After waking up and joining Zane for lunch, Ava wanted to check on Tom. She walked to the guestroom he had been placed in and knocked on the door. The door was opened by a woman in her mid-thirties. She looked tired and surprised.“Hello, you must be Tom’s wife. I’m Ava. I’m sorry to disturb you. I just wanted to check to see how he is doing.”“Hello. Yes, I’m Samantha. Tom has told me about you, please come in.” Samantha told Ava and stepped to the side. “Thank you. How is he doing?” Ava asked.“Better, I think. He was a wake this morning for a couple of hours. But he has been sleeping since then.”“It’s normal. He lost a lot of blood. He will be tired for a while. May I?” Ava asked, nodding to Tom’s hand that was laying above the covers.“Yes.” Ava bent down and took his pulse. It was stable and strong and his skin felt warm but not heated. “He is doing much better than the last time I saw him. I’m happy. How about you? Is there something you need?” Ava asked.“Me? No, not really.
It had been two weeks since the ambush, and Zane was in a bad mood. They still had no solid proof of who had been behind it. Not that Zane didn’t have his suspicions, he was certain the fucker Johnson had orchestrated the whole thing. But he had been clever about it. All the men had been hired guns without affiliation to any organisation. The ones they had let live long enough to talk had said they had been hired by a Mr Smith, a man they all described differently. Everyone had been paid in cash and the money had proven almost impossible to trace. Almost, it was possible, but it would take time. That was why Zane was in a foul mood. He didn’t like the fact that someone had struck against his family and he hadn’t been able to retaliate. That also left the organisation vulnerable to more attacks. It left his angel in danger. Zane had wanted her to stay within the mansion grounds. She had happily obliged the first week. But over the last couple of days, she had become restless. It hadn’t
Ava had been in a bad mood for a couple of days, she felt trapped in the mansion. She had never been one for just sitting around, and now it felt like the walls were creeping in on her. Zane and Jax had even stopped taking her to the club. She knew why, but it didn’t stop the feeling of being trapped. She did regret yelling at Zane, she was hoping he wouldn’t see it as defying him and make him punish her. Or did she? She had conflicting emotions about it. To distract herself after shutting herself in her room, that didn’t really feel like her room anymore. She decided to call Gabriel, he had seemed a bit down lately, even though he insisted everything was fine. “Okay, spill it,” she had told him after they had talked for a while.“Spill what?” he asked. “Whatever has got you in a bad mood.”“Look who’s talking.”“I know why I’m in a bad mood, I need to know why you are. I need the distraction. I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” she said.“Fine. You know Ryder and I had coffee
“Yes,” Ava said and looked at Ryder. “Losing his grandmother like that has made him, I guess you can call it sensitive, for when people don’t touch base with him. Especially if he knows there’s a risk involved. He just needs to know everyone is safe.” Ryder nodded. “After his grandmother died, he hit a rough spell again. She had left him her house, so he had somewhere to live. But she didn’t have much money, so he needed to work instead of going off to college,” Ava continued. “It was before I knew him, but I think he was depressed and vulnerable. That’s when he met Jonas. Jonas was older, almost twenty years older than Gabriel, and from what I have heard, he was just confident and took charge over situations. Gabriel fell hard for him, and Jonas took over parts of Gabriel’s life.” Ava paused again, even if this wasn’t her story, and the pain in it didn’t belong to her. It still affected her deeply. “It got to a point where Gabriel was more or less emotionally dependent on Jonas. Jona
The spa day was just what Ava needed. She had thought the spa would be some small facility that acted as a front for Zane’s other business. But it turned out to be one of the most famous spas in the city. Not only that, but it had been completely empty except for the staff.“Mr. Velky has booked the spa for the day,” a sweet girl told her when Ava asked about it.“Yeah, nothing serious about that relationship,” Gabriel teased Ava. They had the most relaxing day, being pampered and talking. Gabriel told her he had already started working on some things for Zane. Amongst other things, Ava’s suggestion for a charity. He also told her that after Ryder’s confessing his fears to Gabriel, things between them had become better. Gabriel sounded happy and in love. Ava was more than happy for him. As they left the spa, Ava felt like a new person. Her muscles felt like rubber, her hair was shiny and her skin glowed and felt smooth. They dropped Gabriel off at his apartment before going home to th
Zane knew something had changed, and he didn’t like it. Ava had always been comfortable around him, maybe with the exception of the first days. But now it was like she tried to put up a wall between them. It had started the night he and Jax had met with two of the other families to talk about Johnson. Jax had made an idiotic comment which had Zane wanting to kill his friend. Jax had made it sound like they were heading out to party with women. To make the fucking mess even better, Zane didn’t have time to get away and call Ava like he had said he would. When he had come home to find his bed empty, he had gone into panic for a moment, fearing something had happened. When he had found her sleeping in her room, he had been pissed. After that night, something was different. At first Zane had considered that Ava had been upset by him not calling. But she didn’t seem upset. She was her usual happy self, and she was just as passionate when they had sex. She just wasn’t as present. It was slo
An hour later, the SUV stopped in front of the small house in the suburban part of the city. Zanes men had arrived half an hour before to make sure the aunt and uncle wouldn’t be home. They had been encouraged to go out and eat their dinner outside their home. Zane helped Ava out of the car, and she smiled as she looked at the house. “They have repaired the front step and the porch,” she said in a cheerful voice. “I told you it would be done,” Zane reminded her and followed her up onto the small porch. Ava was about to reach for the door handle and stopped. “It’s okay, Angel. The house is empty.” She looked up at him.“No one’s at home?”“No, not a soul. It’s just you and me.” She nodded and opened the door and invited Zane inside. Zane had never been in a place like this. He had grown up in a mansion, the few friends he had growing up were also living in mansions or were children of his father’s men and would come to the mansion. As he got older, his lifestyle wasn’t one which had
Ava was sitting and reading as Zane and Jax were playing pool. Ryder had gone to take Gabriel for their fourth date and Ava was looking forward to getting all the news from Gabriel later, or perhaps tomorrow. It had been an emotional day with visiting her old home. But it had also been cathartic, and she felt better after she had done it. She had revealed more of herself to Zane. She had spent the better part of a week trying to place a wall between them. But it had been emotionally exhausting, and it had felt so much better this afternoon when she didn’t have to watch every single word or action in his company. Maybe she just needed to accept that she had feelings for him. Not that she would let him know. Zane had been very clear what he needed and wanted from their relationship was just sex, no attachment. So she would give him that. Maybe when it was over he would at least see her as a friend. When her time was up with him, she would take her broken heart and she would start a new