Chapter 26
Xander
Ireturn downstairs to the absolute carnage that ensued just minutes ago.
I didn’t want to leave Camila alone—especially not defenceless—but this ambush was unexpected; I can’t leave Jac to handle it on his own. And they put my Angel in danger.
The way her fingers wrapped around the gun tells me she’s handled one before, but the look on her face was one of fear.
She’s never used one, but someone close to her did.
And I hate that thought more than anything.
I hate that despite my efforts to keep her out of this snake pit, I’m dragging her deeper into it.
Jac stands next to a couple of dead bodies, on the phone to who I assume is our clean-up team. I approach him with hurried steps; he spins around and ends the call, hard blue eyes peering right into me.
I stop next to a body, using my foot to roll them over onto their back, revealing their face.
“What the—”
“The truth, Xander. Now,” Jac interrupts, closing the last few steps between us.
My jaw tightens, hands balling into fists on instinct.
He knows, and there’s no hiding it from him anymore.
I keep my voice low, pointedly darting my eyes around the room. “Do you really think now is the time for that?”
“You’ve really lost your fucking head. Do you know how long I’ve been watching you on the cameras?”
My heart sinks.
This whole time, I’ve been so enamoured by Camila that I haven’t wasted a single thought on what Jacques might be doing or where he is.
“Do you realise that the entire time you’ve been chasing this girl around, I’ve been cleaning up the mess that you put us in?”
My gaze sears into him.
He comes closer to me, chests almost touching, his stance unwavering. “You have no idea what’s been going on, do you? You let some girl wrap you around her little finger, and you’ve been panting after her like some starved dog.”
My heart pounds against my chest at his words. “Don’t ever disrespect her like that.”
He’s angry. He’s right to be angry. But it doesn’t make his disrespect any better.
I soften my face, letting out a laugh. He doesn’t baulk.
We rarely fight, but tonight, he has picked the wrong one. He’s not one to back out of an argument with me, and my vision is already filling with white-hot rage. He doesn’t know how whenever I’m around her, I feel like I can finally breathe.
He goes to take a step closer, but I shoot my hand out in a V shape, pushing it into the middle of his throat and making him stumble backwards. He trips over a body and loses his balance but manages to regain it.
“If you ever talk about her like that again, I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in your head. Best friend or not.”
He recoils at my statement, features softening and recognition flitting over his face. “You haven’t been taking your medication.”
I can hear the hurt in his voice. Hurt that I’ve been lying to him. Hurt that he’s been with me my entire life, helping me through my deep obsessions, just to throw it all away.
“No,” I murmur.
He’s silent for a few heartbeats, then curses, turning away with his hands resting on his hips. He swings his head up towards the ceiling and sighs. “Camila… is she…?”
He’s asking if Camila is my newest obsession.
I can’t gauge him. I can’t be sure that if I tell him the truth, he won’t take her away from me. Drive her out to some place far away where I can’t reach her.
Not that it would stop me from finding her again. It would take killing me first to get her away from me.
But something in my gut won’t allow me to call her an obsession. She doesn’t feel like one.
“She’s not an obsession,” I grit through my teeth.
“I know you well enough to know this isn’t just someone you’re interested in.”
I sigh, kicking at the body in front of me. Noticing a strand of blue hair peeking from underneath the mask, I squint my eyes, dropping down and pulling his balaclava off.
“Holy fuck,” I gasp.
“What?” Jac snaps.
“This is Billy.”
“What?”
Billy. One of our runners.
“And that rat Jayden was in on it too,” Jac muses—as if one of our employees turning on us is a normal thing.
“Jayden?” I recoil.
“That’s who you asked to be taken down into the basement. That was Jayden.”
In a blur of events, I didn’t notice that it was Jayden. I just saw he was the first one leading the lackeys and ordered him into the basement.
But how Jacques is so calm, I don’t know.
“Xander?” the voice that I would recognise anywhere trembles behind me, making my gut drop instantly.
Jac and I both whip our heads towards Camila, who’s being held in a chokehold by none other than Aidan fucking Burns.
I shoot up straight, gun pointed right at the fucker’s head. Jac comes up beside me, pulling his own pistol out and aiming it at him.
“It’s been a while, boys.” He grins from behind Camila. Her hands are clawing at his arms in an attempt to peel him off her, but he’s got her in an iron grip. My heart accelerates at the possibilities of what could happen right now, but I will it to calm down. I need to keep a level head.
Where the fuck is her gun?
Was she too scared to pull the trigger?
“We need to be smart about this,” Jac says from beside me, low enough so only I can hear.
I reply with a subtle nod, taking a step towards them. Camila widens her eyes, silently communicating to stay where I am.
Aidan yanks her back into him again, and she winces in pain. I almost lunge at him, but he speaks before I get the chance to.
“Do not take another step forward. There’s a gun currently digging into your precious lover’s back, and I will pull the trigger. Drop your weapons.”
Jac and I glance at each other as he lowers his arms.
“Drop them,” Aidan barks.
My hand tightens around the trigger, debating whether I should just pull it now. But it’s too risky.
Camila’s heavy breaths fill the room as we both drop our guns to the floor.
“Get on your knees,” he continues.
Neither of us move.
Camila yelps in pain, and my knees drop to the floor.
“NOW.”
Her fear seeps right into my bones as Jacques slowly lowers himself to his knees. My eyes stay fixed on the hand Aidan’s hiding behind Camila’s back.
Where the fuck are Ezra and Daniel?
Ezra is never too far from my location. I fucking pray they're still alive.
“It’s brave of you to show up here after stealing our money and supplies,” Jac spits at him.
I’ve been so enamoured by Camila that I’ve neglected my side of the business.
I’ve not been in the loop on what’s been happening.
Ninety percent of my brain has been focused on Camila.
The other ten was making sure that Max got back safe and sound.
And now, I have no idea what to even say or how to get us out of this situation.
“Ah, that.” Aidan laughs manically. “You really think that I’d let you get away with a pathetic one hundred K? It really does show how little you both still know about this world—”
“What the fuck do you want?” Jacques bellows, cutting him off.
I can see the muscles in his arm flexing.
Unfortunately, Aidan has the upper hand here.
If we make a single movement, he puts a bullet through Camila.
But I can already see the cogs in Jac’s brain ticking on how he’s going to make sure his death is slow and painful.
Too bad he won’t have the opportunity for that. Aidan’s harmed my woman, and he won’t be getting away with it.
Aidan shuffles closer to the bar, dragging Camila with him.
“Xander, I—” Camila starts, but Aidan slaps his hand over her mouth, muffling the rest of her sentence.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch.”
Red explodes in my vision, and I snatch my pistol off the floor, swiftly aiming it at his leg and pressing the trigger. The bullet cuts through material and flesh, emerging on the other side and piercing into the bottom of the bar counter.
Aidan drops to the ground with a painful yell, simultaneously letting go of Camila.
She wastes no time in making a run for it.
Towards me.
Her hands clutch around my neck, and she wraps her legs around my waist; meanwhile, Aidan’s moans of pain ring through the room. There’s a shuffle as Jac stands up, grabs his gun, and marches towards Aidan.
“I’m sorry, Xander. I was just—” she starts, but I cut her off.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I’m just fucking relieved you’re okay.”
I stroke a hand down her head and hold her tightly as her shaking body clings to me.
“Motherfucker,” Jac says before pounding the handle of the pistol into Aidan’s head, knocking him out. His body flops to the floor with a thud, and we watch as Jac’s back heaves.
He slowly turns toward us, eyes bouncing back and forth between me and Camila.
“Get her somewhere safe.”
“No fucking way. You think I’m letting her out of my sight after all the shit that just happened?”
“Ezra and Daniel are on their way here. You can get them to take her home.”
Camila shifts in my arms, unhooking one of her legs from my waist and lowering herself to stand on her own. Her arms leave my neck, and I watch as she sluggishly wanders over to an empty booth and sinks herself into it.
She sits facing us, but her normally vibrant green eyes have taken on a muted tone, and she stares straight ahead at nothing.
I move to her on instinct, sliding into the seat next to her.
I shove the round table out of the way that’s digging into my rib and blocking my access to her.
My eyes spring around her, checking over every inch of her face and body.
My hands reach out towards her face, forehead, and anywhere else that I can touch.
My fingers roam through her tangled hair, which sure as hell didn’t look like that when I left her.
She must have put up a fight. And that, more than anything, sends a burst of rage through me.
But her eyes don’t move an inch. She doesn’t look at me. She doesn’t even blink.
What the fuck have I done?