CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
Connor
I stare at York Towers’ glistening facade, lights from nearby buildings bouncing off the glass. It’s un-fucking-believable I let Rhys talk me into standing down so Raina can murder Tahiri.
They stayed up all night mapping everything out. Rhys said the plan was solid, but he wouldn’t give me the details. Probably anything he told me would have made me go for his throat.
I trust him. Fuck, I trust Raina, but I’m in love with her. Not the way I love my brothers and cousins. We’re men. I know that makes me sexist, but it’s deep in my DNA to protect my woman.
Rhys knows how gone I am for Raina and played double agent, suggesting a backup plan should hers fail.
My feet keep knocking on the floorboards in my truck. Waiting for the signal. Either she succeeded, and Noel is dead.
Or she failed, and I have to move in.
Then my phone rings. I close my eyes, worrying about what the hell happened.
And it’s worse than I could have imagined.
I STORM INTO NOEL TAHIRI’S penthouse with Rhys at my right flank. Blade and Jett glide in right behind us. “DEA” letters stitched across our black jackets got us into the building after the Feds raided the place.
I didn’t come here for questions or evidence. I came to get my woman. And kill Noel if he’s not dead already. Even if I have to blow his head off in front of a federal agent.
Team Quinlan sweeps in fast. Clean. The place is already chaotic. Federal agents stand over pools of blood from dead guards who were stupid enough to shoot at them. ESU teams and EMTs are swarming the place, checking for survivors or victims.
I flash my fake badge and bark in a New York cop accent, “Inspector Conlon. DEA. I need access right now. Suspected Fentanyl operation here.”
No one questions me. They see the confidence, the fire in my eyes, and they back the fuck off to let us through.
I made my brothers stand down. And threatened all eight of Griffin’s guards and three of Shane’s to keep them the hell away from York Towers. But I don’t know how long that will hold.
I don’t know what I’ll do if Raina dies. Other than dying right alongside her of guilt and a broken heart.
But my heart is already broken, seeing that this operation she planned has fallen off the ledge. With wild eyes, I look around, and then my heart stops. Raina is on the floor in a corridor, limp and pale.
An EMT is straddling her waist and pumping Raina’s chest. Her mouth is coated in foam, and her skin has gone gray-blue around the lips.
I stomp that way, and my knees give out.
“No. No. No. ” My hand grabs the EMT’s shoulder. “What’s happening? What’s wrong with her?”
“Suspected poisoning,” she says calmly, sweat beading at her temples. “Faint pulse, weak breathing. I’m trying to stabilize her.”
Poisoning.
Jesus Christ.
I get to my feet and grab Rhys by the collar to slam him against the wall.
“ Fucking poison?” I shout.
Rhys’s face goes pale. “She must not have taken the antidote. Fuck.”
“Look at her face,” I cry out. “Tahiri beat her up. She took the poison to kill him anyway and didn’t care if she fucking died, too. Shit! Fuck! ”
A few feet away, another EMT stands over Noel’s body and mutters, “No heartbeat on this one. Call the ME. What about that one?”
“Unresponsive. Starting another round.” The EMT looks at me. “She’s a fighter, though. Are you really DEA?”
“No. This is my fiancée.”
And she’s dying. She’s dying in front of me.
The short and tough-as-nails EMT working on Raina glances at me again, still compressing her chest. “Guys,” she says, her voice frayed and thinning, “she’s not coming around, find that antidote.”
Rhys spins around. “The bottle must have been lost during the fight.”
The EMT grunts, “I need it and I need it right now.”
I don’t wait, I search the empty hallway and notice a trail of blood leads to the primary bedroom. I burst in there, sickened to see Tahiri’s clothes strewn around. Raina was in his fucking bedroom.
My eyes snag on a pair of white panties on the floor.
Cotton. Hip huggers. Raina’s . I bend down to scoop them off the carpet.
A rage like I’ve never felt before fires through me and I even black out for a second.
If Tahiri raped her, I will not only kill him again, I will wipe out anyone who is unfortunate enough to share his DNA.
Putting that bloodbath out of my head, I drop to the carpet, crawling like a fucking madman to find the antidote .
Raina had it on her, but then Noel beat her to shit and she dropped it. Where the fuck is it? Tahiri can’t have it on him, or he would have taken it. And not be lying there dead as a slug.
I’m praying. Cursing. Bargaining.
And then I see it.
A small, dark bottle is barely visible under a chair near the windows.
I dive, my fingers scraping the coarse rug until they close around the glass.
“ Got it! ” I sprint back into the hall, but some prick NYPD patrol officer steps in front of me.
“What’s going on here?” he demands. “You’re DEA? I have two drug overdoses. One guy coded. ME’s on the way. My sarge is asking questions and—”
“ Get out of my way! ” I roar and push him aside.
The female EMT spots me hurtling toward her. “Give it to me.” She opens the bottle, sniffs once, and nods. “This is it.”
“No, I give it to her.” I tilt Raina’s chin, hands shaking. “Just tell me what to do.”
This is a first.
“On her tongue, let it slide down her esophagus,” she murmurs. “Don’t let any drip out.”
Looking as carefully as I can through teary eyes, I pour the antidote down Raina’s throat.
Seconds pass.
Nothing.
More nothing.
Oh Christ, I feel sobs building.
But...
Raina coughs.
Hard.
Violent.
Her body jerks like she’s just been tased. She chokes and gasps for air. Her eyes fly open, wild and unfocused.
I pull out one of her inhalers in case this triggers an attack. She chokes and coughs, but she’s breathing.
She’s alive .
Then I break. I crash on the floor beside her, burying my face in her braid.
“Jesus, baby,” I whisper, my voice cracking. “Don’t you ever do that to me again.”
She can’t speak. Not yet. But her fingers twitch against my chest. And finally, they close around the fabric to keep me close.
That’s enough.
For now.