“Are you deaf, Moana?” I snarled. “I said move out . Someone is going to be looking for this bitch, and this will be their first stop.”
She looked like she wanted to accuse me of something… but then thought better of it. Silently, she just shook her head at me in disappointment, then stomped off to finish packing up her shit to leave. As she left, though, I caught the hurt look she cast in Danny’s direction.
My sister fucking broke my heart sometimes.
Eli deposited Danny onto the couch and called Mauricio over to give him my instructions for keeping Danny sedated for the duration of the flight home. Mauricio arched a curious look in my direction but didn’t argue as he opened up his bag of tricks to mix a drug cocktail.
Six minutes was all it took for my team to clear out of the hotel suite.
I climbed back into the Escalade, with Eli at the wheel. Jae and Cyryl were in the back seat, with Danny slumped between them, and I couldn’t seem to stop glaring at them both in the mirror. What did it say about me that I was still feeling the need to keep their hands off what I considered my property, and she wasn’t even conscious?
Jae was pissed at me, too. I could see it in the angry glares he shot back. He was a fucking fool for thinking he’d been in with a chance with her. I was her target all along, and she’d damn near fooled me.
Moana, Sam, and Mauricio were still loading our luggage into their Escalade when we pulled out, but I trusted them to meet us at the airstrip. We had our own private plane waiting there, and Sam had already called ahead to change our flight plans. According to documentation, we were heading to Hong Kong, but no one would find us there if they searched.
We pulled into the private airstrip ten minutes later, and I was relieved to find the staff had already gotten our plane ready to go. Money really could buy you anything in Shadow Grove. I must remember that.
Silent and efficient, we all piled out, and Jae carried Danny up into the aircraft with gentler hands than Eli had used earlier. Cyryl followed, but I hesitated, frowning.
“Boss?” Eli asked, pausing on the lower step of the stairs.
I huffed a deep exhale. “I’ve got a bad feeling.”
My friend looked in the direction I was staring. Jae—our pilot—was already in the cockpit, warming the engines up so that the moment we were all on board, we could leave. Even mad at me, he wasn’t slacking on his job.
In the distance, headlights lit up the night, and I breathed a small sigh of relief.
“Alright, let’s go!” I shouted. “They’re here!”
Eli and I started up the stairs as our second Escalade came speeding across the tarmac toward us, much faster than necessary. As they drew close, I noticed the bullet holes in the glass.
“Go!” Moana screamed at us, jumping from the driver’s seat before the car even fully stopped. Sam burst from the back seat, his gun raised and bullets popping off at the black Maserati currently flying toward us all. “Get on the fucking plane!” my sister bellowed, shoving Eli and me the rest of the way into the aircraft.
Sam continued shooting as he followed us up the stairs, and Eli shouted at Jae to get us in the air.
Our crew was a well-oiled unit. The aircraft rolled forward, and Moana pulled the cabin door closed while Sam fired a few more bullets to deter their pursuer. Moments later, we were picking up speed along the runway, and I peered out the window to see the Maserati speeding alongside us.
It was no use, though. Jae raised the aircraft nose, and we gained altitude, carrying us out of reach. The Maserati skidded to a stop, and I watched a man step out. He held a gun in his hand, but it was too dark to make out his features even as he tilted his head back to track our ascent.
“Alright, who the fuck is she?” Moana exploded, gesturing angrily at Danny, who someone had strapped into a reclined chair. “That fucker was no amateur, and he wanted her back. Bad .”
I swallowed hard. That was what I wanted to know, too.
“Where’s Mauricio?” I asked instead.
Sam gave me a hard look and shook his head. “Dead.”
That one word was a blow worse than any physical wound. Angelic little Danielle had a lot to answer for when she woke. And it wouldn’t be pleasant if she refused.
18
M y first thought as I slowly regained consciousness was that Leon was going to be so smug that I’d fucked up. I’d been so confident I had Kai under control, and so irritated at the implication that I wasn’t good enough for this mission, that I’d shot myself in the foot.
Fuzz clouded my brain, and I found myself slipping in and out of sleep as I tried to shake off whatever they’d given me. When I did, though, I kind of wished I’d stayed out longer. My head was thumping . No doubt I had a hell of a bruise where Kai had knocked me out, too.
I couldn’t raise a hand to check, because I was bound to a chair. Damn it.
Blinking away the drug haze, I quickly assessed my surroundings. The room I was in had to be underground. There were no windows, and the air had that cool, damp quality of being subterranean. The walls and floor were stone, but not newly laid. At a guess, I’d say this room was a heck of a lot older than me. Which was probably a good thing, as it might have flaws that could be exploited. Especially if the metal bars in the door were rusted.
I was alone, so that was something at least. Gave me a second to take stock and think . It wasn’t the worst situation I’d ever found myself in, but goddamn, it’d been a long time since someone had gotten the jump on me like that.
My wrists were bound with zip ties, which would be easy enough to break if I were inclined to. There was no sense in showing all my cards too soon, though, so for now I stayed put. A minute later, I spotted the freshly installed camera in the corner of the roof. I was being watched.
What was my best game plan? Kai had knocked me out and abducted me. He could have killed me at any point after my head met that wall, but he hadn’t. Was he still second-guessing himself? If so, I could maybe convince him that the comms device hadn’t been mine.
One thing was for sure, I would never reveal that I was Guild. Torture was nothing new, and I could almost bank on the fact that Kai and his team wouldn’t push me anywhere near as hard as my own trainers had. They were weapons dealers. Glorified businessmen. I’d bet not a single one of them had the stomach for true torture techniques.
Meanwhile, the longer I stuck to my cover identity, the more likely it’d be to find an escape route from wherever I was being held. All it’d take would be one slipup from one of Kai’s crew…
Arguing voices reached my ears from outside my prison cell, and I tilted my head to listen. I was still groggy from the drugs, though, and the way the voices echoed made it impossible to make out who it was. Maybe I wasn’t with Kai’s crew at all? Maybe they’d handed me off to someone else?
Nah. His ego was too inflated to do that. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say he’d taken me to his home. Silly, silly Kai. Maybe I’d complete my mission after I killed them all. What better place to find all his deep dark secrets than in the belly of the beast itself.
A moment later, my cell door opened, and Jae strode in with a thunderous expression. Cyryl followed him, glaring at me with hatred as he stood in the doorway and folded his arms over his chest.