38. Ike
38
IKE
The “meeting”, as he called it, was nothing more than a location and a name. The rest would be coming soon. Very fucking soon. I stepped over the body and holstered my gun, nodding to the two men sent with me. It wasn’t often that Vince sent men along, but every once in a while, he sent them for cleanup. This time, I had a feeling they were here for me.
My spine tingled as they watched my every move. My fingers itched to pull my gun and put a bullet in both their heads, but that would only seal my fate. If I had any hope of making it out of this alive, I had to play it cool.
Ricky held out a pack of smokes for me, and though I didn’t want one, I needed it to calm my nerves. I hoped Isla would forgive me this one time. I pulled out a cigarette and took the light, letting the nicotine fill my lungs. God, I missed this.
The distinct click of the gun wrenched through the silence of the night. It wasn’t a surprise. In fact, I’d used the whole cigarette trick a time or two. Make the person you’re with feel calm. Make them think everything will be fine. It was a classic move. I just found it funny that Ricky thought he could successfully pull it off. He’d only seen me do it. He’d never actually done it before.
“Something you want to tell me?” I asked, not bothering to look at him as I took another drag of my cigarette.
“Yeah, the boss wants a word with you.”
I slowly turned to him and smirked at his attempt to take me by surprise. “And this was the best you could do?”
“I have the drop on you.”
I lifted the cigarette to my mouth as another gun was pressed to the back of my head. These two were such amateurs. I slammed my foot into Ricky’s chest, sending him flying back as I grabbed the new guy’s arm and yanked him forward, then slammed my fist into his face, disarming him in the next second. With all the calmness Ricky came to expect from me, I strode over to him, still smoking my cigarette as I knelt down beside him and blew a long puff of smoke into his face.
“You know, you could have just asked.”
“Vince said to take you by force if necessary.”
I tapped my finger on his forehead, shaking my head. “If necessary. See, all you heard was take by force. That was your first mistake.”
He swallowed hard. “What was my second?”
“Thinking you could actually do it.” I took one more drag from my cigarette, then leaned forward and put it out on his cheek, ignoring his screams as it burned his flesh. I got to my feet and left them both behind, dropping the gun at my feet. I wouldn’t need it. They would disarm me as soon as I walked onto the property.
I got into my car and drove across town, knowing I was walking into the lion’s den. Once I was in there, there was no turning back. But there was no other way. I couldn’t allow this to come back on Isla in any way. If I ran, they wouldn’t stop chasing me, and then Isla would be in danger. Even if I left her behind, I knew I would never be able to stay away forever. I would go back to see her at some point, and that’s when they would catch me. I just knew it deep in my gut.
I picked up my phone, my thumb hovering over her number. It would be so easy to call her right now, to hear her voice one last time. But would that be fair to her? I glanced at the clock. It was the early hours of the morning. She was probably asleep anyway. I’d driven straight through the first day to pull the job tonight and hadn’t gotten any sleep. That’s why I was contemplating calling her right now. I was fucking exhausted, not thinking clearly.
But it was so fucking tempting.
My thumb hit her number and I let it ring. She picked up immediately, but I covered the microphone so she couldn’t hear me.
“Knox! Knox, talk to me!”
My throat clogged up as I heard her voice. Fuck, she sounded so panicked. I wanted to tell her it was alright, that I would be fine, but I couldn’t make those promises to her.
“Fuck, I love you,” I whispered, knowing she couldn’t hear me. “I wish we could have had more time.”
“Knox, I know you’re there. Just talk to me!”
“You fucking saved my life in every way that counts.”
She was still yelling for me on the other end, but I couldn’t do it anymore.
“Knox, I love you!”
I hung up and tossed the phone on the seat. Ten minutes later, I pulled onto Vince’s property and parked outside his office just above the warehouse. It was that way on purpose, right above all his workers, so he could kill any of them and have it cleaned up in no time. He wanted to oversee everything within the inner workings of his organization, so I had no doubt that if he wanted me dead, he would pull the trigger himself.
I got out, buttoning my suit jacket as I prepared to walk in there and hand myself over. Whatever happened, there was nothing more I could do at this point. I was a dead man walking. I knew it, but I was never one to run from my problems. If I was lucky, I would be able to talk Vince down. Maybe he’d give me a second chance. It was unlikely, but still…
His guards stopped me outside the door and patted me down, taking the gun from my holster and the one at my ankle.
“He’s waiting for you inside.”
I nodded and strode through the door, not surprised at all when there was a gathering of them waiting for me with Vince at the center. I knew what this was. I’d seen it before. Hell, I’d been the one to pull the trigger before.
“IKE,” Vince called out, his tone harsh and angry.
Even though my heart was pounding, I headed for the center of the ring and faced Vince, never backing down. He hated weakness. “Vince.”
“Would you care to explain where you’ve been?”
“Personal business.”
“That’s it?”
I shrugged. “You don’t care for explanations. They mean nothing to you.”
He chuckled lightly. “No, they don’t. Which is why I’m surprised that you, of all people, would choose to ignore my orders for so long.”
Yeah, I’d known it was reckless. But I wouldn’t go back and change a damn thing. I stood stoically, refusing to bow down to him.
“You have nothing to say?”
“Nothing that would appease you.”
“You were one of my best men.”
Still, I said nothing. His mind was already made up. He couldn’t look weak in front of his men. I had gone AWOL, and that was something he couldn’t tolerate. He nodded to one of his men—Samuel. Fucking brute of a man with fists like sledgehammers. I knew what was coming. Fuck, it was gonna hurt.
He stood in front of me, his eyes crinkling at the corners before his fist slammed into the side of my face. My head snapped violently to the side and my whole body turned with the hit.
Shit, that fucking hurt. I shook it off and stood tall again, only for him to slam his fist into my face again, this time on the other side. Over and over, he brutalized my body, hitting me anywhere he could to inflict the most pain. I was on my hands and knees, blood dripping from my mouth as I breathed through the pain of a cracked rib. Samuel grabbed my hair and jerked my head back as Vince walked over.
“Tell me where you were.”
I winced at the movement. Each breath sent sharp pains through my chest. “Personal business.”
Samuel’s boot caught me in the chest and I crumpled to the ground, wheezing hard from the kick.
“Nobody in my organization goes off the radar for that long without working for someone else. You’re going to tell me who you’re working for.”
I would never tell him about Isla, not even if he tortured me. She would die with me because I knew what his men would do to her if they ever found out she existed.
I pushed up on all fours and then to my knees and looked him straight in the eyes. “I wasn’t working for anyone. I told you, I had personal business. Now, you can keep beating the shit out of me, but I’m not telling you a goddamn thing. And you know what I can handle, so you might as well save the time and put a fucking bullet in my head now.”
Vince smirked as he stared at me. “No, I suppose you won’t talk. Too damn stubborn for your own good. Samuel.” He nodded to him and I felt the gun pressed to the back of my head like the amateur he was.
The only thought I had was of Isla and how fucking much I wanted to kiss her one last time.
The back of the building exploded and the walls came crumbling down. I didn’t know who the fuck was attacking, but I took the distraction and spun, kicking Samuel in the nuts, then slammed my fist into his elbow and snatched his gun, firing twice into his gut. Chaos unfurled around me as men from OPS stormed into the building, each of them just as fucking crazy as the next.
Vince was shocked, to say the least. I turned to him, gun in hand, and watched as he realized what was happening. “IKE…”
I swiped the blood from my lip and walked toward him, the rage building inside me. “When I said I had personal shit, I meant it.”
He nodded, his eyes wide and frightened. “Okay. I believe you.”
“You were gonna put a fucking bullet in me.”
“IKE, I?—”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses, Vince.” I raised the gun and put a bullet right between his eyes. He fell to the ground, and that was the last time I ever looked at him.
Another explosion went off to the right, quickly followed by one at the front of the building. It was like a fucking war zone in here. I already knew IRIS was behind it. But why the hell he needed so many fucking bombs was beyond me.
I looked around for someone to kill, but…well, there wasn’t really anyone left. FNG was—I cocked my head to the side as I studied him closer. He was firing knives out of an umbrella. I must have taken too many hits to the skull.
Then I turned and watched as Fox scalped a man on the ground while singing a show tune. And Slider…if I was seeing things correctly, he was beating a man with Thumper’s bionic leg.
“It’s not quite the rescue I had planned,” Lock admitted, stepping up beside me.”
“So, you’re seeing the same thing as me.”
“Unfortunately.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God, I thought I was gonna need to be admitted to the hospital.”
“You still might need to be. Looks like you took a few hits before we could get in here.”
“How the hell did you know where I was? Better yet, how did you even know to come after me?”
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Did you really think Isla wouldn’t come to us the second you left on your self-sacrificing mission? Of course, she doesn’t know we came out here. Couldn’t have her trying to tag along. Which she would.”
I grunted in agreement.
“And Dash has a folder about an inch thick on you.”
“He does?”
He sighed heavily. “You don’t wanna know. And we almost didn’t get in here in time with all your You might as well just put a bullet in my head now. Seriously, what the fuck was that?”
“Uh…I didn’t want to get pummeled into the ground?”
“Well, you nearly didn’t give us enough time to save your ass.”
“I didn’t know you were here to save me,” I groused.
“Then maybe you should have come to us in the first place,” he snapped.
“Why the fuck would I go to you? I’m not part of the team.”
“Because you’ve worked with us. Fuck, it’s like pulling teeth to get anyone to fucking listen.” He grabbed my arm and stuck a metal thing against it and depressed the plunger. I yelped as something thick and hard settled under my skin. “Welcome to the team.”
“What the fuck was that?”
“A tracker.” He tossed me a phone. “Call Isla and tell her you’re not dead.”
I caught it and glanced over my shoulder at him as he walked away. “That’s it?”
“For now!”
I thought about it for a minute and then called out. “Can I still wear suits?”
He shoved his middle finger in the air and I burst out laughing, then I dialed Isla’s number. The moment I heard her voice, it was like a breath of fresh air.
“Hey, gorgeous. I’m coming home.”