"One lie is enough to question all truths."
~ Anonymous

...♛...

"Summer!" Faintly, I hear Dean yell as a loud thud echoes in my room.

My forehead creasing, I open my eyes slowly climbing up on the bed. Sitting up, I rub my eyes clear and find Dean standing in front of me with a gun in his hand. His face contoured in fear, beads of sweat trail down his forehead.

"What happened? Why'd you break down my door?" I speak quietly hoping that my hangover doesn't worsen.

"Seven of our guards were found dead and when I checked the surveillance footage, I saw Nick enter your room," he says. "What did he say? Why didn't you call anyone?"

"I- I - fuck," I rest my elbows on my knees and press the palms of my hands on my forehead. "He said he wants me and he doesn't care who he has to go through."

"The guard checked every inch of this house, he's not here," Kai walks in stepping over the door. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just a hangover," I admit.

But in all honestly, am I really okay? I clearly am not okay, but it's not like I can say that. Not like I have the right to be anything but okay, right? I've already cried over my pain so now, if I'm hurting, I'm a whimp or I'm whining or just doing it for attention.

"Is the party still going on?" I ask, hearing the beat of the loud music.

"Yeah, it's only midnight, Summer," Dean says. "And we didn't want to scare Anthony, so we haven't told him yet."

"Good, we'll hold a meeting tomorrow evening. Until then, know that I'm fine," I assure Dean looking him right in the eyes.

"Okay, but you no longer get to be alone. Kai, stay with her here. Do not take your eyes off her," Dean instructs Kai.

"Dean, I do-"

"Don't argue with me on this, Summer. You have two options; either you have Kai following you around for your protection or I can lock you up in this room with guards stationed outside until Nick is no longer a threat," he deadpans.

"Dean, please. This is last thing I need," I beg.

"It's the only way I know to keep you safe. Don't let her do anything stupid," Dean tells Kai before exiting the room.

Once he leaves, my eyes travel to Kai standing in the middle of the room just as confused as me. He's not wearing his signature, sweats or a t-shirt this time. Instead, he's supporting a baby blue dress shirt and grey dress pants.

I don't think I've ever seen Kai wear any other colour of clothing besides white, black and different shades of grey; though, I don't mind. Colour suits him and maybe if he wore them more often, he wouldn't look as dominant as he always does.

Besides his clothing, he doesn't look as healthy as he usually does. His muscles are still intact,  slightly more defined than before, but the bags under his eyes are more than noticeable. It hurts to know that I'm partially responsible for his condition, but if I show I care, I don't know how he'll react if he even does, so I remain quiet.

"What did Nick say to you?" Kai questions.

"That he'd do anything to get me under his control."

"What happened between the two of you, Summer? I know Nick. He doesn't obsess over things he knows can destroy him."

"Nothing that concerns you Kai, or at least, nothing that'll help us."

Sighing heavily, I turn my head looking back at the empty bottle of vodka on my bed.

Fuck, I don't even remember drinking all of it.

"Sss!" I suck in a deep breath when the bandage on my back, moves sending a string of pain through the raw skin of my tattoo.

"What's wrong?" Kai asks.

"Nothing," I lie. Climbing off the bed, I use the phone to call for ice. A couple of minutes later, a servant comes up with a pack of ice for me.

Once the servant leaves, I put the pack of ice on the nightstand and walk over to my full length mirror. I carefully lift up my shirt from the back, making sure that my front is still covered. Then I reach back trying to peel off the bandage on my tattoo.

As I pull down the bandage, the pain increases and the slower I become at peeling it off. Because of the alcohol, my blood thinned down and made my tattoo bleed more than it should've. The dry blood is only making it hard for me to peel, so halfway down, I close my eyes and breathe for a couple of seconds.

Without a warning, I feel the tips of Kai's finger on my raw skin. A small gasp releases from my lips when I open my eyes. For a second, I want to tell him to stop, but I go against my instinct.

Instead, I stand there still as possible as I let him peel off the bandage. I look at him through the mirror as he throws the bandage to the side; however, his eyes never leave my back. Intrigued, his finger gently lands on the top of the tattoo tracing it's full form down my back as if he's memorizing the exact pattern of it.

"It's beautiful."

I step forward letting my shirt fall down and turn around facing him.

"Thank you."

I don't wait for him to respond, I just walk to my bed. Turning my back to him, I take off my shirt and lie down on my stomach. When I reach for the ice pack, I find Kai doing the same.

My eye peeks up at him in question.

"I can do it," he volunteers.

"Okay," I say lowering my head onto the pillow.

A few seconds pass before the ice meets my burning skin, cooling down the sensation.

My eyes closed, I think of all the things I want to say to this man. I wanna tell him everything  that I'm not aloud to say out loud. I wanna pour my heart out to him, yet I stay as quiet as one can possibly be.

Maybe it's because I'm actually scared, terrified of what he'll say or do once he finds out why I'm truly dying on the inside every single day.

If I could change things, the only thing I would change is meeting him. Because then, the things I'm doing, or the things I'll have to do, wouldn't hurt as much. I know he deserves everything that's coming his way, I just don't want my heart to hold me back when it's time to give it all to him.

But one thing's for sure, we won't be the only ones suffering in the end.

...♛...

"Why didn't you tell me before? You know the party wasn't nearly as important to me as your life," Anthony claims.

"I know, Ant. But it was nothing, okay? He didn't do anything to me," I try to assure him.

"Then what did he say?" Cole questions.

"He said he'd do anything to get me."

"Does he know about the wedding?" Dean asks.

"He didn't mention anything about it, I mean all the invitations were personally handed out and it's too small of an event for anyone else to find out about it," I lie.

"What about your ring? Were you wearing it when he came into your room?"

"No, I gave it to Alessio saying that he needs to bring it back in time for the wedding," I lie again. In all honesty, I took off the ring this morning and it's hidden in my closet.

"So he just came to tell you what he wanted?" Dakota questions confused.

"Sort of, he also warned me that all of our lives are in danger. He wants to force me into surrendering," I explain.

"We can all take care of ourselves, but we've tripled our security everywhere. Home, school, hotels, safe houses, stores, land; anything that is under our name," Lane acknowledges.

"Good. We have to use everything we have. I'm not risking anything anymore. Not Summer, not any of you and not my business. Nick will be stopped at all costs and we're starting that with the trade we have in six days with the Chinese," my father makes known.

"We made a small trade with them two months ago, taking in a new drug known as Fentanyl. Since then, it's come into more and more demand. There's underlying gangs and drug lords manipulating formulas trying to make the same drug, but aren't succeeding. So we're using this opportunity to widen the use of this drug. We've bought over two million dollars worth of supply and there's a huge shipment coming in, in six days. If this trade proves to be a success for our business, the Chinese have agreed to give us the one and only formula for the drug at the cost of nine point eight million dollars."

"The cocaine business is running slow right now as every single state, thanks to Nick, is selling it. I want Fentanyl to bring in more customers and members into the gang that are willing to work for us over Nick."

"So considering all of that, I want all of our best people helping out in this trade making sure that it goes by smoothly. That also includes Kai, Dakota, Alec, Cole and Summer," Vincent orders.

"What? No," Dean and Anthony speak in unison.

"If we do get ambushed, we can't risk losing Summer along with the supply," Dean argues.

"I can protect myself and the supply, Dean," I fight back.

"No, it's too dangerous. She needs to stay home where there's countless amount of people with only one goal which is to protect her and her only," Anthony protests.

"Well, guess what? Home isn't as safe as you all make it be. Nick proved that by breaking in yesterday. I'm going to this trade, end of discussion."

"Father?" Dean queries.

"She's just as stubborn as your mother was. If she wants to go, let her. But make sure she's not alone," he informs.

"Be safe, and if anything is heard from Nick, I want to be the first informed," my father says before getting up. We share a small look of assurance before he heads out of the room.

"Oh, and before you all head out, no one tells Alessio about this. He has enough on his plate to worry about, I don't want him dropping everything and coming here just for me. I have enough people doing that already," I explain.

"Okay," Dean and everyone else agrees.

As everyone starts to get up and leave, I stay seated until there's only Amelia, Dakota, Alec, Cole and Kai left.

"We haven't talked as a group in a while, have we?" Amelia says breaking the silence.

"Yeah, it's been a while."

"So, how's everyone?" I query.

"Well, Calliste and I are coming up with some new hacking software that'll eventually help us hack into every computer in the world," Cole shares.

"Not that mine is as revolutionary as his, but I've actually just been out and about. I went back to Chicago for a couple of days to check up on Brody and on how everything's going down there. Things seem to be running pretty smooth and solidly."

"That's really cool, Cole and that's good to hear, Alec," I smile back at them.

"Hey, Amelia, I lost you at the party yesterday. Where'd you go off to?"

"Oh, um, Graham took me out. I was getting a bit claustrophobic," she responds looking down at the table.

"Oh, I see," I smile mischievously.

"Guys, I was thinking we should do something after the trade with just the six of us. We haven't been together in a long time and back home, we always found time to just sit together and watch a movie. So with Anthony's permission, he said all of us can go to a safe house located near a lake about two hours away from here after the trade, just to get a small break," Dakota says.

"You orchestrated all of this by yourself?" Cole questions.

"Yeah, I was scared to talk to Anthony, but he's nicer than he lets on."

"Well, I give you props and honestly, I could definitely use a break," I reply with a smile.

"What do you mean? You've been back for roughly a week," Alec retorts.

"Shh! Nobody needs to know that."

"Okay, well I'm in," Cole says.

"Me too," Amelia says.

"Me too," Alec adds.

"Kai?" everyone focuses their attention towards him.

"I don't-"

"Okay then, we're going! The trade is next Thursday, so we're leaving early, Friday morning. Make sure you pack everything you need." Dakota quickly words and displays a big, mischievous smile before heading out of the room not giving anyone a chance to argue with her.

"Well, I'm going to my room to do homework. If any of you'd like to join, you're more than welcome to," I inform indicating my words mostly towards Kai.

"I'll come," Amelia says.

"Us too," Cole says on behalf of Alec and himself.

"Okay. Amelia can you bring ice?" I question.

"Okay, I'll be up in a few then," she informs before I head up to my room. Once I'm in my room, I bring my backpack to the bed and put it on the side.

Just then, Amelia, Alec, Cole and Kai walk in.

"Lay down," Amelia says to me.

"At least ask to go on a date first," I joke. She rolls her eyes as I lie done my stomach. She pulls up my shirt for me and starts to ice the tattoo.

"Damn, that's a fucking beauty," Alec comments. I see him standing on the side looking down at my back.

"Thanks," I reply.

"How long did it take?" Cole asks stepping in next to Alec.

"Five hours, I think. I don't remember exactly, but it took a while."

"Well, it was worth it," Cole says before taking a seat next to Kai and starting his homework.

"Good to know," I say as I put my head down on my arms and let Amelia ice my tattoo.

A/N:

Ivy: This chapter in three words: Filler as fuck.

Why you think Summer lied about the wedding though?!

Not much going on but it's taking the story to where it needs to get to. I swear the closer I think I'm getting to the ending, the further I'm getting from it.

Hope you still liked it!