Chapter 30
IVY
Ibob my knees up and down impatiently. My heightened adrenaline has nowhere to go as we listen to everything through our earpieces.
“At the door now,” Callen says. “It’s open. Going in.”
Seb and Callen are the first to enter HQ, despite Daisy and Hale’s initial insistence that they do it. I like to think that Seb’s argument to go first was because he wanted to protect Daisy, but it’s probably more to do with his natural suspicion about working together after my sister threatened to kill him.
Phase one is now complete.
Stephanie gave us clear instructions and outlined which entrances she’d leave open. So far, so good.
“We’re in position,” Hale says.
The way he’s approached our task reeks of special forces. Although I don’t know his history, I’d put money on him having a military background.
From our waiting spot in the car, I can’t see Hale, Daisy and Freddie. They’re infiltrating the building through the underground garage. If Alaric suddenly makes a break for it, we’ll have him cornered.
“In position,” Freddie confirms.
“Doors opening,” Daisy says.
Hearing her voice makes the hairs on my arms stand on end. Even though finding out she’s alive is beyond anything I’d ever hoped for, it doesn’t make hearing her again easier when everything has changed, and there’s still so much distance between us.
“Why can’t we go in already?” I complain, crossing my arms.
We’re parked away from the club in a pre-agreed upon location and are going to be the last to enter. No doubt Seb intended to keep me away from any bloody action for as long as possible.
Bram smiles to himself and plants a kiss on my cheek. I want to bat him away, yet I lean into him more. I grab his hair and pull his lips to mine. Bram gently pulls away, placing a finger on my lips.
“I know, I know. We’ll be ready.” I roll my eyes and huff. “I hate waiting.”
He taps his watch. Ten minutes. That’s how long we have to wait before moving. Yeah, fat chance of that. Seb should know me better by now. I unclip my seatbelt and reach for the door before Bram stops me. If we follow Seb’s instructions to the letter, Alaric will be dead by the time we reach him. He’s put me through hell. I want to have a front-row seat to the fucker gasping his last breath.
Bram grabs my wrist and hauls me back.
“I’m not a Duke, remember?” I say, shrugging him off. Seb gave the guy’s orders, but I’m under no obligation to follow them. “I can’t let anything happen to Daisy again, Bram. I just can’t.”
He grunts in disapproval but reluctantly lets me go.
My ponytail swings as I march towards our entrance with Bram in pursuit. I have a gun tucked in my waistband and knives stashed down the side of my boots. As we walk, I check the nearby buildings for twitching curtains and people loitering around. Alaric’s approach to keeping his followers segregated to retain anonymity only adds to my paranoia. Anyone could be an agent in this area. I’ve heard enough stories about defecting agents to know that they’re always tracked down and never see their deaths coming.
Bram slips his fingers through mine. To an outsider, we look like any other normal couple taking a night-time stroll.
Apart from the two entrances the others are using, there are two more. We’re heading for the hidden side entrance that Alaric typically favours. The other route, through the underground escape tunnel, should have been sealed off by Stephanie from the inside. She and Alaric are the only people with the clearance to use it, so it doesn’t pose a risk.
“Heading down now,” Callen’s voice crackles slightly.
Stephanie instructed them to take the stairs. If Alaric cut the power, they’d be sitting ducks inside a lift.
“We’re on our way,” Freddie says.
I say nothing as we sneak down a back alley behind the houses leading to the club. The CCTV has been disabled in the area, so we haven’t bothered to use disguises, but it’s still safer to stick to the shadows.
“This is it,” I say when we reach a wall.
Bram laces his fingers together for me to step on to help me over the top. Unlike in the cemetery, I land gracefully on the other side like a cat, and Bram drops at my side seconds later.
“This way,” I say, leading him to what looks like a storm drain in an overgrown garden. I point at it. “We need to wedge it open.”
Bram grins and takes the crowbar from under his jacket. With little effort, he leverages the cover open with ease to reveal a dingy staircase. It reeks of stale water but doesn’t look flooded. Thank fuck. Bram shines a torch into the darkness and bites his lip hesitantly.
“Ladies first,” I say, pushing past and climbing down the slippery steps.
We don’t have time for him to triple-check everything for safety.
The stairs descend into a cramped tunnel that Bram has to duck to make his way through. The irony of spending many years trying to protect the club and ensure HQ was an impenetrable fortress isn’t lost on me.
“We’re almost there,” I say as the locked iron door comes into view ahead.
Hale gave us the entry code earlier, and I committed it to memory. Alaric changes it every few days for maximum security. I tap the number combination into the door’s keypad.
It does nothing.
I kick the door. “Fuck! What the?—”
Bram’s arm shoots past me to hit the ‘Enter’ button, and the door clicks open, denting my pride in the process.
“Yeah, I knew that,” I murmur, cursing myself for making a stupid mistake.
Bram grins and peers around the door before nodding to confirm that the coast is clear.
“Drop the gentleman act,” I say, stomping past him.
While most of my missions as an agent ran without a hitch, this still feels too easy. At this rate, we’ll be clinking glasses over Alaric’s corpse by midnight. This entrance will take us straight to the lowest level of HQ. To our right, the corridor leads to the dungeon where they held me and Bram.
“Wanna head back to our cell for old time’s sake?” I joke.
Bram smiles, then cups his ear to listen.
“We’re close to the meeting point now,” Callen says. “Thirty seconds away.”
“We’re almost there too,” Daisy replies. “One minute.”
The idea is for both groups to descend like a lynch mob, giving Alaric no time to react.
I draw my gun and grin. “Come on, we don’t want to miss the action.”
I break into a run. We’re behind the others but, if we hurry, we’ll make it on time.
“Shit!” Seb exclaims. “He knows.”
The sound of chaos breaking out pierces my eardrums.
There’s shouting, gunshots, heavy breathing, and then everything goes silent…