Chapter 27 #2
“I heard you started the Orazio Foundation. I wonder how you’ll explain the entire building blowing up? The court will likely find you guilty of storing illegal weapons, as well as involuntary manslaughter for the deaths caused by your negligence.”
My spine snapped straight as Adelaide let out a gasp. A slap filled the silent room, and Connall spun back in his chair, his cheek red. Lyra panted from across the table, and her chest heaved.
“You traded one keeper for another. How does it feel?”
Connall rubbed his cheek. “And are you really free? Kill this idiot, and ten more will take his place. I told you all I care about is my sister.”
Larson King frowned, realizing belatedly he was being insulted, and his hands met his hips.
“Do you have remote access?” Beck tilted his head. “Take over.”
How did he look so bored when hundreds of lives were on the line? Lyra rounded the table, motioning to Jonah as she did.
“Restrain him.” She jerked her head in Connall’s direction. The hum of the screens buzzed in my ear.
The redhead dropped his head back and laughed. It was hollow. The kind I used to make before I met Lyra and understood what warmth felt like. Jonah wrenched Connall up from his chair and slammed him against the wall.
“Time is running out—” Larson cleared his throat, grappling for control.
“No shit, Sherlock.” I rolled my eyes.
The timer had dwindled to less than a minute, and my heart choked my throat.
“Will this help?” Jonah pulled a remote from Connall’s pocket.
Lyra took it from him with steady hands, turning it over for a second before she pressed the button. The timer paused, blinking at eleven seconds. Adelaide narrowed her eyes at Larson, who choked. Beck slipped behind Larson with a thin metal line strung between his fists.
“You won’t beat me,” Larson sneered, taking a step back, and colliding with Beck.
“Oh shit. This is gonna be good.” I whispered, thinking I should have popcorn for this moment.
You can tell a man by how he kills, and Beck was ruthless. He grunted as he looped the metal around Larson’s neck. He jammed his knee into his back and bore Larson to the floor. No mercy, let’s go.
“Remember when I did this to you, Connall?”
“I still have the scar,” Connall muttered against the wall.
Larson’s neck was drenched in blood, and he made wordless pleas. I could interpret them, even if his words were negligible. It was riches, it was gold. He promised things, and Adelaide and I shared a look.
“We’ll treat ourselves after this,” I consoled her.
“I’ll take you ring shopping.” She leaned in, conspiratorial.
“Really?” I raised my eyebrows. “I thought you’d castrate me rather than approve of me for your best friend.”
Adelaide plucked a dirt speck off her sleeve and shrugged.
“I don’t understand what she sees in you, but she also needs someone who can accept the dark parts of her.”
A knot swelled in my throat. If I were less emotional, I would have laughed.
Beck was forcing the life out of Larson, while Lyra used Connall’s computer, and Jonah whispered threats in Connall’s ear.
The violence made the air in the room thick, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Adelaide knew that, though her men were sheltered, they could see her covered in blood and never love her less.
I could be myself with Lyra, and most importantly, she was safe with me.
Larson King, a man who sought to siphon enough money to swim in, died in a pool of blood from the nasty gash Beck opened in his neck. His head dropped as Beck let go of him, and the slash was a ghastly smile.
“Round two?” Beck snapped the wire between his blood-bathed hands and grinned at Connall. “It’s slippery, so it might take longer. But you don’t mind, do you?”
Jonah turned Connall from the wall and shoved him onto the floor.
“I wouldn’t have let him destroy the Orazio Foundation building. This warehouse, though? There aren’t innocent people dying, just a group of stains on this world.” Connall crouched, his expression manic as he tapped his watch.
“What does that mean?” I strode across the room, grabbed his collar, and slammed him onto the floor. I pulled out my gun and pressed it hard against his temple until he grunted.
“You can kill me. It won’t make any difference. This was always a mission I would not survive.”
Lyra pushed back from the table, fumbling to pull her phone out of her pocket with a sharp exhale. The wall of screens flashed, turning to static, each one filling with another timer.
Five minutes.
“Until what?” I snarled.
“We all die.” Blood stained Connall’s teeth as he smiled.
In the distance, alarms sounded, and the room flooded with a flashing red light. It made our shadows stretch, like we were turning into demons. Heat pressed in on all sides.
“I-I can’t stop it.” Lyra looked up from her screen. “He’s linked it to my phone.”
“I knew you’d try jumping into my system. I planted a little present in case you did. One last game, Lyra?” Connall slumped on the floor with a breathless laugh.
Beck kicked Connall in his gut, but not before smoke poured through the vents and made us all choke.
“Fucking asshole.”
“Manual override,” Lyra muttered to herself, eyes wild. She swore as her fingers slipped.
Hope bubbled like acid in my stomach. With each breath, my lungs burned. We had to get out of here before we all suffocated.
“Go.” I pushed Adelaide to the door.
She swiped her perfect manicure at me, refusing. “We’ll get her out,” I promised, and she finally went.
“There.” Lyra grinned, holding her phone up triumphantly. “I stopped it.”
But smoke still spilled from the vents, and heat rippled down in waves.
“Maybe the worst of it. But you’re still going to die.” Connall blinked slow.
What did he mean by that? The pure nihilistic emptiness in his gaze sent a shiver down my spine. Had he always been like this, or did The Unseen make him this way?