Hello my lovelies. I just want to start out saying that I highly dislike this freggin' chapter! So don't hate. Thank you all for reading and the many reviews that I have been receiving. Even though I don't answer the reviews you can always PM me with questions about this story.

DISCLAIMER:::: I don't own anything...but in my dreams I do.

ERIC POV

Tris and I had stayed up late talking over the plans for introducing her into the business at the meetings. She had said that she was going to be gone when I woke up this morning, something about her having errands to run before the meetings at one. Sadly she was right, I had imagined that I would wake up when she left the bed but I didn't. I laid in bed and answered emails on my phone until I glanced at the clock and decided that I needed to get my ass in gear because it was already past eleven. I walked into the garage and saw that she had taken the A8 again today. I grabbed my helmet with the darkest visor and my jacket and got on my bike. I texted Tris before I started the bike and told her I was on my way to the agency. She quickly replied that she was going to be running a bit late.

I arrived at the agency about thirty minutes before the meetings were set. I walked in and immediately all the eyes flew to me. It was a usual thing that I had slowly gotten used to. These people didn't know anything about me just that I was a good employer. I was fair with them and I would help them work with things as they came up. I had nearly reached the door of my office when Angie, my manager for the agency came to me.

"Hello Mr. Coulter, you had some packages arrive so I put them on your desk. Everything has been running smoothly while you have been away," she said. She was pretty, I would admit it. But I knew how many poor bastards had fallen for those pretty brown doe eyes under the platinum hair.

"Thank you Angie. I am expecting several people for a meeting within the hour, you know who they are. However I am expecting a Miss Tris Prior, she is to be brought in immediately. I don't care if I am in the middle of the meeting, just show her to the door." I unlocked the door as I spoke and then looked at Angie. "If anyone shows Tris any attitude then I will deal with them personally after the meeting," I said fixing my eyes on her. I saw her visibly swallow nervously. I turned on my heel and went into my office, pushing the door nearly closed all the way with my foot.

There were three good size boxes and a smaller flat box on my desk taking up all of the free space. I pulled out my knife and opened the flat box after checking the return address. I looked up as John and a couple of his guys came in.

"Dude is it Christmas already?" John asked as I turned my attention back to the boxes.

"No, I ordered those rings for that bike I laid down a couple of months ago and they finally came in. I would destroy a fuckin' custom part for each bike," I bitched. I moved the box aside and opened the top box. I glared at John when he came around the desk and peaked inside.

"When the fuck did you start wearing blue butterflies?" He asked as I pulled out the helmet.

"It's not mine," I growled running my fingers over the vinyl monogram that had been placed on the back. The helmet had turned out better than I could have imagined. Black matte with bright ass teal butterflies and the white monogram on the back.

"TGC?" John asked. I glared at him then set the helmet back in the box.

"Shut up. Louis, Wayne, have a seat," I said turning my attention to the other two men in the room. "Jeff should be here soon and then we can get started." I opened the next box and found the matching jacket that went with the helmet. The last box had a plain solid black helmet in it that had a black visor on it. I packed everything back in the boxes and set them in the corner then sat in my awesome office chair. The chair was one of the first things that I had bought when I had a good income and I couldn't help feeling like a bad ass when I sat in it each time.

"So who is this that you're wanting to bring in? Do I know him?" John asked, impatient as ever.

"Shut up John." I looked up to see Jeff standing in the door. "You can't even wait long enough for us all to get here." Jeff came in, shutting the door behind him, and slung his jacket off, throwing it towards John.

"Thank you Jeff," I said gesturing to the last empty chair in my office. Jeff took the chair and I sat back and surveyed each of the men in front of me. They were all older than I was and they had been my stepfathers most trusted team. John had just celebrated his fortieth birthday and he was still going strong. He was wanting to retire within the next few years so he had taken Louis and Wayne under his wing. They had both been in foster care until they were fifteen and adopted. When they turned eighteen they ran away and John found them living on the streets. They weren't blood brothers but with all of the shit they had been through together they might as well be. Jeff was someone that could balance out John. Jeff was smart where John was reckless. Jeff knew more about the empire that my stepfather had set up and was the man I trusted the most.

"So, as you know Andrew has been stepping up his game. We've had to focus on working our numbers back up and while we have been doing that we had to shut down our gun runs. Andrew has been sneaky and moved in and taken over the south part of town that we used to control. I let it happen because I didn't want anymore of my men dying. However now we can take everything that was once ours back and get more." I looked at each man and saw that they looked both impressed and intrigued.

"And how is this going to happen Eric?" John asked. I glared at him.

"Don't interrupt," I teased. "We happened to have acquired a new secret weapon and purely by surprise-." A knock on the door interrupted me and I looked up as the door swung open and Tris poked her head in. I couldn't help the shit eating grin that spread across my face.

"Come on in Baby," I told her.

"Fuck Eric! Are you bringing your bimbos to work now?" John asked as Tris walked behind him.

"Call me a bimbo one more time," she hissed as a knife slid across John's throat. I raised my eyebrow at John.

"As I was saying, gentlemen. We now have the upper hand on Andrew thanks to my beautiful girlfriend. May I introduce you all to Tris Prior, formally known as Beatirce Wright, Andrew's only daughter." Tris came over to me and I grabbed her hand and pulled her in my lap. I grinned and saw her reason for being late. Her left eyebrow was swollen and puffy around a new piercing and she also had a small stud in her nose.

"Your artist was better than I had hoped for. Wait until you see it," She whispered grinning. I kissed her nose then turned back to the men.

"Tris is going to be handling all of the businesses for a while until I can get the construction company back up. She has nearly completed her degree in business management which will help out a lot. Also she is skilled in hand to hand and she can protect herself fairly well. Besides doing all of the business related stuff, she is going to be with me whenever we are doing something big, Her family is scared of her because she knows how they operate and how well she was trained-"

"Granted right now I am really rusty so please don't make me beat you ass," Tris interrupted. I looked at the guys and saw that they were still mostly in shock except for John. He looked like he was either going to puke or piss himself.

"You are really that bastards daughter?" Jeff asked. "We thought you had died when that factory exploded. We knew that you were in there but we couldn't find you to help you." His eyes were wide. Tris shivered at the memory.

"Thankfully I was on the fifth floor and next to a window. I busted the window out and jumped into the harbor right before the building went up," she said quietly. She fixed her gaze on Jeff. "You fought well that day, I'm glad you made it out but I'm sorry that your best friend was killed." I looked over at Jeff. His eyes seemed to mist up for a moment until he blinked the tears away.

"Thank you."

"Unless anyone has any questions I thing that we are done here." I said after a long moment. Everyone shook their heads and stood up.

"John, Jeff, I'll call you within the week. I want to get Tris transitioned in before we start coming back. We need this side of things safe so we have a fall back if necessary," I said as I ran my fingers through Tris' hair. Once the guys had left and closed the door I looked down at Tris.

"Show me?" I asked trying to sound sweet. Part of me hated how wrapped around her finger I was but the other part basked in it. She grinned again and stood up. She turned away from me and pulled her shirt over her head. There was a gauze pad that ran down her spine and across her shoulders.

"You can take it off," she said looking over her shoulder. I set to work trying to ease the tape from her skin, starting at her left shoulder. I slowly revealed a full tribal wing on one side and the switched to work on the opposite side so that I could see the opposite wing. The rest of the tape came off easy that was down her spine and I couldn't help but marvel at the beautiful tattoo.

"A Phoenix?" I asked as I took it in. the head was in the middle of her shoulder blades with wings spread on either side. The tail was all scrolled feathers that ran down to the top of her low rise pants. The entire thing was done in black ink but made of delicate lines. Tris turned around and nodded.

"Yes because I am rising from the ashes."