Page 143 of Hard Bargain

I have to find him.

He dragged a bloody hand over his face and reached for his phone just as it buzzed. A name flashed across the screen, one of the contacts he’d reached out to earlier.

Dominic answered instantly. “Tell me you have something.”

“I have an address.”

“Send it.”

“It’s already in your messages.”

The line went dead.

Dominic checked the message, grabbed his gun, and walked through the wreckage without looking back.

* * *

He stood across the street, hands in his pockets, eyes locked on the building like he could see straight through it. Everything in him pushed to move, to go in and tear the place apart until he found Knox. The violence pressing against his ribs was physical and it took everything he had to stay exactly where he was.

Mercer wasn’t stable; he was desperate. Desperate men made reckless choices. If Dominic went in too fast, Knox would be the one who paid for it. That thought settled deep enough to anchor him in place when nothing else could.

The building looked dead from the outside. Two stories, narrow windows, brick darkened by years of rain and neglect. Nothing about it drew attention, which was exactly the point. Men like Mercer always ended up in places like this: half-rotted structures in forgotten corners of the city, the kind no one looked at twice unless they had a reason.

Movement at the far end of the street pulled his attention, but he didn’t turn. Doors opened in quick succession, followed by footsteps approaching with purpose.

Cassian was the first to reach him. “You waited.”

Dominic gave a short nod without taking his eyes off the building. Then he turned, gaze landing on the men behind Cassian. “You four. Spread out. Find every exit. No one gets out.”

They moved instantly, breaking off in different directions without a word.

Cassian stepped up beside him. Rafa moved to his other side—silent, composed, and one of his best shots. Exactly who he wanted at his back for something like this.

“Our priority is getting Knox out alive,” Dominic said. “We don’t know how many men are inside, but Mercer won’t be alone. Anyone in our way goes down. Mercer lives. I’m not done with him.”

He crossed the street in a straight line, Cassian and Rafa falling into step beside him. The door didn’t budge—locked. Cassian crouched at it, working the lock with quick, practiced movements, and within seconds it clicked open.

They slipped in with guns raised and silencers fixed. The air inside was stale, heavy with damp and a metallic smell underneath.

A man rounded the corner, confusion barely starting to form on his face.

Dominic fired. A soft thup. The bullet punched through his forehead and he dropped where he stood.

Nobody spoke.

Cassian dragged the body out of sight, tucking it behind a stack of crates against the wall. Rafa moved ahead, clearing the next corner with practiced precision. Dominic followed, focus already pushing forward as Cassian fell back into position, covering their flank.

They swept through the front of the building quickly, finding nothing but dust and silence. But it didn’t last. Voices drifted from deeper inside, rising into careless laughter that had no business existing in a place like this. Dominic followed the sound, pushing through the doorway with the other two right behind him.

Three men looked up; they didn’t get a chance to do anything else. Dominic fired twice, Cassian once. The laughter died with them. Rafa moved through the space, confirming what they already knew. “Clean.”

They stepped back into the corridor, and there was no mistaking where it led: a long, narrow stretch of concrete drawing the eye to a heavy metal door at the far end. Everything about it felt wrong, but Dominic moved toward it anyway. As they got close, faint voices began to carry through the metal. Mercer, talking like he had all the time in the world.

He didn’t.

Dominic reached the door and slammed it open hard enough to crack it against the wall. All three of them entered at once, weapons raised.

And there he was.