Chapter 11 THE IMPOSSIBLE TASK
Agron sneers across from me in the makeshift office. “You failed, Kent. We overestimated you. Only part one and what a fucking mess.”
He spits on the floor. “I hope you have your affairs in order because you aren’t getting out of this alive. Unless…” The man smirks. “I heard a rumor. Elias Kent never kneels. How about that? Drop to your knees right now, and we’ll spare you.”
A flash fire hits me in the chest, but I bite my cheek, forcing myself to remain still.
The smell of charred wood and burning cloth overwhelms my senses. Then the sweetness—gasoline and flames, melted chocolates in my pocket. Desperate screams. Pebbles digging into my knees.
Figments of the past.
“I never kneel for anyone.” The words are quiet, but Agron heard them loud and clear. “Ever.”
He narrows his eyes and points his gun at me.
Click. The safety disengages.
“How about I end your life right now?” He aims the steel barrel against my forehead.
A bitter smile hitches my lips. I don’t move, don’t react.
Never let them see your desperation.
Emotions make you a loser before your first move, and I never lose.
With one leg crossed over my other knee, I adjust my cufflinks. I knock my lighter on the table.
Knock.
“What?” he growls.
“Just thinking how someone like you got your position. Daddy must be pissed. Eldest son. Should’ve been the family’s pride and joy.”
I tsk. “But fucking your brother-in-law? Really? Are you a top or a bottom? Never mind. I can check my pictures.”
Knock.
Checkmate.
A roar bellows from his throat, and he’s on top of me in a second. He jams the barrel against my temple, his arm shaking with restraint.
“Say that again.”
“You really should work on that temper.”
“Boys,” Edon’s voice commands from the laptop. “Enough.”
His son shoves me back into my seat. Sweat beads on my back, but I act unbothered.
Instead, I dust off my jacket. The asshole wrinkled it. Damn. A loose seam. Will need to get that fixed later.
“Kent, The Association isn’t happy. A bloodbath. A public spectacle. Your Rite is incomplete, and you kidnapped an Anderson. The Scheduler is livid. What are you going to do about her?”
My thoughts flash to Lana, who was still asleep when I left her room an hour ago for my emergency meeting with the Berishas.
She didn’t want to let go of my hand. She clutched it like a drowning man would a lifeboat, like she needed me to survive.
It took every ounce of willpower to walk away.
“We can’t let her go,” Edon continues.
A sudden urge seizes me—to scoop her into my arms and disappear. To forget everything and turn back time to when Kian and Elise still existed.
Madness. Utter madness.
“You solve this, or you won’t live to see tomorrow,” he warns.
Tension thickens like a plume of poisonous gas.
“If I die, all your secrets are out. Dead man’s switch. You must’ve expected that.”
“It’s a risk we’ll take.”
Our gazes hold, neither of us blinking nor yielding.
He’s a much better chess player than his eldest. I guess the apple does fall far from the tree.
“I’ll take care of them. No need to go nuclear,” I murmur.
“You have twenty-four hours or I’ll let Agron put that bullet in your head.” Edon’s voice hardens. “And the letter wasn’t what we’d hoped. I’m sure you’ve read it. We’ll keep her until she turns thirty-five. Then we’ll get what we need.”
My lighter clatters on the desk. Agron’s attention snaps to it, a flash of awareness dawning in his eyes.
Fuck. Juvenile mistake.
I force out a smile and ignore him, focusing on the father. “It’ll be messy for you. Taking an Anderson hostage for six months. You sure you want to risk that?”
“We have the mob for this work.”
Dread punches my lungs. The mob and gangs are foot soldiers for The Association. Bekim, the Deranged, and his manic eyes flash through my mind. The way he leered at Lana like she was a piece of meat.
Keeping my gaze steady, I reply, “I know them. The Andersons are stubborn. Relentless. They won’t submit. They’ll create trouble for you.”
Agron chuckles from his spot across the table. A sickening smile crests his lips. “Then we’ll send her back in pieces.”
My knuckles tighten, white around my lighter.
Over my dead body.
He stands and leans toward me, his voice a lethal whisper.
I might have underestimated him.
“I never told you,” he says, his voice filthy, “I swing both ways. And that luscious piece next door? I bet her pussy is tighter than my brother-in-law’s asshole.”
My ears ring. Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh. A copper tang hits my tongue.
I’ve bitten myself. Drawn blood.
Agron sits back, the haughty smirk back on his face, his eyes glinting with satisfaction.
I’ll carve them out of his skull. Stuff them down his throat. Wipe the memory of Lana from his brain. After all this is over, I’ll take my time and wrench out every morsel of pain from him.
But first, I strain a smile.
I release my grip on the lighter and force myself to calm.
Arching my brow, I shrug. “Doesn’t matter. She means nothing to me. What’s part two?”
“P-Part two?” Agron sputters, clearly confused at my abrupt change in topic.
“My Rite. I finished part one. What’s part two?”
His father barks out a laugh and claps…a slow, mocking sound.
“The infamous Elias Kent. Unruffled even when staring death in the face.”
The older man leans toward the camera. “Part two is impossible for you, I’m afraid. But since you’re curious, I’ll tell you. We want the Andersons to join The Association.”
His words echo against the walls, and the room shrinks before me.
My nostrils flare and I inhale. I shouldn’t be surprised.
The Association has wanted this for years, despite every refusal.
The Andersons are influential and respectable.
Having the family on their side will only bolster The Association’s power.
But Maxwell and his siblings have too much honor to join them.
And now? With him in the ICU, the bloodshed at The Orchid, and Lana locked in her room next door?
Edon might as well ask me to turn the sky green.
“Impossible task, you see? We’ll take Ms. Anderson off your hands.”
Agron gets up and strides to the door. “Looks like I’m going to get my first taste of the Anderson cunt. I hear she’s a virgin. Thirty-four and untouched? I’ll have to find out if that’s true.”
I shoot up so fast, the chair crashes against the wall behind me.
“I’ll marry her. I’ll marry Lana Anderson.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. It’s an impulse to stop the bastards from having her. But as my mind spins with the ramifications, I realize this might be the solution.
A feminine gasp filters through the wall.
My chest constricts. Lana’s awake.
“Looks like someone wants to join the party.” A sneer carves up Agron’s face, and seconds later, he drags Lana inside by her hair.
She stumbles in, her face flushed with anger, wearing nothing but my shirt.
She’s fucking glorious.
“Let go of me, you asshole! I’m not marrying anyone, least of all him!” She points at me.
My pulse riots, my fingers twitch, but I force myself to remain still.
Relax my shoulders. My jaw. Unclench my fingers.
A good chess player never shows his tells.
Agron tosses Lana into a chair. My zemer stiffens, blows the hair out of her face, and gets back up. Ignoring the fucker, she storms my way and jabs me in the chest.
“Elias Kent, if you think I’ll marry you after you shot Maxwell, you’re delusional!”
“And yet…you will.”
Her intoxicating roses hit my nose, and my skin lights up before I exhale. I soak in every inch of her—her cheeks brightening in an alluring shade of pink, her charcoal eyes burning hot with hatred.
I bet I can make them burn for another reason.
“You’re the last person I’ll marry.” She stabs me again with her finger. With each jab, her voluptuous tits sway underneath my shirt. The movement hardens my cock in seconds.
Fuck me.
“You don’t get to decide,” I rasp, my voice guttural and thick. “Not a democracy, Lana.”
I sprawl in my chair, thankful the table is blocking Agron’s full view.
But my princess misses nothing. Her gaze snaps to my groin. Her lips part, eyes widening when she sees my hard cock saluting her through my pants. The maddening pulse beats faster at the base of her throat.
Kill me now.
My nostrils flare, my dick lengthening with each second. I swallow a groan when the tip begins to leak.
Hatred and arousal, a razor-thin edge between them.
“If you want Maxwell to live, and little Levi to grow up with a dad, you’ll marry me. This isn’t a choice.” Slowly, I sit up. My gaze drops to her full lips. Plump. Red. Enticing. How will they taste now? Will she bite me? Draw blood? “Trust me, I won’t miss twice.”
My words snap her out of her trance, and she backs up, her arms crossed over her chest.
“No. I’m never marrying you. I fucking hate your guts.”
“It’s either me or them.” I jab my thumb at Agron, who’s observing us like the calculating COO I saw in his father’s office the first time.
“You think they’ll let you live? That The Association will let your family off the hook after all this?”
My pulse jerks as I take her in—if her eyes could kill, I’d be a dead man five times over.
A masochistic streak sears through me. She hates me so much. How will it feel to tame that passion into something else? Let her burn me to a crisp?
“Marry me or bury him. You have a brain, Lana. Use it.” I lean in and murmur, “Don’t get any ideas. The cops, the Feds, all in my pocket or The Association’s. There’s nowhere you can run where we won’t find you. And you should know by now, I kill without remorse.”
Her face blanches. I ignore the pinch behind my rib cage and keep my focus on her. She’s wavering.
One more little push. “You’re strong, Lana. Only five months of marriage for your family’s safety. A small price to pay.”
She balls her hands into tight fists.
Checkmate.
I see the moment she realizes this is the only way out if she wants everyone to stay alive.
“You fucker,” she seethes. “I. Will. Kill. You.”
“Get in line.” I arch my brow.
Edon clears his throat. He studies me through the computer screen.
I roll my lighter over my knuckles again.
“You said it was an impossible task. Part two. You mentioned you didn’t get what you wanted with the letter. That’s why you need her.”
Click. A new flame bursts from the lighter. I snuff it out.
“This will solve everything. Multiple birds with one stone. I’ll watch her. Keep her by my side. She’ll be bound to me by marriage, and de facto, the Andersons as well. If they want her safe and happy, they’ll kneel to The Association.”
And I’ll finally claw into the heart of The Association and find my answers.
Click. I restart the flame.
The sounds reverberate in the room, dense with silence.
“Leverage, my friends. It’s all about leverage.”
Edon purses his lips. “It’s out of the box. I’ll need to convince the Scheduler. He’s strict about the Rites. Especially something so impossible.”
Click. I snap the lighter shut.
“No task is impossible,” I say softly, smiling at Lana even though every inch of me singes with a satisfaction I don’t dare name. “Not for Elias Kent.”