His arms move around my waist, lifting me up off the bed as he presses me against his chest and burrows his face into my neck.
“I love you,” he murmurs, his deep voice vibrating through me. “So fuckin’ much, Lily.” He moves faster before shifting one hand between us and flicking his finger over the same bundle of nerves he did earlier.
“I love you, too,” I groan out before my head rolls back and I close my eyes, loving all the sensations coursing through me.
I know the horror of what was taken from me won’t disappear overnight, but when I open my eyes and look deep into Luke’s ice-blue ones as pleasure rolls through us both, I’m certain with every touch he gives me, it’ll lessen.
LUKE
I stare down at Lily, her breaths slow and measured, her eyelashes fluttering as she dreams. I don’t want to leave her only hours after what we did, but I don’t have a choice. This is to protect my family—to protect her.
By the time the sun comes up, we won’t have to worry about Darrell and finding out exactly who he is because Daley will have him. It’ll be another weight lifted off my shoulders with only one final piece needing to be solved. Right now, all that matters is taking Darrell down and keeping Lily safe.
I take one final look at her before pushing my gun into its holster and spinning around.
The guys are all standing outside in the compound, Ty talking to Kay on the porch of his house before he kisses her and jogs down the steps and over to where Evan, Daley, Kitty, and I are. It’s a small team but it’s exactly what’s needed to take him down.
None of us speak as we all separate off—Evan with Ty, and Kitty and Daley with me. The drive is quiet, the navigation telling me it’ll be an hour until we’re there. I keep the music turned off, needing my head in the game.
I was sure our case was colder than it ever had been when James died, but right now I know we’re gonna end this for good.
All the shit he’s put my family through is about to come down on him like a ton of bricks.
Pulling up outside an office block, I frown, not understanding, and when I catch Daley’s gaze in the rearview mirror where he’s checking his gun over, he says, “Always hide in plain sight.”
When Daley said base, I had the image of an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere, not a building of offices.
I wait a beat before turning the engine off and getting out when Ty and Evan do in front of us.
We went over the plan several times in Evan’s safe room. Two in the back, three in the front. There’s only two exits—three if you count the roof. Once we have him, we take him to Daley’s safe house, find out what he wants from us before Daley has him moved to a secure site. I know it’s code for something much worse, but I couldn’t care less after the shit he’s caused.
“Ready?” Ty asks, and when we all nod, he pulls out his gun, running toward the back with Evan on his tail.
I start toward the front door with Kitty and Daley behind, keeping low and making sure we’re all aware of what’s around us.
Daley pulls out a card, swiping it on a key box before he taps in a long code and then one of the automatic doors slides open.
I keep my body to the side, checking around us before waving my hand for them to follow me. My gaze doesn’t stop moving, tracking where Daley and Kitty are, knowing all the angles of this floor before I wave at them again, running toward the stairwell.
Ten flights of stairs, checking every floor before we get to where Darrell’s base is.
Adrenaline pumps through my veins. We’re close. Closer than we’ve ever been, and with Daley’s intel, there’s no way we won’t get him this time.
But as we make it to the top floor, my gut screams at me, my senses going haywire.
“Something feels off,” I say through the earpiece as we wait outside the door that’ll take us to his floor.
“Yeah,” Ty replies through the earpiece. “The lights are on but it’s quiet.” I look through the glass in the door but the side we’re coming from is dark, and when I look over at the only other door to the floor, I see Ty’s shadow behind the glass.
I look at Kitty and then Daley, and I know we’re all thinking the same thing. This could be our only chance.
“On my count,” Daley says. “Three, two, one.”
I go in first, my gun drawn in front of me at the same time Ty appears on the opposite side, Kitty and Daley at my back and Evan at his.
We all trail around the edge of the floor, checking each station and office, but there’s nothing. It’s silent.
“Too quiet,” Kitty announces through the earpiece.
I nod even though she can’t see me, stepping in front of the door of the last room I need to check. I stand to the side of it before snapping my body forward and looking through the glass, taking stock of everything and pulling back.
“There’s something playing on the monitor here,” I tell everyone, looking around at all their positions where they’re spread out on the floor. “I’m going in.”
Counting to three before I move my arm and open the door, I wait an extra beat before throwing myself in the room, my body moving with my gun as I keep it up in front of me. My gaze wanders around the room before stopping on the screen and frowning at what’s playing. It cuts back and forth, a voiceover coming through the speakers before a rocket shows on the screen, fire burning underneath it as the voice counts it down.
Something clicks in the air around me, and when I step forward and see the black box on the desk with numbers running down, I realize—
“Bomb!” I shout before spinning around and running out of the room as the voiceover reaches four. “Run!” I’m darting for the stairs, watching as Daley moves behind Kitty toward the door we came in.
“Three.”
My body smashes into a chair, causing me to stumble.
“Two.”
I stand up, seeing the door ten feet in front of me as Kitty and Daley push through it. My breaths come faster, my adrenaline pumping but I’m too far away to get to safety. This is it, this is when you’re meant to see your life flash in front of your eyes, but all I see is Lily’s sleeping face, her hair spread out over the pillow next to me.
“One.”
LILY
“Lily!” I roll over, my body tired, my muscles aching as my eyes open and the darkness in the room surrounds me. “Lily!”
I lift into a sitting position, my heart racing as the bedroom door opens, light filling the space, and when I turn to look at the other side of the bed, it’s empty.
“Dean?” I frown at his pale face as he steps toward me.
“We gotta go,” he says, his tone and movements frantic.
“What?” I pull the covers back. “What’s happened?”
He throws the jeans off the floor at me and I pull them on, my hands shaking as I zip them up.
“Luke.” He pauses before running his hand through his hair. “He’s hurt. He went out on a job and… he’s at the hospital.”
“Oh my God.” Tears spring to my eyes, my breaths sawing in and out of my body. He can’t be hurt, he can’t be. Not after everything I just gave him.
“Come on,” Dean says, turning around and heading out of the bedroom with me hot on his heels. “I’ll take you to the hospital. Everyone else is already there.”
LUKE
The piercing noise reverberates through my ears and all I want to do is lift my hands to cover them, but no matter how much I try, I can’t move.
Something crushes me, not letting me take a full breath.
My head rolls to the side, my eyes wide open as I watch in what feels like slow motion as Ty and Evan run toward me, their mouths moving but I can’t hear a word they’re saying over the shrill noise in my ears.
I blink and they’re there, pulling something off me, heaving until I can finally take a breath.
Hands come on my chest, Kitty’s face appearing over mine, her mouth moving, and I finally catch the word, “Okay.”
/>
“What—”
Her hand moves, yanking out the earpiece and muffling the piercing noise a little and that’s when I realize it’s not coming from around me, but from that and my eardrum.
“We need to get out of here,” she says before standing up, and then several pairs of hands are grasping at me, trying to pull me up from the floor.
I look around, seeing the destruction, broken glass covering every surface I look at, and when my gaze lands on Kitty, she reaches down to the floor and picks something up before frowning at it.
“He knew we were coming,” Ty says, keeping his gun in front of him as sirens sound around us. “We gotta go.” He looks at me. “You good?”
I take stock of how I’m feeling; my chest hurts but it’s only because of the desk that landed on me, and when I take a step forward, my gait confident, I know I’m okay.
“I’m good.”
“Let’s go.”
We follow his lead as he runs out of the room and down the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. Kitty follows him, Evan behind her and me behind Evan with Daley bringing up the rear.
We make it to the bottom floor just as flashing lights start to shine through the windows, and when Ty tilts his head toward the back, none of us question him and follow.
We slide out the back door and into an alley, the lights illuminating the street, but we can see our SUVs from here.
“Kitty, you drive Luke’s car. Count of three and dash for them.” He looks at all of us in turn. “Three, two, one.”
We all run, and even though my chest heaves and a pain rushes through me at the force, I don’t stop. I keep my gaze fixed to the car before pulling open the first door I see and throwing myself inside with Daley leaping in behind me.
It’s not two seconds before the engine is running and Kitty is squealing away from the curb.
I stay down for a minute before sitting up and watching as Evan turns left before Kitty swings us right. My ears ring, the noise not disappearing even though we’re out of the building.
“What the hell happened?” Daley asks.
“He had a bomb planted,” I growl out. “He knew we were coming.”
“Fuck!” he shouts. “He knew I was here.” He slams his fist into the back of the passenger seat over and over, not letting up, his face contorting into a mixture of pure rage and terror.
“We’ll get him,” I say. “We just need to regroup.”
He doesn’t say anything, instead he throws one final punch into the back of the seat and leans back before closing his eyes.
We’re silent the rest of the drive, and I know we’re all trying to piece everything together. The last couple of months have been up and down—no straight lines—and I can’t think clear enough to connect all the dots.
Kitty pulls into the compound, the brakes squealing as she slams them down. Her body rigid as she jumps out and opens the back door before watching me as I get out.
Daley follows and we all walk to where Evan and Ty are standing outside his cabin. We're silent as we make our way into his safe room and sit around the table.
“You said you know what he looks like,” Ty starts, standing over Daley. “You need to show us. This is fuckin’ personal and I’m not lettin’ this shit go.”
Daley nods, pulling his cell out, but when Kitty stands up and slams a piece of paper on the table, we all look at her.
“How long?” she asks, but I have no idea what she’s talking about and neither does anyone else from the confused looks on their faces. “How long did you know he was up to something?”
“What—”
“You know.” She laughs and crosses her arms over her chest. “I knew you were keeping something from me; the secret meetings, the shared looks, but Jesus, I never thought you’d keep me out of the loop on something this important.”
“What the hell you talkin’ about?” Ty growls, his brows coming low over his eyes.
“Is that what you were doing?” She points at me. “Investigating him.”
“Who? Darrell?”
She shrugs and holds both hands up, palms facing the ceiling. “Dean… Darrell.” Tilting my head to the side, I watch her carefully, trying to decipher what she’s saying. “You don’t think I thought it was weird for Dean to turn up and stick around? You don’t think I’ve been following and keeping tabs on him too?”
“I have no—”
“I’ve been on this team nearly as long as everyone else here. Have I not showed you all my loyalty?” She doesn’t let anyone speak before she brings her arms down to her sides. “I knew something wasn’t right with Dean. I fuckin’ knew, and I tried to talk to you about it.” She points her gaze at Ty. “But every single time I brought up his name, you’d veer the conversation off course. So, I knew I had to do something.”
“Kitty—”
“No.” She leans forward before slamming her hands on the table. “I didn’t know what he was doing. He didn’t leave a trail, and I’m guessing you couldn’t work it out either?” She raises her brow at me, and when I shake my head, she stands up to her full height. “I didn’t understand what he was doing…” She points to the paper in the middle of the table. “Until I saw this at Darrell’s base.”
We all lean closer, and when I look down, Dean’s face stares back at me. I frown not understanding.
“It’s Dean in his service uniform,” I say, looking up at her. “What’s that got to—”
“Flip it over,” Kitty tells me, slamming her hands down onto her hips and tilting her head at the photo.
I raise a brow, picking it up and turning it over.
“Son-of-a-bitch!”
“What?” Evan asks, looking over my shoulder and reading out loud what's written on the back. “Private Darrell Le’Fraine.”
“Dean is Darrell,” I murmur.
“He was always one step ahead of us,” Evan says before leaning back in his seat and blowing out an audible breath. “He was the inside man. He saw it all before we could even react.”
“But why would he leave a photo like this in a place he knew we could—”
“He wants us to know,” Ty interrupts. “He knew we were coming, which probably means…” He looks over at Daley. “He knows you’re here.”
He was here all this time. Right under our noses. Around our family.
“Well… fuck.”
LILY
I try to pry my eyes open but no matter how much I try, it’s like they’re stuck together. My hands move automatically to wipe at them, but when they won’t move, my breath catches. I’m right back in that basement, the rope wrapped around my wrists, burning as I try to break free, only this time my body doesn’t hurt like it did then.
My muscles may be slow at moving, but I don’t feel the pain I used to, all I feel is cold wind whipping me in the face.
“Just in time.” Hands clap causing me to jump and finally my eyes spring open. The sun shines in front of me, only a slice of it as it comes in through the broken window, and when I look around, I realize that’s also where the cold wind is coming from. “Ready for the show?”
My head whips around, my nostrils flaring as I look into a pair of eyes I trusted even though I know I shouldn't have. Luke's warning rings in my mind and I wish I would have heeded it and not panicked when he said Luke was in the hospital.
“What are you doing?”
He laughs, the sound manic before he paces back and forth in front of me.
“You know I’ve had this plan for years, but I just couldn’t work out the missing piece.” He shakes his head. “I wracked my brain for so many hours, days, months… and yet I couldn’t make it click.” He snaps his fingers and stops in front of me. “Until you.”
“Me?”
“Yep!” He jumps on the spot and rubs his hands like an excited toddler. He has the same crazy look in his eyes Jonah had when he watched me. “When I saw the way he looked at you, I knew.” He grins wide. “I knew you were the answer.”
/> “The answer?” If I can keep him talking then nothing else is happening, right?
“You’ll see,” he says, doing a little jig on the spot and pulling his gun out, scratching the side of his face with it.
I wince at his motion as I yank my wrists apart from behind me, trying in vain to get out of the binds. I shuffle on the chair and grimace when it scrapes along the concrete floor, gaining his attention.
He pounces at me, his hands coming down on the arms of the wooden chair as his face stops centimeters from mine.
“No cheating… this is my game.” His breath fans over me. “I don’t like cheaters.” His eyes flash with a warning. “I kill cheaters.”
I gulp, my eyes widening. There’s nothing more dangerous than someone who isn’t all there and he definitely isn’t. He’s the frantic kind of crazy.
Footsteps echo behind me, followed by a scream before skin hitting skin rings out in the sparse space.
I try to turn but I’m so tightly bound that I can barely move an inch.
“Yay!” Dean pulls back from me and moves backward before clapping his hands and tapping the chair opposite me. “Bring her into the circle.” He chuckles at himself while I wait, my mind spinning at what’s going on here, and when I look up, I see Kim, blood dripping from her lip. Her gaze connects with mine and her eyes widen.
“No! Let her go, you fucking psycho!”
“Kim,” I whisper, but she doesn’t answer me as she turns to the man holding her.
“You’re not gonna walk out of here alive. He’ll make you suffer for this.”
“Quiet,” a voice commands, one that has my body shuddering and my head spinning.
“Quite the family reunion, eh?” Dean says, pulling Kim into the seat and tying her to it just like I am.
I want to look at her, to silently ask her what’s going on, but I can’t move my gaze from the evil man who stands to the side, looking down at me.
I flinch when his hand comes out and try to back away even though I have nowhere to go.
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