Chapter Forty
COBY
“What the hell?” I sat up when the room was suddenly plunged into darkness. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the pitch black. Hunter cursed as she yanked her shirt back down. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but we’re not sticking around to find out. Get dressed.”
“Whoa, wait,” I said when I heard her strapping as many weapons to her as she could. “It’s probably just an outage.”
“Coby, when you’re in bed with the mafia, it’s never just an outage. Malcolm’s found us.”
“But how?”
Hunter shook her head. “I don’t know, but I think Kellan’s involved.”
“What?”
Hunter didn’t bother to explain as she threw me a pair of sweats and a hoodie.
I felt my heart beating fast as I quickly dressed.
She then ushered Coco into his carrier and locked the cage door, thank God.
A moment later, she shoved the carrier into my chest, and I squeaked at the same time Coco whined.
Hunter then moved over to the bedroom door and pressed her ear against it.
“Hunter, talk to me,” I pleaded. “Why would Kellan betray Ocean?”
“Because after he made it very clear he and Ocean weren’t friends, he told me he used to work for another family like the Fola back in Chicago.
Kellan also told me he came to Black Veil specifically looking for revenge, and through a stroke of fucking luck, he just happened to land a job working right at Ocean’s side. ”
I thought about it until it started to make sense. Kellan was the only one who was never constantly with Ocean. He was the only one without family or friends here, and absences he couldn’t explain. I always just assumed he was out doing something for Ocean, but maybe not.
“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “It makes sense, but it doesn’t fit, Hunter. We like Kellan.”
Hunter was visibly frustrated when she grabbed my hand and started tugging me toward the door. “Well, we’re not sticking around to find out if I’m right or wrong. Let’s go.”
“Hunter, wait.” Before I could say more, a bullet pierced the window and lodged in the wall next to the door.
A barrage of them quickly followed, forcing us to the floor.
“Never mind! Let’s go!” We hurried out of the bedroom while bullets tore it apart.
Once out of range, we sat on the floor with our backs to the wall. “Where do we go?” I whispered.
“Basement.”
I nodded. We could barricade ourselves until Ocean arrived, but there was no telling when he’d return. Stupidly, I’d left my phone on the nightstand, so I couldn’t call him.
I stayed put while Hunter slowly peered around the wall.
Two stairs led down to the basement. Luckily, the first was on this side of the house. The other was a cellar door that led outside on the opposite end. We’d still have to cross the gallery—that extremely long corridor that connected the west and east wings—to get to the closet one.
Satisfied that the coast was clear, Hunter removed one of her guns from a holster. “Do you remember what I taught you?” she asked while handing me the Sig.
“Firm grip. Safety. Aim. Fire. Piece of cake.”
Coco whined again like he knew we were doomed.
The shooting behind us ceased, and the house was eerily quiet now when Hunter peered around the wall and gestured me forward while keeping watch. I wasted no time darting the gallery’s ten-or eleven-foot width. As soon as I was clear, I peered around the corner to keep watch for Hunter.
She was halfway across when I saw them.
Up ahead, moving stealthily under the skylight between the living room and foyer, were two masked men. They were bathed in shadows and moonlight and bearing scary-looking rifles. They hadn’t spotted Hunter yet—or at least that’s what I thought until one of them raised their weapon.
“Hunter!” I didn’t think about the fact that I might be giving away our position. I just reacted, flipping off the safety and shooting blindly in the dark. It gave Hunter the cover she needed to dive the rest of the way across.
She deftly regained her feet just as I ran out of bullets.
Together, we sprinted for the basement door while Coco barked his ass off.
I went through first, and just as I stopped to wait for Hunter, the door slammed shut in my face—with Hunter still on the other side.
I heard something heavy scraping across the floor and lunged for the handle. The door wouldn’t budge. “Hunter?” I slammed my fist against the door when she didn’t answer. “Hunter!”
“Keep quiet, bestie,” I heard her muffled voice say. “I’ll be back.”
And then she was gone.
No matter how much I called her name, she didn’t answer. I shoved and kicked at the door until my shoulder throbbed and I was forced to give up.
I descended the stairs into a wine cellar, but as I quickly found out, the only way forward was locked. With the help of the flashlight I’d found, I tore apart the cellar, searching for a spare key until I struck gold.
With only this flashlight to light the way, I slowly made my way to the east wing with Coco, searching for that cellar door near the room Abel and Hunter used for sparring. I was somewhere beneath the garage when I tripped and landed in a puddle of water.
It was warm.
Thicker than water should have been.
And it smelled strongly of copper.
I reached out, looking for Coco, whose carrier had skated off into the dark when I fell, but my hand met bare skin instead. I screamed, and Coco barked from somewhere close while I lunged for my fallen flashlight, swinging the light over whatever the hell I’d touched.
I could barely make out what was left of the man’s face.
He looked as if he’d been stabbed a thousand times.
His naked body was still bound to the chair that had toppled over, either by my doing or whoever had killed him.
I was no expert, but it looked as if the bound man had been killed recently when Ocean hadn’t been home in days.
At least, now I knew why Ocean hadn’t wanted us down here. I was going to have a serious talk with my husband about keeping dead bodies in our basement. For now, I found an old blanket and covered the man up before leaving him behind.
Hunter needed me.
Collecting Coco and as if I hadn’t just found a dead body in my own home, I ran full speed for the east wing. The ranch house was shaped like a broad X, so it was easy to get turned around, especially down here.
It took some time, but I eventually found the steps to the cellar door.
I barely noticed the rain when I climbed out. It quickly soaked through my clothes as I ran around back and re-entered the house through the game room. Tiptoeing through the family room, I was about to enter the kitchen when I saw a dark figure step inside from the other end.
Before I could hide, a hand that smelled like blood and rain covered my mouth and yanked me back just as the masked man ahead turned, his eyes landing on the spot where I’d been.
I struggled against my captor, who was definitely not Hunter, as he lifted me off my feet and carried me back toward the game room.
“Quiet!” he ordered.
Too late.
I’d already kicked out, knocking over a vase. As soon as it shattered, I heard footsteps rushing from the kitchen. I was quickly pulled back through the sliding door I’d come through and out onto the roofed portion of the patio.
It was still dark, but I recognized the sharp angles of Kellan’s face and his shoulder-length blond hair secured into a top knot as he pushed me against the wall.
Coco whined just as the masked man stepped out onto the patio, but Kellan moved fast. He made quick work of disarming the assassin and then snapping his neck like it was a twig.
I gulped.
This was not the playful associate I’d come to know.
“Where’s Hunter?” he asked as he peered into the dark house to ensure there weren’t more.
I didn’t respond, didn’t breathe, didn’t hesitate as I set Coco down and moved toward the dead man at my feet, and slowly bent. When Kellan turned around, he found himself staring down the barrel of the rifle. “What the fuck?”
“Did you do this?”
He stared back at me incredulously. “Do what?”
“Are you trying to kill us?” I yelled.
“Keep your fucking voice down,” he whispered. When I didn’t respond or lower the gun, he swore. “Tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“You first.”
Hunter hadn’t been making a ton of sense earlier, but that was my bitch, so her word was the only one besides Ocean’s that I took blindly.
“My guess?” Kellan retorted sarcastically. “Malcolm found out where you were and sent out a hit on you and Hunter. I’ve counted eight of them so far. Two of them I found dead, and this guy makes three.” He nudged the dead body with his boot.
“Four,” I corrected. At his questioning look, I added. “There’s a dead body in the basement, but he definitely wasn’t one of them.”
“He’s not. His name is Michael Black,” Kellan informed me.
“Who is he?”
With deep-seeding hatred spilling from every word, he said, “A pimp with a knack for destroying everything he touches. Young women, most especially. He’s also a heartless fucking deadbeat.
Ocean had some questions for him, but…” Kellan gave a lazy shrug while staring down at his bloody hands. “I got to him first.”
Oh God.
Kellan had killed the man in the basement.
He looked up, and I could see that the bloodlust hadn’t entirely left him.
“Your turn for honesty.” Kellan’s green stare was uncomfortably piercing, and I realized Hunter’s instincts had been on point.
It wasn’t just his eyes, which no longer held the playful twinkle that made him easy to trust. Kellan’s entire demeanor had changed. “Why do you think I want to kill you?”
“Because Hunter thinks you’re Malcolm’s spy.”
Laughing at that, he shook his head. “Of course she does. Malcolm has many spies, but I’m not one of them.”
“Then why are you really here, Kellan? Or is that even your real name?”