Chapter 47
LEX
Ditmas Park
About to get our fucking girl back.
brIGGS: Made it back to the girls.
ME: How are they?
brIGGS: Ready for tonight to be over.
ME: Same.
brIGGS: Khoza and Mac said they could come help. Just let them know.
ME: Will do. Tell your brothers thanks again from me will ya?
brIGGS: Sure thing.
ME: And thank you, Briggs. For stepping in and going in there tonight.
brIGGS: It’s Bella, man. Plus we’re technically family now… if you ask El.
ME: Think you mean family-adjacent until she’s gets a diamond. Isn’t that what Little Whitmore says?
brIGGS: Yeah, yeah. Just do me a favor and don’t get shot tonight.
ME: I’ll do my best.
“Briggs made it back to Ellie and Hales,” I say, sliding my phone into my back pocket.
Cade nods. “Good.”
He hasn’t said much since we arrived at Ditmas Park. Just keeps leaning against the hood of the van with his arms crossed, seething at me.
I glance at him. “What?”
“Nothing,” he bites out, refusing to look at me. He keeps his eyes on the toe of his boot as it drags in the dirt.
“Bullshit.”
He exhales hard, raking a hand through his hair before dropping it to his side. “I just don’t understand why you had me get my ass kicked by Khoza all those times if you’re just going to shove me in the van the second we get here.”
My shoulders tense. The fabric on my vest bites into my shoulders as I adjust the straps.
“We talked about this. I said—”
“No,” he cuts in, shoving himself off the hood. “You talked. I was forced to just sit and listen like a good little boy, remember?” His voice is dripping with condescension.
“Cade,” I warn.
“She’s my fucking girlfriend too!” he snaps loud enough that Knox’s head pops out of the van.
I shake my head at Knox with a simple—don’t—before he can run up here and make shit even worse. He hesitates before slipping back inside.
“I know she is,” I mutter, stepping closer. “I know she’s yours too.”
“Do you?” Cade scoffs. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Something in my chest twists. “You know it’s not like that.”
“Then what is it?” he fires back. “Why can’t I go? Do you not trust me in there? Or do you not—”
“Because I can’t lose you too!” The words rip out of me before I can stop them.
He flinches at the honesty. “Lex…”
“No.” I drag a hand down my face, shoulders dropping with a rough exhale. “You don’t understand.” I shake my head and look down to meet his eyes. “I won’t lose you too.”
His jaw tightens but he doesn’t look away.
“I’m not saying you will,” he says quieter now. “I’m saying you won’t even give me a chance to help.”
“Cade—”
“Don’t! If you go in there and something happens to you,” he snaps. The frustration bleeding back into his tone. He turns away for a second, pacing a few strides before facing me again. “How am I supposed to live with that?”
“It won’t.”
“You don’t know that.” Cade’s voice cracks just enough to catch. “You don’t know that, Lex.”
I reach for him and pull him against my chest, cinching my arms around his waist.
“If you’re in there,” I say, forcing the words out slower this time. “I won’t be focused. I’ll be watching you. Every fucking second just making sure you’re breathing.”
He huffs out a bitter breath, trying to wiggle free. “I never said I needed you to watch me.”
“I can’t help it,” I admit, tightening my hold. “And that’s the problem.”
I lean down and press a kiss to his brow. “I’d take a bullet for your ass in a heartbeat, babe.” I let my forehead fall to his. “I’d take all of them.”
His expression softens, hazel eyes glassing over. He blinks it back fast, but a few tears slip free.
“I need you here. Safe,” I say, brushing my thumb over his cheek. “I need you with the guys, calling shit out for me.”
Cade nods once. “Okay,” he whispers, pulling back. He clears his throat. “Just promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?” I ask, not letting him go.
Cade hooks his arms up around my shoulders. “That you’ll come back to me.” He releases a trembling breath. “Alive.”
“I’ll promise you two things,” I counter.
His brows pinch. “Yeah?”
“One, I will always come back to you, Cade.” I pull him in even closer until I can feel his heart beating against my chest. “And two. When I come back, I’ll be bringing our girl straight to you.”
Cade crashes his mouth into mine. Our tongues clash in a war I’ll gladly die in any day of the week. When we finally pull back, we’re both breathless.
“Go get our girl,” he whispers.
I lean back in for another quick kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Gravel crunches under our boots as we stride back to the van. I reach for my pistol and eject the magazine.
“Looks like Bella’s up in her room,” Knox says, handing over my comms.
“And Zeke?” I ask as I shove the thing in my ear.
“Briggs said that Brett got to her before he left.”
His fingers hover over a stairwell on the blueprint sprawled out on the tailgate of Tex’s truck. The wind kicks up, the blueprint snapping and fluttering. Tex grabs a heavy wrench from the toolbox and drops it on top to keep the damn thing down.
“She told him that Zeke’s being held in the basement somewhere,” Knox continues, tapping the paper.
I nod, sliding bullets into the mag. “Guards?”
Knox picks up his tablet and swipes his fingers over the glass. The thermal feed illuminates the beads of sweat on his brow. “Looks like two out front, one back by the pool, and three inside,” he says while pointing to each one.
“The basement?” I ask.
He glances up, his gaze meeting mine. “Not sure.”
“In position,” Kenji’s voice comes through the comms. “Just say the word.”
“Not yet,” Knox replies sternly. “Bella still hasn’t gotten him to turn the remote on.”
“She’s too scared.” Cade’s hands grip the bed rail. “Can’t really blame her.”
“Yeah,” I cough, rubbing my throat. “Who would willingly want to feel the shock of that thing.”
“She will,” Roman adds. “She’s strong.”
“Movement out back,” Kenji says. “I’ve got two out here now.”
“We should go,” Laing says. “Before they all start moving around.”
Nate pops his head out of the van. “Laing’s right.”
Knox rubs his temples, elbows on the tailgate. “Okay,” he says. “You guys go ahead. I’ll keep sending the signal to Bella’s wrist and hopefully she’ll make the move soon.”
“Tex,” I start. “Once Kenji takes the guys out by the pool, you go in from the back and get to the basement and find Zeke.”
“I’ll get him out,” Tex confirms.
“Laing, you come in from the side. Take out this guy here…” I drag my finger across the paper. “And here.”
“On it.” Laing nods, sliding a pistol into his ankle holster.
“Rez and I will go in from the front.” I shoot a quick glance toward my cousin.
Rez steps up. “I got your back.”
Tex velcros the final strap down on his vest. “Let’s move.”
Before I can take a step, a hand cinches around my wrist. “Lex, wait,” Roman says.
Everyone stops.
He pulls out a curved, brutal blade that looks sharp enough to slice through any resistance.
“What’s this?” I ask as he lays the cold steel into my palm.
“It was your uncle’s,” he says before looking at Rez.
“Dad’s?” Rez asks.
Roman nods. “Miro used this at the Red Hour when he eliminated Luca all those years ago.”
My grip tightens around the blade.
“This is the knife that gave Luca that scar,” he adds.
“The one he would never talk about?” I ask, my smirk forming fast.
“The one and the same,” Roman confirms, his own grin widening at the thought. “Figured it’d be fitting that the same blade that took his blood and cut his chances at being a Hollow King would be the same one that guts him tonight.”
“Perfect,” I say, sliding it into the side of my tactical pants.
Roman’s eyes lock on mine. “I made a promise to my daughter earlier.” He places a hand on my shoulder and grips it tight. “Don’t make me a liar.”
“You’re not coming?”
He shakes his head, rubbing his chest slightly. “I’m trusting you to get her back for me.”
“I will.” I nod.
“Make sure he pays for this, Lex.”
“They’re all gonna pay for this.” I cock my gun and slide it into the holster. “Every last one of them.”
???
Rez and I stay in the shadows as we approach Luca’s hellhole.
I mean yeah, it’s nice. Victorian bones, white pillars, and manicured gardens full of roses that probably cost more than most people’s mortgage.
But it’s still a hellhole.
I’d level it. Give me steel and glass. Clean lines and sharp edges. Give me something built to withstand a war, not host a fucking garden party.
“Two down by the pool,” Kenji says. “You’re up, Tex.”
“Heard,” Tex responds.
“I’m in position,” Laing says. “Once Bella makes her move.”
I suck in a deep breath, the stench of Luca’s roses literally everywhere burns my nose.
“Come on, baby,” I whisper, grip tightening around my pistol.
“Still nothing,” Knox’s voice comes through, unease in his tone. “It’s nearly two in the morning, she might be asleep.”
“Send it once more,” I grit out. “If she doesn’t, then we breach.”
We wait for a few breaths before Knox’s sigh comes through the line. “No response.”
“Fuck this,” Laing grunts. “This’ll wake her ass up.”
“What are you—”
I’m cut off by the echoing of two gunshots.
“They’re down,” Laing says, way too pleased with himself. “I’m in.”
“Fucking Tattooed-Dragon—”
“LEX!” Cade’s voice pierces my ears. “On your left!”
I look over my shoulder just in time to see some huge fuck charging at me in all black.
BANG!
He drops before he even hits me.
“Thanks, babe.”