Seeking Salvation: A Shadow Elite Novel

Prologue

“Let me out.”Her palm slapped loudly against the wood as he cursed, moving closer to the door with the whimpering child held snugly against his chest.

“Allen, I swear to God if you hurt her, I’ll hunt you down.”

He listened as she screamed threats at him until her voice was hoarse, and the sound of baby Maggie crying caused his gut to twist with something that almost felt like regret.

Sliding the lock on the door, he pulled it open and saw his prisoner leaning heavily against the wall of the basement where he was holding her. Tears streaked her face but it was the fierce look of a mother getting ready to defend her child that made a flame of guilt flicker in his belly. How had his life become this? When did he become a man who kidnapped a woman and her child to achieve his own agenda?

He stifled a sigh and buried the feelings of doubt deep inside. He knew his height and build were intimidating but, more than that, it was the vibe he had cultivated, the cold leader of the Onyx Cobras. Linton Allen had perfected a persona that left every person he encountered with no doubt that he was exactly the monster they’d seen in their nightmares.

Yet something about this woman, willing to fight him against any odds of winning, carved at the scar inside him that was left by his brother’s death. Shaking off the feeling, he glanced at the child who was now leaning into his shoulder with such innocent trust he wondered how the human race could possibly survive. Her little mouth sucked on the dummy he’d given her when her crying had driven him crazy.

He stepped back as Autumn ran her gaze over her daughter, assessing her baby for any signs of injury or pain, her fists clenching with rage that filled him with a grudging respect. When she found nothing, he watched her blow out a tremulous breath.

“Stand up.” He raised his chin, his lip curling in a sneer as he stepped back to give her more room. With her hand pressed to the wall, she lifted from her knees and took a shaky step forward. He didn’t hold a gun on her as she stepped into the light, airy kitchen with cream cabinets and black marble work surfaces. He didn’t need to, not when he held her child in his arms.

Once again, he was reminded how vulnerable having a child made someone and reaffirmed his decision to never put himself in that position. Family was a weakness, and he’d never be weak again.

“Give me my baby.” Autumn bit her bottom lip at the way her voice broke, holding her empty arms out for her baby.

“Not yet. First, you need to do something for me.”

His features were strong, with high cheekbones, mesmerising brown eyes, and short-cropped hair. He would’ve had the world at his feet, as intelligent and handsome as he was, but he’d chosen the wrong path.

“What do you want from me?” Her arms fell to her front, the metal of the cuffs rubbing her skin raw. Allen leaned against the counter as Maggie drifted off to sleep in his arms, totally unaware of the danger she was surrounded by.

“The formula your husband was working on has a flaw. I need you to fix it.”

Autumn shook her head slightly. “I can’t just pick up a formula and fix it. That kind of thing takes months of work and I’d need all his research and data analysis.”

“You speak like you have a choice, Autumn.” The sneer in his voice was deliberately mocking and made her take a step forward. He raised an eyebrow in warning, making her stop short and his mouth quirked into a grin.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because it’s the only way to end this.” His voice shook with emotion he hated before he took a breath and shoved that shit down.

“End what?”

He could see her trying to work things out in her head and coming to the correct conclusion that she didn’t have all the facts. “First, you agree to help me, then I’ll tell you.”

“Give me Maggie.”

Autumn was in no position to be making demands, but he knew giving her some semblance of control would instil trust in him. Allen spun, grabbing a gun from the counter behind him and she froze, and he realised her sense of self-preservation was still alive after all, but then he threw her a key. “Uncuff yourself.”

Autumn did as he asked, her movements slow before dropping the metal shackles to the ground. Allen moved quickly, making her jump, as he handed her baby into her arms. He watched as she ran her hands over her child and held her close, burying her nose into the baby’s soft neck and breathing in her scent.

“She’s been fed and changed.”

Autumn looked at him with utter confusion. “I don’t understand.”

Allen hitched up onto the barstool at the breakfast bar. “I’m everything they say I am, Autumn. I’m a killer. I torture people and hurt them, but I didn’t kill your husband, and I’d never hurt a child. Not ever,” he enunciated with venom.

“I saw you kill Terrell.”

“No, you saw Anton kill Terrell, except he made it look like it was me.” He shook his head slowly. “Think about it, Autumn. Who was the first person to arrive at your house after Terrell was killed?”

He watched her relive that memory, her eyes widening as she realised that perhaps things weren’t quite as clear cut as she remembered.

“But I saw your tattoo. It was you.”

“Who pointed out the tattoo as being mine?”

Anton had been the one to find her, to ask if the shooter had a tattoo or any distinguishing marks, sowing the seed that sealed his fate.

Autumn looked up as the sudden realisation hit. “But why?”

“Terrell got cold feet, wanted out, but Anton needed him to finish the formula. Then he hit on the idea to involve you instead.”

“But why frame you? You run the Onyx Cobras. He’s nothing but a soldier.”

“I run the Cobras, but I wanted no part of this. The people I hurt and kill know what they’re involved with. Innocent people living clean lives being hit by chemical weapons? I’d never get involved with that.”

“And yet you are involved. You’re up to your neck in it.” Autumn began to pace, her fear of him seeming to wane now her child was back in her arms.

“Anton, Hench, and Midas got us involved. I had to go along or I’d lose my position as leader of the Cobras. The only way I can control the narrative is by being in charge. My reputation isn’t something I’ve nurtured because I’m an egotist. It’s so people fear crossing me.”

“So why did Anton, Hench, and Midas do it? Why did they go behind your back and then frame you for murder?”

“Because I’ve been trying to take the club clean, which means less of a cut for them. Anton doesn’t know I know he killed Terrell. He believes I’m a fool who’s losing his grip and, hell, maybe I am.” He brushed a hand over his face as exhaustion rolled over him. He was so tired of playing these games and fighting this war.

“You let them think you’re losing control to give them enough rope to hang themselves with.”

“Yes.” He looked at her consideringly. “But we have an even bigger problem than my handle on the club. Anton is bringing in someone else to finish the formula. I told him I wanted you so that you’d pay for Terrell’s crimes. He liked the perverse notion, so here we are.”

“You shot Aubrey.”

He regretted having to hurt the copper to get to Autumn, especially considering she was the wife of someone he didn’t want as an enemy.

“No, I shot Aubrey with a blank. It’ll cause a flesh wound at most. I had to make it seem real. I need Mitch to believe it so he’ll come for me. You need to give him enough time to figure this out and end this once and for all by stopping that formula from working.”

“You want me to stop the formula from working?”

“Yes. The people at Henderson are close, but I told them I want you to finish it. I need you to make it look like you’re fixing it but don’t. We can’t allow this to go out into the open and kill people.”

“Why now? Why, after everything you’ve done, have you developed a conscience?”

Allen shrugged. “I lost my way. I joined the Cobras because I knew taking them over was the only way to destroy them. They took my brother, my best friend, and I killed every last one of them for it when I gained power, but then I lost my way. Began to believe my own press, got high on the power, the women, the drugs.”

“What made you see the light?”

He shrugged, not sure how to answer that question without making himself vulnerable, and that would never be something he was comfortable with. “I’m not sure I have, but even I have my limit, and dealing in chemical weapons is it.”

“If I do this, how do I know you’ll let me go?”

A smile teased at his lips, as a grudging respect for the man he thought he hated filled him. His brother’s best friend and Autumn’s husband was probably the only person he trusted to end this once and for all.

“I won’t have to, because Mitch and his friends will find you. They already have Anton, Hench, and Midas. They’ll throw me under the bus to save themselves, and he’ll come.”

“He’ll kill you.”

Autumn looked sad for him, but he didn’t deserve her empathy. He’d committed so many heinous crimes to get his revenge for Devon and, honestly, he was tired. Perhaps death would be the release he welcomed and Hell the punishment he deserved. “I know.”

“You want to die?”

“I’m tired of it all. So many deaths, so much blood on my hands, I’m unredeemable.”

“Nobody is unredeemable.”

Yet as she said the words, he saw the doubt in her eyes. It affected him more than it should. “Don’t feel sorry for me, Autumn. I’m not worth anyone’s sorrow.”

“You could confess and help them take everyone down.”

“Do you know what would happen to me in prison? A nark, a snitch? I’d be dead anyway. At least this way I go out by my own choice.”

Tears bristled in her eyes and he hated her sympathy.

“Fine, I’ll help you, but you have to do something for me first.”

Allen smirked. “You’re not in a position to make deals, Autumn.”

“Yes, I am, and we both know it, or I wouldn’t be here. I want you to make a note of everything you have on Anton. That man is evil and he needs to be locked up. I don’t want him to get off on a technicality.”

She was smart. If he died, he couldn’t be a witness, so a written account might help with a conviction. “Fine. Now we need to go.”

“What about Maggie? I don’t want Harold Charles or Verena Finch anywhere near my daughter.”

“They won’t be. They never come anywhere near the business end.”

“I still don’t want her near this. It’s a fucking chemical weapon. A lab is no place for a baby.”

“Better make sure you’re careful then because the only way this happens is if she goes too.” He bent closer. “Verena wanted her as leverage.”

“That bitch.”

Allen chuckled. “I see why Mitch loves you. You’re all right, Autumn Roberts.”

He watched as Mitch ran his hands over Autumn’s body, checking her for injuries before he pulled back and looked into her eyes full of tears. “Are you both okay?”

It was strange seeing the life his old friend had carved out when he was so close to his own end.

Autumn nodded. “Yes, Linton saved us.”

Mitch looked down at him then, noticing for the first time he was on the floor beside her covered in blood from a gunshot that had ripped through his chest. He was barely conscious, his eyes on Mitch and Autumn, a small smile playing on his lips as he imagined the happy ending his friend would get now. He’d done it. He’d avenged his brother and saved people instead of hurting them. It would never make up for all the bad he’d done but at least he could die knowing Maggie, Autumn, and Mitch were safe.

Pain felt like a distant ache now, the world fuzzy like he’d smoked a bad joint.

“Mitch, help him. Please.”

Her desperate sob had him frowning as he looked up at her and then at the man he’d known, as his own blood soaked into the cream rug beneath his body. He’d caused so much hurt, so much pain, and he held only fond memories of Mitch now as the boy who’d been his big brother’s best friend. All the hate he’d held on to had been tainted with grief for the loss of someone he loved. He’d blamed Mitch for abandoning Devon to the gangs when, in fact, Devon had made his own choices.

Allen grunted in agony as Mitch held his hand over the wound on his chest.

“Doc.”

Another man appeared beside Mitch and began cutting open his shirt and applying powder to the wound.

“Always knew you’d be the one to end this.” His voice was weak.

“No, you did that. You set out to destroy the Cobras, and it worked.”

Allen closed his eyes, feeling peace at last, and Mitch grasped his hand, tugging him away from the dark void beckoning him.

“No dying.”

His eyes sprang open. Everything was blurry around the edges, but he needed to get this out, he needed to say it. “I’m sorry.”

“So am I, Linton,” Mitch replied. “I should’ve stayed or looked out for you when Devon died, and I didn’t. I was a coward.”

Allen felt emotion choke him as he remembered the good times he’d had as a child. They’d played football with jumpers as goalposts, rode bikes, and had been family. He and Devon had practically lived at Mitch’s home, his mother feeding them and lavishing them with maternal love. It was only as they grew up and left him behind that things changed. Mitch and Devon had been dragged into a world that was virtually impossible to escape and left him behind.

“No, you tried to save him, I know you did. I never blamed you, Mitch. I’m happy you found a beautiful life.” Allen glanced behind him to see Autumn cuddling Maggie, tears flowing freely down her cheeks.

Mitch glanced back at him, his eyes wet with emotion. “I want you to know that same beauty.”

“Too late for me.”

“Don’t say that. You’ll live or I’ll kick your ass.”

“Time to move.”

As he was rushed from the room on a stretcher, he felt the tiny flicker of regret that he wouldn’t live to see Maggie grow up. Then he felt nothing but the peace of the medication pumping through his veins.

Jack,the steely-eyed leader of Eidolon, stood over his bed, his entire demeanour that of a man who wanted him dead. Allen understood it, he’d shot his sister-in-law, a woman Jack loved like a sister. She was family to him. Allen focused through the fog of pain and weakness on the piece of paper Jack was holding out to him with a wry sense of self-preservation.

“If you accept this, your old life is gone. You’ll be dead, and anyone you know will believe that to be the case. Your money, your contacts, family, and friends are all gone, but you’ll be free.”

Allen looked back at him, intelligence failing him as he tried to understand this wild offer. He was prepared to live with the regret and weight of his actions and had accepted that his soul would never be whole, but he’d never seen this coming.

“What do you get out of this?”

Jack gave him a grudging look of respect at the question. Even as this man offered him a way out, he still questioned it. He was barely conscious but his desire to live had been as strong as the surgeon’s skills in saving him.

“You are just the kind of careful, suspicious, dangerous man I need inside the network I’m building. I’ve realised, in the last year, that having good men inside Eidolon isn’t enough. I need people inside the underbelly of the criminal world—men and women who can blend in.”

Allen would have been insulted if he wasn’t so intrigued by the idea of the proposition.

“Rykov Anatolievich is our first recruit. When we first met five years ago, he’d been rising through the ranks of the Russian Bratva, now he’s the man giving the orders. Rykov is cruel, deadly, and swift to punish anyone who even questions his word. But he’s also smart, and he knew having Eidolon as an enemy would cost him more than a tentative peace treaty would. I’m going to assume you’re as smart, given what I’ve seen from you. I’ve forged similar relationships with other networks around the globe. I’ve got eyes and ears in places only the lost live.”

It made sense to Allen to have that kind of network; it was a smart move. Like having an undercover force that didn’t have the same stifling restrictions of the law. But did he want to be part of that and subject himself to these people? “If I refuse?”

“Then you’ll go to a maximum-security prison for the rest of your life for the crimes you’ve committed.”

Jack’s tone was matter-of-fact, but Allen preferred that. “Not much of a choice, really.”

Jack shrugged. “Not my concern.”

“What about Mitch? Will he know?”

“My men are not pawns. They’re the lifeblood of Eidolon and secrets have a way of poisoning that, so, yes, he’ll know. They all will.”

“I want Mitch as my contact inside Eidolon.”

“No. I won’t have Mitch compromised.”

“Then who?”

“Whoever I see fit.”

Jack was a worthy opponent throughout this, and he knew working for him would be a challenge, but it would also allow him to begin to right his wrongs. Jack handed him a card with just a handwritten number on it, turned, and headed for the door.

“The offer expires at midnight.”

He lay in a medication-induced stupor and thought about his life up to this point. He’d made so many mistakes in his life. Would this be another one or was this the chance he had always needed? He lifted his hands and looked at the brown skin but saw only the blood he’d spilled. So much blood, so much pain.

At five minutes to midnight, he made the call that would change his life, he just hoped it would be for the better.

Linton Allen was dead and a new asset now worked for Shadow Elite.