“Don’t pretend like I’m stupid,” I grind out, all of a sudden wishing I would have read his file before tearing it to shreds so that I would have some leverage in this conversation right now. If I at least had a clue what he’s doing with these people then I’d be better prepared to engage with him right now. “These people are terrible people.”
“Newsflash,” he scowls, “but you don’t know any of these people.”
“You know what I went through with Seth Grimm before.”
“Not exactly.” He shakes his head again. “It’s not like you ever told anyone what happened. The two of you brothers just left town one day saying that you were away on important matters.”
I scoff and bite into my lip, beyond annoyed that he’s either lying to me or playing stupid. And I don’t know which one is worse, but I know he’s not like the rest of the men on this rooftop. I know that he has a soul and spends his life helping those in need. I have great intuition. I could see the goodness in Lola’s heart well before she even realized it existed.
“You need to get out of here,” I warn him and grab him roughly by the arm, and then I decide to lie to him to force him to get his ass into gear. “There’s a bomb that’s about to blow.”
“What?” he begins to yell but I throw a hand over his mouth. He grabs my hand and knocks it out of the way, and then leans in close to me. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Just what I said.” I exhale sharply and place both hands in front of me, steadying them in place. “Look, you’re not like the rest of these guys. And I don’t know why you’re here and I also don’t care. I just need you to follow me and get the hell out of dodge before this building is blown to smithereens.”
“You’re being serious?” he questions, his voice ragged and raw like there’s gravel in his throat or something. He passes a quick glance over his shoulder at the men standing behind him continuing to listen to the speaker. And when he turns back to me, he’s wearing a severe face. “Let’s go.”
“It’s about damn time,” I say and begin pacing backwards before spinning on my feet and ripping the rooftop door open.
When Dom runs past, I turn and pull the door closed gently as to not alert anyone to our presence. We make our way down the steps one floor at a time without saying a word to each other. He’s too worried about trying to survive right now and I just know that he’s going to kill me when he finds out that I lied about the bomb… Sort of, anyways.
We finally make our way to the first floor and though the both of us are drenched in sweat, we race forward and out the front door of the Grimm Industries office building. Once we’re down the steps and on the solid, hard pavement. We both come to a stop and bend to our knees to catch our breaths.
And I chuckle lightly as I look over and see him heaving. He flips me off and shakes his head, laughs too…
And then there’s a loud explosion.
I feel the heat against my skin as the sounds pierce through my ears, and then I’m thrown to the ground as debris begins to rain down all around us. I fight to catch my breath, fight to rise to my feet but the explosion got the better of me. I’m exhausted and struggling to find my breath.
From somewhere out of my sight, I hear Dom launching into a fit of dry coughing and as I roll over onto my back, I look up to see a shadow pass over me.
It’s none other than Richard himself with a gun aimed right at my head. He’s wearing a sinister smile and I think to myself that this might really be it. I don’t know what the hell just happened, but I’m sure he’s about to explain it to me in dumb-downed rhetoric.
“I decided on a new plan,” he says and kicks my gun that’s lying on the ground away from me. “Just because I know you’re wondering and I don’t want you to go to the grave not knowing what happened. It’s just simple courtesy you know.” He shrugs with apathy. “I wasn’t going to let those explosives go to waste.” He takes another step towards me. “And now there are just a few loose ends to tie up and I’ll be a goddamn king.” He smiles flatly and clicks his tongue against his cheek. “Any last words?”
I swallow harshly but can’t bring myself to say a word.
But in my mind, all I can think about is how I’ll never see Lola again.
And that just about kills me.
“No?” He stretches his arm out and cocks the gun. “Didn’t think so—”
A gun goes off and his body goes limp first and then stumbles sideways until his dead body lands with a crack against the asphalt, his head cracking wide open on impact.
And then I look to my left to see her…
Lola standing there with a gun in her hands. “I told you I wasn’t going to leave you.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
LOLA
I drop the gun and let it clatter against the hard ground before racing forward and offering my hand to assist him to his feet. He’s wide-eyed and confused as hell, but I would be in the same position if I hadn’t witnessed the building exploding in the background.
The first thing he does when he’s on his feet is twist around to face the building that’s half-destroyed and half engulfed in flames. I take a long look at the scene before me and I’m kind of numb to the whole thing. I know thirty-odd people are now dead, but they were all terrible people.
I glance over to see Dom rising to his feet and just decide to bite my tongue. Zach’s not ready to hear about his friend’s shady activities and I’m not about to ruin this moment by telling him. He’ll find out on his own terms, I’m sure. And when that day comes, he’ll have to make a choice for himself.
I tap Zach on the shoulder, stealing his attention. And when he turns around to face me, I don’t waste time throwing my arms around the back of his head and pulling him into an embrace. I know the authorities are on their way and they’re going to have a lot of questions, especially now that the building has been blown to bits.
I’m torn between staying here to wait for the authorities so I can hand over this information or simply just leaving the safe behind so they can find the files themselves. I think about maybe just faking my death once again so I don’t have to deal with questions that I don’t have the answers to.
Zach shuts my racing mind up with just a simple kiss against my lips. It’s short and sweet and just about knocks me off my feet. And when I retreat slightly from his kiss, he drops his head, bites my lip softly and then slips his tongue past my lip, pulling me inside out with his own mouth.
And this is basically my version of heaven even if we’re standing in what looks like the middle of a warzone. He kisses me harder and deeper and just when I think I’m not going to be able to keep breathing, he gives me enough respite to catch my breath.
I drape a hand firm against his chest to stop him from shutting me up again, and I tilt my head up to him to get a good look at his eyes. I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do and I don’t have a lot of time to make the decision.
In the near distance, I can hear the sounds of sirens approaching. They get louder and louder until the sounds are piercing through my ears and I finally know what I’m going to do.
“Come on,” I say. “Let’s get the hell away from this and never look back.”
“Do you mean that?” He arches one brow and caresses my cheek softly with one hand. “If you walk away from this, then you can never be Lola Grimm ever again. Do you understand that?”
“I do.” I nod and lap my tongue over my bottom lip. “I’m ready to leave this all behind, but only because I finally have something to live for.”
I peek over to see Dom rolling his eyes and then grunting out, “Seriously? Can’t you two do this later? We need to get the hell out of here.”
Zach turns around and shushes his friend before twisting back to me and wrapping his arms around the small of my back, pulls me in closer to his embrace. “So tell me, she who used to be Lola Grimm, what do you plan on doing with your life now?”
That’s quite the loaded question so I answer,
“I don’t know and for the first time, I’m okay with that. I don’t need to know who I am right now.”
“I can’t wait to discover who she is with you.” His lips hitch into a wild grin as he brushes my hair behind my ear. “And maybe you’re going to be a delivery driver. You’re sexy as hell dressed as one.”
“Shut up.” I slap him playfully on the back and move to speak again, but he shuts me up by planting his lips against mine again, stealing my words, my breath, and my thoughts.
And in the next few seconds, we will find ourselves on the run, but only for long enough to get away from the immediate aftermath of the bomb that’s just gone off. When the FBI arrives with Samantha in tow, they’ll come to the conclusion that Lola Grimm wasn’t here. They’ll believe it was someone else on the phone pretending to be me and I’ll fade into the background.
I’ll become somebody else, anybody else but the person I’ve always been. I’ll become somebody important to this world and I’ll build a life worth living for both myself and Zach. I could never say the words before and I’m not exactly ready to say them right now, but I can feel it in my bones…
Can feel it in my bones that I love him.
And I can’t wait to find out who I really am, especially with Zach by my side.
BOOK FIVE: Out of the Shadows
PROLOGUE
DOMINIC
TEN YEARS AGO
He’s sitting across from me with a cocksure grin on his face and I’m just about ready to shit my pants. I’ve always prided myself on being strong with nerves forged of steel, but when it comes to men like Seth Grimm, I know that I’m merely an ant and he’s a giant.
In this life, it’s best to understand that some people are simply out of reach. In that regard, I understand there’s no way I can go against this man. Even though I know he’s up to nothing good and never will be, even though I know he has been responsible for the loss of countless lives and will continue to be responsible for reprehensible acts of violence, I just can’t measure up against him.
Unfortunately, my path has crossed with him, and so I figure my best option is to feign a relationship of sorts with him. Though I’ll never be his friend, I also don’t want to be his enemy. I can’t be his enemy; I simply wouldn’t survive, and the collateral damage would be too great. I don’t have a lot of people in this world, just a few friends I keep at a close distance and my sister.
For all intents and purposes, I’m just a one-man machine in this world and he has an entire organization at his disposal.
“What brought you into the game?” Seth questions, his eyes narrowing in on me. “What inciting incident pushed you to the brink?”
“The brink?” I question with a light, uncomfortable chuckle. “I don’t think I’m quite there.”
“We’re all there.” He leans slightly forward and cups his hands together in front of him. “Every single one of us on this side of the spectrum. We’ve come to the brink and then we’ve made our choices. Some of us take the leap. Some of us remain stuck in place forever, and some of us simply expire. Those are the choices you’re going to have to face, but we have plenty of time for you to answer those questions. For now, I just want to know what brought you here.”
“You know…” I search for the exact right words to say, something that doesn’t commit me to anything I don’t want to be committed to. I finally settle on forcing a smile and taking the route that leaves my options open. “I haven’t quite decided yet.”
“You don’t know?” He furrows a brow, nods gently and then pushes himself back in his chair while his arms drop to rest down on the arms of the chair. “That’s an interesting predicament.”
“Let’s just say I like to keep my options open.” I scratch nervously at my right cheek and wet my lips. “After the war, I found myself looking for a purpose, but the truth is that I’ve been aimless ever since.”
“You’ll find your way,” he says deadpan. “Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow but someday, and I hope I can be there the day it happens.”
“That would be nice.” I nod in faux appreciation. “Do you often find yourself mentoring others?”
“You’re a protector.” He wags a finger at me and cocks a wild grin, seemingly changing the subject. “I can tell just by looking at you. So tell me, who do you spend your time protecting?”
“I’m rather fond of keeping myself alive and everything else is secondary.”
“Interesting…” He muses out loud and circles one finger in the air, gesturing towards the two armed men standing behind me. “Do you mind giving the two of us a moment?”
I cock my head over my shoulder to take a quick glance at the two guards who each nod their heads before pulling either of the two front doors open and exiting out into the hallway. There’s a quick gentle breeze before the doors come to a close again, siphoning all of the oxygen out of the room.
When I turn back to Seth, he’s wearing the same sinister smile as before. There’s a short pause before he continues, “You know, I don’t think you and I are much different at all.”
I try to force another smile, but I don’t think it’s very believable. Seth and I are nothing alike and for him to imply otherwise chills me to my core. What if he’s right? What if he sees something in me that reminds him of who he used to be? What if I’m just like him, but I just don’t know it yet?
“In what regard?” I continue to play along, hoping that this meeting will be over sooner than later.
“In that you will do anything for the people you love.” His eyes glance down at his computer screen off to the side before he raises his gaze back to me. “It’s in that regard that I see myself in you. All of this…” He gestures outwards with his hands. “Everything I do, it’s all for the people I love.” He leans forward, rests his elbows on the edge of the desk. “People on the outside look at me like I’m a monster, those who understand that there’s more beyond the Grimm Industries surface. But the absolute truth is that I do the things I have to do for the people I love.”
“No,” I nod. “I completely understand that.”
But it doesn’t really change anything. At the end of the day, the money in his bank account is blood money of the ugliest sort, and if the word on the street is any indication, it’s only going to get bloodier over the years. There’s so much I want to say to him—so much I need to say to him—but I know I have to grit my teeth and swallow my pride. The sooner this little one-on-one meeting is over, the sooner I can get the hell out of here and pretend as if I never knew the man.
And I know I’ll spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. I know that every time something happens at the hands of Seth or one of his associates, I’ll stop and admonish myself for not doing something to try and stop him.
But he’s someone in this world and I’m not much of anyone, not compared to him. The only way going against him ends is in death. I might be stubborn and headstrong, but I’m not stupid.
“Do you understand?” He pushes himself back in his chair and exhales softly. “I don’t know if you do.”
“What do you mean?” I chuckle uncomfortably and shift in my seat. “You’d do anything to protect your family and I feel the exact same.”
“Are you sure about that?” He presses his lips together flatly and passes me a cold glare. “Just how far would you go to protect the people you love?” He clears his throat. “Excuse me for my miscalculation. I meant to say, how far would you go to save her?”
Chills run down my arms, over the back of my neck and then finally, down my spine. There’s only one important person in my life, important enough to risk everything for and that’s my sister, but there’s no way he can know about her. I try to keep a straight face, try to pretend that I’m not deeply afraid of what he’s going to say next.
“What are we talking about?” I question and swallow a gulp. “Who are we talking about?”
“I think we’re past that.” He clicks his tongue against the inside of his che
ek. “We’re to the point where it’s time to place our cards on the table.”
“I haven’t agreed to anything.” I flash a smile but it’s just about the most forced thing in the entire world. “I don’t even know why I’m here yet.”
“Well, good thing for you…” He points at me squarely. “We’re about to get into specifics and I think you’re going to want to listen to what I’m saying.”
I look away for a brief moment to try and collect my thoughts. “You have my ears.”
“Good,” he says flatly, his tone shifting in an instant. Gone is the pretense of this being a friendly conversation. “I know you can be stubborn, Dominic Ford. It’s written into your DNA. I also know you’re an invaluable asset.”
“I’m not an asset. I’m a human.”
“No more interruptions,” he scolds me as if he’s a teacher and I’m an unruly student in a classroom. “You’re going to learn a very important lesson today and it begins with understanding your place in the food chain.”
Sweat begins to trickle down my forehead, slicking the edge of my hairline in a thin layer of stickiness.
“Here’s the problem I’m having, Dominic,” he continues. “I know you’re playing me. Hell, you’ve been playing me since the day we first met, but it’s time to realize that you’ve been outplayed.” He snickers and for all intents and purposes, twirls his non-existent mustache. “You’re playing checkers while I’m playing chess and I’m sorry to say, but you’re down to nothing more than pawns while I’m about to take your queen.”
“I swear to God,” I grind out between gritted teeth. “If you go anywhere near her, I’ll kill you.”
“That’s an interesting choice of a threat considering you’ve been playing the part of a friend since you sat down in that chair.”
“I’m sorry,” I bite my tongue. “I just—”
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