Chapter Twenty-Eight
I kept my head down as I walked through tunnel and into the wider space where the structure was. The closer I got, the more nervous I became, and when a low, thumping musical beat filled my ears, for the thousandth time today, my stomach dropped.
I just killed a man thirty minutes ago.
A man who came down here looking to buy a woman he could use for the night.
He had his hands on me, his eyes looking me up and down as he thought of all the twisted things he was going to do to me. I could see his blackened soul behind his dead eyes, and until Cain threw that blade into one of them, I was afraid. The last time I’d been that afraid, Cain’s mother was pointing a fucking gun in my face.
That seemed like a lifetime ago.
Now, I was here, about to walk into the center of hell.
I was fucking terrified.
Once I was to the thin door, I reached out, grabbed the rope handle, and pulled. It came open easy and the smell of alcohol, weed, sex, and death filled my nostrils.
Without looking back, I stepped inside, my eyes darting around the space quickly. Sounds of people fucking filled my ears, and I avoiding looking for where the sound was coming from. I heard men laughing and someone in the face back cussing up a storm, and I ignored that, too.
Sure enough, there was a bar to my left and as quickly as I could, I made my way to it, taking a seat in a cheap chair at the end of it. The floor was the same as the rest of Devils Den: damp, sticky concrete. The only difference between outside and in this shitty little bar, it didn’t smell as bad.
But it still fucking stunk.
Women were screaming, but I kept my head down, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from crying. “Teal. Teal. Teal. Teal,” I pushed out in a rush.
After a moment, I heard Agent Garner’s voice. “Roger that.” His voice was softer than last time, and my heart skipped a beat. So the cold agent had a fucking heart after all.
“You need something?”
Keeping my head bent, my eyes darted up to find an old fat man with a few missing teeth staring at me from behind the bar. I shook my head.
“You waiting on someone, boy?”
Oh fuck.
Panic shot through me like a bolt of lightning and the longer the man stared at me, the more eyes I started to feel on me. From all sides.
We still had two more minutes before the FBI stormed the place, and I hadn’t even found Kavi yet. Suddenly, a hand wrapped around my wrist and before I knew what was happening, I was yanked from the stool and pulled to another body—one that wasn’t Cain’s.
If one more fucking man grabbed me—
“They’re with me.”
My chest folded in on itself at the sound of Xander’s voice, but I couldn’t look at him.
The bartender assumed I was a boy, and Xander didn’t clarify. If I exposed my face, it would put us in more danger that we already were. Swallowing down the nausea, I moved with Xander as he turned us, and then I felt his mouth close to my ear—right next to the earpiece. “This is no place for a person like you. Especially on a Monday.”
Monday. That meant things were bad.
We walked by a table with a few men sitting around it, watching a trembling woman dance on it. Then, he brought me around the other end of the bar, and I was pushed against the thin wall, Xander’s arms bracing on either side of me as he hid me from sight. His dark eyes met mine, and he gave me a nod.
For the first time today, I felt a spark of hope in my chest.
He lowered his head before he said, “Throne.”
“Got it,” Collin said in my ear.
“Roger that. My team is on the ground. You have two minutes to get Kavi out of there,” James said.
“Baby, get somewhere safe,” Cain ordered me.
“She’s with me,” Xander said, his eyes meeting mine.
My bottom lip trembled as I breathed. “Thank you, Xander.”
Something flashed in his eyes as regret twisted his face, but he blinked, and it was gone. “Light this bitch up, Cain,” he said, looking to the bar.
A second later, I heard a loud bang and popped my head around the corner to see that Leon had kicked the door in, his gun pointed at the men with their pants down. He fired multiple rounds, and within seconds, Cain, Dontell, and Mina were inside too, firing off bullets. Xander wrapped his arm around me, holding me against him and out of sight as my family kicked ass.
The women scrambled, ducking and crawling underneath tables as they screamed. The men didn’t have enough time to right their shit and get their guns out. Mina turned to the bar, firing her gun, and the fat, ugly man landed on the ground.
“Xander, let me go,” I demanded, needing to fight with them—for them.
“You know how to use a gun?” he asked.
“Probably a better fucking shot than you,” I shot back, looking at him. “Let me go.”
He nodded, his arm falling from me. He had his gun in hand before I had mine out, gunshots and shouts filling my ears. “Kavi is in the back,” Xander informed me, jerking his chin across the bar. My eyes landed on another door, this one painted black—with and actual door panel. How appealing.
“Cover me,” I told him, moving out from behind the wall.
“As if I wasn’t going to,” he muttered, following behind me.
I kept my body bent over, wincing with every gunshot that sounded off near me.
I heard a crash, and when I looked over my shoulder, I saw Cain rushing a man, pinning him against the wall. Mina was behind the bar now, shooting whenever she had the chance. Leon and Dontell were fighting two men. I saw a flash of metal, and my stomach twisted at the sight of Leon slashing a man’s neck open. More gunshots fired off around me as I dove to the ground, landing hard. Above me stood Xander, firing off round after round at three men who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
I sat up, aimed, and fired. My bullet hit one of the men directly behind the eyes, and as he fell, Xander took out the other two. Then, he turned, grabbed my hand, and pulled me of the ground. A second later, we were in front of the door where the leader of the Bratva was hiding behind. “You open,” Xander ordered, “and I charge.”
Nodding, we switched, guns ready as I wrapped my hand around the handle. The bar behind us was quiet now, bodies littered everywhere. The only thing that could be heard was the soft whimpers and cries of the flesh trade victims.
“On three,” Xander told me.
I continued nodding like a fucking idiot, my hand tight around the handle.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three!”
Xander rushed in before I could even step into the room. I looked over my shoulder, meeting Mina’s eyes for a moment as my feet carried me into the room.
When I stepped inside, my eyes adjusted to the dim light to find a fairly large but intimate room, with a curved bench seat, chains on the wall, and a small table. My eyes lifted to find a man sitting in the center of the bench seat, smoking a cigar with his legs spread wide as some woman sucked him off. He was older, with slicked back silver hair, a nasty red scar down his right cheek that disappeared into the collar around his neck. Following that scar, I saw that his shirt was unbuttoned to reveal a soft stomach and the signature Bratva tattoo on his chest, taking up most of the space.
“Well, if it isn’t Stevens’ little bitch boy,” the man greeted as he chuckled, his accent thick.
Kavi.
Mina had told me about him in great detail, re-living the night Tiggy died so I could understand. She told me about how he looked, the way he talked and carried himself, the evil that seemed to loom over him like a curse he never wanted to break.
Xander had his gun pointed directly as Kavi’s face, but the man didn’t seem fazed. Instead, he yanked the woman’s head back by her hair before shoving her down onto the ground. My first reaction was to dive down and help her off the ground, but Kavi hadn’t noticed me yet.
“Leave me,” he barked.
She picked herself up, not even bothering to close her shirt before she scrambled by me. When she made it into the bar, she let out a scream. I looked over my shoulder to find Cain standing a few feet away, covered in blood before Dontell and Leon came into view.
All three of the Oasis drivers were covered in blood, their chests heaving, vengeance swirling in their eyes as they stared at the man who’d made their lives a living hell.
“And who do we have here?” Kavi mused, completely unfazed.
I looked back to him to find him staring at me.
My upper lip curled as I tore my hood off, lifting my chin. “The bitch you couldn’t kill,” I seethed.
Kavi didn’t look like the type of man to ever be surprised, and I was happy to have the satisfaction of watching a flash of shock cover his features, even if it was only just for a moment. I saw a twitch in his scarred right cheek as Xander ordered, “Get the fuck up.”
Kavi stared at me for a second longer before he looked at Xander. “Unless your boss is here to discuss business, I’d rather not. I’m quite comfortable here.”
That was when I felt it—the raw power, fueled by hatred, coming from the three men behind me. I shifted closer to the wall, my shoulder brushing against a set of chains as Cain stepped through the doorway with Leon and Dontell flanking him.
Kavi’s cool composure cracked, but it wasn’t completely shattered. “I see you’ve returned to me, boy,” he said to Cain.
“All six of the men you brought down here are dead,” Cain told him, his voice void of any emotion. My eyes snapped across the room to find Xander watching his brother.
“That’s fine,” Kavi sighed, bringing the cigar to his lips. “I have more.”
“Ivan is dead.” This came from Dontell.
“Victor is dead.” Leon.
“Ron is dead.” This came from Mina, who was moving behind Dontell to stand beside me.
Kavi smiled. “Good to see you again, Mina.”
“Fuck you,” she spat.
He cocked his head to the side, puffing the cigar. “Tell me, how is little Cleo do—”
“I’m going to cut your fucking tongue out and feed it to you,” Dontell threatened, his voice sending goosebumps across my body. “My daughter’s name will not come from your mouth again. We clear, bitch?” he snarled.
My heart leaped to my throat. Oh, Dontell.
Mina’s head snapped to her man, and I could only imagine the look in her eyes.
“My brother ordered you to get up,” Cain clipped, pointing his gun at Kavi.
“And does your brother know you used to work for me?” the Bratva leader shot back.
“Get up, Kavi,” Xander growled.
Kavi looked at us all individually, and when his eyes came to me, he pursed his lips. “I thought the woman who had Cain wrapped around her finger would’ve been prettier. Such a pity.”
“The last thing I want is your poor excuse of a dick getting hard for me,” I told him with a smile.
He didn’t like that.
A shadow fell over his face, his polite composure vanishing all together. He moved then, slowly rising from the bench as we all lifted our guns to him. He took his time, zipping up his pants and buttoning his shirt. Then, he moved, walking around the bench before facing us again. Xander inched closer to him as Kavi came closer to me.
“You’re going to learn how to speak to me with respect, Ms. Wells,” Kavi said.
“Get on your fucking knees,” I barked, taking a step closer to him. He was surrounded. There was nothing he could do. All of his men were either dead or being held hostage. There was nothing he could—
He pulled out a gun out from behind the bench, pointing it directly at me.
The temperature in the room dropped.
Well, fuck.
“Tell your man to stand down, along with the rest of them,” he ordered.
Leon, Dontell, and Cain began barking orders, and I felt Mina get pulled away. My eyes went to his finger and discovered it wasn’t anywhere near the trigger yet. I knew I was good shot; I could hit him before he even had a chance to fire.
I pulled the trigger.
The bullet cut through the air.
I heard a grunt, and a second bullet was fired—but not from my gun.
Then, I was tackled to the ground as Kavi’s bullet flew past my head, going into the wall behind me.
There was more shouting, more rounds alongside sharp, distinct pops in my ear. Then I was being pulled up, and I twisted my neck, colliding with a familiar pale blue surrounded by splatters of blood. “Clover,” he breathed. There was blood on his face, his neck, and even some in that blonde hair I loved so much.
It terrified me in a way I’d never recover from.
“Cain,” I whispered.
Then, I was being shuffled again as I heard a male grunt from the other side of the couch. Cain moved by me, his gun pointed down to the floor, his chest heaving. Then, in that moment, I heard Cain scream.
He didn’t scream in victory. He didn’t scream for me.
He screamed his brother’s name.
I rushed to the bench and looked over the edge, my hand flying to my mouth as a cry came from my throat.
Kavi was on his back, wincing in pain as blood oozed from the gunshot wound in his shoulder—
Xander was laying right beside him, blood not only oozing from the multiple bullet holes in his chest, but also trickling from his mouth. Leon and Dontell were there in an instant, while I remained frozen in shock as the love of my life dropped to his knees beside his brother, his shaking hands hovering above the bleeding wounded in his chest and abdomen.
“No, no, no, no,” Cain pushed out.
“We need medical in here now!” Leon barked, the order going straight to Collin and James, wherever the fuck they were. Mina was behind me, her arms wrapping around me.
Kavi grunted, bending his leg and trying to push off with it. Rage compelled me then and without looking away from Cain, I raised my gun, trusting my blind aim and fired. The bullet flew through Kavi’s knee, and he fell back with a howl of agony.
“Get him out of here,” I hissed at someone—anyone.
Cain was now shaking Xander’s shoulders, his brother”s dark eyes open and void. I shoved Mina off and moved, hopping over the back of the bench and dropping on the other side of Xander.
“B—baby, we have to h-help him,” Cain said to me, stuttering through his shock and panic. His hands were covered in Xander’s blood, and when I looked up to his face, his eyes were red, filled with tears.
The sight gutted me inside out.
I started shaking as I reached out to him, grabbing his bloodied hands in mind. “Cain, babe, look at me,” I called out, my voice unsteady as Leon and Dontell dragged Kavi out.
A second later, I heard new voices, and then the room was filled with the FBI, dressed in full tactical gear. Then, I heard James’ voice right beside me. “Let me help, sweetheart,” he said in my ear.
Cain looked back down to Xander and then back to me, not registering that James was even here. “We h-have to h-help him,” he pushed out, his voice ragged and laced with torment.
“Move, Nikki,” James ordered, his hands on my shoulders now. My fingers loosened around Cain”s hands, and I was pulled away from him. Then, James was there, in full tactical gear, ripping off his helmet, revealing his head of mess dark hair that reminded me of Xander’s.
The agent called out, ordering his team around, and then Cain was moved away. I watched him from across the room as he stared down at his brother, and then I watched in real time as the boy I grew up loving, the man I followed, the love of my fucking life, snapped. He was moving then, storming out of the room. I pushed past the agents and called out for him, but he was gone.
He was heading straight for Kavi.
Once I was in the bar full of bodies, I weaved my way through as he walked out of the bar. I pushed through the door to find Cain being held back by Leon and Dontell, Collin standing in front of him in a black suit with a gray button up, his tattooed hands in his pockets. I looked around him to find Kavi being loaded onto a stretcher.
“I’m going to kill him!” Cain roared.
Collin’s nostrils flared as he took a single calculated step to Cain, thrashing in Dontell and Lee’s hold. “Not here, Mr. Donovan.”
All at once, Cain seemed to still, his breath halting. Collin’s eyes snapped to me. “Do not leave his side until we are back in St. Louis, that clear?”
I nodded, moving around to face Cain. I cupped his face in my hands, trying to get his attention, but he was still staring at Kavi, who was being rolled away on the stretcher.
“Devils Den is flooded with cops and feds,” Mina said, jogging up to us. “James said we have three minutes to get out of sight. He’s not going to be able to cover for us—this is above him now.”
Cain’s eyes snapped to mine as my thumbs stroked his bloody cheeks. “Stick with me,” I begged.
He nodded, not saying anything, and a second later, the boys let him go.
“We’re leaving the cars in the parking garage,” Dontell said. “Where we came in is closer.”
“Let’s go,” Leon ordered.
They started jogging away, but Cain turned around and looked into the bar, still as a statue. The sight was heartbreaking, and I swallowed a sob. I linked my fingers with his, his brother’s blood coating both our hands now. “Cain,” I begged, tugging him. “Cain, we have to go.”
“I can’t leave him,” he said, looking at me.
No, no, no, no.
“Hey, hey,” I cooed in a panic, reaching up to touch his face with my free hand. “Remember what we said, babe. Wherever you go, I go. Remember?”
His blue eyes flashed, and I knew I was getting through to him. I knew he didn’t want to leave his brother, not after spending a lifetime making sure he was protected. I reached up, giving him a harsh, quick kiss. “Full throttle, remember?” I whispered on a sob.
Cain didn’t respond with words. He responded by moving, and seconds later, we were running hand-in-hand out of the Devils Den, leaving a declaration of war in our wake.