Shit. Mical and Jonah Carlos, the psychopathic demon twins, stared at us with empty smiles and dead eyes, their souls long stolen by the devil that was their father. The brother they were hoping to take home for a “family reunion” wasn’t here—which meant they were here for me.
The FBI still had to be on the premises. Did I want to make enough noise to have them run to my rescue? Would I even have enough time? If we had an open gunfight in this narrow corridor, not a single one of us would make it out alive—the space was too tight and the firearms everyone carried were far too powerful.
So, hand-to-hand was the only option to get out of here in one, hopefully, hole-less piece. Tough, soulless men only had one way into their hearts—their ego. And from what I knew of the twins, they had more than enough to play with. I swallowed every ounce of emotion trying to punch through my thoughts and drew in a breath to fortify my mental defenses before making my move.
I pushed on the flank of the soldier in front of me to nudge him out of my sight line. He reluctantly shifted, giving me a full view of my new opponents.
“Gentlemen,” I greeted in a light tone, as if this were just an introductory business meeting. “How nice to see you again. Judging by your weapons, I assume this isn’t a friendly call?”
Mical sneered. An ugly scar divided the side of his cheek and pulled the skin too tight. “Not here for chit-chat,puta.” He calmly waved his gun in the air, as if the weapon were an extension of his arm. “We’re here as a little warning. Stay the fuck away from Kellan and Carlos’ business. He’s not your concern.”
Despite containing my emotions in a tidy box, violent anger erupted across my skin. Kellan had handed his brothers their entire world six years ago, and they hadn’t so much as blinked when their daddy told them to kill him. They didn’t know loyalty, didn’t understand what it meant to risk life and limb for someone you loved. I wouldneverstay away from Kellan, even if he needed to stay away from me. Lane loyalty never died.
Another swallow, the furious rage burning the back of my throat as it slid into my belly. Still, I kept my tone even, level. A hostage negotiator between testosterone-fueled idiots with shit for brains and bullets for brawn.
“I have no intention of leaving Kellan alone.” Standing my ground between four chiseled chests, I crossed my arms behind my silk suit and stared down the barrel of his gun. “So, thank you for the warning, but his business is my business. Kellan ismine.”
“He is a dead man.” Jonah’s scoff raised the errant hairs on the back of my neck, but I didn’t retreat from his penetrating stare. “You are smarter than to side with a dead man.”
I wasn’t smarter. Empty words might get me out of this corridor alive, but they wouldn’t stop their witch hunt. I had a chance to end them today if I played the game a few moves ahead. I lightly fingered the two daggers tucked in the small of my back, slowly easing them out of the sheath with the tips of my index fingers. The knives cleanly fell into the palms of my hands, and I clenched them in my fists, small beads of my blood collecting against the blades.
“I’ll make you a deal,el tonto.” I stared into the hazel eyes of Jonah, the more intelligent of the two, making my challenge clear. “I’ll fight you for it. No guns. Hand-to-hand combat. Me and one of you.”
I was taking an enormous risk, but I couldn’t see a way out of this without serious blood being shed. I’d just agree to leave Kellan alone, and they’d let me pass? Not a chance.Antonio’s messages didn’t come with a warning beforehand. The man was efficient. The verbal threat would accompany physical enforcement.
One, or all, of us were getting shot today. Call me an idealist, but I’d do what I could to save these men’s lives, even when their job was to save me. I drew my hands out by my sides, keeping the blades hidden within the bell sleeves of my suit jacket. I prayed the drops of blood wouldn’t be noticeable against the cream color of my outfit.
“Hah!” Mical barked, vehemently shaking his head at my offer. “Tempting,puta. Unlike our brother, we do not fall for the tricks of pretty women.” He shifted his gun to point it at my head, the stretch of his scar menacing and cold. “I will simply kill you for refusing a kind offer, how about that?”
Jonah lowered his weapon and placed a halting hand on Mical’s shoulder. “We are not killing her, brother.” He turned to grin at me, the predatory gleam in his eyes dancing icy fingers of fear up my spine. “But I like this hand-to-hand idea. We like to play with our food before we eat, don’t we?”
Disgusting, the lot of them. Antonio and his spawn needed a deep grave to contain the deplorable filth that was this bloodline. The only person who would ever be worth saving was in a place I couldn’t name, but I would do him this favor all the same.
“So do I,” I responded before I whipped one dagger straight at Mical’s open throat. The blade landed exactly where I needed, and I didn’t spare a second to throw the other one in Jonah’s direction. He moved in the nick of time, but instead of impaling his jugular as I had planned, it ripped through his eye socket, the nauseating squelch of metal in jelly.
Mical’s gun clattered to the floor as he brought both hands to his neck to stop the outpouring of blood, but it was too late. That move was my most practiced maneuver, and Irarely missed my target. Thankfully, today wasn’t the day I lost my edge, but the eye stabbing wasn’t ideal. Jonah’s scream of agony echoed down the hallway, but worse was the shattering sound of errant gunfire as he unloaded the magazine blindly toward the five of us before falling to the floor, gripping his face.
Sammy’s best guard, a quiet man named Benjamin, forcefully shoved me behind him, putting his thick frame between me and the raging hellfire. When the violent symphony of shots faded into a ringing din, he fell to his feet beside me, thick rivulets of blood spurting from the bullet wound through the fleshy part of his cheek. I didn’t need to be a doctor to know he wouldn’t make it.
I hadn’t made it through unscathed. My thigh took a bullet, the fiery sting unlike any other pain I’d ever felt.
My blood boiled like lava at the injustice of it all. Ben had sacrificed his life for me… for what? Emotionally stunted men with small dicks needing to exert their dominance through other’s pain? They’d deserved their deaths, and I would make their end a disgusting indignity for the pain they’d caused my people and this city.
Adrenaline coursed through my bloodstream to replace the blood loss as my body leaped into survival mode, embracing the surrounding chaos. I shifted my weight around the fallen guard and rolled on the ground toward Mical’s gun, kicking it far down the hallway before gripping the hilt of my dagger still embedded in his neck and twisting it harder, cutting through his trachea altogether. A gut-wrenching gurgle deadened by the resonance of my remaining protectors returning gunfire was the last sound Mical would ever make.
Jonah dropped on his haunches, wildly trying to reload without his sight, the dagger still stuck in the hazel eyeball I’d just stared down. One guard shot him right through the forehead. He flopped to the floor with all the elegance of afish on a dry dock.
It was a disappointment not to pull the dagger out and stab his other eye, but we were running out of time even if I wasn’t nearly empty of petty.
Shit, shit, shit. The hallway was littered with bodies and smothered in the spray of at least three blood types. The explosion of gunfire through the building was the last bit of attention we needed. No time to hide the evidence, no need to claim them as our kills. We needed to movenow, and give explanations later.
“We need to move!” I shouted behind me as I rose to my feet, the blistering burn at my thigh forcing my teeth to grind my molars into my sockets, but I pressed on.
I didn’t even make time to assess the guards at my back; instead, I stumbled on my heels toward the rear doors and into the bright March sunshine, a stark contrast to the hellfire we’d just escaped. The sunlight briefly blinded me with its strength before my gaze could seek Lucky’s position in the mostly empty parking lot.
The vehicle we’d arrived in was nowhere to be seen. Instead, my eyes landed on two familiar bodies lying limp on the wet pavement, their hands and feet bound by zip ties. A pretty Latina woman and a large, surly bald man were hefting the bodies up into the back of a cargo van, moving as quickly as possible, slamming a blond head into the rear metal door as they struggled under his weight.
The evil twins were a distraction, I should have known. The timing was too convenient, too controlled. Now, I knew why.
