Hero?

41

"How long do you think Ana?" Trinity asks after they've relocated for a month.

"For what?" Ana asks distracted. She's looking over the business spread sheets before her and doesn't like what she's seeing.

"Until Phoenix comes after you."

"Jonah, why are our profits down last quarter?" Ana ignores Trinity's question and asks her old third and now second a question.

"Spider has been horning in on our territory and cutting out our business." Jonah still has a hard time talking about illegal dealings with the young girl.

"Has it just been us or has he been doing it to Phoenix as well?" Ana asks thinking hard.

"Just us. Word is he is angling for that marriage alliance and now that you aren't there Phoenix might accept." Jonah says softly but his words are loud in the silent office.

"If Damon accepts that alliance I'll be keeping my word. Jezey will be dead before the I do's are said." Ana says without changing her tone.

"Has Phoenix made any moves onto our territory?" Ana demands of Jonah.

"No, if anything he's backed off from any potentially disputable areas. I hear that he wants to speak to you."

"No. He had his chance and he decided to show me that he doesn't want to listen to anything I have to say." Ana is adamant on that.

"They say that the death toll has risen in his area. There is no proof that it's him, but that's what the word on the street is." Jonah says softly.

"Keep our people away from any possible conflict areas, we won't start a war with him, but if he wants one I'll finish it. As for Spider he's just aching to see what the Hawk is willing and able to do.

"We don't have the man power to storm his headquarters, but let's give him a taste of his own medicine. Any Spider found within our territory without prior permission will be detained and interrogated. I haven't had any fun for awhile boys, see if you can't bring me some, yeah?" Ana says and moves along to her other reports.

"Ana, you can't ignore the problem. Phoenix isn't going to let you go, you know that." Trinity is all but begging Ana to listen to him.

Ana turns her full attention to Trinity and he wishes that she hadn't. "I am well aware of what he will do or won't do. He let me go, he doesn't give a damn and hasn't for the better part of a year. He won't make a move against me for at least a year, Trinity. He doesn't have the man power even if he somehow found us. That's if he actually wants to do anything.

"There's rumors of him and Jenny becoming serious. Personally I think it's full of shit, but hey, Damon's full of shit as well. Jenny thinks that she can control him." Ana smirks and it makes Trinity feel a little sick. "Damon is toying with her. I don't know why or what he expects to get out of that relationship other than a good fu-lay," Ana catches herself, she's been trying hard to clean up her language since she's left Damon's house. "It no longer matters to me. It stopped mattering to me when he decided to bring her into the house on a semi permanent basis and chose her over me. If he actually chooses to marry her good luck to her. She'll be dead with in the year."

Trinity looks at Ana shocked. "How can you say that?"

"He still wants to talk to me and hasn't made any aggressive moves on my territory. He's playing with her for some reason. He  probably wants to tell me why and that's why he wants to talk to me."

"Then why won't you talk to him?" Trinity is desperate to know. Ana had spent the whole day of her birthday locked in her room crying. It was the first birthday since she moved in with Damon that they didn't celebrate her birthday together.

Gemma had emailed him that Damon wouldn't leave his study or eat on that day either.

"He should have talked to me before implementing whatever plan he hatched. The way he did it insured that I wouldn't have anything more to say to him. He betrayed me, Trinity and I cannot forgive him for that."

"They say that Jenny still sports faded bruises on her cheek. Bruises that showed up the day after the graduation party." Jonah inserts.

"She didn't keep her mouth shut. You'd think after spending as much time with him as she has that she would learn. Perhaps she did, she heard a lot of sensitive things that night, she still living so perhaps she didn't go blabbing secrets to people that shouldn't know. If she had Damon would have killed her."

"You're being awful calm about this Ana," Trinity says finding it hard to keep his own calm.

"I told you, when the time comes, Phoenix will hand Jenny over to me himself."

"When will that be, Ana?" Trinity asks in the silence that follows this declaration. She had said it before, but that was nearly a year ago.

"After Spider attacks. He's the one you should be worried about. Keep your eyes on him, we can't allow him to continue cutting into our business."

Ana finishes her report reading and puts everything in its proper place. "If that is everything gentlemen I have school to get back to."

Jonah and Trinity take their cue and leave the precocious girl alone. She had already finished middle school and is half way through her freshman year of high school. Trinity believes that she wants to finish her high school education before the end of the year. He's not sure that she won't succeed either.

"Trinity, have you found someone to share your guarding duties with? I want you working with Jonah more on the daily operations." Ana calls out just before they leave the room. Ana was serious, she wants Trinity as her heir so he needs to know about the operations of Hawk's group.

"No one I trust completely. You'll have to look them over to see if they are compatible for you." Trinity says and Ana waves her acknowledgement. She's not too worried right now though. The men have begun to love her but they haven't forgotten what she is capable of and don't want to cross her.