Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
TIGER
I slipped out of the back of Lex's SUV and walked around to grab my bags. One by one, I dumped the other guy's bags down on the ground and shut the hatch. Lex pressed the button on his fob to lock it.
Silently, I grabbed the handles of my bags and carried them toward the elevator.
None of us had much to say to each other right now. If we did, it would have consisted of ‘hurry up.’ Maybe ‘hurry the fuck up.’
The last few days were both a blur and had dragged on forever. We won three out of four of our games, smashing the opposition by a handful of goals. One of the games was a shutout. No one could say we weren't focused when we were on the ice. When we weren't— That was another story.
Personally, my mind kept returning to Wren and her being alone here.
Knowing she was fine, and seeing her with my own eyes were two different things.
All I could think about was touching her. Holding her. Feeling the warmth of her body and hearing her heartbeat. And yeah, fucking her.
The woman made me feel things I’d never felt before. Things I never thought I'd feel for anyone.
And Lex… If it wasn't for him along with me the last few days, I would have caught the first flight back to Dusk Bay. He seemed to understand what I was thinking and feeling without me saying a word.
Once Bray followed Lex and I into the elevator, I pressed the button and waited impatiently for the doors to close and the car to start moving. I was tempted to step out and bolt up the stairs, but before I could, the doors slid shut.
"I'll leave my stuff in my place and come up after." Bray pressed the button to the fifth floor.
I smirked.
"What?" He caught the expression on my face.
"No wonder your place is smaller than mine," I said. "All the way down there."
He shrugged. "My place might be smaller but my cock is still bigger." The elevator dinged and the door slid open.
"Keep telling yourself that," I said just before the doors closed. I caught a glimpse of him flipping me off before he was cut off from view.
Lex chuckled. "It's a good thing you're both on the same side. If you weren't, you two would kill each other. Possibly literally."
"If we weren't on the same side, I'd have to, to keep him away from Wren," I said.
"That's a good point," he conceded. "I'd have to help you."
The look he gave me made me want to pin him up against the wall of the elevator and kiss him. Only the fact we were a couple of floors from mine, and both of us needed to see her, stopped me. Any other time—
"We'd make quick work of him." I gripped my bags tighter as we reached our floor.
The doors slid open, followed by a series of loud cracks, and voices shouting and screaming.
I exchanged a brief glance with Lex and released the handle of my bags. I sprinted to the front door of my apartment and pushed. It didn't budge.
"Fuck." It was locked. Of course it was. It was supposed to be locked.
I fumbled to pull my wallet out of my back pocket and pull out the key card. Every single finger on my hand suddenly turned into a thumb. Nothing worked.
“Fucking hell.” I finally managed to get a grip and yank it out. I swiped it and shoved into my apartment.
"What the…"
The windows overlooking the city were cracked in several places, indented with what looked like bullets embedded in the glass. Cracks flared out in every direction, a few centimetres each.
Wren and her father were huddled in front of the kitchen island, his arm around her. Her stepmother, Jenny, was in front of the window, her arms wrapped around her head, as if they’d save her from more bullets, or shards of glass.
"Everyone okay?" Wren rose slowly. Her eyes were wide, skin paler than usual. Typical of her, she was worried about her parents first, not herself.
"I'm okay," Jenny said in a shaky voice. "If one of those came through…"
Martin stood and staggered over to gather her up in his arms.
"Bulletproof glass," I said.
While Lex trotted over to comfort Wren, I stepped over to the window. I couldn't see anyone in the building across the road. If they had half a brain they would have ducked down and fucked off by now.
"How?" Wren had come to stand beside me. She and Lex both stood close enough to touch.
I pointed. "There's a residential building opposite this." As tall as this one, it was positioned so it didn't block off the sea view.
"They must have put someone there to wait until one of us stood in front of the window. Joke’s on them. As if I wouldn't have bulletproof fucking glass." Which was going to cost a small fortune to replace, but it was worth every dollar.
"I'll let Aidan know." Lex stepped away to make the phone call.
"Maybe they knew it was bulletproof glass," Wren suggested. "This could be just another warning."
I was finally able to put my arms around her and pull her to me. Her body was warm but trembling.
"I doubt they would have factored in bulletproof glass. Considering we should have been back half an hour ago, I think we can safely assume the asshole was after me."
Just in case they were still out there, watching, I raised two fingers at them.
"Or me," she said softly. "If that was regular glass, Jenny would be dead right now. Maybe the rest of us too."
"Jenny would what?" Bray demanded. He stood in the doorway, staring at the scene in front of him. He took in the bullets in the window. "What the ever loving fuck?" He looked like he didn't know which he should do first, hug his mother and Wren, or track down who did this and put a bullet in them.
"They might still be there," Bray said.
"Bray—" Jenny said in warning, but he'd already turned and headed back down.
"Fuck," I said under my breath. "Lex, stay here with Wren and her parents."
"Tige—" Wren started to say.
I grabbed her, a hand on either side of her face and kissed her roughly. "Stay here. I'll be right back."
Before I could rethink my life choices, I bolted after Bray. We didn't wait for the elevator, we hurtled down the stairs so fast it was a miracle we didn't fall and break our necks.
We shoved out of the door at the bottom of the stairs and ran out into the alley behind the building.
"This way." I headed towards the street, scanning the area for anyone looking more suspicious than usual.
Cars zipped back and forth along Myers Street, in front of Powell Tower.
Pedestrians walked without looking anywhere but the direction they were headed.
Except the few who were staring at their phones as they went.
No one hurried. No one looked like they saw or heard anything out of place.
No one even looked shifty, which was strange in itself for Dusk Bay.
"Let's head around the back of Luchesi Tower," Bray said. "If they went down the stairs too, they might have ended up there."
"Right." We crossed the road, both trying to look like we were behaving as normal as possible. For two men over six foot tall, and well-built, to blend into the crowds, it wasn’t easy, but we could pretend we weren't looking for a gunman.
The back of the tower was fenced off. We followed the fence down to the end of the block and around. A heavy lock hung on the gate, keeping it firmly shut.
There was no sign of anyone. No getaway cars. No one vaulting the fence to make a run for it. Nothing to indicate anything strange at all.
"Whoever it is, they're gone," I said. Frustrated, I kicked at some grass that grew up from a crack in the footpath.
"Unless they're still inside." Bray stood back and looked up at the dark facade of the building. "Waiting for us to leave."
"Or waiting for us to come to them." I rubbed my chin. I could do with a shave.
"We could—"
Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a black SUV pulling up right in front of us, the windows wound down. Aidan was inside with Finley. Orion, Coast and Phoenix looked squashed in the back seat.
"We could wait for the cavalry," I said as if that was what Bray was going to say.
"Looks like we're just in time," Coast said with a smug grin. Which, considering it was Coast, was his usual expression.
I ignored him and rested my forearms on the driver’s side door to lean in the window. In as few words as possible, I told Aidan what happened.
"There's no sign of anything suspicious out here." I shot Coast and Phoenix a look, daring them to say the only suspicious entity in the area was me. If they were going to start that, they could fuck off right now. "We were thinking of going inside to take a look."
Aidan nodded and killed the engine. He waited until I stepped back to open his door. "Me, Orion and Finley will go in through the front. Coast and Tiger, take that back entrance. Bray and Phoenix, stay here and watch the back gate."
We all nodded and separated, Coast and I climbing the fence and dropping over the other side before heading to the back door.
"Sucks when they come after you," Coast said.
I was about to give him a sarcastic response—something about sucking—when I glanced over to see his expression.
For once, he was actually serious and sympathetic. I’d forgotten he was attacked in his own home and Sinclair, his girlfriend, was abducted along with Wren. If anyone understood what we were going through right now, it was him.
"Yeah, it does," I agreed. "Bad enough if it involves us. When they come after our women…"
"They're asking for trouble," he said. He sounded like an action hero out of a movie, with all the snappy lines delivered before everything went to hell.
"Then trouble is what the assholes are going to get." I could deliver a snappy line too, when I wanted to.
"They messed with the wrong dudes." Apparently Coast caught the vibe.
"I hope they like eating balls for breakfast, because that's what they're getting," I added.
Coast chuckled. "With a side of their own left toes."
"That's very specific," I observed. "But I like it."
"I thought you might," he said. "It's one of my personal favourites."
We reached the back door. I grabbed the knob and gave it a twist. Not surprisingly, it didn't open. "Locked."
Coast rubbed a hand on the back of his neck. "Doesn't look like much of a lock to me. Stand back." He raised his gun.
I took a couple of steps back and held up a hand in front of my face, just in case. Coast was a good shot, but I preferred not to get shrapnel in my eyeballs.
The shot sounded painfully loud in the otherwise quiet alley. Loud enough to make me wince. The door around the lock splintered, and the whole mechanism fell out, dangling by a long screw.
"Huh, that was shittier than I thought it was," he admitted. "We probably could have kicked it in."
"Kicking it in would have been quieter, but it's done now." I twisted the knob again and pushed the door in.
Coast followed me inside.