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Chapter thirty-two

Ashia

‘Follow You’ – Bring Me The Horizon

After I finished his very hot haircut, I went upstairs to get ready, which took me longer than normal. I looked for a specific mint-green sun dress Serena bought me, but I couldn’t seem to find it, so I put on my other one instead. It’s a pretty dark red, and has skulls and black flowers throughout the pattern, a perfect dress for him, I think. I'm not nervous about it this time. I know that he’ll think I'm gorgeous wearing anything. I could look homeless, and he’d still think I'm beautiful. Which, I can confidently say now.

To my surprise he said we weren’t leaving to go out of town until tomorrow, but he wanted to show me something today. He’s been very vague about all of the details of what he wants to show me. So, I’m just trying to go with the flow.

We’re walking downtown, hand in hand. Enjoying the nice weather and each other’s company. As we walk down the street, he points out a few businesses he works with. Telling me about Until Dawn, DJ’s Gun Shop, and the ‘massage’ parlor that contacts DH sometimes for men trying to solicit her girls.

Occasionally, he’ll send some of his guys down if things get a little too handsy, but he says he’s not a bouncer service. He can’t stop guys from trying to walk out without paying. He says he feels like a pimp when that woman calls, and I can’t help but get slightly jealous that the bitch is that comfortable calling him all hours of the night. Especially if most of the time it turns out to be nothing like he says. How are her prostitutes his problem? I don't want any of them to get hurt, but Damien doesn’t need to be involved in money troubles. If the girls are in danger, that might be another story, but he didn’t say any of them have ever been hurt.

We’re a few blocks away from the shop when we walk up to another business, and he stops. The sign reads ‘The Basement’. I’ve heard of this place, but I’ve never been able to go inside. They sell comics and collectibles, and I don’t have a lot of room for that stuff in my tiny apartment, so I don’t buy a whole lot of items like that. But, oh my God if I could, I’d have shelves lined.

“What are we doing here?” I ask him.

“It’s my shop, I thought you'd want to look around.” WHAT!? He’s a nerd!? Oh, thank God. I knew he liked Star Wars and Marvel from some of his comments, but this is amazing.

“Absolutely, I want to look around!” He smiles and opens the door for me, dramatically bowing as he does, and smacking my ass as I pass him. This place is literally heaven. There’s a large Millennium Falcon hanging from the ceiling, a large Batman displayed on top of a stand in the back corner, shelves upon shelves of boxed collectibles ranging from WWE to DC Comics, and even all the way to old Cabbage Patch Dolls. “Oh, my God.” I say more so under my breath. Completely in awe of this fictional heaven.

“I thought you'd like it.” My head snaps to him.

“Like it!?” My jaw drops. Please. He knew I’d love this place. I start to look around at all of the shelves and all of the Star Wars figures, Lego sets, PEZ dispensers, and just anything imaginable, really. Old toys ranging from the year the first movie was released, to newer unopened collectibles. He even has some of the lightsaber hilts from Disney World, and I think I might cry.

I’ve always wanted to go, of course never having the chance. Serena’s family took me to the beach a couple of times with them in our teens, but other than that I don’t go anywhere. With this place, I’d never have to go anywhere. He has TV’s that play old episodes of all of the best shows, endless comics from almost every story, and I don’t believe there’s a single empty space in this store. I could look for hours.

Movie posters hang on the walls, and my eyes are drawn to the original Halloween poster hanging behind the wall of collectible figures. All horror movie figures just on this one wall. I look at all of the different horror icons in their boxes, never thinking to collect these either, but finding myself leaning towards adding some new décor to my apartment. I love horror films, and I can imagine shelves with these figures surrounding Friday the 13 th playing on the TV at Halloween time.

“I wonder what it would be like to be chased by one of these fuckers.” My eyes practically roll with his comment. I stare at him with my eyes half closed as he stares at me seductively. His grin showing his teeth as his eyes darken to show his desire for me. He’s such a smart ass.

“I can imagine something better.” As I wink at him, he pulls me gently with his hand in mine again. He leads us to the main counter to see two men standing behind it. The man on the left, closest to us, has lighter brown hair, more of a lean build, and hazel eyes. He's not near as tall as Damien, but still a decent height.

As I look to the man on the right, a chill vibrates down my spine. For a moment, a bell deep in my brain rings like I recognize him, and not in a good way. Though when I look at him head on, the feeling fades. He has dark green eyes, and a longer, messy hairstyle. His hair is about as dark as mine, and he might be the same height as Damien. The features on his face are high structured and masculine, but I still can't place him.

“Ashia, this is Zeke and Liam, two of my guys.” Damien introduces as he points to both of them. Zeke being the one on the right, and the one who sent a shiver through my body.

“Nice to meet you two.” They nod and shake my hand, very casually. Probably because they know that if they hold on for too long Damien will cut off their hands.

“Come downstairs with me.” He says as he grabs my hand again. I follow him behind the counter to a door that leads to the back, and we walk through into a long hallway. The narrow space is covered in other posters, nerdy artwork and a few other doors. He leads us to another door in the middle. One that has a much more intricate handle. He places his thumb on it and scans it. Waiting until the small finger pad turns green and then opens it to a bare staircase. We walk through and start walking down the stairs. “Whenever we're not out taking down Dust, the men have the choice to work here for some money. Carter is always here though, practically lives here. This is currently his set up, but hopefully soon we’ll move it out of here to our new spot. Carter calls it our ‘Head Quarters’, but I don’t know about all of that. I feel like fucking Batman.” We laugh and I can’t help but be excited.

“Oh my God, you are practically Batman!” He purses his lips and gives me a playfully dumbfounded look.

“Hey, I do not wear a full leather suit when I stop crime.”

“Maybe you should.” I stick my tongue out him.

“Only if you play Cat Woman when I get home.” He winks at me, and I actually think about it. Dressing up in an all leather, sexy suit and waiting for him to come walking in at night. I've never been comfortable enough to imagine doing something like that, dressing up or role playing, but with him? Oh yeah, I’d totally try it out.

We get to the bottom of the stairs, and there’s only a small foyer and one door. On the handle is the same locking mechanism, and the door is the same reinforced metal as the one upstairs. Damien scans in to this one as well and opens the door. Ushering me in first.

Carter is sitting at this humongous desk. Topped with eight monitors, four towers, multiple other boxes that I’m not sure what they’re for, and enough cords to tie up Godzilla. It's very disorganized and definitely looks like he could live here. The trash is overflowing and there’s a clothes hamper in the corner. Plus, a small couch that looks very lived in. Much like mine.

“You’re going to need glasses one day if don’t stop staring at all of these screens.” Damien says to him playfully as we walk up to him.

“Well, I need to stare at them, come check this shit out. Hey, Ash.” He says, completely unfazed, like he was already aware I was coming today.

“Hey Carter.” I say back to him.

“What’s going on?” Damien asks him, and he holds up a letter. Shaking it playfully before Damien takes it. “What is this?”

“To the property owner from Dranan Hugo. He’s inviting you to his new house for a party. He wants to buy buildings out in downtown for a ‘real estate investment’. The party’s to ‘discuss business’.” Carter says but is sure to sling some resistance into his statement.

“When?” Damien asks curiously.

“One week from Friday.”

“Well, we’d better be ready. Anyone else get this?”

“Yep. Every restaurant, a few nail salons, the massage parlor, the vitamin shop, DJ's gun shop, Until Dawn, a few other bars, and Cut Me Down.” I feel a small pang in my chest.

“Emmett won’t sell the building.” I say as a sudden wave of protectiveness floods me.

“Right, but that might cause more problems for him. I'll talk to him before the party. Tell him what he can expect.” Damien says as Carter turns around in his chair. Looking over Damien’s hair and face with an intrigued but satisfied look.

“You look good, man.” He does look really good, I'm actually quite proud of myself. I took his hair off of his ears and neck and kept the top a little longer than I probably should have, but damn he looks good with my work on his head.

“Thanks, I have a pretty good barber.” He smirks and winks at me. “Anything else?”

“Always. That Adrien kid from the podcast? He’s selling fucking DH merch now. ‘I support DH’ flags and bumper stickers and shit. It’s ridiculous.” Carter rolls his eyes.

“Jesus Christ, what are we a trend on TikTok?” I chuckle at Damien’s shock.

“What? You haven’t seen the merch yet? I almost bought one.” I tease, smiling at him.

“Are you going to put it in a glass on top of your station?”

“Maybe.” He smirks at me slyly and looks back at Carter.

“Merch causing problems?” He asks, and Carter looks between us both with an approving smile.

“Not yet, but he is gaining a pretty serious following on his channels.”

“Fine, we’ll deal with him later. More?”

“Yeah, Caleb and Kit found another warehouse. Pretty big, holding about twenty women, but they’ve added additional security, even more from the one last night.” Damien’s face sours.

“So, they’re ready for us.”

“Seem to be.”

“Okay, have you picked up any voices on the equipment?”

“None, they have bots running interference. I’m working on bypassing them now, but they run on a three-minute loop, with only a three-second interchange, so it’s going to take time.” Damien nods.

“You’re good, do what you can and let me know what you find out.”

“You got it. How was Marissa?” Carter asks with sadness now laced in his tone.

“About as good as could be expected.” He turns to me. “Henry’s wife.” I nod in acknowledgement as he turns back to Carter. Damien's face turning stern. “We got to do something to let them know they can’t fuck with us.”

“Hopefully we’ll get the opportunity soon, I'll let you know what chatter I pick up, but we might have to use Operation Transfer. The warehouse itself is pretty guarded and armed, but there’s only so much they can do when they move the load.”

“True. If you find out anything about the warehouse, and Zeke thinks he can handle it while we're gone, let him take point.” Carter nods. “Anything from Sahara?”

“Kade reached out, said they’re having more trafficking problems in Seattle. He said they wanted to reach out and let us know they didn’t forget, but that they’re busy.”

“I get it. Especially if they’re dealing with Dust and trafficking too. How are you with the Brittany thing?”

“Oh, I'm good man, you were right, she’s a bitch.” He leans close to me.

“His now ex-girlfriend.” He whispers and I nod my head. Oh, so single Carter? I pull out my phone and discreetly text Ser. “Housing project?” Damien’s voice pulls me away from my phone.

“Final inspection is scheduled for next week.”

“The Attic?” He leans in again. “New HQ.” He whispers and I nod again. I love how he’s keeping me in the loop of everything. It’s not like I’ll ever really need this information, but I know way too much for him to ever get rid of me. So, it definitely adds to my sense of security in our relationship.

“Almost ready, finishing the final touches on the security system this evening.” Damien smiles that mischievous grin.

“You’re amazing, Carter.”

“Yeah I know.” Damien playfully slaps him on the shoulder and nudges his head towards the door. Signaling that we turn to leave. “Wait, D. Check this out.” We turn back to what looks like a live feed pulled up on his main screen. “They’re loading trucks. Two of them.”

“We’re going to have to deal with that, we can’t wait to see where it ends up.” Carter nods.

“I agree.”

“Who’s on rotation?” Damien asks.

“For Operation Transfer? Will and…Henry.” There’s a quiet moment, about three seconds long, and I see pain flash across Damien’s eyes. His body tenses up and he blinks quickly a few times to hide it.

“Call Alex, tell him I need him to come in. Who’s on ladder?”

“Oliver, Chris, Ben, and Ezra.”

“Perfect. Tell them we head out in twenty.”

“You got it.” He turns to me and gently cups my face with both of his hands.

“I want you to stay in the apartment tonight, okay? Don’t be out on the street.” His concern worries me. Is he going to come back in worse shape than he’s in? What the hell is Operation Transfer? From what it sounds like, they’ll be trying to take out those trucks.

I look up at him and see the true concern in his eyes. Could he really believe whatever he’s about to do could end this badly? Does he want me to stay in because whatever they’re about to do makes it too dangerous to be outside, or does he just need to know where I am?

“I won’t.” I say reassuringly, deciding it’s best not to as questions. He reaches down and kisses me. Moving our lips in a slow dance before pulling back. “You sure you’re up for that? You're hurt.” I lightly pat his chest to drive my point home.

“Don’t worry about me, little wolf. The only thing that can hurt me at this point is you.” He moves close to me, about an inch away. Making me look straight up at him. With him being an entire foot taller than me, this angle definitely makes him look dangerous, but I’m not going to lie. It also turns me on. “Are you going to hurt me, Ashia?” I wouldn’t dream of it. Hurting him is the last thing I ever want to do. Him being this close doesn’t intimidate me anymore, its actually kind of sexy.

“No.” I smile as he smirks that devil’s grin at me.

“Good.” He leans down and places a gentle kiss on my forehead. Then, he turns back to Carter. “Can I use your car to drive her back?” He asks with that tone that doesn’t really make it seem like an option.

“Yeah dude, you paid for it.” He tosses him the keys, and Damien catches them with ease.