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Chapter One

Chelsea

I don't know how long I stood there, my eyes locked on Ramsey's.

I couldn't tear myself away from his gaze. They held a warning, I just didn't know what for.

Finally, I shook my head and broke the stare.

"What did you?—"

"Chelsea? What's wrong?" It was Atlas, holding a small brown dog, who came to stand in front of me. Blocking my line of sight.

I shook my head slowly, trying to clear it. "I don't know. Dallas isn't here. Ramsey said he left the stadium before him." My gaze found Atlas' face, and the worried furrow of his brow.

I didn't want to say the words out loud, so I whispered, "I have a bad feeling."

"Fuck." Atlas looked at Ramsey, then me. He handed the dog to one of the shelter staff and stalked over to Ramsey.

I hurried along behind, acutely aware the other guys were starting to notice something was going on.

"Chelsea said—" Atlas started.

Ramsey interrupted. "I know what she said. Let's not do this here."

"Where is he?" I asked.

I tried to contain my fear, shove it down or away, but I failed miserably.

If he did something to Dallas…

"What did you do?" Storm was beside my right elbow, face like thunder ready to strike.

Or take a swing.

"Same question," Frost was beside him.

He was slightly calmer, his expression more neutral, but his tone was no less accusing.

"What's going on?" Jay held a fluffy white cat and looked at all of us in confusion.

"That's what we're trying to find out," Atlas said. He raised his eyebrows at Ramsey.

Ramsey sighed. "I don't know where he is. He overheard Otis Skinner and I talking.”

"What were you talking about?

" I demanded. We were supposed to be able to trust him.

At this exact moment? I didn't. He was acting too squirrelly. Too suspicious as fuck.

My brother would say if it seems like he has something to hide, he probably does. Right before he chained them up and worked the truth loose from them.

Ramsey rubbed a hand over the back of his head, his mouth pressed in a frustrated line. "Can we talk about this somewhere else?" he asked through clenched teeth.

He glanced over to the camera crew, who were currently occupied with a couple of the other players. It wouldn't be long before they also realised something was going on. Something with the potential to be more newsworthy than a bunch of cute animals. If they started digging, a bad situation would turn to shit in a heartbeat.

We didn't need that kind of scrutiny. I certainly didn't.

"I think we're done here." Storm nodded at Jay to return the cat to the shelter staff, and eyed the team's PR person, as if daring them to say they weren't finished.

Fortunately for everyone, she nodded to indicate they got what they needed from the guys: advertising for the animal shelter in the hope more people would adopt the pets there.

Personally, I would have taken several animals home if I had room for them. Apparently I had a thing for collecting strays.

Keeping himself behind us, Storm herded us to the exit and out into the street.

"I'm not going to make a run for it," Ramsey said over his shoulder.

"Says you.

" Storm glared at him and waved us all over to a small park near the shelter. Little more than a patch of grass with a few trees and a couple of benches, it was private enough for now.

"Talk.

" Storm crossed his arms over his massive chest and glared at Ramsey. His narrowed, cold eyes, furrowed brow and turned down mouth would have intimidated a lot of people.

Apparently not Ferris Ramsey.

He lowered himself to the centre of a picnic bench, hands on either side of him, posture relaxed, as if he was discussing which dog he might adopt. Or maybe a cat. He seemed like a cat person to me. Secretive and cute but deadly.

"I've been trying to convince Otis Skinner I'm working with him.

With full knowledge of those we work for.

Skinner and I were making plans.

Nothing any of you need to know about, but something I was going to fuck with later.

Dallas overheard us.

He made assumptions.

I had to convince Otis he was working with us too.

"

My blood ran cold. "How?

" What the hell had he done?

"By sending Dallas to give a message to a contact of mine.

He shouldn't have taken this long." Ramsey dropped his head and shook it. Now he appeared rattled.

"Fuck," Storm growled. "If Otis wasn't fooled…

"

"Dallas could be dead," I whispered.

I immediately regretted saying the words out loud. My heart thudded painfully.

I told myself I wouldn't cry, but I found my eyes damp anyway. He couldn't be dead. If he was, I'd… I'd be shattered.

The thought of losing any of my guys was a stab right through my soul. Had I told him that? Did I make him understand how much he meant to me? All I could think right now was that I'd left so many words unsaid. Too many.

Frost slipped an arm around my shoulders and gently pulled me to him. "There's probably some logical explanation. He might have gotten sidetracked by something perfectly innocent. Maybe he went to buy you a big box of chocolates. Or a new knife."

He sounded so certain. So convincing. I wanted to believe all of it, badly.

"You really think so?" I sniffed.

It was possible, I conceded that much, but was he right?

Honestly, I wished I believed he was. In reality, this was Dusk Bay. Dallas could easily be dead or missing, never to be seen again. Quietly disposing of corpses was something far too many people in this city were good at, including my brother. Making people disappear was an occupational necessity.

"I absolutely think so," Frost said, with unwavering conviction. "Dallas knows how much you like chocolate, and your period is due in a couple of days."

I turned my head to stare at him.

He smiled and shrugged. "We pay attention to these things. How else are we supposed to make sure you have everything you need?"

"That's sweet," I said. I should have known they were all over that.

"Exactly," Frost said. "Have you tried to call him?"

"A couple of times," I said. "It went to voicemail. I thought he might have been driving, but he…" I didn't know how to finish that sentence. Ultimately, I didn't need to. They all knew what the possibilities were.

"I'll try." Storm pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. He put the device to his ear and frowned. "Hey, Tex, where the fuck are you? Call me back." He ended the call and shoved his phone back into his pocket. "Voicemail."

"He might have his phone switched to silent," Jay suggested. "I always do, because the only people who call these days are scammers and telemarketers."

"Aren't those the same thing?" Frost asked.

"Close enough," Jay agreed. "Either way, I don't answer my phone unless I feel it ringing, and know the person. Even then, I have to be in the mood to talk to them."

"Dallas wouldn't ignore Chelsea," Frost said. "Unless he didn't hear his phone. It makes sense that he might have it turned off. Mine is off too."

"Mine too," Atlas said.

"I have to keep mine on in case of emergencies," I said. But I got it. I also didn't answer calls if I didn't know the number. At least, not if they weren't local. I had no reason to think anyone from Edinburgh would call me. Or Azerbaijan. I pulled out my own phone and sent off a couple of texts to Dallas.

Call me.

Or text me back.

I love you. Heart emoji

With any luck, he'd see them. I hoped like hell he could . I wiped my eyes and put my phone away.

"Just to clear it up, you're not working with Otis Skinner?" Storm squinted at Ramsey.

"Absolutely not," Ramsey said, his mouth twisted to the side in disgust. "I reached out when he first joined the team, trying to figure out his angle. So far, he's kept me at arm's length. Today I was finally getting somewhere. He doesn't trust me, but he's starting to rely on me for information."

"Which you're not giving to him?" Storm's jaw worked, his annoyance clear.

"Just enough to make him think I'm reliable," Ramsey said, staring him down. "The names of a couple of contacts we already know are quietly working against us. Times and places of shipment arrivals. Nothing major. Nothing to indicate we have anything other than a professional relationship."

"He has no idea you're working for Daze?" I asked.

"He knows, but he thinks I'm disgruntled," Ramsey said. "That I'm looking for a bigger score."

"Are you?" Storm asked.

"I'm looking to stop him and Dominic King from getting a foothold in Dusk Bay." Ramsey tilted his head and looked back at Storm, his gaze unwavering. "It's not good for the city and it's not good for the team. We have enough people already vying for power, we don't need another one. Especially one as unscrupulous as Dominic King."

"How bad is he?" I asked. If he was unscrupulous compared to the other operators in the city, he must be terrible. That yardstick was extremely high.

"He's as ambitious as they come," Ramsey said. "At least as bad as the Fiorelli family were." Most of them were killed years ago, after trying to seize a bigger chunk of power. They would have started an all out war and not cared who got caught up in the crossfire.

"Why don't we kill them both?" Frost asked. Did he have to sound so enthusiastic about it? Yes, I supposed he did. That would solve some problems. Although, it would likely create others.

"That would be like playing whack-a-mole," Ramsey said. "Whatever they're up to, they're not doing it alone. If we kill them, whoever they're working with will come after us. I'm not convinced Dominic King is the head of all of this. He might think he is, but I believe someone else is pulling the strings."

"Who?" I asked. "The Fiorellis are gone, for the most part. The Bell family has more or less been absorbed into the Brantley family, thanks to the twins. No one has heard from Kurt Lasalle in years."

Kurt made a bid for power of his own, even going as far as to attack the Brantley family directly. There was more to the story, probably a lot more, but that was all I knew personally. That and somehow the attack involved Reuben's girlfriend, Mina DiMarco. I never dared ask her about it. We weren't particularly close, and I suspected she wouldn't tell me anyway. She was the ultimate closed book.

"I don't know," Ramsey said. "There's several possibilities I can think of off the top of my head. It might not even be anyone in Australia."

"But you have a suspicion," Jay said. He stood with his arms crossed, white cat fur decorating the front of his shirt.

Ramsey rubbed his chin. "The Crimson Vipers have been particularly active recently. Carlos Jones was never going to sit back and take the crumbs the Brantley family threw to him."

"The cartel." I leaned my head against Frost's shoulder. "They're the definition of unscrupulous. They deal in drugs and people. Carlos Jones would literally sell his own sister if it benefited him."

He tried to, but she ran off with her lover. I wouldn't necessarily call her my friend, but Angelina Ramirez-Jones was a woman I admired. We'd met a few times and always got along, but she was as wild as they came. She took absolutely no shit from anyone. If Mina was a closed book, Angie was a wide open one.

"It makes sense," I said finally. "Why would someone like Carlos Jones be content to be a small fish, even if it means working with people like Dominic King and Otis Skinner?"

Chances were, he'd been planning this for a long time, maybe years. Men like him lurked in the shadows, waiting and watching before they struck. His cartel wasn't called the Crimson Vipers for nothing. People on the receiving end of their bite, usually didn't live to talk about it.

"Carlos wouldn't give a shit who he's working with, as long as he got power out of it," Ramsey said. "Like you said, he'd sell his own sister. He'd sell anyone's sister. And buy them too." He pressed his lips together in disgust.

"He sounds like a hell of a guy," Frost said sarcastically. "If this asshole is behind everything, then…what does that mean?" He looked around at all of us, green eyes wide.

Sometimes, like right now, he looked much too innocent to be involved in any of this. Yeah, okay he was far from innocent, but I still wondered what his life would have been like if he hadn't gotten involved with me. Same with Storm and Dallas.

Before I came along, they were happily playing rugby and living their lives. I turned everything upside down. Introduced them to a whole new world of darkness. They deserved better than this.

If I could turn the clock back and undo all of this, would I? I'd certainly give it serious consideration.

"It means there's nothing he wouldn't do to stop us from getting in his way," I said. "I mean nothing . He wouldn't hesitate to kill all of us just for having this conversation if he thought he'd get away with it. At the moment, he's reliant on the Brantley family for shipments. They could stop them at any time." That would serve as a deterrent for now, but for how long?

"If he could get around them, he could do some harm," Atlas guessed.

"Exactly," I said. "No doubt they've been trying to find a way for years. Everything that's going on now could stem from that. Dominic King might have the connections the Vipers need to provide a new route for them to receive goods."

"If we were to kill Dominic King and Otis Skinner—" Frost started.

"We'd be taking on a whole cartel," I finished for him. Now I was more scared than ever for Dallas. What the hell happened to him?

If he was dead, I'd burn this whole fucking city down, consequences be damned. He was mine. If you fuck with him, you fucked with me. My fear was gone, replaced with ice cold fury. Anger I'd carefully locked away for a long time uncoiled like a snake. When the time came to strike, I was ready. Until then, I'd wait and watch.

"What do we do now?" Frost asked.

"We find Dallas," I said.