Chapter 49
The party in the huge, renovated warehouse was in full swing. Rowdy and opulent, so loud it thundered even in the room Kyan had me sequestered inside. There was no sign of Elias or Sinclair.
“You didn’t mention it was a masquerade.
” My breath warmed the mirror I watched the party through.
I had a clear view of everything at about a forty-five-degree angle.
Across from this point, I’d watched Bourne Pack shuffle into a different section, led by beautifully dressed women in sparkly two-piece lingerie.
When we arrived almost an hour ago, the festivities were already going.
We were supposed to be here earlier, but it took so long because Kyan was on the phone with his cop friend getting an extension for my parole curfew.
How that was possible was probably not in any way legal.
“I need to be in that room,” I rounded on Kyan. My ankle brace felt heavier than it had since it’d gone on me.
“The girls we have in there will get them to talk. You don’t need to be anywhere near them.”
Frustration had my hands fisted.
Kyan brought me here through a back entrance. All I saw on the way were black-painted halls lit up by dim blue light. The room was small, with only a loveseat in the middle.
The girls wouldn’t get anything of importance from them, and I was supposed to sit here, and do nothing? They were crazy. I eyed Kyan. He was the most logical of the three.
I grabbed his arm, bringing his attention to me.
“Please help me,” I begged. “I need to do this.” I struggled to swallow.
“What happened to . . . the woman that hurt you three?”
His lips thinned, and he turned pale.
“We . . . got rid of her.”
The way he said it was easy, with no emotion or guilt.
“As you should have.” I nodded slowly. “How’d you guys do it?”
Kyan tugged at the collar of his shirt. “She enjoyed sweets. We had easy access to rat poison.” He shrugged, still visibly uncomfortable.
“You were able to bring justice to yourselves. I want that for me, too.”
His lips softened.
“I won’t leave you alone with them.”
“Okay,” I croaked, taking it. His presence wouldn’t do much to stop them once they saw me. “Can I have your phone?”
He pulled it out and handed it to me. I swiped to the voice recording app.
“We have cameras in there.”
I shook my head, shoving the phone into my bra. “I can’t take any chances.” I moved my shoulder to adjust my breasts. The hard edge of the phone dug into my soft flesh.
“Let’s go,” I said curtly, turning on the uncomfortable heels. The last few months without heels had wrecked my ability to wear them.
“Wait,” he called, and he lifted a thin black mask to my face, making sure it was snug.
“What about you?”
“I’ll be fine.”
I nodded, and he shuffled me out, guiding me to the left. Eventually, he opened an entrance to the main floor, guiding me through the crowd. The exit had led us out opposite the entrance where the Bournes were. Bodies writhed on the floor, the ambient lighting glistening off skin.
Sections were scattered throughout, with a dancer on each platform, surrounded by seats. In the middle of the room, there was a raised stage. Kyan mentioned that was where the Omegas were auctioned from.
We’d navigated through the crowd, with Kyan stepping on my shoe from how close he walked. A third of the way through, Kyan’s name was called out.
He stiffened. “Don’t move.” He gave me his back and met the hand of a large, burly man who made the mask on his face look tiny.
“Kyan, my man,” he bellowed, smacking Kyan’s shoulder hard.
“Darek Langley,” Kyan greeted, smacking his shoulder back.
Langley . . . as in the Mall?
I couldn’t focus too much on all that. Whirling, I slinked away quickly before Kyan noticed. It took me much less time to get across without him glued to my ass, and I slid through the entrance, following the low chatter. I stopped before the opening where the curtains blocked them inside.
Darius Bourne boomed out a laugh. My heart stuttered from fear. That hadn’t stopped me before. I entered and took everything in quickly.
A rounded couch, a platform where a woman danced, music low enough to hear their chatter, and women scattered all over the place. Only Darius, Nile, and their second Omega were in the room, currently sucking Nile off while a Beta ate her out from behind.
“Another whore!” Darius exclaimed, raking his eyes down my body. “And one I get to unwrap.”
I strutted a few steps forward.
“You got over Lyndsy quickly.” They all stopped moving, like the air was sucked out of the room. “But that makes sense, since you killed her.” I shrugged.
“Who the fuck are you?” Darius murmured, head cocked.
I ripped the mask off my face. “The Omega you framed.” I felt a little dramatic, but I was going to roll with it.
He leaned back with a big smile. “Ah, the reporter girl.” His lips curved even wider. Age lines framed his eyes and his mouth. He smacked the girl’s leg next to him. “Get out. All of you.”
They hesitated, and I recognized the tall girl from the hallway, eyeing me with confusion and question. “Now!”
They moved in unison, but the taller girl from the hall stumbled into my front and pressed something hard into my hand while she kissed my cheek.
“You’re so pretty,” she crowed exaggeratedly as she slurred her words. I took the sharp blade and held it in my palm upwards, to hide it, and flattened my arm to my side.
“Candace!” The shorter girl from the hall grabbed her arm and forced her out and they left me with the three of them. Nile zipped up his pants, and the Omega rolled onto her ass, her eyes glazed to hell. She was high as fuck.
“You really are relentless.” Darius clicked his tongue.
“And you’re a monster,” I spat. “Only a monster does what you’ve done to people.”
Selling them, murdering them, and then getting out of every single charge with money and connections.
“I’m going to enjoy getting rid of this dumb bitch,” Darius drawled, focused on Nile. When he looked at me, his glazed eyes were full of evil. He pulled a gun out from under his coat and leveled it on me.
I gasped, my eyes widening. There weren’t any weapons on them when they entered; Elias had that as a specific order.
“You’re going to disappear, like every single one of them, and no one will care.”
My chest heaved with panic. Should I dive to the floor? Run? Scream?
The gun went off, and I froze. No numbness . . . or burning pain. Was I dead? I pried my eyes open to find Elias’ back in front of me.
“What . . .” Darius started. Blood dripped at Elias’ feet. My hands went limp and the little pocket knife fell to the ground.
I screamed, and chaos exploded. Sinclair burst into the room with Kyan, and they went for the other two, quickly rendering Nile and the Omega unconscious with a blow to the head. Sinclair focused his rage on Darius, throwing his fist into his face.
The gun clattered onto the floor, and I lunged for it, sweeping it up. I pointed it at Darius, waiting for Sinclair to get out of the way, when a hand clasped the top of mine.
“Elias,” I gasped, my grip going limp. He took the gun and shoved it into his waistband. Blood bloomed along his arm. “No.” My hands trembled over the injury.
“It’s a graze, Briar,” he murmured gently.
“He’s okay, baby,” Kyan assured me, cupping my shoulder. My pulse thundered, making it difficult to breathe.
With shaking hands, I sent a copy of the recording to my email and handed Kyan his phone back. “Proof of what they did.”
He took his phone and pocketed it, then swept me into his arms.
“You damned fool,” he grunted into my hair. I could do nothing but shiver in his arms.
My hearing returned, and I was able to focus on the dull smack of a fist to flesh.