They got to you in prison, and used the time while you were locked up to plan,” Uncle Ronnie says and I just shake my head.

  "Elijah, go home, talk to Gwen. She needs to know about this, and we will try to get a meeting with the Young family to tell them our side. We’ll see if we can solve this without blood being spilt," I say. Gwen needs to know he has a target on his back. As much as we protect each other, we aren't always there.

  “And how are we going to get them to agree?” Elijah snaps at me.

  “I don’t know yet. We will think of something.” This is all I need on my mind at the moment. “But your wife is pregnant, and she needs to—”

  "Elijah, Angel is right. Gwen needs to know, and we will talk to them. We will come up with something," my dad says as he walks over to him. "We will work on something."

  I leave my dad to talk to him and look out the window again. I see Alice laughing with Drew and Ellie, who are sitting on the other side of the counter.

  “If you’re meeting them, I’m coming with you,” Elijah shouts.

  “Only a few of us will go. Ronnie will see if we can get them to talk to us, and we will go from there,” my dad says.

  I turn to face them as they continue to talk about getting a meeting set up. After a while, Elijah finally agrees to leave, as long as we call him the moment we know what time we’re talking to the Young family. I look over at Pike and Warren. They watch Elijah leave the office, then we all wait for my dad to say something.

  "Ronnie, can you see if we can talk to the Young family? Angel, if we say we won't take revenge on them for what they did to you then maybe they might just say truce," my dad says.

  I put my hands into my pockets and think. To save Elijah, I can put my revenge aside.

  "I will call them now," Uncle Ronnie says before walking out the room.

  I walk over to my chair and light up a cigarette as I wait for Uncle Ronnie to get back to us. Leaning back in my chair, I pinch the bridge of my nose. This headache is really starting to hurt now. There is too much happening in my head, and I need to get rid of some of them. William will be done by the end of the week. Maybe the Young family will be finished tonight. Then, I’ll only have two things to think about, The Midlands and trying to get some sleep.

  Chapter 22

  Angel

  Tonight has been a night of back and forth, but Uncle Ronnie arranged a meeting with the Young family at one in the morning. I called Elijah to let him know, and he said he will come to the bar so we can leave together.

  That was another fight that I had to have. It was best that Elijah didn’t go. They want his blood, it’s stupid taking him there, we don’t know what would be in front of us, we don’t know how many men we should be taking with us. We’re going in blind, and I’m not having my brothers’ blood on my hands. So my dad agreed with me, and said he would have the fight with Elijah for me.

  Going with me tonight is Pike, Warren and a few of our men. If what I know about the Young family is right, they won’t shoot any of us, they will only kill the target, and none of us are the target.

  I asked Elijah how Gwen is doing, and got the answer I expected. Elijah says she hasn’t stopped crying and is now worried about everything. I promise him I will come over tomorrow for lunch to talk to her, promise her that while I’m breathing, nothing will happen to him.

  "Now that we have that all done, Robert told me that my boy Angel has a girl. Do I not get to meet her?" Uncle Ronnie taps my desk. "She has to be special if you're willing to break the truce with the Midlands," he says.

  I look over at my dad and smile.

  "Angel, you might want to check on your girl," Pike says.

  I walk over to the window to see what he is talking about.

  "She and Vinny have just had an argument, and that guy keeps walking behind her. I can see her punching him any second if he doesn’t stop," Pike adds.

  I watch Alice walk back over to the bar. The guy trying to talk to her steps towards her and she grabs his arm and twists it around his back. She whispers something in his ear, then pushes him away. He looks up to my office, and his eyes show enough fear to realize she really is mine. He turns back to Alice and says something. I smile as she rolls her eyes then punches him.

  Alice looks up, and I nod, telling her to come to the office.

  “She seems to be a fighter,” Uncle Ronnie says as we watch her walk up the stairs. “I like her.”

  I look over at the door as she walks in.

  “I can explain…” Alice begins.

  “You know, one day someone is going to sue me for you hitting them,” I say, and she smiles.

  “The moment anyone hears your name, they cry…”

  “Like that guy did? So, why did you punch him?” I ask.

  She holds her smile, but her gaze moves over everyone in the room before locking with mine.

  "He wouldn't take no for an answer, then Vinny...well that's a different story. That guy just pissed me off, so I wanted to hit him, no reason bigger than that," she explains. Her gaze moves to Uncle Ronnie. "Vinny and I just had a disagreement. I don't need a new bodyguard. I would take him over Craig any day. Craig scares me."

  I start laughing. So does my dad. "This is not your bodyguard. Craig will be happy to know he scares you, though. He likes that kind of stuff. This is Uncle Ronnie, my dad’s best friend," I say.

  She looks at him again. “Oh, good.” She walks over to him and offers her hand. “So nice to meet you.”

  “Well, if Angel was going to find someone, he had to find the most beautiful girl he could,” Uncle Ronnie says, then leans in to give her a kiss on the cheek.

  Alice turns to face me. “I like him.” She walks over to me and looks into my eyes, searching for something. “You need to sleep,” she whispers.

  I lean down and give her a kiss. “No more hitting anyone. That’s what Vinny is for. What did he tell you?” I ask.

  The mask she had up to fool everyone in the room falls away and I can tell whatever it was has hurt her.

  “I’m waiting.”

  “Ben got shot,” she says, her voice breaking on the words.

  “Is he okay?” I ask. My dad told Uncle Ronnie about Ben being part of the Midlands for Alice.

  “It was a quick call. Ben said he will call when he can to tell us more. Now you know. Can I get back to my job?” Alice asks. I pull her closer to me, and she wraps her arms around me. “He needs to leave,” she says into my chest.

  “We will find a way,” I promise.

  I know there isn’t a way. Ben won’t leave the Midlands without knowing Alice will be safe, so he might be there until he does die, but no one will be telling Alice that. She needs to have hope that we can get him out one day. Hope is the only thing we can give her right now.

  “Are you taking me home or Vinny?” Alice asks.

  "I'm not sure yet, but if it’s not me, call me when you get home and turn the security back on. Vinny will be there until I get back," I tell her.

  “Okay,” she says.

  Alice gives me a kiss, then says goodbye to everyone in the office before heading back down to the bar.

 

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