Chapter 2

Cole

I walked away from her and slammed the cabin door leaning against it. What the fuck was wrong with me. Why was I letting this girl get under my skin? I shouldn't have kissed her. That was a mistake. Now all I wanted to do was drag her back inside and take her to my bed. I didn't move away from the door until I heard her car drive away. I flopped down on the couch with the smell of Sienna's perfume all around me. My phone rang, and I glanced at it and saw it was my brother.

"Hey, Jace," I answered.

"Is she gone?" he asked as a way of a greeting.

"Who"

"Don't play dumb, Cole. You leapt out of the car to save that girl, then when I phoned last night, you had somehow made it to your cabin and didn't want me to pick you up even though we had business to attend to. So spill?"

"Are you coming to pick me up?" I asked, ignoring his question as I wasn't sure how even to begin to answer it in the first place.

Jace laughed down the phone. "I have something to take care of; then I'll pick you up."

After he hung up the phone, I thought back over yesterday. It started with me, Jace, and our friend Ryder going to meet a business acquaintance. We were waiting when I spotted Sienna walking up the street. She would make any man notice her tall, gorgeous, all long legs and long blonde hair with big brown eyes. She was wearing a pleated skirt with a white shirt and a black blazer which was obviously a school uniform, so I knew she was young and never gave her much thought other than she was beautiful until a black car came speeding around the corner, only missing her by a breath and then they started shooting at us. The three of us quickly retrieved our guns and fired back when I saw her standing there, frozen bullets flying all around her. I don't know what came over me. I was out of the car on top of her before I knew what I was doing. Once the fighting was over, I dragged her to her car and made her drive me to the cabin.

I could have gotten away on my own, but I had a sudden urge to get her away and make sure she was ok and unharmed. I was stunned when she asked to look at my cut and cleaned my arm up. I was expecting her to be scared or ask lots of questions about what happened, but she took it all in stride, even making us sandwiches when I answered a call from Jace, who was checking I was ok. He offered to pick me up when I told him I was at the cabin, but I told him not to. Stupid, I know, but I wanted to spend more time with Sienna. I offered her the bedroom and tried to be a gentleman by saying I would take the couch, but instead, we ended up watching the telly and talking for most of the night. She told me she was eighteen and had almost finished school. She told me her parents were dead, and she had two older brothers and an older sister and was in care for a few years until her oldest brother was old enough to get custody of her. She told me all about her best friend and the little things in her life. She even confessed to me her love of boxing, and I had to bite my lip when she mentioned the family-owned boxing gym that she uses as it was mine. Sienna laughed a lot, and I wanted to hear her laugh more than I had ever wanted anything in my life, and I found myself telling jokes to listen to her laugh. At some point, she fell asleep and moved, so her head was on my lap. I sat watching her for hours, knowing that when Sienna woke up, I would have to say goodbye. She was good and pure, and I couldn't pull her into my murky life no matter how much I wanted to. When she mumbled bye and left, I should have let her go, but I found myself following her out and kissing her goodbye. I knew I wouldn't see her again, and I wanted just one kiss to remember her by.

I made breakfast and tried to get Sienna out of my head while waiting for Jace to arrive.

"What took you so long," I asked when he finally arrived.

"I had to follow your wee girlfriend and make sure she didn't go straight to the police." he shrugged as he brushed past me into the kitchen to help himself to a drink.

"You did what," I spoke quietly, trying desperately to quell the need to punch my brother in the face.

"Come on, you're telling me that it didn't even cross your mind that she might have gone straight to the police," he asked with a scoff.

"She wouldn't do that," I barked.

"One night with her, and she's got you whipped. Must have been some night."

"Jace," I warned lowly.

He stopped and looked me up and down before letting out a low whistle. "Fuck I was joking, but that girl has got you whipped. I mean, she's hot. I wouldn't say no." he smirked, and I wanted nothing more than to wipe that smile off his face.

I let out a growl I wasn't even sure I was capable of making as Jace took a step back in shock. "I'm sorry, I was worried, so I followed her. She went to a friend's house then to school, and she goes to West Falls Academy by the way."

I nodded as I already knew that, as she mentioned it to me last night, I put my jacket on and grabbed my keys as Jace and I left the cabin heading home. We didn't speak about Sienna the rest of the ride home, but that didn't mean I wasn't thinking about her.

We entered my office and found Ryder already there with a bandage covering most of his shoulder.

"You ok," I asked as he nodded.

"I'll live. How are you?"

"Good, so what do we know about who shot at us."

"No clue," Jace told me, looking worried. "Do you think it could be DeCosta?"

"No, we have a relatively good truce, and I don't think they would start something in public where an innocent bypasser could get hurt. It's not DeCosta's style; he's known for his intelligence. What happened today wasn't smart or well thought out; it has to be someone new. Put the word out and see if anyone knows anything. Someone could have got hurt." I snapped as Ryder stood up and walked out.

I turned to find Jace with a sly smirk on his face. "Since when do you care if someone could have got hurt."

"Get out of my office Jace."

"She really knocked you on your ass, huh" he walked out the door, and I could hear his laughter as he walked down the hall.

I sat on my chair and threw my head back. Jace was an idiot, but he was right about one thing she really knocked me on my ass. I had been with my fair share of women. If I'm being honest, I had been with more than my fair share, but no one had held my interest for more than one night, and none made me want to sit and talk to them for hours or make me want to find out every little thing about them. My little cousin Natalia says that I'm always going after the wrong women, and I think she may be right for once. I left my office and headed to the gym to work off the excess stress, and I ignored that little voice in my head that said I was going to see if I could bump into Sienna.

After my workout, I swung by the office, ignoring how the receptionist hiked up her skirt and 'accidentally' dropped a button on her blouse.

"Can I help you, Mr Marino?" she asked, fluttering her fake eyelashes at me.

"No thanks is Tyler in," I asked, referring to the manager.

"He's in his office."

I walked straight in without knocking, startling Tyler. "You skiving"

"No, I thought you were Erica" he nodded his head towards the receptionist. "She's great at her job, but by fuck I think she's on heat." he joked. "Anyway, what can I do for you, Cole?"

"Nothing, I just want to have a look at the signup sheets, maybe see if there is anything we can do to approve things."

"Sure, but we are doing better each month, and the memberships keep going up."

I walked past him and started rooting through the boxing class schedules, well aware that I was possibly heading into stalker territory. There was only one Sienna on the list, and she did two classes with us. One was a self-defence class, and the other was a boxing one-on-one with one of our trainers twice a week.

"Whos Dean?"

Tyler looked up, confused. "Dean's worked for us for three years now, and he's terrific at boxing and self-defence. The only problem is he has a tendency to get a bit close to the clients, if you know what I mean. No one has ever complained, though, so I haven't made a big deal of it."

"It's hardly professional," I quipped as I wondered if anything had ever happened between him and Sienna, causing a funny feeling in my chest, almost as if I was jealous. That's because you are.

"I can speak to him about it if you want, but he has more people signed up than any other trainer, so whatever he is doing is working." Tyler studied me curiously as I don't usually bother interfering in the gym's running; I leave it all to Tyler and have never complained.

"No, whatever you think is best," I mumbled absentmindedly as I checked when she was next in for boxing. I also noticed that Dean was taking a class now in the boxing gym.

I said goodbye to Tyler and walked out, cringing as Erica's whiny voice reached my ears as she murmured goodbye. I took the long way out, which coincidentally led me past the boxing gym I knew Dean was in. He showed a girl the correct stance when throwing a jab, and his hands were firmly on her hips while she giggled and threw a pitiful jab. Dean was over six feet with blond hair and was standing topless, showing off his six-pack. I have an eight-pack motherfucker. He showed her the correct stance as the girl drooled over him, and he smirked like the cocky prick I assumed him to be. When I got home, I opened my front door and heard arguing from the living room and entered to find my brother and cousin Natalia arguing over what to watch on the telly.

"Where were you?" Jace asked when he noticed me standing in the doorway.

"Gym" I kissed Natalia on the cheek before sitting next to Jace on the sofa.

"I thought maybe you were hanging around the school gates." Jace laughed as Natalia's mouth hung open.

"What's this?"

"Romeo here finally got knocked on his ass by a schoolgirl." Jace laughed as I glared at him.

He told Natalia the whole story of how I met Sienna while I contemplated life as an only child.

"She's my age," Natalia chirped. "I wonder if I know her." I couldn't help but look over when she spoke something that neither of them failed to notice, both flashing me huge grins.

"Keep out of it. I doubt I'll even see her ever again," I told Natalia, pointing the finger at her even though I knew I would see her tomorrow at her boxing lesson.

I sat with Jace and Natalia for a while before going back into my office and making a few more phone calls, but no one claimed to know anything about the shooting yesterday. I even called DeCosta at the insistence of Jace, but he claimed to have no knowledge of the hit or who could be behind it, and I believed him. When our fathers were in charge, we were enemies, with a lot of bloodshed on both sides. When we took over from our fathers, we made a tenuous truce, basically staying out of each other's business unless absolutely necessary. I was worried about whoever was coming after us. Usually, I know who wants to hurt me, but I didn't, and I don't do well with the unknown. I also was more than a little worried that I could have dragged Sienna into this mess if someone was hanging about and saw us getting into her car, and I had this fierce protectiveness come over me. That night when I went to sleep, I dreamt of Sienna's eyes and the feeling I had of her in my arms while I kissed her.

Walking into the kitchen the following day, I found Jace waiting for me.

"What's up?"

"You tell me. I spoke to Tyler last night, and he said you were acting weird at the gym, so I decided to have a look at the signup sheets myself."

"Is there a reason you're checking up on me?" I snapped, annoyed at him.

"We have more important things going on, and you're chasing some girl. You need to keep your head on straight, Cole."

"Back off, Jace, I have made inquiries all night. My head is on straight." I slammed my fist on the table and walked out.

"She's eighteen, Cole. She doesn't need this." his words rang in my head long after I left the house.

Logically I knew he was right, but I couldn't stay away. I had work to do, but the only thing I knew for sure was I would be at the gym at four, and Dean would not be anywhere near her. I went and checked on all my businesses and checked nothing untoward had happened in the past few days. I walked into the gym about three-thirty and saw Tyler chatting with Dean and another instructor.

"Twice in as many days, Cole, this is new." Tyler smiled, but I could sense his worry.

"Yeah, I decided I missed teaching, so I thought I would take Dean's appointment at 4."

Dean looked furious while Tyler placed his hand on Dean's arm to calm him. "You can't do that."

"I think you'll find I can. It's in your contract, but you shouldn't worry; you'll still get paid." I smiled.

"I don't know if my client will be ok with that. She's used to working with me." he huffed like a petulant child who had his toy taken away.

"I'm sure Sienna will be fine with this change. You now have the rest of the afternoon off." I turned and headed towards the changing room, but I could hear Dean bitching behind me, which wasn't unexpected as he had no clue I was his boss.

I changed into my workout gear when Tyler popped his head in to tell me Sienna was here. I walked into the boxing gym and saw her with her back to me as she stretched. She was wearing navy blue yoga pants and a pink crop top showing off her toned body.

I cleared my throat, and she turned to face me, her mouth dropping open when she saw it was me.