Their Truth

4. Wait..

Phoenix

I just stare at her, then at our hands, then back at her, my eyes feel like they might pop out of my head, and my mouth keeps opening and closing, looking for words but nothing is coming out.

I remember that day, we were running from the ports to a collection point in the city. Dad rang me and said there was a nark and they cops knew the shipment was coming when we were almost there.

I told the boys through the headsets that connected our helmets on long runs.

It was just in time we took a different turn than we were meant too and headed away from the collection point.

Only problem was we were bang in the city and clearly visible on our bikes, but we could weave the traffic far better than the cop cars, and just better than the robo-cops on their motorbikes.

We took off, just as we were about to turn off Euston Road it happened a girl in boots and a black coat stepped out and got knicked by Knox's bike, I seen it up a head of me and I hit the breaks.

Knox wobbled but kept going, she spun and fell and hit her head on the footpath, I stopped next to her and she was laid out on the ground.

I remember seeing the blood on her forehead and knowing it was a bad bash but she was awake and as I asked her was she okay she looked beyond me and she could see the lights I knew were coming.

I had to go, I had to get of here, but I needed to hear her speak.

She looked at me, and told me to go, that it was okay, I could see someone coming to help me and that was it. I was going, but I looked at her one more time and thanked her, not because she was being okay about my brother laying her out, but because she understood I needed to leave, and she didn't want me to get caught.

I've remembered that night a few times since then, wondered if she was okay, did she have a concussion, did she recover.

I even looked in news articles a few days after to see was there anything about a young girl death from a hit and run near Kings Cross Station, nothing. I never found her.

"Nix..."

Her voice snaps me out of the memory of that day and back to the here and now where this girl is standing right in front of me, alive.

She saved me that day, I shouldn't have stopped but I had to, for some reason something told me to stop.

I lift my hand slowly and brush the hair off the left side of her face, she was lying on this side earlier, and also I wasn't looking for what I just found there.

A scar about 2 inches down along her hair line, not easily recognisably because its right along the hair line.

I run my finger down it, I've totally stepped into her space now, I'm towering over her and she is looking up at me, but I can't take my eyes off the scar. I'm still holding her hand in my other one, my grip a lot tighter than it was before.

The microwave has stopped minutes ago but we don't move.

"Nix..."

I move my eyes from the scar to her eyes, those beautiful green eyes, that I don't remember from that day, probably because her face was covered in blood.

I cup her cheek in my hand and say,"You're okay? you weren't to badly hurt? I worried...."

She lifts her free hand to cover mine cupping her face, "I'm fine, some stitches, a concussion and a 2 nights in a hospital bed. I'm totally recovered."

Next thing I know I have her crushed against my chest with my arm around her waist and my chin resting on top of her head. "I'm so sorry little flame, I would have stayed to help you if I could haven't, people don't usually get hurt on our jobs."

"Its not your fault Nix... actually who's bike was it? I knew you couldn't stay, and my friend was there, he helped me get to an A&E and get sorted out. He was the one who told me about yee, said he heard it through a guy who did look out for yee a few times, in an area where it was hard to see cars coming from." Her hand is rubbing up and down my back, I should let her go but I just can't, not yet. I've thought about her more times then I would like to admin over the past few months.

When I do step back and look at her again, she smiles and I smile back, I'm relieved.

At that moment Knox and Ivy fall into the kitchen, drunk, high and laughing their asses off.

I step back from Saorise and turn to face Knox and he stops, he knows me, he knows my face, and he knows its serious.

"Nix, whats up? everything alright?" Knox suddenly a hell of a lot more sober asks.

"Remember that girl you clipped on the bike a few months ago, I told you she was bleeding on the ground?" I ask him.

"Yeah of course I do, did you hear something? she's alive right?" He replies I can tell by his voice he is worried now, he didn't like the fact he hit her either.

I stand back from him, raise my arm gesturing towards Saorise. He looks at me confused and then back at her, she does a little wave with her fingers and a little smile.

He looks back at me and I see the moment it clicks and he clears me and bundles her up in his arms, squeezing her rightly, probably a bit too tightly, and I just chuckle.

"I'm so f*****g sorry, I didn't see you, I was looking over at Archer when you stepped out and I didn't react fast enough, I'm so sorry, are you okay, let me see you head."

He stands back examining her head everywhere except where the scar is, I can't help but chuckle, Ivy is so confused but laughing too, and Saorise is smiling as she directs him to the scar on her left temple.

As soon as he sees it he is off again.

"I'm so sorry, I could have killed you, look at that scar, it's on your temple, I'm so sorry....." etc etc.

Knox being the youngest of the 4 of us has always been the most sensitive. We laugh it off always because it is who he is, and we love him that way. But in moments like this is hard to see him and this mean, tall, well built, bike riding drug smuggler, but work is work, we were raised into it and we are what we are.

"I bet River and Archer will be happy too." I say to distract Knox from the fuss he is making over Saorise.

His head staps up and he rushes out of the kitchen.

Ivy starts counting..

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

My 3 brothers and Bonnie appear in the door way to the kitchen.

"is it true?" Comes from Archer. I nod, Saorise does that little wave and smile thing again and I just laugh.

I leave them to their questions and apologies once again while I get our pasta from the microwave. I grab two bottles of water and put them in the pockets of my tracksuit pants.

I stand behind my brothers who are all similar heights to me while the crowd this tiny woman, and poke at her forehead.

I clear my throat and they part a little and I hand Saorise the bowl of pasta.

"would you still like me to show you back to your room, or do you wanna stay and have my brothers fuss over you some more?"

She laughs, they tsk to relay that they weren't fussing, when they know full well they were.

"The room please, I'm exhausted. Good night everyone, or good morning? I don't know. Thank you all so much for being so nice to me, I haven't felt like this since my parents died. And Knox, I'm completely fine okay." She says all this with a genuine smile on her face. None of us miss the comment about her parents being dead.

As she walks out of the room in front of me, I look back and see the concerned looks on everyone's faces and I know its mirrored in mine too.

My phone vibrates in my pocket as we walk down the all to short hallway, I'm enjoying a view i have no right enjoying, so I ignore it, I'll ring back whoever it is in a while.

Her hips sway just they way I like it as she walks, and he bum, its rounds and full and I want to take a bite out of it. Bonnie gave her a pair of Nike yoga pants and f**k me, my c**k is going to hard as a rock until I can take care of it after this view.

We get to my door and tell her I'm right across the hall, if she needs anything, I'm about to close my door when words escape my mouth that I didn't even realise were sitting on my tongue.

"Do you wanna come in and eat? so we aren't eating alone?"

Eating alone? I eat alone all the time what is wrong with me?

She smiles, turns and walks into my room.

We sit on the bed and eat in silence for a few minutes before she asks,

"for drug smugglers, you were all very concerned about my life, and seemed over joyed I was alive. It just doesn't seem to fit into you world. What's one girl you don't know life in the bigger picture."

I take a minute to think about it, and I suppose she is right, usually criminals wouldn't care who they hurt or who dies, but that's not how we were raised.

"we were born into this business, the reason we do so well in it is because my Dad has certain rules we follow as a family. He has his connections because people he works with know murder is not something he will work with. We are the same. No one wants to die, and working with us gives them the security that it won't happen with us. Also if anything happens to my dad or the family, there is a lot of dangerous people who would be pissed the f**k off and no one wants to cross them people. We are middle men, and we stay in the middle. We don't meet buyers or sellers, we move and arrange movement of drugs. So killing someone is not something that comes across out paths very often, when it does, its for self or family preservation only. Its hard for us to keep it that way, but Dad built the reputation in a simpler time and its respected now. No one wants to lose my Dads connection and networks, and we are the fastest to move products from A to B without problem on our bikes."

I can see her digesting the information, I see no point in lying to her, because she will know its a lie, and because I know she figured out who we were and didn't lie about it either. While I wate for her to answer I take her in, she really is the most beautiful thing ive even seen, plump lips an smooth skin.

My d**k it twitching in my pants, wanting to get inside her. She is on my bed in my room, but I can't touch her. She just escaped hell, and until she works through that I need to stay away.

"You seem to have a good place to sit in the crime world, I'm sure it's not as nice as you have painted it but I know you are telling the truth. Thank you for stopping that day, and thank you for saving me today."

Her breath catches at the end, and its real emotion, I haven't seen her let herself get sad about what happened yet, but I assume its because she is waiting to be alone. She won't show anyone she's venerable.

"I'm going to go to bed now."

I hand her a bottle of water as she crosses to the door.

"Goodnight Little Flame"

"Goodnight Pheonix"