Chapter 50
Footsteps sounded ahead.
Ace drew up in the centre of the room as his eyes fell on me.
I wasn’t who he was expecting and I could see the briefest flicker of surprise on his face.
My chest loosened. If he was here, then Zed would be with Glade.
That was the plan. I’d sworn to her she would never face him again, not on his terms. And I would keep that promise.
I would face the man who had been hunting her. A coward who chased only when it was safe, cloaked in paranoia, always hiding out of reach. Until now.
“Kyan?” he asked. “Are you here to take your Omega’s place? Or are you under the delusion that you might save her?”
I watched him step into the grand theatre, shifting my foot as he crossed the threshold, my heel silently catching the switch at my feet.
Ace grinned. “I thought you might have learned from my brother exactly how much she suffers from such…” He grimaced as if the word was distasteful. “Heroism.”
I didn’t move, eyes tracking the guns in their hands. The two thugs behind him had me in their sights even if Ace’s gun remained at his waist.
“You only got this far because of Mirage,” I said.
Ace paused, teeth catching his tongue as he grinned. “You think you’re ahead of me because you know the name of one informant?”
“Mirage is one of your most valued informants,” I replied easily. “The one who refuses electronic communication because the information he traffics is too sensitive to risk interception.”
Ace paused his approach, eyes fixed on me as the two thugs at his back scanned the room. They would see nothing of threat, though.
“He gave you the tip on Novikov movements, Andretti Brother vendettas, the locations of Brotherhood traitors fleeing Nevada, and Glade’s whereabouts when she was at the High Roller.”
Ace cocked his head, eyes narrowed as he stared at me. “You intercepted my source?” he asked. “So what?—?”
“I didn’t intercept him.”
I’d watched Glade since the moment we’d been banished, but it hadn’t been until she’d fled Ace after years with him that everything had changed. Then, I’d been able to track her properly. To watch over her and make sure she was safe. I’d learned that he was after her, despite the lie he let slip to others about her cheating.
That was when this had begun.
Yet still, fleeing him did not mean she wanted us—that was the mistake I would carry forever. But I’d long decided I loved her no matter what. I’d tracked her movements, tripping up Ace’s men when they got too close. I was her protection, no matter if she wanted our pack or not.
She was my soul match, and I’d protected her until I couldn’t anymore.
The Brotherhood, however, weren’t easy targets, and Ace Maverick, even less so. So I’d created a persona to gain a foothold with the gang I knew was hunting her.
There was a long, long pause. “You’re Mirage?” Ace asked, finally catching on. “You gave up your own mate?”
“I gave up her location after I knew your men were about to find her.” One already had, so I made sure the Brotherhood members chasing her got the intel from me first. But that was when I knew Mirage wasn’t enough anymore, because the Brotherhood wouldn’t quit. “I told your men what nights she worked at the High Roller, and when Cassian Forbes was visiting, taking the attention of club security.”
All so that I could monitor everything. I’d known the night they would strike, and I’d baited Zed into taking us there to confront her. To take it into my own hands—something I’d never wanted to force on her.
But even with the protections against the Brotherhood I’d been building for years, I had underestimated Ace’s reach.
This time, though. This was the last time. And the last fear my Oasis would ever have to face when it came to Ace.
“And you gave up your own location tonight?”
Yes.
The true nature of how far Ace would go—not just make her an enemy of the Brotherhood, but target her himself, or of how much pain she had caused—I’d known that for a week.
A week, to find a way to face him, once and for all—while keeping my promise to her. As arrogant and unattached as Ace might act, he believed he had a claim on her, and sure enough, with her heat approaching, he turned his efforts to ten.
Of course, she was the final piece. The bait that would make him trip up.
It was only a matter of time before he found us. So I’d given us up and waited, knowing Ace was nothing, if not predictable. Even more so, since Zed had killed his pack. I could see the instability in his eyes right now, in the slight edge to his scent.
And sure enough, he’d sent someone in to leave her a note. I’d found it and written a new location for her. One Zed would be at right now, ready to take her to safety, while I dealt with Ace.
My only regret was that he hadn’t come to take her himself today, like he had in the warehouse, so Glade had to go through one more day of terror.
But this wouldn’t take long.
“She’s mine, Ace,” I said. “She was never yours.”
“You think it matters? I’ll take you tonight, and when I catch up to her and those pathetic packmates, I’ll make her put a bullet in your skull.”
The men behind him shifted, on high alert for an order as they kept their weapons trained on me. But they were waiting for a reaction that wouldn’t come.
“Every letter I sent to you was laced with poison,” I told him. “A poison deadly even to the strongest Alpha without a trace.”
Ace’s lips curved in a smile. “Poison?” he asked. “The same you used to kill my father, I’m sure?”
“The only mistake I made that night was not realising you’d found out.” I didn’t know it at the time, but Glade paid the price.
That last piece of the puzzle was the greatest mistake I’d ever made: believing her rejection of us was her choice.
“Pathetic.” Ace snorted.
“It’s the Brotherhood’s greatest weakness—your greatest weakness. You only see a threat if it’s the barrel of a gun pointing in your face.”
I got to my feet slowly, watching the way the guns shifted with the movement.
“If you poisoned the letters,” Ace sneered, spreading his arms. “You did a shit job.” He glanced around with a wild grin. “I’m still here.”
At Ace’s side, his guard coughed, one hand withdrawing from his gun to clutch his throat.
Scentless and odourless, the poison was already beginning to seep into the room. It had been for a while now. Ace’s eyes flicked to the side for a moment, not quite leaving me entirely.
On his other side, there was an awful choking sound and the other guard also seized his throat, weapon clattering to the floor. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before both men were on their knees, wheezing for breath they would never find again.
“I wasn’t trying to kill you,” I said quietly as Ace turned back to me, and I saw the first flicker of something unsure shadow his features. Ace was paranoid, keeping his locations secret, with constant guards. No alpha that paranoid would allow himself to be killed the same way as his father. So no letter I’d sent had a traceable amount of the toxin filling the air. “I wanted to make sure you have the same thing I have.”
I stepped toward him and he reached for his gun at last.
His hand trembled at the movement and he swayed. I’d dosed him for years, never needing more than a traceable amount. Not enough for full immunity—not like I’d built. But enough that, with the flood of odourless, scentless gas that was spilling by the gallon into the room, he would survive.
He coughed, staggering a step back, eyes suddenly wide. “Why?”
I caught him easily, disarming him and tossing his gun away as I took his chin and forced him to look at me. “I knew, if I ever came for you, revenge wouldn’t be for me…” He tried to fight my grip, shaking to the bone, the faintest drop of blood beading his eyes. “And death,” I said, as his eyes rolled back and he went limp. “Would be far too kind for what you did to her.”