“I know you aren’t one to start anything.”
“He took Valon’s products, and it was probably him who fucked over one of our warehouses. I don’t know what he’s playing at, but we need to stop him now before he thinks he can keep getting away with it.”
Hayden was right. If I’d learnt anything about this underground world, it was to never allow anyone to walk all over you, because the minute you did, they all came knocking.
I looked down at the whisky in my glass. “I was meant to be at home to talk with Aria tonight.”
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “You know you’re playing with fire by not telling her the truth.”
“She can never find out this was the cost of saving her. It would kill her, knowing I’d done that for her.”
“Aria loves you. She has for a long time. She accepted your underground fighting and killing Nicholas because of what he did to her. When are you going to realise you have to stop putting your guard up with everyone who cares? You’re going to lose her.”
That guard had been up for so many years, I wasn’t sure it could ever fully come down, as much as I wanted it to with her. It already felt like I was losing her. Like she was getting further and further away, and I couldn’t reach her no matter how hard I tried.
“Soran thinks I should finish with her. To keep her safe.”
He blew out a breath, pausing for a moment. “Maybe he’s right. If she doesn’t know what she’s dealing with, how can you really keep her safe?”
“Hayden—”
“No.” He cut me off. “The reason me and Serfina work so well is that she knows every single thing. I’d never lie to her about anything I do, and I never have. She knew from the minute we got together that this is who I am, and if she couldn’t accept it, then there wouldn’t have been an us.”
“Serfina was raised in this life. It was something she grew up with. Aria’s the complete opposite. The only reason she knows anything is because of her time in Leeds, and look what that did to her. I won’t do that to her again.”
“This is different. You’re nothing like Jason. You’d never physically do anything to her that he did, but you need to realise that by lying to her, it’s the same thing, and that kind of betrayal from you will hurt her harder than anything he did. I hope you’reprepared for when that day comes. And mark my words, it will come.”
I pulled the car up not far from the warehouse, turning the engine off. The night sky was pitch black, the moon a thin grey crescent surrounded by the stars. Hayden sat in the passenger’s side, hacking the surveillance feed so we could see how many people we needed to deal with. It wasn’t long before Valon arrived with his cousin Olli, and then Logan and the men in another car.
Logan tapped the window, and I rolled it down.
“What we working with?”
“You’ve got one on the entrance, four around the building and … two inside,” Hayden replied, eyes focused on the screen.
“I’ll let the guys know,” Logan said, then left.
“They all look like Dante’s men, and it looks like Kieran is one of them.” Hayden’s eyes met mine.
Good. Kieran was one of Dante’s top men. I’d take pleasure in getting rid of him.
“Lucky for me, not so lucky for them,” I replied, grabbing my Glock from the glove compartment, then stepping out of the car.
The March spring air didn’t have a chill to it tonight. It brought warmth, and the only sound out here was the crickets chirping in the fields.
A sweet, sickly smell hit me, and I was going to guess it was whatever they were cooking up in that warehouse.
I made my way to Valon. He and Olli were standing there with the car boot open. I peered in—petrol canisters, C4 explosives, and two guns.
I arched my brow at him. “You drove all this way with that in your boot?”
“Don’t worry, Sebastian, I did explosives in the Albanian army for years.” Olli squeezed my shoulder.
“You two are crazy, you know that?”
Valon chuckled to himself, patting me on the back. Pretty sure that when these two were together, they enjoyed watching things blow up.
Rhys, Logan, Zane and Kai made their way over, kitted up, ready to go.
