Page 54 of Dangerous Promises

Isla grits her teeth. "I told Alexei to get a DeMarco to bring with us. How was I supposed to know that he was going to choose Sage?"

Freddie pauses, considering carefully, before his flirty smile returns. "Alright then. Guess we're hunting tonight. Assuming you've got room for one more DeMarco?"

"No," Alexei says, jaw tense. His nostrils flare as he rushes towards me. Likely to grab me and herd me into the car. He can't get to me though. At the last second, Freddie jumps in between us, blocking Alexei from getting to me. Or simply standing in his way. The sight is so familiar it could tear a hole in my heart.

In my eyes, I see a flash of the past. Ofhimstanding in front of me as he shoved Alexei away from me. My heart squeezes together, drawing in all my blood to the point I might collapse.

Him.Always protecting me like a bodyguard.

The memory fades away as I return to watching Alexei and Freddie stand off against each other.

"Only her," Alexei says, teeth bared as if they're ready to rip. His arms flex, biceps straining with the effort it's taking to hold himself back.

"Alexei, stop it," Isla says, rolling her eyes. "Put the bullshit behind for one day." She gets in the drivers seat and Freddie and I follow. Only Alexei stays stuck in the confrontation. Standing for a while illuminated in the headlights by his indecision. Whenhe finally makes the decision to get in the car without a fuss, I can see the physical toll it takes on him to pull himself together.

That, too, is familiar.

Chapter

Twenty-One

Alexei

Ican tell from just looking that we're not going to find anything here.

Stepping out of the car, I sigh as I survey the building. A two story flower shop squeezed amongst other buildings that look just the same. All of them dark. All of them looking abandoned with pieces of the exterior missing.

The streetlights flicker overhead like the city can't be bothered to upkeep this stretch of land either. It does sit exactly halfway between Rushkoff and DeMarco territory, in the poorly maintained middle zone. While I don't put it past Chet to use something so ridiculous as an outpost, I no longer think I'm going to find anything useful here.

Freddie slams his door and comes to stand next to me, folding his arms.

"We're not going to find Chet hiding in there of all places," Freddie says, stating the obvious that we all see.

"I can see that, Fallon," I reply.

"What exactly was the intel you were following here? Is that what basement guy said?" Freddie asks, addressing his question more at Isla than at me, and I am very happy for her to handle him instead.

"Apparently," Isla says, daring him to challenge her with her eyes, though she's well aware that this is a long shot, too.

Isla wins the stare-off, of course.

Sage exits the car now, shivering in the cold, her skin rising with goosebumps. When she looks at me, her eyes narrow and she does her best to hide the shivering.

"We should probably split up once we get in there," Isla says, drawing my eyes away from Sage to where she rounds the car and pops the trunk.

"You gonna get in trouble for letting Anton's little princess out on a sweep tonight, Fallon?" I ask, smirking as I lean up against the car with folded arms. I'm not watching for Freddie's reaction, but Sage's hateful stare returns to me and my body floods with warmth. Like a brat, she turns on her heel to ignore me, flipping her hair when she does. My traitorous heart skips a beat at the way it falls over her shoulder, like it actually sparkles in the moonlight.

My smirk drops, turning to something like awe, shock or horror. It's hard to say. Fallon clears his throat, smirking at me instead.

It's simply a shame that someone so pretty has to die.

"Why don't you just focus on Chet for now, Rushkoff," Freddie says, smiling like he thinks he's smarter than me while he fiddles with his gun arrangement. "After all, he's so powerful now because of your brother."

He loads a gun, and the click mimics the pain that ricochets through my chest at the mention of my late brother. He'll get no reaction from me. I've put in the work to control it. But I stillfeel an eclipse of emotions warring between sadness and forceful rage.

Whether or not my brother was a good man is irrelevant. Perhaps with all this time to think, I can admit he wasn't good. But he was still my brother. He was still mine. My family. Regardless of whether he was right or good.

Freddie pushes past me, jolting me away from my thoughts.