AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My men have continued moving into position to bust open the bedroom door, everyone except Vander. He moves to stand so I’m between him and the others, always making sure I’m protected. Forever my bodyguard.
He nods with his head indicating I should continue on. His broad hand presses against my back, helping me to stay upright as I make it through the minefield of bodies. Five people should not span so much space.
When my back presses against the wall next to Cole, my excitement rises. This is the dream, hunting a target, killing with my men. Death and destruction. I’m not sure how I became so lucky to find them—a family who doesn’t judge, who embraces the same things I do.
Jasper reaches out and twists the doorknob, finding it locked. Instead of kicking it down and becoming an easy target, he reaches into his side pocket, removing a small device. It’s something still in development from Halston Solutions. One of the things we had sent to us while waiting for a plan.
He affixes sticky pads around the doorknob and turns his back toward it before pressing the button. A small charge goes off, enough to free the door from the jamb. Not wasting a second, he swings the wood out with a nudge of his hand that he quickly draws back into his body.
As predicted, gunshots go off, embedding in the hall wall across from the opening. Three of them before silence takes over.
“Trent,” Jasper calls into the void. That must be the Tulip Broker’s actual name. “There’s nowhere to go.”
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my brother, come for a visit,” a smooth voice pronounces. It’s not what I pictured him sounding like at all. “I’d say it’s a pleasure to hear from you, but it’s really not. Don’t worry, I’ll be disposing of you soon.”
Before we can do anything, a loud bang resonates from the room. In a burst of motion, we all run inside. Nothing good can come from that sound.
Chapter 21
Raven
Nothing. There’s nothing in the room, and we stop as a group in the middle. A bed, nightstands, dressers, all the normal things you’d expect to see in a bedroom. But not a single thing that would explain what we heard.
Vander and Jasper branch off, both searching what I assume are the bathroom and closet. They’re the only two doorways in the room other than where we came in from.
“Clear,” Vander shouts first, closely followed by Jasper saying the same thing.
All the while, Cole ransacks everything his fingers touch. He shoves furniture out of place. Runs his hands around all the edges. Rips frames off the walls. Tears the curtains from their rods. Then starts running his hands along the walls on the decorative molding that adds texture to the back wall as an accent.
I’m not sure what he’s searching for, which means I won’t be any help at all, and with the way he’s acting, I don’t think he’ll even hear me if I ask. Instead, I make my way to the window, right in time to find the Tulip Broker tumbling out of the side of the building through a trapdoor. I get the impression it wasn’t the smooth exit he thought it was supposed to be with the way he stumbles getting to his feet. It very well might be what Cole is wanting to find.
“He’s running in the back,” I shout, drawing the others to me, everyone but Cole, who doesn’t stop. I watch as the bastard darts across the lawn, sprinting full speed like he’s being chased by a bull.
Cole must find the secret exit because that same sound we heard before fills the room and when I turn around he’s gone. Fuck.
“I saw where he was,” Vander says, squeezing my shoulder. “I’ll follow him.”
He’s gone before I can even open my mouth to respond, and I sigh. There’s no way either of them makes it in time to stop TB. He has too much of a head start; he’s over halfway to what looks to be a pool house.
Obviously, he’s running there for a reason. My question is if that’s some kind of safe haven from attack, then why the fuck isn’t it attached to the main part of the mansion? Seems like a deeply flawed plan from someone who runs an underground, prosperous, slave trade production.
As I expected, TB makes it to the pool house and a split second later, metal shutters slam into place over the windows, and a door covers the entry point. It appears to be impenetrable from here. I mean… why wouldn’t it be?
Cole still has a good chunk of the lawn to run across, but he doesn’t stop, and neither does Vander, who’s chasing after him. When Cole makes it to the door, he tries pushing it open. His hands clearly slide against the metal, doing nothing at all.
Jasper wraps his arm around me, encouraging me to turn away. And honestly, I go willingly. This doesn’t feel like something I want to watch. “Let’s keep looking. There will probably be some hidden way to unlock it from the outside. If not, Cole can work on hacking into the system once he cools down.”
I nod and follow him out of the room. The moment we enter the hall once more, I see movement of someone sneaking up the stairs. Knowing my two men are outside, I don’t hesitate to shoot. The bullet hits his forehead, and he drops like a sack of potatoes, thumping along several stairs until his weight settles.
Jasper edges along, making sure that was the only one trying to catch us off guard. He’s so focused on watching the stairs that he doesn’t notice someone entering from the other end of the hall where it turns to the other half of the mansion.
Not having time to tell him to duck, I step to the side, getting Jasper out of my shot and fire at the new attacker. He ducks right before I pull the trigger, making my bullet slam into the wall. It draws Jasper’s attention enough to focus on our newest opponent.
He kneels and points his hand, indicating he wants me to keep an eye out on the staircase too. It’s several seconds before the man tries poking his head around the corner again, but when you're waiting in the middle of a firefight, it feels like an eternity. The seconds tick in your head like the deafening sound of the hand on a clock.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Until, finally, you get that spark of movement. In a situation like this, reflexes are everything—being able to get the shot off first before your opponent could be the difference between life or death. Thankfully, Jasper has a quicker trigger finger. The man goes down, dropping his gun, and it skitters across the floor.
