Chapter Twenty-Five
Crowded Rooms and Calculated Takedowns
Elliot
My world stops. Nicholas's body stills, the violent shaking finally ceasing after excruciating minutes. I try to reach for him, but Raymond’s words stop me in my tracks. “Don’t fucking move if you don’t want a repeat performance.”
My gaze stays on him, eyes stinging. The walls close in on me.
The feeling of being trapped intensifies.
Watching his happy face look slack, helpless, finally breaks me.
Why did I argue with Raymond? Knowing full well I have no power here.
Knowing not just my but Nicholas’s life is completely under his control right now.
I watch Nicholas lying on the filthy floor, body unmoving, and finally give up.
I can’t win here. I lost the minute I entered through the door, grossly unprepared.
My gaze flickers to Raymond, standing next to Nicholas’s defenseless body.
“Please… please let him go.” I can barely hear my own voice over the static filling my ears.
Raymond laughs, stepping away from Nicholas. I take a relieved breath, but stay put. I can’t give him more reasons to hurt Nicholas.
“Oh, Eli boy. You know I can’t, not when we’ve just started having some fun.”
I have to convince him. I need to get everyone out. Sloan and Bree haven’t woken up since Adrian carried them inside, already unconscious. I have no idea how he managed to incapacitate two combat-trained werewolves in seconds. They also somehow defeated Nicholas and Matt.
I don’t have the time to riddle that out now. Keep Raymond happy. That’s all I need to worry about, even if that has never helped me before.
No, I can’t think of all the times I’ve watched him systematically kill everyone I loved. Not right now. Not when Nicholas lies there defenseless. All because of me.
I need to make sure he gets out with all his friends, even if that’s the last thing I ever do.
“You wanted me here. I’m here. Just let them go,” I plead, voice just as broken as I feel.
Raymond sighs with disappointment, shaking his head.
“You were always like this, even when you were little. Righteous. When you teamed up with that nerd friend of yours and started shaking up these upright pricks.” He points towards Nicholas and Matt.
“I thought finally. Finally, you understand what it feels like. The rush. The need.” He sighs again.
“But you’re still the same crying and snotting little boy pleading with me to let them go. ”
I hear footsteps receding, but I don’t pay them any attention. My entire world narrows in on Raymond’s words. Every word sets my nerves on edge. My heart barrels against my chest.
“You’ve been watching me?” I whisper.
He tilts his head as if surprised. “Of course, I’ve been watching you. It was entertaining, even if your murders were cowardly at best. I was jealous that they gave you a name too. Vigilante Wolf Hunter, a little too wordy, isn’t it?”
His words fade away, my mind stuck on one sentence.
Of course, I’ve been watching you. Because then he knows what Nicholas is to me.
He could have finished me at any point. I’m sure he was not worried about hiding bodies.
In fact, I have no doubt he’d been sating his bloodlust since he left my hometown.
No, he chose now. He was waiting, biding his time until he could find the perfect time and reason to destroy me completely. Nicholas is not making it out of here, is he? No. No. I cannot go there. I need to make a plan. Any plan.
Adrian. Right, he sounded doubtful. I can convince him to save Nicholas, Matt, Sloan, and Bree. Once they’re out, I know they’ll get Raymond. He won’t make it far, especially if he finishes his job this time around.
My gaze sweeps the room for Adrian, but he’s nowhere to be found.
Raymond, angry at my lack of response, stomps over and kneels in front of me.
I freeze. He always used to do that. Get down to my level. Give me a false sense of power. Like we’re equals.
“So tell me, Eli boy, which one would you save? The lover? Or everyone else?”
His presence fills my entire vision. Like a nightmare I can’t wake up from. It’s so overbearing that I almost miss Adrian coming back inside the room.
My mind races with Raymond’s words. Will he really let Nicholas go if I choose him? Will Nicholas ever forgive me if I let his friends die? How will I ever face Oliver?
But I may never have to. And Nicholas will get to live.
With the burden of his friends’ deaths weighing on him.
But he’ll live. Will he, though? Even if Sam knows I’m here with Nicholas and Matt.
And he might have seen Sloan and Bree come in, he’s helpless here.
He’s the brains, not the brawn. That was supposed to be me.
I’ve been a reluctant part of enough of Raymond’s games to know he will not let Nicholas go. Especially this time, because he knows Nicholas will come for him if he walks away.
Raymond shoots to his feet. “Someone’s coming.”
Before I can focus my brain, the door slams open. I can’t see who it is yet, but whoever it is somehow managed to catch two werewolves unprepared. Fast-approaching footsteps give me hope until I realize it’s just one person.
It takes a nosedive when a human woman comes into view, a gun in her hands. “Serena?” I whisper. Fuck. That’s one more of Nicholas’s friends who’ll die because of me.
She takes a look at the werewolves chained to the wall, frowning. Then I remember they’re all partially shifted. She swings her gun from one person to the next, confusion evident in every uncertain movement, before it finally lands on Adrian. Maybe I underestimated her?
But the moment she raises her hand, Raymond comes up behind her and knocks the gun from her grasp. “Look, Eli boy, a human. We’ll get to live our nostalgia for the good old times too.” With one punch, Serena goes down, falling with a loud crunch.
Adrian hurries toward her, brushing past his father before stepping between him and Serena. “She’s a police officer. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Raymond looks at him, anger brewing in his eyes.
My body cowers when I’m not even the target of the ire.
Adrian stands firm, though. Raymond sighs.
“She’s seen too much. You know we can’t let her go.
” His voice is reasonable. Like killing a human is a necessity.
Like, he didn’t just suggest killing her for fun and games.
Adrian doesn’t move. “I’ll make it painless then.”
No. Nicholas will never forgive me. No, no, no.
Raymond shrugs. “All of you are such a disappointment. Do whatever you want.” He turns and crosses the room until he's standing in the center. “Let’s make this quick before more pests—”
An entire slab on the ceiling falls with a loud boom right where Raymond stands.
Dirt fills the room, but we’re far away from the splash zone.
I cough, pushing the dirt out of my lungs while trying to make sense of what’s happening.
I see Adrian lugging Serena up, walking her to the corner. She looks unharmed.
Then the room fills with the loud noise of a helicopter. A rope cascades through the large hole in the ceiling, followed by people sliding down from it. One after the other. The air is too thick with dirt to make out their faces. Just their silhouettes.
I can’t see Raymond, and the idea petrifies me. My head snaps to Nicholas to make sure he’s fine. He doesn’t so much as stir. No sign of Raymond. Sloan and Matt are blinking up at the mess.
The ringing in my ears slowly fades, replaced by the sounds of people moving around me. Then an authoritative voice pierces through the noise. “You can’t just abduct four of my agents on a whim. Have you seen our pending cases pile?”
I hear a sickening crunch followed by a growl. As the dust settles, Raymond is face down beneath Meena, her knee planted between his shoulder blades. Two agents rush in and snap handcuffs around his wrists.
“I got him,” one of them says.
My pulse pounds so violently it drowns out everything else. I can't tell if I'm about to laugh, scream, or throw up.
I can’t process the image before me. Raymond, the monster I was sure would destroy everything before killing me, is lying helpless as a Bureau agent pats him down.
Three agents, along with Meena, surround Adrian, who's frozen in the corner with Serena slumped beside him.
Then Cami rushes inside through the doorway. Her eyes go wide as she sees us before her eyes land on Bree. She runs towards her. “No, no. Please be alright. Please be alright.” She checks her vitals. A second later, her shoulders sag in relief.
Then she notices me watching. “Elliot? What the fuck are you doing here?” She hurries over and drops to her knees in front of me. “You should not be here.”
“I—”
I'm saved from answering when two agents march Raymond to the opposite wall and force him into a seated position. “The next transportation vehicle will be here soon. They’ve taken the other one for now. Too dangerous to take them together,” an agent explains.
Cami moves protectively in front of me. “I’ve got you, okay? You’re fine now.” She sets her bag down, pulls out a pair of scissors, and cuts through my zip ties.
But I can't tear my eyes away from him. The Werewolf. His head is down. But I can still feel his eyes on me. He’s always watching. This can’t be it. This can’t be so simple.
“Elliot?” I feel Cami’s hand on my shoulder. “Did he give you something? Or to them?”
Oh fuck. Nicholas. My gaze flicks at her. I nod frantically. “He tased Nicholas. And maybe gave them something? The others never regained consciousness. Only Nicholas did. Then… then he hurt him.”
Cami nods sympathetically. “I’ll check on Nick. But they’re fine if they didn’t give them anything. They’re unconscious because of some device they installed at the door that renders werewolves unconscious. It’s deactivated now.”
I nod and try to crawl toward Nicholas. Cami helps me stand up, and I lean back on the wall for support.
“Just give me a second to look him over, then he’s all yours.”
My heartbeat refuses to slow, hammering against my ribs as though it hasn't gotten the message that everything is fine now. Nicholas is safe.
My gaze finds its way back to Raymond now that I know Nicholas will be fine. I keep waiting for Raymond to lunge back to his feet. For this to be another trick. Another nightmare.
Then his brown eyes meet mine, and all the air whooshes out of my body.
He smiles. Small. Knowing.
Like this is just another move in his game.