Kiril cleared his throat.“Kalvin Mercer is a rat like you thought. He was caught on camera meeting with John O’Malley last night and it was friendly. Or at least I watched them shake hands and not instantly shoot each other, so I presume it’s as friendly as they can get.”
Just like that, all manner of mild humor vanished, replaced by the stone cold realisation that though I had been right, I wished I hadn’t.
The Jackals hadn’t been turned completely.
They were working with John and the Vice Kings — something I had always been worried about long before today.
“Fuck.”The moment I cursed, Aiden stopped messing around, and both he and Ruby paid strict attention to me, even if she didn’t understand a word I said.“Do you have a last known location for either?”
“Both of them went off the map about an hour after they left each other, and I’ve just sent Aiden their last known location. But I found something more recent that might be of interest.”Kiril paused a moment, clicking at something in the background as his car turned on. “Mercer’s son landed at the Harry Reid International Airport about three hours ago. He met a team of hired mercenaries about ten miles out from the Gomez’s clubhouse and then he went dark about an hour ago. I would have told you earlier, but I only just got the messages – the signal down here is terrible.”
My spine stiffened as a pit of dread opened in my stomach.
“Shit, he’s here? Why?”I frowned as all sorts of dangerous ideas ran through my brain and I desperately tried to figure out what was happening and what I could do about it from my car, too far away from my Diamond.
If she needed me right now and I wasn’t there for her again, I might as well take a gun to my head and pull the trigger. It would be the least I deserved for failing her.
“Looks like a kidnapping or a hit or something. I found pictures of some girl in the mercenary request – I’ve sent them over to Aiden now.”Kiril said.
Aiden’s phone beeped, and he opened it, instantly spinning it around to show me the screen. A pretty blonde teenager staredup at me, grinning ear to ear as her big blue eyes sparkled with mischief. The same sort of mischief I had seen more than once in the last few weeks as she lived in Sapphire’s house and had fast become her friend.
“Fuck, that’s Henley.”I cursed and crushed my foot harder on the gas, wishing more than anything I had a way to teleport exactly where I needed to be.“I’ve gotta call Diamond – meet me at hers ASAP and bring the gangster punks with you. But don’t turn your back on them even once; they might have come willingly, but it could still be a trap.”
“Yes, sir.”Kiril barked.
The phone cut out, and I instantly hit dial on Sapphire’s borrowed phone number as I got Aiden and Ruby to ring her guys too, not wanting to miss them. My logic was where one was, the rest wouldn’t be far behind so it would be easy enough to reach one before anything happened during the last few minutes of my drive to Sapphire’s home.
Before it was too late for Henley, or whoever got between her and James fucking Mercer. The aggravating little cunt I couldn’t wait to sink a knife into.
Multiple times.
Luckily, Sapphire picked up.“Tío?”She almost snapped at me.
“Diamond-”Before I could utter a single sentence, my presumed luck changed.
There was a loud, smashing sound and a scream that terrified me to my core. A scream that burned itself into my eardrums, leaving an imprint behind that would never be removed.
A second later the sounds of glass breaking, men yelling, and something far too dangerous on the breeze echoed through the car speaker and all ideas of being calm and rational emptied out of my head, replaced with nothing but stone cold terror.
“Sapphire?!” I shouted her name more than once but there was nothing – nothing but more screams and the sounds of metal bending and breaking.
The unmistakable noises of a car crashing – the people inside being hurt.
Then the worst of all things.
Silence.Silence, then the phone cutting off.
“Find her now.” I all but snarled at Aiden as I floored the gas, shooting through red lights and a stop sign without a care.
Before I could glance back, he was already pulling his laptop out of the backpack on the ground, loading up his tracking software for me and didn’t need asking to do more. The tracking wasn’t needed though. Barely a few moments later there was an explosion loud enough to make Ruby flinch from just around the corner, right before a van sped past us, narrowly avoiding collision.
“What the fuck?” I muttered more to myself than anything as I raced around the bends, channelling my inner Lincoln even if I was nowhere near as talented.
It did the job, though. We got there almost in time.
Almost.
As my car skidded to a stop a moment later, right beside a mess of cars and blood and fear, Angel was one his feet and a little shaky. He was helping a barely conscious Widow out of his car, as he yelled down his phone, to what I hoped was backup or an ambulance or something.
