Vice

Seven

"Are you okay?" His voice was stern, but his eyes searched her face.

Thea looked away, lightly running her fingers over her neck. "I'm fine," her voice sounded raspy and she silently cursed herself for it.

There was a moment of silence; they both knew it sounded unconvincing. Thea shivered, the fall air sending bumps up her bare arms. James disappeared behind the car for a moment and returned with a jacket. He held it out to her.

"Thanks." she slipped into it. It hung below the hem of her dress and she welcomed the warmth it provided.

"Are you sure-"

"How did you know where we were?" Thea interrupted him, wanting to change the subject.

He shut his mouth and let out a soft sigh. His normally removed expression was replaced by one of sincerity as he looked down at her. "We had a deal," he took a step forward, his voice clear and adamant. "As long as your with me. You're safe."

Turning away from him she ran her fingers through her hair unable to decipher her feelings. "Thanks, but I could have handled it myself."

A low irate sound left his lips, "You may be a Knight, but even you aren't bulletproof."

The door to the club slammed open cutting off their discussion and making them both jump as Trevor strolled over. He swung an arm across Thea's shoulder.

"Hey, I got your text, whats the big emergency? You guys got cold and needed something hot to warm you up?" his eyebrows wiggled at James.

When welcomed with silence, Trevor's face fell as he caught wind of the tension in the air. His pompous attitude immeately deflated. His eyes flicked from Thea's neck to the blood splatter on James' shirt.

"Shit, what did I miss?"

****

"So he tried to kill you?" Trevor's eyes were wide with disbelief while Lottie blew air out her cheeks.

They sat on the matching black leather seats that filled the large living room. A soft glow from the fire place cast dancing shadows across the floor, Thea watched them numbly. A flash of pain erupted from her bruised windpipe at his words. She nodded silently.

"But he's your brother."

Her eyes flashed, "He stopped being my brother a long time ago." A tense silence filled the air, the others at a loss for words.

Naturally it was Trevor who broke the silence, "What now?"

They all turned to James, who had his gaze set on Thea. She met his eyes, her blue eyes reflecting the orange flames. "I keep my promise to you guys. We bring down the Black Knights. For good."

"We've been trying to do that for years. They're impenetrable. Every person we took out was immediately replaced by someone else." Ryder said.

"You took out the wrong people," she responded. "You focused on the big names, people with highly ranked status. But everyone, no matter their position in the gang, is expandable. There's always someone a rank below them waiting to take their place."

"So what do you suggest we do?"

"We do exactly what Shane did to me. Cut off his oxygen supply."

Trevor's eyebrows knitted together, "You want to kill him? But I thought you just said-"

Thea rolled her eyes, "No, I don't want to kill him, not yet. I meant we cut off his main source of income."

"The camps." James sat back in his chair rubbing the side of his unshaven chin. "We're going to need time to prepare, that's not going to be an easy task."

He paused, his eyes were concentrated on the table in front of them, then nodded slowly, "We'll double up on training. When we're not training we'll figure out a plan to take down their camps, starting from the bottom and building up to the main ones."

They all nodded in agreement. "There's one problem."

James looked at Ryder, "and what's that?"

"Thea needs a different training partner. She took out both me and Lottie in under five minutes."

"I'll train with her." Thea looked up with wide eyes at his response. He met her expression with a chuckle, "Is Thea Knight nervous?"

Her face darkened into a grin, "Not a chance, Carson."