Chapter Four
It was blown to hell, and Zach had no idea how it had gone so fucking wrong.
Twenty-four hours before he was sneaking Facetimes with his girlfriend from the tiny room in the safe house in Montreal he shared with his brother and her brother.
TJ had calmed down after a beer and various snacks and Zach having a long discussion with him about everything he adored about Devi.
And now he was covered in blood and in Toronto and his whole team was going to know about how he betrayed them.
He glanced back at the big mansion Huisman had brought him and Tristan to.
Kala and Carys and Tris were still in that house, and his gut twisted at the thought of leaving them there, but it was clear to him that Huisman knew exactly who he was, who his mother was, and had some dated knowledge of how to get to him.
He hadn’t meant to kidnap Kala.
Huisman had been going for Tasha.
Carys to get Tristan to talk.
Tasha for Zach.
He meant to torture the women so the men would talk. He hadn’t been happy his henchmen had mistaken Kala for her sister.
They’d picked up him and Tristan in the suite Tris, Aidan, and Carys were staying in.
They’d been cleaning it out when Huisman’s men showed up, drugged them, and dragged them to Toronto.
If only Huisman had kidnapped him before he’d fucked everything up with a few casual words.
You couldn’t know you were going to walk in and find The Jester face down on the floor, man. You did what you had to do.
The trouble was by the time Zach had joined Tristan, The Jester had been on his back. The only one who could have known how he started face down was the man who’d actually killed him. Zach.
When they’d gotten to the Toronto house, Huisman had explained that he hadn’t truly wanted Tristan at all. He’d really wanted to talk to Zach.
Because he knew. He knew who Zach’s mother was, and if he was allowed to bring Shannon Reed in, the world would burn in ways he didn’t want to imagine.
Huisman had tried to bring in Tasha Taggart because he had intelligence that stated Zach Reed was in love with her. It was outdated intelligence but at one time he’d thought he was.
If Huisman knew about Devi…
He forced himself to walk around the backside of the house toward what he hoped would be an alley that led away from the garage. The men assigned to take him to what Huisman called a remote site had hauled him into that garage. He’d offered to go quietly if Huisman let everyone else go.
The bastard hadn’t, and Zach had done what he had to.
Now he needed to find a fucking cell phone. He needed to call Lacey and get out of the country.
There would be no going back to the States for him. No going back to Devi.
She was going to hate him.
He looked down at the blood on his hands. She would be right to do it.
We’ll come for you, brother. Tristan had said the words to him as he’d been hauled back toward the garage.
He’d replied the only way he could. Tell Devi…fuck…tell her I’m so fucking sorry. And Coop…just tell them all I’m sorry.
If his team came for him, it would be to put him in some isolation room and question him. Even if he told them everything at this point, he was still looking at jail, and all that would do was leave his mother at Huisman’s mercy. And the world to the weapons she could build. He wished he believed his mother would fight Huisman, but he was realistic. She’d often chosen the path that made her more comfortable.
There was no way out. Not if he wanted to protect the people he loved.
He carefully eased around the cameras. There were some clear blind spots, and he used them. He had a few problems to solve—the handcuffs that dangled from his left wrist, the fact that he had no ID and no phone—none of them compared to the terror he had if Huisman figured out his connection to Devi Taggart.
His girl. His only girl. Oh, he’d had girlfriends before but not the way Devi was. She fit with him.
And she would never speak to him again.
It probably didn’t matter since he was going to die or get shoved into prison somewhere. He might end up underneath whatever fucking pool an MT employee was building this week.
He missed her. He didn’t want to be here, sneaking around and trying to survive. He wanted to be laying on the couch at her place, his head in her lap while she read some romance novel about fairies fucking and stroked his hair while he watched baseball.
He was not going to fucking cry.
He was not going to think about the fact that he would miss that woman for the rest of his life. She was in danger every second he was close to Huisman. If he got away and stayed away from her, she would be safe. No one in that house would give up their connection. Never.
He was losing so much more than a job. He was losing a whole family.
He stopped before making the turn to the alley.
Someone was moving to the west.
He could hear the sound of shoes against the pavement.
He glanced around the fence and saw a sprinter van parked on the side of the alley, tucked away as though it was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.
A guard was walking up to it.
One of Huisman’s. He didn’t know why that van was there.
Zach breathed a sigh of relief.
His team was here.
Ian and Charlotte Taggart weren’t about to let their daughter and niece die.
Adam wouldn’t let his son go.
So now all he had to worry about was who had been left in the van.
Almost certainly Lou.
She would be manning whatever communications they had going and ready to drive them out when the time came.
Someone else might be in that van, but he knew Lou was there.
The guard had a gun and a weapon that was far more dangerous—a walkie-talkie.
Luckily Zach had taken a knife off one of the guards he’d murdered.
He was pretty sure they were dead.
He was covered in a lot of blood, and none of it was his.
He had a choice to make, and it wasn’t a difficult one.
He could do his team one last solid before they became the ones hunting him. Before they started a game he didn’t want to play.
He moved on quiet feet, holding the handcuffs out so they didn’t hit anything and make noise. The guard lifted his walkie and Zach pounced.
It was his fifth kill of the day. But it was the only one where he had a witness he cared about.
He couldn’t see her because the van had some privacy features Lou had obviously engaged, but he knew she was there. The blood splattered all over the van.
He let the body drop to the ground, sure he hadn’t connected to anyone in the big house.
The van door slid open and Zach went still, adrenaline pumping through his body. Aidan O’Donnell was there.
“Hey, Zach.”
Aidan’s tone was quiet, soothing. Probably the tone he would use if he found himself in front of a hungry lion.
The doctor was looking at him like he was a monster. And he was. “Aidan.”
The window rolled down and there was Lou.
“And me. You need to get in the van and let Aidan look you over. The team is inside the house. We need to be ready to go.”
He couldn’t do that. If he got in that van, he put everyone at risk. Even if they would potentially listen to him, all it would do is put his team on the radar. There was more than Huisman out there looking for him.
“Good. Huisman sent half his guards with me. They’re dead now, so it’ll be a fair fight. Doc, Kala’s going to need you. Carys, too, if Huisman decides to fuck around with Tris. I have to go.”
“Go?”
Lou sounded shocked as she scrambled out of the van.
“Go where? You’re hurt.”
He loved his team. He was going to miss them so fucking much. He wanted to hug her, but he wasn’t going to mess her up with all the blood. Lou was clean and she should stay that way.
“Back to hell, sweetheart. Should’ve known I wouldn’t belong here. Take care, Lou. Aidan, you can get in through the garage. No one’s guarding it anymore.”
Zach jogged away, forcing himself to keep going when every cell in his body screamed at him to go back in that house and finish the mission.
But this mission was over. He had a new one.
Staying alive. Finding his mother so Huisman couldn’t.
He slipped away into the city, found a bathroom, stole some clothes and a cell.
And started his new life.
* * * *
Devi looked up from the sewing machine at the sound of her doorbell chiming. It was late for visitors, but she stood up.
Zach.
She felt a smile cross her face.
If that was her gorgeous man, he was early.
She’d talked to him a couple of days before, but he’d warned her the op was starting up in earnest and he would have to go radio silent for a while.
They were going to talk about what that meant since he could have absolutely given her a heads-up that he was on his way back.
She stood and moved out of the little office that served as her sewing and design room.
She was currently working on some commissioned fet wear.
A Dom at The Club was spending lavishly on his new sub, and Devi was here for it.
This commission alone meant she could stay in her apartment for at least four more months.
By then she would have heard about her applications.
She was thinking positive, which was why she stopped in front of the mirror and made sure she didn’t look terrible.
She unbuttoned the top button of the shirt she was wearing, showing off some cleavage.
Zach liked her boobs, but then he seemed to like almost everything about her.
She took a deep breath and threw open the door.
To her brother.
Her incredibly weary-looking, grim brother.
Devi’s heart sank. Zach was… His job was dangerous. He was in the line of fire most of the time. Tears sprang to her eyes. If something happened to Zach, TJ would want to be the one to tell her. The world blurred. “Zach?”
TJ reached out a hand, putting it on her shoulder.
“He’s alive, but we have other problems. Devi, I need to talk to you.”
He was alive. She breathed a sigh of relief. He might be in foreign custody. She had to be ready for it. But as long as he was breathing, she could deal with it. It would be okay. “Come in.”
TJ moved inside the door, and when they sat down she found it wasn’t okay. Not even close.