"A girl who’s finally got Angel to smile. Never thought I would see the day," Uncle Ronnie says, making everyone laugh.

  “I smiled before,” I argue.

  "Yeah, when you were about to kill someone," Pike says with humour in his voice.

  I shake my head and ignore them all as I walk back over to the window. I want to have another look at Alice before the evening’s plans start.

  ***

  Alice finally got to talk to Ben, and even though he told her he was fine, she was still worried. The more I see how she is with him, the more I understand how much she cares for him.

  I told Vinny he was in charge while we were out. I'm still not one hundred percent on trusting Vinny, but Alice does and I'll have to trust her when it comes to him.

  "You think Uncle Ronnie's right?" Warren asks as we get out of the car.

  I have been trying to think of every reason that this could be wrong. Maybe he got some fucked up story from someone trying to mess with us. Then I come back to the idea that maybe it’s true. Nothing else is making sense. Why else would the Young family be after us?

  “I’ve never doubted him before,” I reply.

  I turn to Pike and give him a nod, letting him know to have his guard up. We have no idea what we’re walking into. This is either going to end in blood tonight or in a war.

  Walking through the warehouse, I see they have a few more men than we do. We always knew they could do this. I tap my Pike’s shoulder, letting him know how many guys we've walked past once we’re standing in front of the Young family.

  “Look at the big Frost family, coming to us to beg,” Ross, the senior of the Young family, says.

  I let out a chuckle that lacks any real humour. "We don't beg," I say.

  “We’ve only come to talk. Catherine, we didn’t know she was linked to you, but it hurt our family, too, when she was taken. We killed the ones who were responsible for it,” I tell him, and I look over my shoulder at my men, then back to the Youngs. “I think what you’ve done to me was enough, and—”

  "And nothing!" Ross shouts. "You think getting Catherine killed, and what we did to you was the same thing? The only way this is even is when we take blood, and we only want one persons., Your brothers blood for Catherine’s."

  “I’m sure your sister changed her name because she wanted no part—”

  "She was our only daughter!" Ross cuts me off. The rage in his voice echoes through the warehouse. No matter what we say, they want Elijah's blood and nothing else.

  "You should have fucked your wife if you were so desperate for a daughter," I spit out. If he thinks I'm going to stand here and let him talk to my family like an animal, he can think again.

  "You fucking asshole." He starts to take a step closer to me, but his two sons grab him. "Remember that every scar you have came from us, and remember that if it was you we wanted dead, we could have done it," Ross shouts at me. His eyes go red and the muscles around his temple tenses up.

  "Oh, I remember," I say with a sneer in my voice. "Now you remember one thing." I take a few steps closer to him so I can get in his face. "We came to make peace. You're the ones who have started the war, but we will finish it."

  He tries to pull out of the grip of his sons, and I just smile.

  "I promise you one thing, Angel Frost, you will mourn one day, and it will be because of me." He spits out the words, and they hit me harder than I expect.

  “And you will mourn for your sons. I will make sure that you have no one left in your life,” I say, taking a few steps back from him.

  I planned to only kill one of them but, now, now I'm going to kill everyone he cares about, so he is all alone. I look over at Warren and give him a nod.

  “You might be the king of London, but one day you will fall, and London will be there for the taking. There are a lot of families who want it,” Louis, the oldest, says.

  I shake my head as I laugh to myself. We know there are a lot of families who want to take London from us. That is nothing new. They have been trying for decades, and no one has taken it from us yet.

  “You have the men. Why have you not tried to kill us now?” Pike asks.

  Louis starts laughing and looks over at him. "You came here to talk to us. Now that we have talked, you know we will kill you. Angel, you better look over your shoulder, you better protect your brother and his wife, because when you least expect it, we will kill Elijah."

  They think this is going to scare us. They think playing this mind game will help them get to us easier. Well, they are wrong, very wrong.

  My eyes lock with Ross, and he stares at me for a moment before breaking his gaze away from me. Pike pats me on the back, telling me that it’s time to go, but I stand there for a moment longer, just to let them know I’m not scared of their threat.

  The moment we sit in the car, I turn to Warren. "Get more security on Gwen and the house. I will talk to Elijah, and tell him he never leaves alone, and he will just have to fucking deal it.” Fuck this has pissed me off so much.

  “Why didn’t we just kill them?” Warren asks.

  I shake my head. This is why I still think he is too immature to take over the family business. “We were outnumbered, people and gun wise. Plus, the only thing they want is Elijah dead,” I explain and look over at him.

  They blame Elijah for what happened to her. He is the one to blame in their minds. Instead of them killing any of us, they want Elijah to fear dying.

  "Do you have a plan?" Pike asks.

  I shake my head. “Kill them first,” I say quietly so only he can hear me.

  If we kill them first, which I feel is the only way to resolve this without losing someone in the family, I’ll kill every last one of them except Ross. I want him to suffer first.

  “When do you want to strike?” Pike asks.

  That is the question. I don’t know the answer yet. Tonight, tomorrow?

  “Vinny called saying there is a woman at the bar who is standing outside the office door and refusing to leave until she talks to you,” Pike says.

  I hear him, but don’t respond right away because a text comes in. I look at my phone and see that it’s Craig letting me know how William is doing. It’s not looking good for him. I shake my head. It hasn’t even been a day yet. This is going to be fun for me.

  "Has she said what she wants?" I ask Pike while I send a message back to Craig, telling him to change the sounds playing into the room.

  The drugs were burned an hour before we left, so I'm waiting to see how O'Reilly will fight back on that one. Tomorrow, the plan for Alice's look alike to travel to Canada happens, so she will be a nervous wreck the whole day. As much as I would like to just go to the Midlands and tell them to fuck off because she's mine, I don't think I can add another fight for the family. We are already fighting more battles than we need to.

  “No. She said she will only talk to you. Oh, and the shipment has gone out. They should get them by early next week,” Pike says.

  We’d finally sorted out what happened with the last shipment, and got them sent to America for the Carter family. Pike is doing a good job keeping the guns running smoothly and making sure we still have all the business coming in. Craig has also been on top of the fights and has fights booked in for the rest of the month. Until I'm mentally ready to take all that up again, I don't have to worry.

  "Okay." I rub my eyes, which have begun to hurt. Not sleeping is starting to give me migraines, which is not really helping me. I reach into my pocket to get some pain killers again and take two of them. I put my hand up to stop Warren from saying anything to me. I already know he is going to say the same thing as everyone else. I need to sleep. I lean my head back and close my eyes for the last of the journey back to the bar.

  Walking into the bar, I make my way to Alice.

  “Hey handsome, what can I get for you?” She leans on the bar and gives me a kiss. As she pulls away, I grab the back of her neck and kiss her harder. Fuck, I have missed her touch. She really is my air. “Missed me that much?” she teases.

  "You have no idea," I tell her. I look over to my right, towards my office, and see the woman standing there.

  “She’s been there a long time,” Alice says.

  I turn to face Alice again. “I better see what she wants.” I look over at Pike, and tell him to go up and let her into the office. “I will take you home when I’m done.” I give her another kiss. When I start to walk away, she grabs my arm.

  “You know, we’ve been together two weeks now. When are you going to take me out on a date? Or do we not do that?” Alice asks.

  I lean in closer to her. “Alice, would you like to go to lunch with me tomorrow?”

  I don’t even remember the last time I took someone on a date, but if that's what Alice wants, then that's what I will give her.

  “I would love to.” She smiles as I give her a kiss.

  I meet Pike when I make it up the stairs. "What do you give a girl when you pick her up for a date, when she lives in your house?" I ask him. Dating Alice is going to be interesting.

  "Flowers, a good fuck before you go, I don't know," Pike says.

  I laugh. I do plan on doing one of them.

  “So, who is she?” I ask, nodding towards the office.

  “She said her name is Miss Kerry, and that she wanted to talk to Angel,” he says as I continue to walk to my office.

  “Miss Kerry, how may I help—” I stop the moment she pulls a gun out and points it at me. Pike reacts on instinct, but I hold up a hand. “Leave her.”

  “You killed my son. Because of you, my son...my son is dead,” she screams at me, her cheeks covered in tears. “You made a promise to Sinwick that guns won’t be sold on your streets.”

  I look over at Pike. He’s on his phone calling the police we have under our pay to see what they know about this.

  "Miss Kerry, how about you give me the gun and tell me what happened." I've not been told about any gun crime happening in Sinwick, and the police know that if anything like that happened, they need to tell me. "We can talk about it. I am stopping the guns in town. I'm working on getting them off the streets of London, but I can only clear one city at a time. Sinwick is my home. This is my town. I will find out what happened." I take a step closer to her and rest my hand on the top of her gun. When she doesn’t fight me, I gently take it from her. "I will find out what happened to your son, and I will find out who sold the guns, too. I will make them pay,” I say in a soothing tone, wanting her to know I won’t hurt her. She has just lost her son and isn’t thinking clearly.

  “You promised to clean our streets,” she cries into my chest. “He was coming home after a last class at college. He wanted to be a lawyer… he…he was…”

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I will find out everything I can. Do you have anyone to take you home? When I find out what happened, I will come to you,” I promise. I wrap my arms tighter around her as she continues to cry.

  I look over at Pike, and he mouths the word, O’Reilly to me.

  "Miss Kerry, let’s get you home. If you want, you can stay in my office for a moment longer, and then Vinny will take you home," I say as Pike pulls out a chair for her. She sits down and I kneel in front of her. "I'm going to get you some answers."

  She nods slowly.

  I walk out of the office and head down the stairs, checking my gun on the way. I look up at Alice and see her staring at me, but I don't walk over to her. I go to Vinny instead. "Get in my office, take her home when she is ready. Craig will watch Alice," I say.

  I don't wait for him to say anything back to me. Pike and I leave to go find some answers. O'Reilly and his fucking guns have just killed a boy on my streets. This ends now.

  Chapter 23

  Alice

  The moment I watch my boyfriend leaving the bar, making sure his gun is loaded, will always be a scary thing. Knowing this is Angel's world does not make that feeling any better. It only makes me fear it more.

  "You spoke to, Warren?" I ask as I turn to Drew. I'm so lost when it comes to what is happening with the two of them. One day they are together, then the next they're not.

  "Nope." That answers the question on what their relationship status is today. "You want to go to the pub for a bit after work?" she asks.

  “Sure, as long as Vinny or Craig don’t moan about it,” I say as I start laughing.

  Craig has been standing behind the bar since Vinny left to take that woman wherever he had to take her. My opinion on him scaring me has not changed. He has that hard man look about him, and he's the size of a tank. When you look at his face and all his scars, you have to wonder what the hell did he go through to have that many.

  I wanted to tell him that he is scaring the customers away, but I was too afraid to tell him. I've only served three customers since he’s started following every step I've taken.

  “Have you ever heard him talk?” I ask Drew as I look over at Craig. I shake my head as we start cleaning up for the night.

  “Nope, and I don’t plan on it either. I once heard Warren say he bit a part of someone’s face off,” Drew says as she walks around the bar and starts picking up some of the glasses left there.

  He bit someone's face off? If I hadn’t already been scared of him before, I am now.

  "Should I ask about, Warren?" I ask, moving the conversation away from Craig.

  I look over at a man walking in, and Drew and I both watch him talk to the bouncer. The bar is closed, but he points to me or behind me to Craig.

  "Are you, Alice?" he asks me.

  I look over at Drew as my heart starts beating a million beats.

  "I have a delivery from a Jack Stuart," he says, reading off the paperwork in his hand.

  “Yes, thank you.” I feel a little more relaxed after realizing it’s the parcel Uncle Stuart was talking about.

  Craig walks over to me and takes it from me. “Angel knows about—”

  I stop when he looks at me sternly.

  “If something happens to you on my watch, Angel will kill me and not even think twice about it,” he grumbles.

  I take a step back. Wow. It’s not just his look, but his voice, too. Hard, strong, and deep enough to make a shiver run through you.

  “But…”

  "But nothing. I'm not letting you open it." He takes the box and puts it behind the bar.

  I look over at Drew, who’s just watching me. "You have to think, Alice,” she says. “This is the man Angel sends to kill someone, and he’s scared of Angel. It's kinda funny in a way."

  I roll my eyes at her. “So funny. Angel is not that bad,” I argue.

  I really wanted to see what Uncle Stuart sent me. He was really excited about it.

  "So, the pub?" Drew asks again.

  I hope that Vinny gets back soon. I know he will come with us. Craig…I’m not so sure about.

  I watch him walk back over to us. “Are you going to ask him?” I ask Drew.

  “No way.” She walks away from me, as I bite my inner cheek.

  I can ask him. It won’t be that bad, right?

  “Do you know what time Vinny will be back?” I ask him as he stands behind me again.

  "No. If he's not back by the time you’re ready to leave, I'm to take you home and stay until either Vinny or Angel get back." He sounds a little like a robot and everything is programmed into him or something.

  "We were thinking about going to the pub, down the street. We like to go some nights after the bar closes," I tell him.

  I can't tell what he is thinking at all. His facial expression is the same and his gaze doesn't make contact with mine for me to see if there is even an emotion in them.

  “No.”

  “Can you at least call Vinny and— “

  “No.”

  Well, this conversation is finished, I realize. He’s not even going to call Vinny, who better come back soon so we can go for a drink. Or Angel better have a beer or two in the fridge, at least.

  Walking around the bar to help Drew, I say, “So, you want to talk about Warren?”

  "I don't know what he wants. He wants me, then he doesn't want me. He tells me he's not with other women, but I don't believe him," she says as we clear the last of the glasses and put them behind the bar.

  Angel has someone come in to clean the glassware and a run around the bar to make sure that everything is good to open before the bar opens every evening.

  "He really is going to play this game with you, isn't he? I don't know why you don't play it with him. Yes, he will scare other guys away, but then you do it again, then again. Sooner or later, he will have enough of it, or Elijah or Angel will see what's happening, and one of two things will happen. They’ll either tell him to be with you, or they tell him to leave you alone," I say.

  Angel and Elijah both look like they don't like people messing with women, and I don't think they would like knowing that Warren is playing this game with Drew.

  “You know I like that idea, and I think that’s now my game plan,” Drew says. I walk back out to the front of the bar. Craig is standing there with my parcel and the keys to his car.

  “Ready?” I ask him.

  “When you are,” he says.

  I turn back to Drew and give her a hug. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, and let me know what Uncle Stuart got you,” she says.

  "Will do," I shout back to her as she walks to the pub with the rest of the staff. "Let's go then,” I say to Craig. “So, do you talk or no?" I ask him as he opens the door for me.

  “No.”

  I stand by the open door. “Oh, come on, give me something. Favourite colour?” I ask him with a smile.

  He stands there for a moment, not saying a word, and I get the message that he’s not a man that likes to chat. I get in the car and hope that Angel or Vinny won't be long. I’m not sure how long I can go without talking to anyone.

  ***

  I turn to the clock to see what time it is when I hear the shower running. The bright numbers show just after four in the morning. I get out of bed and make my way into the bathroom. The whole room is filled with steam.

 

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