Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 114260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Anya. I’ve never heard anyone use my mother’s name.
Cain nods. “Go on. I know you’ve got more to tell us, Gray.”
“You were the one that married them,” I said.
Gray nods.
“And you were the one that knows why they were killed.”
Gray looks away, not answering, but when Cain lifts the chair, Descamps screams. “I’ll tell you more!”
Cain thumps the chair back on the floor. “Go on.”
Gray shivers and looks out to where his team sits, but every one of them’s restrained. Still, just to be sure, I walk over to the door with my Wilson in hand, half hoping someone will give me a reason to shoot. Cain continues the interrogation.
“Her parents did some work for them. For… for me.”
He hangs his head and looks at the floor.
He didn’t say my father… he said… my parents?
I turn back to him just as something crashes behind me. My gun’s raised and pointed in seconds. A huge, muscled guy with a gun comes straight at me. My finger hovers over the trigger. I’ve shot the target at the range so many times I could do it in my sleep, but I’ve never shot a human. In a split-second, I imagine the torn flesh and blood, the pain in his eyes. My hesitation costs me. He tackles me to the floor before I can shoot, as a gunshot blasts.
He screams, grabbing at his shoulder, and as crimson blood spurts to the floor, he rolls, and Cain’s deadly voice echoes in the small room.
“Move again, and I shoot you between the eyes.”
I want to kick myself. Goddammit, I couldn’t pull the trigger and Cain had to come and clean up my mess. I want to cry.
Instead, I make up for my hesitation in the only way I know how. I swivel, propel myself forward, and grab his wrists to secure him in place. Cain comes up beside me and ties him down.
“That’s my girl there, buddy,” he warns in a tone that’s anything but friendly. “You fucking try to hurt her and you’re dead.” The guy stares at Cain like he just saw the devil himself. Cain has that effect on people.
“You were saying, Gray?”
Gray shakes his head, crying, but when Cain reaches for his chair, he screams like someone’s bitten him. Cain drops the chair to the floor. Blood spurts from Gray’s temple.
He’s shot. Someone shot him.
Adrenaline courses through me while I look for who could’ve possibly killed him. Cain looks to me, then immediately dismisses me. I stare at my own gun as if it shot him without my permission.
It makes no logical sense and takes half a minute to really register with me.
Someone shot Gray.
That someone was not me, and it was not Cain, nor was it any of the bodyguards we have restrained here.
Someone shot him because he was about to reveal a truth they didn’t want known.
Cain curses and pulls out his phone.
“Get down for cover, Violet,” he grates, as tires squeal. Whoever killed Gray just took off. I fall to the floor and lay flat as Cain makes a phone call.
“Team Alpha,” he says with resignation. His clean-up crew will have to come and clean this shit up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Cain
I pride myself on knowing what’s happening and when, of being one step ahead of any of my enemies. But today… today, someone pulled a fucking fast one on me.
I thought everyone was secured. Never fucking dawned on me a sniper would off the one witness I need. I’d interrogate the rest of his staff, but I need to get Violet the hell out of here before she’s hurt.
Team Alpha shadows me only minutes away during a detail, and today is no exception. They sweep in with the ease and practice of a well-oiled machine, while I secure Violet.
“Do exactly what I tell you. Keep your head down. Follow me. Don’t respond to any bait, and if I tell you to shoot, you fucking shoot.”
Could be one sniper, could be a goddamn team, there’s no telling, but I don’t want her here for another second longer.
We got some information, but not enough. We’ll have to keep digging, but I’ll have my team get cracking on that.
Violet’s my priority. And I know she’s here to find the people that killed her parents, but none of that matters if she’s dead.
I leave my team with strict instructions to find whatever they can from who’s left. Henri, Claude, and Joe are the ones I trust with my life. Today will be no exception.
We walk straight to the front door, my reasoning being that no one who’s actually going to attack us would be so bold as to attack us here, though I’ve honestly been wrong before and don’t take any chances. I cautiously open the door and tuck her against me, using my body as a human shield.