Page 13 of These Shattered Memories

I ’m woken up by another one of Hayden’s offensively early morning calls. When I sit up, my bones crack and my neck aches. The reward for spending the last two nights in the front seat of my car. But I’ll take the aching if it means a few solid hours of sleep.

Although, last night I finally came to my senses and left Alex’s apartment after a few hours of sitting in my car like a creep.

It was just after he got home at two a.m. and a part of me wanted to demand where he was coming from so late.

Had he been with someone else? The thought of it made me unreasonably angry, and that was my sign to get the hell out of there, but instead of coming home, I took Xander up on his offer.

No orgies this time, but there was an excessive amount of alcohol consumed. Now, my head is making me pay for it and my muscles have mutinied because of the awful sleep and the excessive working out I’ve been doing.

“Hello, Hayden,” I answer brightly, “You know if you keep calling me to say good morning, I might start thinking I’m your favourite.”

“Did I wake you up? It’s nearly noon,” he says, not bothering to confirm or deny whether I’m his favourite, although I know I am. I’m everyone’s favourite. Upsides of being so charming.

“Nope, I was up,” I lie. “How can I help?”

“We have a problem,” he says stiffly.

I push away my sheets and step out of bed. My head spins for a second, throwing me off balance. I quietly curse, raking a hand through my hair. “Another one?”

“This one is worse than the dead girl.”

“What could be possibly worse than a dead girl?”

Hayden sighs and I can almost feel the frustration radiating off him. “How fast can you get to Summit?”

I look at the time on my watch, which I forgot to take off when I flopped into my bed last night. 11:55 . God , I’m never drinking with Xander again. “Uh, maybe twenty.”

“Great, get here now. I’ve called Xander too.”

I pause. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“You’ll see when you get here. I don’t think we should talk on the phone.” With that, he cuts the line, and I stare at my phone for a second, frowning. Hayden is not usually this cryptic. If he doesn’t want to talk about it over the phone, that could only mean one thing—someone might be listening.

The police.

Fuck.

Being back at Summit when it’s empty, the floors not sticky, and the couches being lathered in disinfectants to remove all sorts of fluids, bodily or otherwise, is strange.

There is no pumping bass, no dancers in cages or neon strobe lights bright enough to blind, just silent cleaners darting back and forth with mops and latex gloved hands.

When I make it up to Hayden’s office, Xander is already there and for a second, I’m annoyed at how good he manages to look even after a rough night out.

But my attention is quickly torn away from him when I see the leaves of paper, dusty footprints and lone cables strewn all over the onyx marble floor like a tornado ripped through the office and disappeared.

“What the hell?” I breathe, catching my brothers’ attention.

Hayden, for the first time in a while, looks exhausted, his eyes dim and his usually impeccable clothes slightly rumpled—it’s only a small crease on his shirt but still unusual.

“The police came early in the morning with a warrant to search the place,” he says in greeting. “They took anything they could.”

“For what?”

“The are investigating a death they believe happened here,” he says. “They got witnesses claiming they saw the girl in the smoking area a few hours before she died.”

This can’t be happening. The last thing we need is Homicide on us too. “Why would random witnesses suddenly speak up? There wasn’t a public investigation on this.”

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Xander says, arms crossed.

“I dealt with it,” Hayden says firmly. “We cleaned her up, erased the cameras and everything. There is no evidence that she died here. Those witnesses can’t be taken seriously either. They were drunk and high. It can’t hold up.”

“Maybe someone else gave them the tip,” Xander suggests. “One of your guys?”

Hayden shakes his head. “No, I trust all of them. They wouldn’t do that.”

Both their eyes fall on me, and I feel my chest squeeze because only one other person knows she died here.

“Why do you think the police care about some dead girl in a club, Rowan?” he asks pointedly.

I know what he’s insinuating, and I’m not going to play along. Blood rushes through me and for a second, I feel faint.

“Have you told Mum?” I ask, ignoring him.

“Not yet,” Hayden says, “I wanted to see how much of a fuck up this is before calling her in.”

“Oh, it’s a fuckup,” Xander laughs. “Let’s just thank the stars that this warrant wasn’t for The Serpentine.”

The Serpentine acts as a headquarters for The Snake. My mother’s office is there, not to mention files we’d rather not let the police get their hands on. Hayden shoots him a glare, but I’m only half listening to what they are talking about.

Hayden frowns. “You think this has something to do with Haze?”

I nod once. There was another body in our warehouse and if the police or Alex were to find out about that, that’s two bodies they can easily tie to us and manslaughter is a sticky charge to escape.

Xander frowns. “Am I missing something?”

I let out a quiet sigh. It was na?ve of my mother to think I’d keep this from them. “A man was found dead in the Sying warehouse. Mum asked me to look into it, but all signs point to Haze. His body was already decomposing five hours in just like the others.”

Xander lifts an eyebrow. “The others?”

I can’t tell him about Alex. He’ll be dead within the hour. Alex is mine to deal with. Mine to maim. Mine to kill.

“From what I know, Haze has six dead bodies and counting.”

“Christ,” Xander whistles.

“Okay, Haze or not, we can’t let the police pin any of this to us. Something like this could destroy us. The Snake does not deal with dirty product.”

The Snake isn’t involved in any drug trade at all. Not out of some moral obligation, but more practicality. Too many runners means too many people on the streets and too many people on the streets means factions and unnecessary scuffles for territory.

Unlike the Ravens, The Snake functions as a single entity with the head at the top.

No one else. For all our power, people in the north of Senna trust us to a certain degree.

Dirty product killing a bunch of rich kids means that cautious trust will be lost. Yet right now, all signs are pointing to Haze coming from us.

Hayden is right. If the police make any more noise, this could destroy us.

“I’ll have my men look into it,” Xander says. “Clearly, Rowan’s investigation needs some extra hands.”

I clench my jaw at the swipe, but I know I deserve it and maybe the extra legs can help me make more headway. “Just try to be discreet. A blood trail will only cause panic. That’s the last thing we need.”

“My middle name is discreet,” Xander says with a lazy smile.

Hayden snorts, echoing my thoughts. “I’m serious, Xan,” I say. “Keep whatever you’re up to quiet and away from The Keepers. We handle this just the three of us until I say so, understood?”

“There’s something else,” Hayden cuts in.

“Oh, this should be good,” Xander mutters.

“I saw someone last night,” my eldest brother says, eyes trained on me. “Alexander Kimura.”

My heart stops.

“He was here. Downstairs.”

“No way,” Xander says.

“W-what?” I stutter.

“He ran before I could get anyone to catch up to him, but it was him.”

“Are you sure it was him?” I ask, my voice hoarse.

“I think any of us would recognise that face,” Xander says. “Do you know why he was here?”

Hayden shakes his head. “No, but since the police were here this morning, then…”

My blood boils. Everything around me takes on an unmistakable violent tinge of crimson. I clench and unclench my fists, rage burning through me so quickly I think I might burst.

He played me.

Of course, he did.

Two years ago, he couldn’t make those bullshit charges stick and now he has another angle.

A way for him to rise to the top of OCU like he’s always wanted.

There is nothing Alex wouldn’t do to get ahead.

I know that—I’ve always known that, which is why I don’t understand how he’s such a blind spot for me.

“I don’t want to say I told you so, but…” Xander trails.

“Should have gotten rid of him the first time,” Hayden adds.

“I’ll handle it,” I say, my jaw working.

My brothers both look sceptical. “You sure you can do this by yourself? I can have Smith take him out tonight,” Hayden says. “No mess.”

No. Alex is mine. Mine to maim. Mine to kill. I won’t fail this time around. “No, I’ll get it done.”

I don’t miss the way they look at each other when I make my way out of Hayden’s office.

Two years ago, I stopped my brothers from killing Alex. That was a mistake on my part. I won’t let it happen it again.

***

I sit in the dark, my feet up on the kitchen table.

The metal of my knife gleams from the moonlight that spills through the window.

It’s seven p.m. and the sun has long descended into the horizon.

The city has fallen quiet, scents of evening dinners and the autumnal chill wafting through the open windows.

As safe a neighbourhood as this is, Alex should stop leaving his windows open, especially with no alarm system installed, but his lack of self-preservation has worked to my advantage tonight.

I twirl the knife in my hand, pricking the tip of my pointer finger and watching a dot of blood spill out. I usually prefer guns—less messy—but tonight I want to take my time.

The sound of a key sliding into the lock and turn makes me smile. The handle slides down and the door swings open before the room is flooded in golden light from the living room lights. There’s a breathless pause before Alex appears, eyes wide and his hand already reaching for his gun.

“What the—”

“Hi, Lexie,” I wave, the knife still in my hand.