by Tate James
"Fuck," I breathed. Our cell phones were unhackable, thanks to Dallas, and totally secure. But if the mobile tower near Zed's house was damaged... then yeah, my service would go down.
I rose out of my seat, going to check a window. Maybe it was storming outside and that had interrupted cell service? Nope. Dead still.
Muttering curses, I checked that the security system was fully operational, then headed back to the weapons cage to grab myself a bigger gun. Not that I should need it, considering Zed's house was now fully designed to prevent any intruders breaking in... but it made me feel better to have it ready. Just in case.
Half an hour passed, and nothing happened.
Cass didn't return with Hannah, my phone still wouldn't connect for calls or texts, and no one attacked the house. What the fuck was going on? Was Chase trying to bore me to death? Or was the lack of reception just a coincidence?
Needing to stay busy, I headed upstairs and moved from room to room, checking that the windows were all closed and locked. I checked my own room last and stiffened when I saw a figure out on the lawn in the darkness.
"I fucking knew it," I hissed out loud.
He was too far away, too deep into the darkness for me to see his features, but I'd bet my whole damn fortune that it was Chase himself. He'd grown impatient with trying to lure me out and had come to handle things himself.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, checking it for the thousandth time, but sure enough... no service. I already knew before checking that the landline would have been severed too. Fucking Chase was cutting me off from help. It'd only be a matter of time before Cass came back, though. Whatever distraction Chase had organized to keep him gone this long wouldn't last forever. I simply needed to wait it out.
Not moving from the window, I watched Chase move closer to the house, his head tipped back as he looked up at me. The moonlight caught on his toothy grin, and he blew me a kiss before disappearing out of sight.
"What the fuck are you doing?" I murmured, leaving my room and heading for Zed's to get a better viewpoint. I couldn't see anything from his window, either, and I was loathe to go downstairs where I’d be on the same level as Chase. He couldn't get in, but that wouldn't stop him from taunting me through the window.
I tried a couple more windows before I found him again, bent over and doing something to the wall of the house outside the living room. Frowning, I watched as he moved his way along the wall, unhurried.
Losing my patience, I raced downstairs to the security center to pull up the camera feed on that side of the house. The black and white night-vision flickered into focus, and I gasped sharply when I realized what he was doing. He couldn't get into the house; somehow, he knew that without needing to test the entry points. So he was going to make me come out.
A sharp knock on the window nearest where I stood made me jerk with fright, and I steeled my spine before crossing the room to where my one-eyed, smiling demon stood outside the glass.
He gave me a mocking wave, then waggled his now empty can of gasoline at me. Taunting. It was probably only one of many, too, if he'd doused the entire perimeter of the house before I'd spotted him out there.
I had no words, my tongue locked up in my mouth as he held my gaze. He tossed the empty gasoline can over his shoulder, then pulled a silver lighter from his pocket. It was a gift I'd given him on his eighteenth birthday and was engraved with our names. Chase was even more obsessive than I'd given him credit for... though that explained the rather out-of-balance reaction to my engagement announcement.
"Come out, come out, sweet demon," he called through the window, "or I'll smoke you out."
I extended my middle finger, pressing it to the glass. "Kiss my ass, Captain Bluebeard."
He didn't react to my childish dig at his eyepatch, just grinned wider and dropped the lighter. Flames exploded up between us with an audible boom as the gasoline ignited, and the red-orange glow lit up Chase's features. But I wasn't hanging around for a staring competition.
Turning my back on him, I squared my shoulders and walked calmly over to the control panel once more. There was an emergency button on there somewhere, and it should be hardwired rather than dependent on cell reception. I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore the flames dancing in every damn window of the ground floor, focusing instead on the security system.
The button was easy enough to find, but when I pressed it, nothing happened. Or... nothing that I could see. Had it sent a silent alarm to the security company? Fuck, I hoped so. Either way... I needed to use my damn head and not let Chase win out of sheer shock factor.
He'd set fire to the house, but only the exterior perimeter. The windows were bulletproof, so surely, they were also fire- and smokeproof. So... could I wait him out?
I turned back to check the window where he'd been standing, but he was gone. Shit. Now what? Where the fuck had he gone? I highly doubted he was just sitting back and waiting. No, he was up to something. This wasn't aggressive enough.
My mind whirred, ticking over everything I knew about the security of the house. Trouble was that a lot of the upgrades had been done while I was in Chase's clutches, and I hadn't bothered to get the full rundown from Zed. Seemed stupid in hindsight, but it hadn't occurred to me that Chase might actually lay siege to the fucking house.
I walked slowly, carefully, from room to room, my eyes scanning the windows for any sign of movement. He was alone, so far as I could tell. But hell, he could have a whole army out there in the darkness sneaking around.
As I passed through the living room again, my ears picked up a faint, mechanical whirring sound. Like... a drill. Or electric screwdriver.
Five seconds later, an alarm screamed through the house, and I raced back to the control panel to find where it was coming from. Red letters flashed on the screen, telling me what I already knew.
PERIMETER BREACH
No shit.
I tapped the screen and found the location highlighted on the little blueprint of the house. It wasn't a door or a window; those were all still secure. It was the air conditioning vent.
What the fuck was he doing with the air conditioning vent? It was too small for any human to fit inside. So what in the—
Boom.
The explosion rattled the whole fucking house, and I ducked for cover on instinct.
"Motherfucker," I hissed as the alarm system went mental on the screen. Surely that would alert our security company, at least.
I raced through the house in the direction of the explosion, only to be hit with a thick cloud of smoke. Whatever explosive he'd tossed into the air vent had made a mess and set fire to almost every visible surface. He must’ve guessed his perimeter fire wouldn't be enough, so he'd made sure the flames took hold inside the house.
"Shit, shit, shit," I muttered, backtracking from the fire billowing from the utility room beside the gym. There were several more points around the house where he could toss an explosive device inside, depending how small the incendiaries were. The last thing I needed was to be caught by shrapnel from an exploding door.
I grabbed my gun from where I'd left it in the kitchen and raced upstairs. If I could get a good line of sight, I'd simply open a window and shoot him. Not fatally, of course. That'd be far too anticlimactic of an ending for this story. But enough to disable him until help arrived.
The only problem was, he was keeping out of sight now. Sneaky, sneaky bastard. He somehow managed to blend with the shadows, darting between obstacles like he suspected I might shoot at him. I caught a flash of a gun in his hands now too, so I wouldn't be shocked if he was thinking the same. Or, knowing Chase, I'd bet that gun was loaded with tranquilizer darts.
Three more explosions went off downstairs as I frantically raced from window to window, trying to get line of sight on him. He'd shot out all the security spotlights on the lawn, though, and it was like trying to target a fucking ghost.
Within a matter of minutes, the smoke rising from the ground floor had me cou
ghing and lightheaded. Fucking hell. He was banking my own sense of self-preservation would make me leave the house before I died of smoke inhalation, and he was probably right. I wasn't scared enough of Chase psychopath Lockhart to willingly burn to death. I'd get out, but I sure as shit wouldn't fall directly into his arms.
Racing over to Zed's room—because his overlooked the courtyard where Chase wouldn't be able to see me—I used my thumbprint to unlock the window and pushed it open as far as it would go. I leaned out, sweeping my gaze over all the visible areas to ensure no one was lying in wait, then ducked back into the room. I'd already strapped my shoulder holster on with my freshly returned Desert Eagle snuggly tucked inside. But I ran back to my room to strap on some throwing knives and slide spare ammo into my pockets. Then, looping the strap of my M16 over my head, I climbed out of Zed's window and balanced my toes on the ledge as I straightened up.
For a second, I paused there, holding my breath and listening for any signs that I'd been seen. When nothing changed, I reached for a hand hold above the window and started the painful task of climbing up to the roof. My shoulder screamed protests at me, but I gritted my teeth and pushed the pain aside. It wasn't anything compared to the pain I'd felt while climbing trees naked in the forest while escaping Chase's den of horrors, so my pain receptors needed to shut the fuck up with their crying.
I took it slow, thinking carefully about each move, but eventually I hauled myself over the lip of the roof and collapsed there for a minute to catch my breath.
"Fuck me," I whispered to myself. "Unfit bitch."
Smoke billowed up out of the open window below me, and I groaned. Zed was going to be furious when he got back.
Digging my toes into the gutter, I started slithering up the sloping roof. I wasn't going to stand up and offer Chase a target to shoot at, but I sure as fuck wasn't going to wait for the house to burn down below me. I needed to take out the one person standing between me and safety—sooner rather than later.
I reached the crest of the roof and settled myself so that only the scope of my gun poked over the lip. I used that—with night vision, thank fuck—to search the area below. It took three sweeps before motion caught my eye.
Smiling to myself, I sank lower against the roof tiles. "Come out, come out, Chasey," I called loudly, taunting him with the same phrasing he'd used downstairs. "Come on, tough guy. Since when do you hide behind trees, huh?"
"Since I wasn't stupid enough to think you're not armed, Darling," he called back with an edge of amusement in his voice.
"Come out from behind that tree and I'll tell you if I am," I shot back. The flames were still licking the house below, and the amount of smoke coming out of Zed's open window didn't bode well for the amount of time I had left. "Come on, Chase. I dare you."
His slightly manic laughter carried back to me through the night air, and a tiny movement twitched from behind his hiding place. I took the shot without hesitation, and based on the way he cursed, I'd bet I had hit him. Probably only a graze, but it still made me all warm and fuzzy inside.
"You're a better shot than I remember, Darling," he called out. "I don't know how I feel about that."
I scoffed a laugh, then raised my voice to tell him. "Scared, asshole? You should feel scared."
Another flicker of movement and I fired off another shot. It missed, but it still would remind Chase I wasn't so helpless this time. He'd caught me off guard once; I wouldn't make that mistake again.
"Wanna know how I improved my marksmanship?" I called, taunting him to try and get a better shot. "It was through months and months of intense hands-on training with Zed. He was so thorough, too. Unrelenting."
An enraged sound came from Chase, but he didn't shift from his hiding spot. Dammit. A moment later, sirens sounded in the distance, and the distinctive hum of a helicopter drew closer.
"Uh-oh, sounds like the cavalry is arriving, Chasey baby," I mocked. "Now what are you gonna do? You'll be caught red-handed trying to kill me... again."
He didn't respond. Instead, he threw something at the house, and a split second later it exploded. Foolishly, I flinched back, ducking below the roofline. When I popped back up, my sights on that same tree, I already knew he was gone. Like a one-eyed, evil magician. Fuck.
60
Zed's house was toast. Burnt toast. He was going to shit bricks when he came back.
As it turned out, the alarm button I'd pressed on the security system had been a silent one, and they'd immediately sent out a pair of security guards to investigate. Two heavily armed men had been the first to arrive, rappelling down from a blacked-out helicopter, then sweeping the whole yard with their guns at the ready.
Only a few minutes later the fire trucks came barreling up the driveway and a ladder was thrown up against the side of the burning house to get me down.
A nondescript silver sedan pulled in behind the fire trucks, and Cass leapt out of the driver's seat almost before it had fully stopped. He snatched me off the ladder when I was still several rungs from the bottom and swept me up in a hug so tight I felt my ribs protest.
"Cass, let me down," I squeaked when he started walking with me still in his arms. "Saint, for fuck’s sake, put me down!" I pushed steel into my voice, expecting him to immediately obey—it was what I was used to. But he didn't. The fucker just held me tighter until I threatened to kick him in the balls, and only then did he relax his iron grip around me.
"Look!" I snarled, pushing out of his embrace and spreading my arms wide. "Not a scratch on me. Takes a little more than some pyromaniac tricks to take me down."
"Fucking hell, Red," he exclaimed on a heavy exhale. His hand scrubbed over his beard, and I could see the barely constrained need to touch me all over his face. But he needed to get a grip. Despite how bad it must have looked when he drove up, I was unharmed and nothing but pissed off.
"I'm fine," I snapped. "Whose car is that? And what the fuck took you so long?"
He winced, and I stepped forward to place my hand on his cheek, softening my hard edges a little after seeing how my words struck him.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "That came out wrong. I was worried about you. I thought you'd have been back half an hour ago."
He gave a shaky laugh. "You were worried about me?" His pained eyes flicked to the burning remains of Zed's house as the fire crew doused it in water from high-pressure hoses. "Angel... you could have died, or worse. Because I told you to stay put."
I rolled my eyes. "I hardly think either of us expected Chase to do this. Besides, I'm fine. And I think I clipped him with a bullet, too." I peered back to the mystery car he'd pulled up in. "Is that Hannah?"
"Yeah, she's fine. Little shit too." He gave a grumpy huff, and the back door of the car burst open as if on cue. Diana came tumbling out and launched herself at me in her overgrown-octopus impersonation.
I patted her head awkwardly, giving Cass a puzzled look, and he just rolled his eyes skyward.
"Dammit, Diana!" Hannah yelled, coming after the little girl. "I told you to wait!"
"It's fine," I assured Hannah before she could peel Diana away from me. Still patting the fiery little girl's hair, I sank down to her level. "Hey, kid. What the hell are you doing here?"
Diana quirked a sassy brow. "Nadia would say that's swearing, Hades."
I wrinkled my nose. "Bullshit. Now that's swearing. But don't evade the question. It's almost two in the morning; you should be tucked up safe in bed, not running around with known gangsters." I tipped my head up at Cass, and Diana smirked.
"I couldn't sleep," the little shit lied, "so I went for a walk."
Hannah snorted. "A walk with a bag packed, kid? Try again."
Diana rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You should be thanking me. If I hadn't seen that guy climbing the fence here, Hades might have died."
I wrinkled my nose in confusion, and Cass passed a hand over his mouth to hide a smile.
"I'll fill you in," he murmured. "You should call Zed, though, and t
ell him what's happened to his house."
"Can't," I replied. "Don't you think I would have called you if I could? Chase must have damaged the cell tower near here."
Cass groaned. "Yeah, that makes sense. We should go, then. Get set up at a hotel."
I glanced over at the fire trucks and found one of the crew waiting to get my attention. "I need to stay here and sort this out," I told Cass. "You go. Get Diana home, and sort out a hotel for us all."
He barked a laugh. "You must have hit your head, Angel. I'm not fucking leaving without you. Not again."
"Diana and I will go," Hannah offered before Cass and I could spiral into a full-blown argument. "We'll sort it all out. Come to the Shadow Majestic when you're done here."
Diana started to protest, but Hannah smoothly steered her back to the silver sedan, then hesitated at the driver's side, glancing at Cass in question.
"It'll be fine," he told her with a grunt. "Just don't turn it off until you get there."
She nodded in understanding, then shot me a smile. "I'm glad you're okay, boss."
They pulled out of the driveway once more, and I glared at Cass. "I need an explanation."
He shrugged. "Someone slashed the tires on my bike, so I hotwired that thing."
Yeah, that made sense. "And Diana?"
"Ran away from Nadia's," he rumbled with a pissed off look on his face, "was coming here to stay with us, but saw Chase climbing the fence when her taxi pulled up. So she asked the driver to bring her back to town so she could call the cops. Pure coincidence that I spotted her outside the police station near Hannah's apartment."
I yawned heavily and lifted the strap of my M16 off my head, handing it to Cass. "Smart kid," I muttered. Then reconsidered. "Dumb fucking kid for running around Shadow Grove at two in the morning, but smart for going back to town for help. Do we know why she took off from Nadia's?"