Page 147 of Barinov

“You’re such a control freak,” she snaps, crossing her arms.

She tries to step forward again.

“Get the fuck behind me, Ellie,” I order, leveling her ass with a death-glare I learned from Sabine. “Right now.”

She freezes for a half a second, seething and looking like she’s about to start swinging.

“Darlin’,” Briggs warns, his hand settling on her arm. “He’s right. You need to stay behind us.”

Ellie scoffs and rolls her eyes. But listens to him.

Briggs steps up beside me, pistol already raised. “I’ll cover you.”

I nod, pulse hammering in my ears as I reach for the door. It creaks when it opens.

We stride in fast, guns raised. The room is dark. Metal shelves stacked with boxes of liquor and cleaning supplies. Mops. Brooms. A few velvet chairs shoved in the corner.

A dark shadow is leaning against a table. His weapon foolishly abandoned on the cool surface. The metal groans when he pushes off it slowly, like he’s got all the fucking time in the world.

And I can feel it. I can taste it. The revenge I’ve been waiting for since this asshole slid into our girl’s DMs.

He reaches back and grabs his gun before stepping into the light.

My stomach drops.

Ellie gasps. “Zeke?” she breathes, carelessly taking a step toward the fucker before either of us can stop her.

“Did she just say, Zeke?” Tex slices through the comms.

“What the hell?!” I bark, stepping in front of her right before Briggs yanks her back into him with a brutal force.

“Darlin’ are you insane?” he asks with an aggravated grunt.

Zeke winks at Ellie.

The image of that bastard lowering himself onto Bella sends a red-hot rage barreling through me. I close the distance in two strides and jam the barrel of my gun into his chest hard enough to feel bone.

“Where is she?!” I snarl. “Where is Bella?!”

The asshole’s eyes flick to the barrel and then up to me. A slow grin widens as he takes a couple steps back.

“You’re not going to shoot me, Lex,” he says, calm as hell.

“Wanna bet?” I seethe.

“Eh.” He shrugs, rolling his shoulders. “I like my odds.”

“What odds?” I shoot back. “There’s two of us and one of you.”

Ellie shifts in Briggs’s iron-clad grip. “Hey,” she gripes. “There’s three of us, Lex.”

He peers around me to get a better view. “Nice to see you again, Whitmore,” he says, letting his eyes roam over her. They stop at the glowing ruby around her neck. “I’ll be needing that now.”

Briggs moves instantly, stepping in front of Ellie with his gun raised. “Back off, Z.”

“Been a long time, Briggs,” Zeke mutters, not backing down. “Since the twenty-two mission, right? Good times. Real good times.”

“Twenty-two?” Briggs asks, his brows pinched.