Chapter 40
The moment we crash through the door, guns point in our direction. I hold up my hands, sighing with relief when they back down.
“Seems you’ve made some powerful enemies,” I quip, shutting the door behind Arrow and securing it shut with the lock. Not that it would stop anyone from getting in and discovering our group meeting, but it would at least slow them down.
If Arrow left any of them alive, that is.
Speak of the devil. He waltzes in with nonchalance, tossing Shadow into the corner.
“Be a good sport,” he quips, kicking Shadow’s side several times. “And stay down.” Turning on his heels, he doesn’t waste a moment, pulling Journey into his arms. “Oh, my Kitten. I thought you were fire food.”
“Fire food?” she questions, twisting herself to look me up and down. Her brows furrow more, and her lips pop open at the ash and blood lining my shirt.
Huh. I guess Shadow made a mess, after all.
“We’re fine,” I say, answering the question in her eyes. “But there’s quite a blaze happening. We need to leave as soon as possible.” There seems to be little to no damage in this room. I guess it makes sense. It’s a little ways off the main hallway where we fought for our lives.
But if Elias was the target. Then why is he still barely standing?
“Was this your original meeting area?” I cock my head when Elias glares at me, clutching his chest. Blood oozes from between his fingers.
“No,” Jenni says, answering for him in a small voice. “It was supposed to be…” She swallows hard, tears misting her eyes. “The room that the bomb went off in.”
She trembles beside him, paling at the sight of his blood. Odd. She was the daughter of a prominent mafia man. He must have shielded her away from it all. Including bloodshed. A shame, really. If she had been around all along, she wouldn’t look like such a frightened bird.
Seems they’ve been spared. But that won’t last too long. The entire hotel is seconds from crumbling in an ashy grave.
“It wasn’t you, was it, Kitten?” Arrow whispers, eyeing Elias’ wound. I swear pride shines in his eyes at the thought of her inflicting pain on anyone.
“Me?” Journey asks, wrinkling her nose. “No!” she hisses, pushing away from him. “How could I have? Besides, you stole my knife.”
“I thought maybe…” Arrow trails off with a grin. “Well, if you didn’t shoot our bestie over there, then who did?”
“I am not your bestie,” Elias growls through clenched teeth, hissing at the pain.
Understandable. It burns like hell when a bullet goes through flesh.
Elias glares in our direction. "Whoever Shadow has aligned himself with now." His eyes narrow, and I know exactly what he wants to do. “He so pleasantly let me know that our work together was done, and he needed a new fucking manufacturer and distributor.” Every move he makes, he grunts painfully until he’s standing and swaying on his feet.
“Then we moved in here. We could tell he was up to something,” Jenni says, forcing Elias’ arm around her shoulders to steady him.
“So, in the process of hiding yourself, you got yourself shot?” I raise a brow, trying to understand the events of the evening. I want them all to make sense before I jump into bed with Elias and his empire.
“What does it fucking look like?” Elias growls. “I was fucking shot, and then I fucking shot at them and missed. Not what I expected on my damn wedding day.” He shakes his head, looking at Jenni apologetically.
“It’s okay.” She offers him a tight smile, gently leaning her head on his shoulder while he kisses her temple.
“So, Shadow broke ties with you and decided war was his best bet.” I rub my chin.
“It’s not only me he’s breaking ties with, Viotto. He wants it all.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “Fuck. We need to have a fucking discussion about our future. The future of this town. But right now…”
“We need to make haste with our exit,” I say, sweeping a hand toward the door. “It’s a little hairy out there.” More like warm. The intense heat coming off through the walls, making sweat glisten on my brow.
“I’ll fucking take him,” Elias grits out, nodding to Shadow.
“That’s a fuck no from me, Bestie,” Arrow says, grinning when he yanks Shadow over his shoulder. “We’ve got beef with this asshole.”
“And I don’t?” Elias asks. “And we’re not fucking besties. We’re associates.” The glare he levels at Arrow sets my teeth on edge.
I hold out a hand. “What if we give you some time alone in a dark room with him? At a later date, of course.”
“And I can trust you to keep him alive that long?”
“It’ll be the foundation of our new alliance,” I say, holding out my hand. “I keep him kicking for your pleasure after the four of us go a few rounds with him. Then, you can get your kicks in, too.”
Elias stares me up and down. “Fine. It’s a deal. But I want the fucking death blow.”
“That doesn’t belong to you,” Arrow says, stiffening at his words. “His death belongs to his son and only his son.”
Something softens on Elias’ face. Like through all his anger, he can clearly see. He nods.
“Then, it’s settled. Let’s get the fuck out of this death trap.” He looks behind him, nodding at the men with guns. “You four go out first and clear a path. We’ll be right behind you.”
“Yes, sir,” they say, marching toward the door.
“Careful, now. It’s awfully smokey out there,” I say, eyeing his guards.
When the door opens, smoke slowly drifts in, clouding our view of the hotel. Nothing seems to exist in the smoke except the crackling of the fire. In the distance, a fire alarm blares, and a faint strobe of light bounces through the thick smoke.
An eerie silence sits between us. Our eyes inspect one another before we finally follow Elias’ guards out.
“Arrow, do you think you got them all?” I question, tossing him the extra gun I stole from Shadow.
“You bet your sweet ass I got every single one of them.” He grins.
“There could be stragglers. I don’t even know who these assholes are,” Elias grunts, coming to stand beside me.
“Well, whoever they are, they’re fucking dead. This is our city,” I say, holding out my hand.
Elias doesn’t hesitate to put his hand in mine. We might have had disagreements in the past over his drugs. But right now, I have no choice but to make amends and move forward.
“Our city,” Elias says with a nod, shaking my hand.
“Now, shall we?”
Together, we march through the smoke and fire, making our way through the hotel's main entrance until we’re standing a block away, mostly unscathed.
Elias' facial features darken.
"I'll take your deal," I say, confirming our new alliance. "You want half of Briar Cove? Then, it's yours. We'll discuss the parameters of our arrangement later. For now, I'd like to take my wife away from here. And you probably need medical attention. Not to mention getting the fuck out of this town. Who knows what sort of backup plan Shadow has in his back pocket.”
Elias eyes me and stiffly nods. "We'll reconvene at a later date and work out the logistics of everything."
"Then, we'll call it right here and now. We have a truce. Just between you and my small family. The other Viotto's aren't so innocent." More specifically, my fucking father and mother. Parents of the year, I say. “I’ll text you the details of our secure location. I’m putting a lot of trust in you and our agreement.” And that’s a fact. But to show that I’m serious about sharing our city, I need to prove to him I trust him. If he betrays me, I have my fucking ways.
"I am not leaving!" Journey says with determination, coming to stand in front of me. Her lips curl back and she crosses her arms. Honestly, she’s hot as sin when she attempts to tell me what to do. But I’m not the one in charge right now. "I will not leave Shepp out there all by himself. Elias said that..." she trails off when Arrow pops up behind her, sticking a needle into her neck. She fights him tooth and nail, kicking and flailing. "You fucking prick!" she slurs, heaving a breath. Her eyes stay open longer than anyone I've seen, burning with vengeance. “I’m going to chop your balls off.”
Arrow’s grin grows at the sound of her threat. "Sorry, Kitten. I can't leave you behind. You're ours to protect, and that's what we're going to do. You can’t get Sheppy Boy off that island. Not by yourself or with Elias’ help," Arrow murmurs, with a slight sadness creeping into his tone. He gently soothes her hair, cuddling her until she grows more limp.
"You'll pay," she slurs, fighting the serum in her veins with all her might. Her eyelids droop until she can't cling to consciousness any longer, and she slips into a deep sleep in Arrow's arms.
Arrow slumps, stroking her cheeks with affection. "I hate doing that to her," he says with a pout. “I like her awake and lively. Fighting me while I hunt her. Now, she can’t even tell me I’m an asshole.” Says the man who enjoyed sneaking through her window to glimpse her sleeping, not to mention the multiple pictures he took of her with his camera. Poor bastard. Maybe he’s changing his ways for her. She seems to soothe the monster inside him.
Well, sometimes.
"It was the only way to get her to leave with us." I shake my head, a smidge of guilt eating away at me for what we had to do. “She would have snuck out before we could even think about getting her into the car.”
"I could have retrieved him," Elias grunts. “I know that island now, like the back of my fucking hand.”
Arrow grins, brings out his phone, and nods. "I don't think that'll be necessary, see?" He holds up the phone, and my heart fucking skips a beat.
"He's already on the way."