Chapter 35 Shadows
Shadows
My body was on fire, my muscles preparing for blood and violence as I clenched and unclenched my fists. I was not normally accustomed to feeling fear, but the only time I ever truly felt it was when it concerned her. And goddammit, it was the most gut-wrenching feeling in the world.
We had bypassed every single traffic law known to man to make it back to the hotel. But during those long fifteen minutes of making a hundred unanswered phone calls and rechecking unresponsive security systems, dread had successfully seeped its way into my bones.
Jaden.
I didn’t even wait for Scott to turn off the car before bolting from the passenger seat and heading for the elevator.
The rest of the team barely made it in before the elevator doors shut behind them.
As we ascended, I forced my heart rate to slow, filtering the adrenaline from my blood so I could focus on whatever the fuck I was about to walk into.
And God help anyone who was left alive if they weren’t my fucking wife.
When I’d first learned that she had been shot all those months ago, I at least had the knowledge that she was alive and being treated.
But right now, I had no fucking clue what to expect, and not knowing was the true silent killer.
I’d endure every gunshot wound I’d ever taken, every stabbing, every broken bone a hundred times over if it meant I never had to experience it again.
Stepping out of the elevator on the floor directly below mine, we quickly made our way up the secret stairwell that led into the suite. Guns drawn, I cracked the door open, my instincts on high alert at how dark and deadly quiet it was.
The power had been cut.
I silently pointed two fingers to the right, signaling for two men to check in that direction, and the rest with me. Moving quickly through the darkness of the hall, I kept my back against the wall as we scanned the suite, my eyes then landing on the dead bodies of three of my guards.
Fuck.
Why hadn’t any one of us received an alert from the security system?
Hurrying past them, I noticed their throats had all been slashed, which meant guns were avoided to keep things quiet. The bodies were still slightly warm, signaling that whatever had happened had not occurred too long ago.
Fuck.
Trekking swiftly through the shadows of the suite, my remaining team swept the rooms around me while my only focus stayed locked on finding Jaden.
When I stepped into the dining room, the dim lights of street outside sparked an intense relief that suddenly slammed into me so hard it almost knocked me off my feet.
Halfway across the room, my gaze landed on Jaden, who was currently tied to a chair that had been tipped on its back, surrounded by death and destruction. She was attempting to chew at the knots of the rope that held her wrists to the arms of the chair.
I moved quickly, my eyes scanning in every direction for threats before I reached her and knelt, catching those sunken hazel eyes in her pale bruised face. Lifting the chair, I righted it and carefully cut the rope away from her arms.
She rubbed her raw wrists while I studied her swollen and blemished face. My blood pressure shot through the fucking roof, my rage ready to hunt down and rip apart the walking corpses who were foolish enough to touch her.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, my voice barely containing my fury.
She shook her head, but I knew better than to trust her answer.
Taking her in my hands, I assessed every inch of her, searching for potential injuries despite her annoyance and fussing. Once I ruled out any need for immediate medical attention, my hands gently took her face and pushed back her tangled hair so I could see her eyes without obstacle.
“What happened?” I asked. “Where are your bodyguards?”
All she did was sigh and nod to something behind me. Turning my head, I found two more bloodied bodies secured to chairs. Furious disappointment pulsed in my chest when I realized they belonged to Clive and Owen, the state of their corpses in the darkness making them barely recognizable.
Fucking jackasses.
Having seen enough, I lifted Jaden out of the chair and carried her through the destruction of the suite and into the bathroom, placing her on the countertop.
Removing her clothes, she sat with feigned patience as I assessed her again with deeper scrutiny and a flashlight now that I’d removed all her barriers. Relief was swift when I only found bruising and some scrapes, but I didn’t like that her skin was ice cold to the touch.
Turning on the bathtub faucet, I drew Jaden a warm bath and placed her in the tub, hoping the warm water would help her relax enough to tell me what the fuck had happened.
I’d review the security footage later when things were back online, but right now, I wanted to know exactly what was going through her head while it was still fresh.
“Come on, Jaden. Come back to me,” I urged gently, massaging her small frozen hand in my own. “I need you to tell me what happened.”
She finally shook her head and released a deep slow breath.
“He just wanted information,” she murmured. “But I know nothing. So he made me watch him kill Clive and Owen for being a useless whore.”
Wrath like a volcanic eruption rumbled in my chest, the insult striking her deep enough to puncture even me.
“How many were there?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. There were three left when I came to. I don’t know how many they started with. I think some ran off once I managed to steal the gun.”
I released my own slow deep breath to keep my rage down. Now was not the time to lose my shit. “What else?”
She shrugged again. “The power went out right before they attacked,” she continued. “We all tried to fight the best that we could, but we were outnumbered.”
I’d already taken note of the four unknown dead bodies I’d passed through the living room, not including the seven of my own. There had to have been more to launch that kind of a successful ambush.
“Then I woke up in that chair and got really lucky when he leaned in too close to me. I kicked him in the balls and managed to wrestle his gun from his hand with my legs, and then the chair tipped over. By the time he got up, I had the gun in my hand and scored two shots while the others disappeared. I lost track of time before you came in.”
Lucky was not a word I favored.
“Stay here. Do not get out of the tub,” I ordered and stood to leave.
Storming out of the bathroom and into the living room, I knelt and looked over each dead body that had been left behind.
“Armenians,” Scott said as he stepped back into the room.
“Hired Armenians,” I added.
“Juan’s wife was Armenian.”
I stood and cracked the kink in my neck. “I know.”
Scott lifted his chin. “She okay?” he asked, nodding toward the bedroom.
I nodded solemnly, crossing my arms over my chest as images of what could have been flashed before my eyes. “She’s fine.”
“Good. Hopefully, she can fill in the blanks because we’ve got nothing. They cut the hardwire to the power. No alarms, no signal, no security footage.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, releasing the growing tension in my forehead. This floor had an independent power source, so whoever it was had more information than they should.
FUCK.
“Jaden said she only saw three men when she woke, but there had to have been more. I had eight guards stationed here, including Clive and Owen. That should have been enough.”
Scott shook his head. “It doesn’t add up.”
No, it certainly fucking doesn’t.
“Matt was never at the docks,” I stated. “It had to have been a body double.”
“Sent to me to lure you away so they could, what, get to Jaden? Why?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. She said they wanted information, but I’m not sure what kind yet. I’ll get more out of her later.”
“Do you think Matt was actually here?” Scott asked, his voice tight with suspicion.
I thought about it, and it was very possible, but it didn’t make sense. He wasn’t after Jaden. He was after Daniel. Why even bother with her? Unless he was still just trying to toy with me more, which also didn’t make sense since he lacked the time and resources.
I shook my head. “Jaden would have said so.”
Scott turned toward me. “You’re sure about that?” he asked, his tone cautious.
His doubt in her inflamed my already barely restrained wrath.
“After what I just did to her, she’d be pretty fucking stupid to make the same mistake twice,” I nearly growled.
Scott wisely stepped back. “Maybe she just didn’t see him.”
“Maybe. But it doesn’t make sense for him to goad me into coming here when he had no guarantee I would have even brought her with me.”
“Maybe he assumed you would bring her to the charity gala.”
Another maybe.
“Unless he found out later that she was here and took the opportunity. We arrived yesterday, so there would have been plenty of time to plan something,” he suggested.
“Opportunity to do what, exactly?” I pressed, crossing my arms as I walked about the trashed room in thought. “They didn’t take her or kill her, so what other advantage could she possibly give Matt that’s worth the risk or effort? She doesn’t know anything, and he knows this.”
Scott shrugged. “Who knows? He’s threatened Jaden before. Maybe he’s the one who sent the Armenians just to fuck with you. Or maybe they were supposed to kill her and failed.”
“Now that I could believe. But barely.” The reasoning still wasn’t strong enough to justify the risk of almost certain failure.
Almost. “The same person who left me that message in Porto Rotondo has left me another, and it wasn’t just a coincidence.
They had a hand in this.” I nodded to all the destruction around us.
“You think they’re working with Matt?”
My eyes glanced around the room, noticing all the shattered glass, broken furniture, and numerous bloodstains all over the place. The timing was too well planned not to be a collaboration.
I still had yet to determine the identity of this new enemy, my investigation in Vegas leading me absolutely nowhere. But I’d been too busy with other endeavors like two wars and a dead brother to avenge to give it any more attention than I could afford to.
My list of enemies was indefinite, and people added themselves to the list without me ever even knowing. But that was the nature of this business. You never really knew who you were going to inadvertently piss off.
“I don’t know, but they certainly aren’t working alone. Could be Matt, could be Miguel. Could be both for all I know.”
Scott cursed under his breath as he rolled his shoulders. “The enemy of my enemy bullshit…”
I sighed in agreement as I ran my hands through my hair.
“Whatever the reason, the purpose of tonight was clear. They wanted to get to Jaden, and they did,” I stated, my mind racing in far too many directions. “Whether or not they left empty-handed is another story we’ll have to sort out later. But right now, I need to take care of my wife.”
Scott nodded as he took out his phone. “What do you want me to do?”
I sighed again, rubbing the back of my neck to relieve some of the pressure. “Is Camaro still with her handlers?”
“Yeah. Do you want me to have her brought up?”
I released a small breath of relief and nodded. “As quickly as possible.”
If Jaden lost that damn dog, I’d never hear the end of it.
As much of a pain in the ass Camaro was in keeping her cared for, she was worth it if she kept Jaden happy and occupied.
That was, until the day she became a liability, and Jaden started risking her life to save her instead of the other way around.
“Focus on getting the power back on first. Then have the place cleaned and the bodies identified. I want a full report before Jaden wakes up tomorrow. And figure out what the hell else happened that led to our systems failure.”
Scott nodded at my request as I turned to head back into the bathroom to retrieve Jaden. But instead of storming right in like I imagined, I slowed to a stop to discreetly peer from behind the corner, watching her from outside the bathroom.
To my surprise, she’d actually remained in the tub like I told her to. But while her body obeyed, her mind rebelled from a thousand miles away. On the outside, she was catatonic. But on the inside, a storm was silently wreaking havoc within her heart.
My brand of vengeance was violent, cruel, and predictable.
Hers? Yet to be defined.
And as much as I hated to admit it, that made her a very dangerous wild card.
One that needed to be recycled back into the deck as quickly as possible before it got out of hand.