Chapter Twenty-Seven
DANTE
Frowning, I bring my phone to my ear. “Laz?”
“Manito. That’s what your brother calls you, right?”
The strange voice shoots a chill through me.
“Who the fuck are you?” I spit out.
“You don’t know? And here I thought you were excited for our date. Too bad your psycho boyfriend messed everything up.”
I fall on my butt right there in the hallway. Rev lowers himself down with me, his hands resting on my knees. “What is it, Dante?”
Cristián continues with his taunts. “I wish I could explain it. The rush I got from connecting the pieces. Who you’re fucking and who you’re related to. Do you think about me often, Dante? Your father might have been my favorite kill, and I’ve killed a lot of people.”
My voice comes out weak. “What did you do with my brother?”
In a smooth movement, Rev pulls out his phone, fingers flying across the keyboard. He holds the message up for me to read.
Keep him on the line.
Nodding, I shut my eyes and remember to breathe. Rev’s hand cradles my cheek, his thumb brushing over me in support.
“I didn’t do anything, chiquito. He’s here with me willingly.”
“You’re lying,” I say through gritted teeth.
Cristián’s laugh is guttural. A sound so wrong it raises the hair on the back of my neck. My stupid brain replays images of him pounding his fists into that other fighter’s face nights ago.
“Laz didn’t tell you? This just keeps getting better and better.
Family secrets are so fun. Your big bro offered up his skills in the ring in exchange for your protection after you fucked up some of our familia.
Can you imagine how disappointed I was when Tomás took his deal?
I was so excited to play with you and your friends. ”
I dig my nails into the fabric of my pants as a tear slips down my cheek. “Fuck you.”
“Sorry, I’m not actually into dick. But I am into playing games. Would you like to play one now? It’s called who do you love more, your psycho boyfriend or your lying piece of shit brother?”
The line goes dead right as glass windows shatter around us. A bullet sinks into the wall inches from us. Rev wastes no time tossing me over a shoulder and rushing me away from the scene.
Only, there are screams coming from the dining hall now. Oh god, and that’s gunfire.
“Rev,” I cry out, wriggling in his grip.
All I have is my knife. I’m not sure who the fuck I’m going to protect with it. If I’ve learned anything from Sinro, it’s that I’m not cut out for this shit.
Rev doesn’t set me down until we’re locked in a bathroom. He’s on his phone again in an instant, tapping away furiously.
“Your brother’s in West Bank. The old lofts on 56th street,” he says.
My pulse is pounding so loud in my ears, it’s hard to even process his words. “How do you know?”
“We’ve been tracking him.”
“You…what?” I’m shaking now from the adrenaline. “Did you…did you know about Laz?”
Blue eyes meet mine. “I had a suspicion.”
“A suspicion? And you didn’t think to say anything to me about it?”
“Protecting you is Laz’s top priority.”
Balling my hands into fists, I ask in a harsh tone, “Did you track my phone, too?”
Rev sighs, returning his phone to his pocket. “Yes, Dante. I had to be sure the situation was safe for my team.”
“The situation being me.”
“You are not a situation.”
“I’m creating the fucking situation. I brought this on, didn’t I? Would SIXX have even bothered with any of us if I had just left them the fuck alone?”
Rev absorbs my anger like he normally does. I wish, just once, he’d give it back to me. That he’d put me in my place because I’m always way the fuck out of line.
When he steps toward me, more tears swell in my eyes. “I need him back, Rev. I can’t…I just…he’s all I have.”
There’s a flash of hurt in his eyes right before his cold facade slips into place. It catches me off guard, and I quickly realize what I’ve said and the fault with it.
I have him, too.
“Rev, I—”
“I know, kitten.”
But when he leans in to kiss me, it’s different from the kisses we’ve shared before. It tastes like everything I want. Everything I can never have. Everything I’m about to lose.
And it fucking hurts.
Resting his forehead against mine, his hands swipe away my tears. “I’ll get you to your brother, but promise you won’t think differently of me after tonight.”
My fingers curl in his shirt to hold him against me. I need him to understand that I didn’t mean what I said. That I care for him deeply. That he’s become family, too. That I can’t imagine a day without him riling me up or melting me with his sweetness.
But the words stick in my throat, held there by the vicious claws of fear.
As Rev steps away, he hands me one of his silver guns. I don’t think to refuse. He’s no longer the warm, humorous, kind man I’ve come to know. He’s a trained mercenary without remorse.
I stare down at the inscription on the barrel. He who chooses also suffers.
A lump forms in my throat. For someone made to believe he’s a monster, Rev’s proven to me just how deep his humanity runs.
“Don’t leave my sight.” He taps my chin with a knuckle.
Swallowing, I nod as he flicks the lock on the bathroom door. The instant he strides out, shots fire. I slip behind him, wincing at the sight of a masked SIXX slumping to the floor, blood spraying the gold-patterned wallpaper.
Fuck. This is bad. I’m not sure any amount of training with Sinro could prepare me for this.
“Dante,” Rev calls out.
I hadn’t realized he’d moved. Hurrying to his side, I raise my gun, though I know I’m not mentally prepared to pull the trigger. The finality of it is really fucking me up. The awareness that I’m taking more than just a life. I’m punching a hole in a family.
As we work our way back to the main lobby, it’s a gruesome scene. Bodies litter the floor. Someone set fire to the furniture, too. Forest emerges from the dining hall, warbled in the heat of the flames as he shouts at panicked guests to “move, move, move!”
I glimpse the horror behind him. An armored vehicle broke through one of the dining hall windows. Masked figures are pouring inside like spiders, clad in dark gear and firing guns at Sinro employees.
The brutal scene locks up my muscles. Is this what it’s like to play hero? You have to live through nightmares?
My chest squeezes around my lungs. Watching Rev drop masked enemies with skill, I come to terms with the fact that I can’t ask him to go after my brother when there are so many people who need him here.
It’s up to me to save my brother.
I allow myself one more look at Rev, knowing what I’m about to risk. No more bickering or heated moments. No more waking up to him wrapped around me. No more tender kisses or endless support, regardless of my shitty choices.
This is why I put up walls. This is why I have to protect myself.
I’m so fucking sick of losing people I love.
Sucking in a sharp, aching breath, I turn and bolt down the hall, leaving my boyfriend and Sinro behind. I should be used to it by now. I’ve been on the move my entire life, never able to maintain connections or put down roots.
The further I stray from chaos, the more I notice my heartbeat thudding out of rhythm. My footsteps are too loud. My breaths too raspy.
Winding through the maze of halls, I end up in the lobby of the hotel.
It’s unsettlingly quiet. No employees behind the front desk.
No guests loitering, waiting for a ride, or contemplating dinner plans.
The only sound comes from the trickling waterfall spilling down rocks into a koi fish pond in front of the elevators.
Adjusting my grip on Rev’s gun, I search the area like we practiced in CQC training. As I’m creeping toward glass doors on my left, leading out to a garden lit with antique lanterns, the elevators ding open.
Breath hitching, I spin around and prepare to shoot. A tall man in a gold demon mask steps out of the elevator. He’s dressed in the same light suit Tomás was wearing at dinner. He’s accompanied by eight masked SIXX.
Tomás lifts his hand to hold their fire.
Fuck. I think I’d rather be shot than toyed with or tortured. Whatever they have planned, I won’t go willingly.
“Get down!” Rev’s voice booms through the lobby. I drop to my stomach as shots fire. “Move, Dante. Get to cover.”
Scrambling to my feet, I rush behind the long check-in counter. Peeking out, I witness a side to Rev I’ve only glimpsed once when he shot that SIXX during my hunt.
I can’t say I’m not scared of the way he’s dropping enemies. I think you’d be stupid not to be afraid of Rev Kotkas. He’s cold and lethal. But that’s not the only side to him. If he’s been faking all along, I’m not sure I care. I did my best to hate him.
In truth, I’ve been afraid of falling in love with him.
Moving out from behind the counter, I lift my gun and aim at one of the SIXX. Before I can fire, something slams into my jaw. The impact sends me tumbling back. With the amount of adrenaline flooding my system, I don’t necessarily feel the pain, only the instinct to survive.
I fire a shot at the SIXX in the gold mask stalking toward me. My heart stutters as Tomás grunts and staggers back. I wait for blood to seep through his white button-up shirt, but nothing comes.
I realize too late that he must be wearing a bulletproof vest. He’s already on top of me, a gloved hand clenched around my neck, my gun knocked several feet away.
“Cristián said you’d be fun.” His voice is just as smooth and unbothered as it was during his short speech at dinner. “He wants to be the one to kill you, but I’m thinking I’d like to bleed you dry right now.”
Breaking his hold, I throw him to the ground and crawl on top of him. I sink my blade right above his collarbone. A fist comes up, slamming into the side of my face. My vision blurs, and my body sways.
“Dante,” Rev roars.
An arm hooks around my waist, dragging me off Tomás and against Rev’s body. He shoots Tomás in the stomach. Then he shoots him through the eye hole in his mask.
Positioning me behind the check-in counter once more, Rev whirls on the SIXX flooding the atrium balconies. Spent gun shells rain down upon the floor like a melody of death. I feel sad for the koi fish as bodies fall into their pond.
Rev clicks out his empty magazine, popping another one from his sleeve—what the fuck—and shoves it into place. Within seconds, he’s taking down enemies again.
I’ve never seen him so vicious.
It’s absolute carnage.
It’s revenge on the highest level.
It’s Rev, my psychotic boyfriend.
I glimpse Ezra sweeping along the second floor, blasting away masked figures just as effectively as Rev. We may be outnumbered, but these street thugs have nothing on Sinro’s experience.
I have to wonder if they become desensitized to killing. Ezra’s expression is one of absolute focus, his movements smooth as he discharges his empty clip and reloads with practiced ease.
“Ezra,” Rev calls out.
I watch in horror as Ez hops off the ledge. To my relief, he lands on his feet, nimble as a cat. Rev motions him toward me.
“I’ve got you, Dante. You’re safe.” Ez pats my curls.
Safe. Do I know that fucking word?
Grabbing my hand, Ezra starts to guide me back the way I came through a maze of hallways. I hesitate, glancing longingly at Rev.
“He’s coming,” Ezra says.
Heart rate settling, I nod and let him lead me out a side door. There’s a Sinro SUV waiting for us along the curb. Ezra opens the back door and waves me inside, then he hops in the driver’s seat and shifts into gear.
“What about Rev?” I demand.
Ezra doesn’t answer me as he pulls away from the curb. When I look out the window, I spot Rev and Cain charging toward another bulletproof vehicle, smoke curling from the fiery hotel behind them.
Dread ripples through me.
“Ez. Where are they going?”
Silently, Ezra turns in the opposite direction from Rev and Cain. Hazel eyes flick to me in the rearview mirror. His brows furrow. “Shit. Please don’t be mad at me.”
It’s all the confirmation I need. Rev isn’t coming with us. Or really, they’re not letting me go with him.
“They’ll get your brother out, Dante. Sinro got me out.”
I try the door, planning on rolling out of the fucking car and sprinting after them in the street. It’s a stupid plan, but I don’t know what else to do.
“Ezra.” I rip at the handle. It doesn’t give, even when I pop the lock. My rage spikes at the fact that I’m child-locked in the back seat of an armored mercenary vehicle.
“Don’t make me climb up there,” I threaten.
Ezra brakes hard at a red light, his hands tightening on the wheel.
It tugs at something inside me to see him so stressed out.
But I think I’m handling myself quite well considering my hostile personality and the fact that the man I love is rushing off toward a possible, no probable, trap my brother is already ensnared in.
Ezra shifts in the seat, leveling me with a look as emergency sirens wail in the background. “We are going after our men, I promise you that. And we are going to fuck shit up. But first, we need more ammo. A lot more ammo.”
My anger fizzles out, replaced by a sense of urgency. “Okay. Thank you. I’m sorry for threatening you. Can I get in the front seat now?”
Ezra flings off his seatbelt. “Fuck yeah. How about you drive?”