Chapter 14 MOUNTAINS AND BEARS
“Twenty-five thousand.” Leo whistled as he counted the stacks of cash on the metal table. The atmosphere in the garage had shifted instantly from gloom to celebration."The motherfucker added five extra. Hell yeah!"
“We’re not broke anymore,” Mina whispered, her eyes wide. “We were three days away from eating cardboard for breakfast.”
I leaned against a punching bag, trying to keep my breathing even. My shoulder still stung from the knife graze, but the adrenaline was fading, replaced by a cold, calculating focus.
Seeing the crew smile, laughing softly at the small victory, made me feel… normal, or as normal as a Sienna-Elena hybrid could.
Jax, however, didn’t relax. He was leaning against the far wall, his arms crossed, watching me with calculating eyes. “I need to know something,” he said sternly. “Why were you so interested in the Harbingers’ business?”
The rest of the crew froze. Mina stopped counting the bills and looked up, her expression turning guarded.
“Jax…” I said lightly, letting my voice drop into the familiar nonchalance I’d been practicing all week. “I was just curious.”
“Si, please,” Kael said, his voice heavy with warning. “Don’t go poking bears. Actually, the Harbingers aren't bears. They are mountains. We can’t handle that kind of weight if it falls on us.”
I shrugged, trying to maintain the look of bored nonchalance. “I get it, but I was just curious. A lot has changed since I went under. It is smart to know who the new big players are, isn't it?”
Jax let out a long, heavy sigh. He walked over and stood in front of me, his shadow looming over my smaller frame. “I know you don’t remember much, but in this world, even asking too many questions raises suspicion. Don’t do that ever again. Kanan Maddox is a titan in the crime world. He is not someone you mention casually over a pen-stabbing.”
“He is also now a titan in the regular business world, too,” Leo added, turning his laptop screen around so I could see. “Look at this.”
I leaned in. It was a digital copy of a high-end business magazine. Kanan was on the cover, looking sharp and lethal in a charcoal suit. The headline read:
The New King of Real Estate: How Kanan Maddox is Revitalizing the Industrial District.
“Business world?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
Leo nodded. “Yeah. The turf he has been taking over, he has been turning into legitimate real estate. High-class lofts, middle-class condos, and shopping centers. If I didn't know he was a demon, I would say he was going clean.”
“Clean?” I repeated, my tone sharp. “How can he even do that? His reputation is crazy on its own already.”
“Yeah,” Mina muttered, her voice full of disgust. “He was even recognized in Forbes as a fast-rising millionaire. Give it a few years, and bro will start eliminating everyone who knows who he really is. He wants to change his status. He wants to be a god of the light, not just the dark.”
Jax shook his head. “I pity all those close to him. They will be the first to go. Because he’ll soon start cleaning house.”
Everything started to make sense. The massacre at the Cruz compound had not just been about territory. Kanan had probably somehow found out about my father’s hidden stash.
He used my family’s blood to fund his "legitimate" empire. He was building a throne on our graves.
“If he eliminates everyone close to him,” I asked, my heart hammering, “who would now run the crime side of the business for him?”
“His brother, probably,” Kael said, shrugging.
“Brother??” I turned toward him, my eyes wide. “He has a brother? Since when?”
He had never mentioned or had I ever seen a brother the year we were together.
For all I knew, Karan was an orphan who grew up on the streets and rose to power.
Jax interjected, his tone clipped. “Stop spreading rumors, Kael. It is just street talk.” He looked at me, his gaze softening but still suspicious. “People like to talk because the men who have worked under Maddox like to say it’s like he has two distinct personalities. One day, he is cold and calculating. The next one is a different kind of monster. People assume it’s a twin or a brother, when it’s probably just the madness that comes with that much power.”
My mind flashed back to the day I had been snooping in my ex-husband’s private study, the day Kanan had caught me rifling through the surveillance photos of me…, the day he’d forced himself on me.
I unconsciously whimpered, a violent shudder wracking my body.
“Si? Are you alright?” Jax asked, immediately sensing my distress. He reached out, his hand touching my shoulder gently.
I flinched away from his touch, my skin crawling. “I’m fine!” I snapped, my voice higher than I intended. It took a breath. “Sorry, I’m just tired. Today was a lot.”
I didn't wait for him to respond. I turned and practically ran up the stairs to my loft.
I slammed the door, locked it, then leaned my back against the wood.
“So, you want to revamp your image?” I muttered to the empty room. “You want to go clean and be a hero of the city? Think you’re smart, Kanan?”
I looked at the small, cramped space of the loft. “Well, the fall from a higher ground is much more painful. I’ll make sure of it.”
Determined, I stood up and began to tear the room apart. I searched under the floorboards and behind the small kitchenette just based on a hunch from somewhere inside me that there was something here that could help me.
After a couple of minutes, I finally found what I was looking for in a metal box under the bed.
It contained Sienna’s old journals filled with messy, hurried handwriting. Along with the old hard drives of her training videos.
I spent hours watching the videos. I watched as Sienna moved when she fought.
She was a hurricane of violence. She didn't just win; she dismantled people.
Later in the evening, I stood in front of the mirror looking at the dark circles under my eyes.
I had to focus. I was dillydallying too much, trapped in the trauma of Elena, when I should be becoming the weapon Sienna was.
I had a long way to go if I ever wanted to get close to Kanan again. Nothing else mattered.
A sudden, sharp pain flared in my chest right where the old Sienna had branded me. It felt like a searing iron was being pressed into my skin again.
“Fuck!” I gasped, clutching my chest as I winced. “Calm your titties. I haven't forgotten my promise, dammit! I will handle your revenge as soon as I know more. Just give me a second to breathe!”
The pain immediately subsided into a dull throb.
I sat on the floor, thinking about the logistics. How was I ever going to meet Maddox again?
I grew up in the game, so I knew how the hierarchy worked.
Mob heads were like gods. They were inaccessible to their own low-level members, let alone a street fixer like me. A lot of my father’s own henchmen had never even seen his face.
Kanan would be even harder to reach now that he was a "businessman."
My mind flashed to the training tapes. I saw Sienna in a ring, surrounded by screaming fans and the smell of blood.
The Pit.
Kanan used to love those matches.
Before he was the Ice King, he was a regular at the underground circuits. That was how he had built his initial reputation.
When we were married, he didn't attend the street-level ones anymore because they were too risky. He only went to the high-level, exclusive matches.
The ones where the bets were in the millions.
I looked at my hands.
If I wanted to climb, I had to use the ladder Sienna left me.
I had to become the champion again, then find a way to climb higher in the circuit, if I could get to a place where I would be right in his face.
I smirked at my reflection, the coldness of the Siren finally settling into my bones. “If Muhammad doesn’t want to go to the mountain,” I whispered, “the mountain would go to him.”
My first move is next week.
The Butcher would be the first rung on my ladder.