Oh God!
As Den hangs up, then runs out of the church to get closer to the flaming car, Mina quickly rushes to my side, confusion and alarm on her face. The moment she sees the fire raging in the limo, she screams and Josi begins to wail. I sense Mina tensing, poised to bolt into pursuit, and I immediately put my arm out, blocking her from running out of the church.
“Stop, Mina! The car might explode again. You can’t risk yourself or Josi by going anywhere near it,” I say in a shaky voice.
Mina gestures wildly, her eyes wide and tears rolling down her face. “Mom’s in the car! We have to help her!”
Sebastian, Adam, Gavin, and Damien just join us near the entrance of the church as Mina calls out about her mom. Horror and disbelief crosses their tense faces, and all the Blake men burst into action.
“Lock down the perimeter,” Sebastian calls to his BLACK Security men already standing in the street. Turning back toward us, he says, “Theo, on Talia!”
“Already here,” the big guy grunts his agreement from directly behind me. I want to look back and acknowledge Theo, but I’m too worried for the driver and Isabel.
The fire’s too hot for the men to get close to the back of the limo, but Sebastian calls, “The driver’s out cold. Get me something to break the window.” Calder quickly approaches with a crowbar Gavin gets from one of the limo drivers. After they knock out the window, Sebastian says to one of the BLACK Security men, “Throw me your knife; the seatbelt’s jammed!”
Hurry! My throat closes with worry that the fire consuming the back half of the limo could shift forward at any moment toward the men or cause another explosion.
The warm night air moves in greasy heat waves around them as Sebastian catches the pocketknife thrown his way and quickly cuts the seatbelt away. Sweat from the heat beads on their faces as Sebastian and Calder haul the guy out, then Damien and Gavin take over and carry the unconscious driver across the street to safety. I exhale my relief that they were successful, but my heart breaks for Adam. He slowly sinks down on the stairs, his hands jammed in his hair. All he can do is watch the fire burn, completely helpless to stop it.
As a car farther down the street pulls away, tires screeching, the sound draws Sebastian’s attention. Den throws his keys to my husband. “At least get the license plate. My BMW is the last car behind the limos. I’ve got it covered here.”
Fisting his hand around the keys, Sebastian locks gazes with his cousin. “With me, Cald.”
Once Calder leaves with Sebastian, Cass moves to my side and I realize that her parents and my father have joined us too. Hooking her arm around my waist, Cass’s voice is tense with worry. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Too shocked to speak, I put my arm around Mina’s shoulders and tug her to my other side, folding Josi between us and into the protective circle of our family just as the faint whine of fire truck sirens sounds in the distance.
Mina’s blonde hair sways with the slow shake of her head. Anguish creasing her face, her lips tremble in a quiet whisper, “They’re too late, Talia. My mom is gone.”
Chapter 9
Sebastian
My whole body is strung tight as I start the BMW. I don’t even wait for Calder to fully shut his door before I gun the engine and shoot into traffic, taking off after the car that squealed away in the darkness.
Calder grabs the dash and mutters, “Fucking hell, Bash!” as he pulls his door closed. The second his hand is free, he points ahead, barking, “There! Do you see him? Four cars ahead.”
I shift gears and weave around two cars, gaining on the sports car speeding away. Thankfully the traffic isn’t bumper to bumper, but it’s enough to make keeping a constant eye on the car difficult as more cars merge onto the road from side streets.
I zoom through the next light and Calder jerks a surprised gaze my way. “Where are you going? He just turned down that side street.”
“No, he didn’t. He’s three cars ahead,” I snap.
Calder leans to the side trying to see around the traffic. “That’s the wrong car, Bash.”
“It’s the right one,” I insist, my hands gripping the wheel tight.
“That’s a light blue Mustang. The one we’re after is white.” Frowning, Calder points to the road ahead. “Take that next left and hopefully we can cut him off.”
Frustrated with myself, the wheels squeal as I take a sharp turn and hit the pedal to make up time down the side street.
A Mustang zooms past right as I reach the crossroad, and I immediately turn to follow it. Jamming my foot to the floor, I curse the lack of streetlights on this road.
“Can you read the license plate?” I growl.
Calder leans forward and squints. “It’s nine-nine-six, I think. It’s too dark to make out the letters.”
“The light’s changing ahead. We’ll get the fucker!”
When we’re within a couple car lengths from the Mustang, another car pulls from a a side alleyway, its front end blocking our pursuit of the sports car.
The Mustang blows through the yellow light and I lay on the horn at the girl with a bob haircut and bright red lipstick. She shrugs and flips me off before straightening her car with its unicorn hood ornament in front of mine just as the light turns red.
“Sonofabitch!” I slam my hand against the steering wheel. As I pull my phone out and dial Elijah, Calder kicks off his shoe, then hands me his sock.
“Bind your wound. You’re bleeding all over Den’s car.”
Grunting, I glance down and see I have a gash on the side of my hand that’s bleeding pretty bad. “Fucking hell,” I mutter.
“Come again?” Elijah says.
Calder grabs my phone and puts it on speaker while I wrap his sock around my wound to stop the bleeding. “We need a DMV search.”
I take my phone back and tell Elijah, “Run it for the following: Light blue Mustang, partial New York plate: nine-nine-six.”
“Got it. Any other details?”
“That’s all we—”
“Yeah,” Calder cuts in, sliding a look my way. “It was one of those custom plates with the New York Knicks symbol on it.”
“That’ll narrow it some. I’ll call you back.”
As soon as I hit the End button, Calder says in a quiet tone, “What was that about?”
I can feel my cousin’s gaze drilling into me, but I keep my focus on the road. Folding my hands on the wheel, I wince. Now that the rush of the chase is over, the pain in my hand is kicking in. “What was what about?” I grit through the sting and push on the gas once the light switches to the green position.
“How the hell did you mix up blue and white?”
“They’re both light colors,” I say in a tight tone, hating that my limited vision screwed us over tonight.
“You blanked on the Knicks symbol on the license plate too. It’s not like you to miss details, Bash. Fucking ever. I’ve seen you remember details in the middle of a firefight, but tonight you missed both details.”
I curl my fingers tight on the wheel and welcome the shooting pain. “I’m colorblind, Cald.”
“Since when? I’ve known you since we were teens.”
When I shake my head, his silence makes me tense, but I refuse to look his way. “It happened on my last mission. A bomb went off, I took a hit, and when I woke in the hospital, the only color I could see was red. Otherwise everything is various shades of gray.”
“How long have you been colorblind?”
“Years.”
“How is that possible?” My cousin turns in the seat toward me. “If you can only see in shades of gray, then how in the hell did you defuse that bomb under that MMA ring?”
I cut a look his way. “Talia’s nail clippers weren’t the only tool I used that night.”
“She told you the wire colors?”
Nodding, I roll to a stop at another light. “Be glad Talia listened to her intuition that she needed to be at the fight that night or you and I might not be
here.”
“What the fuck, Bash!”
I exhale and roll my shoulders. “I’ll disclose the truth about my sight to the whole BLACK Security team tonight. I’ll never let my visual limitation put anyone I care about in danger again.”
“Goddamnit, if you weren’t driving I’d punch you square in the jaw. I don’t give a rat’s ass about the team right now. I’m pissed that you didn’t tell me. Or was your speech about considering me your brother just bullshit to get me talking?”
“Family always matters,” I grate, glaring at him just as the light turns green.
“Apparently only when it’s convenient for you.”
Surprised by the underlying hurt in his comment, I turn my attention back to the road. “It’s hard enough to admit to myself that I’ll never be in top form again, let alone share that with anyone else.”
“Talia knows.”
“And I’m sure you’ve shared things with Cass that you’ve never told me, but you deserve to know the one area your business partner will fall short, Cald.”
“So we’ll argue about colors. Big fucking deal.” He snorts, waving his hand. “It’s not like we’re a couple of decorators. But the moment you can’t tell the difference between dark and light beer whenever you lose a bet, then we’ll have a problem.”
I grunt, appreciating how much lighter I feel now that Calder knows. “Your prize of choice is safe.”
My chest tightens all over again as I turn onto the road that leads back to the church. I feel for Mina. She’ll be devastated by this. While Isabel’s death is horrifically tragic, the danger her loss represents to the rest of the Blake family is my highest priority. Was Isabel the target? I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t her only enemy; that woman’s tiger stripes were tree-ring deep. But it’s not lost on me that I could’ve been the target. My run in with Banks plays over in my mind as I consider that the limo was marked for Talia and me.
The moment the church comes into view, I’m relieved to see Den looking intimidating as hell as he glares at the two police officers standing in front of him just inside the church doors. And though I would prefer the safer scenario of my whole family behind the church’s main doors, closed and locked, seeing Den flanking Talia’s right and Theo standing between Talia and Cass, while the BLACK Security team not only holds the perimeter, but keeps the news crews away, my mind is eased a little. Talia glances our way, her heart-broken gaze following the BMW’s arrival back on the scene. Even when she’s sad, she’s beautiful. God, I fucking love every bit of her.
What if I had stayed behind to double check security for the wedding tomorrow? The thought that I could’ve lost Talia if she’d driven off in that limo instead of Isabel makes me feel equally violent and nauseous. My siblings, Cass’s parents and Talia’s father are standing farther back in the church’s entryway talking with two uniformed police officers. Now that the fire is doused, several firemen are swarming the wet, charred limo, trying to pry the damaged door off. I glance at Calder as I park in a spot across the street from the spectacle. At least the gawking news people are completely oblivious to our arrival.
“All non-critical BLACK Security assignments go on the back burner until we find the bastard who did this. After I brief the team on a possible lead—”
“You have something other than the Mustang driver?”
I talk over Calder’s interruption. “We need to question the family to see if anything was going on with any of them or Isabel, any kind of threats that we didn’t know about. Then we can assign a security detail to each family member to go with them for the night.”
“We’ll be stretched thin trying to cover everyone on top of our current client base.”
I shake my head. “Two contracts are up in a couple of days. I’m going to request an early release due to exigent circumstances. Any client who reads the news will know the reason why.”
“What lead, Bash?”
“A guy named Banks from Banks’s Boys in my old neighborhood was a bit pissed about a raid the police did on his place and paid me a visit today. He assumed I was behind it, but I thought he was all bluff and bluster. I just want to make sure that’s all it was.”
“Jesus! You could’ve lead with that!”
“It could be nothing,” I say, keeping my tone even.
Shaking his head, Calder stares intently at the crowd. “I know our guys have their hands full right now, but why the hell hasn’t Den at least closed the family in?” My cousin echoes my thoughts as he cranes his neck to see around the crush of people. “Ah, now I see…your dad hasn’t left the steps,” he continues, the heat of anger leaving his tone. “I know Gavin and Damien will deal, but do you think your father and Mina will be okay?”
It’s ironic that the one person who would care the most about the sensationalism the paparazzi will make of tonight’s tragedy isn’t here. Isabel would be beside herself worrying what the rags would print as to why this happened to our family. So long as no one’s reputation is unjustly slandered, I don’t give a damn. “The guys will be fine and my father will most likely bury himself in work. Mina…” Talia’s comment about my sister being stronger than I give her credit for flickers through my mind. “She has us. Come on. It’s time to convince Adam to move inside.” I open the car door, not looking forward to plowing through the paparazzi to get to my family. “I want those damn church doors shut.”
Chapter 10
Talia
“What the hell is he doing here?”
“It’s good to see you too, brother.” Ben shakes his dark head and rises from our sofa as Sebastian, Calder, Cass, and I exit the elevator to our penthouse apartment.
“I called him.” I shoot Calder a look, then smile at Ben. “Thank you for waiting inside. The less attention we draw, the better.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Ben says to all of us before he glances at the taped gauze on Sebastian’s hand that’s already showing signs of new blood. “Let’s head into the kitchen and stop that bleeding.”
Sebastian doesn’t comment that I called Ben or asked him to wait inside. He’d seen my look of concern when he had to change the bandage twice at the church while he talked to our family. On the way home, my husband told me about his confrontation on the street with Banks, and then I told him about my pizza box attempt to warn Banks after Stan got the police involved.
While Ben and Sebastian move over to the kitchen table for him to stitch my husband up, Calder rounds on me, his green eyes flashing with anger. “You gave him the code to your apartment?”
“Yes, I did. I know you have issues trusting your half-brother, but he has proven that he can be trusted. The pool of people our family can truly depend on just got a lot smaller tonight, so dial it back.”
Calder starts to speak, but Cass puts a hand on his arm. “We’re all tense, but I’m too exhausted for the extra twenty minute drive home, so don’t get us kicked out.”
He grumbles an apology and folds her into his arms. Cass hugs his trim waist and gives me a secret smile around his shoulder.
Nodding my appreciation for her intervention, I sigh my exhaustion. “So no one had any skeletons in their closet but Sebastian and me with Banks?”
“Isabel could’ve had some, but we’ll never know,” Cass says as she turns in her fiancé’s arms and leans back against his chest.
“Since the license plate turned out to belong to a completely different car, we can scratch that lead off our list,” Calder says, folding his arms around Cass’s stomach. “Once I get a shower to wash away the sweat and soot from the fire, I’m good for another hour of brainstorming.”
I blink through my exhaustion. The police questions were grueling enough, but then Sebastian and Calder drilled everyone, including Cass’s parents and my father, with equal intensity for another hour. The stress of that on top of worrying I might’ve been responsible for Banks’s retaliation is making me feel sick to my stomach.
Before I can speak, Cass puts her hand on m
y arm. “You look like you’re about to fall over, Talia. I vote we go to bed and see what the investigators’ reports say tomorrow.” She looks at Calder. “I know the BLACK team will be all over this in the AM anyway. Whatever Talia and I can contribute once our brains aren’t fried, we will.”
Returning her gaze to me, she squeezes my arm. “There’s at least one silver lining. Now your aunt has more time to get herself in your good graces.”
“Did your aunt contact you?” Sebastian says, a frown creasing his brow as he flexes his hand with the new bandage wrapped fully around his palm.
“Be sure to keep that dry for a few days and get that antibiotic prescription filled.” Ben approaches, snapping his doctor’s kit closed.
Sebastian nods. “Will do. Thank you for coming, Ben.”
“You’re welcome.” Ben smiles at Cass as he continues speaking, “You’ve got my number, so if you ever need me—”
“It’s late. Good night, Ben,” Calder says in a tight tone.
Ben shakes his head. “Difficult patients will cost double my usual fee.”
“That’s fair.” Sebastian smirks. “It’ll just come out of his check.”
Calder glances between the two men. “Did you just hire him?”
Sebastian shrugs. “Rick retired and we need someone who’s discrete.”
“Don’t I get any say-so in this personnel decision?” Calder asks.
“No,” Sebastian and I answer at the same, our gazes locking in agreement.
“You could always stop doing things that require my expertise.” Ben adopts a lighthearted tone as he walks over and enters the elevator.
When Calder just drills the back of his head with a hard stare, his brother turns in the elevator to face us. “That’s what I thought. Until next time...”
The moment the elevators close, Sebastian faces me.
“Did she?” He frowns. “Is that why you were feeling guilty at the church?”
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