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When Bonner turns off towards Sutton, I send a text to Maddox, and I keep going past the slip road Bonner just took and head toward the house in Epsom where we now know Rogers is and Rox and Maddox are waiting for me.
After Kavanagh and I went to the safe house and discovered Smithy’s phone and the gift from Rogers, we went our separate ways. I headed back to the house where I met Mitch and we went through all the audio and video recordings, even re-listening to ones we’d already looked at.
Theo’s evidence was huge before he teamed up with Noah but with everything they collected together and any new evidence, providing Noah hasn’t gone rogue, there is more than enough to ensure everyone involved goes down. Of course, some of them won’t make it to court. Some of them won’t make the rest of the night.
While I don’t like the man, it became clear Noah had a very good reason to help Theo. Much like Bowser with his brother, Noah’s best friend was one of the cops from that night. And he vowed to bring it all down.
And something else that might lessen my desire to cut the man is the fact it wasn’t Theo or Noah himself that chose to get close to Rox. In fact, Theo had never planned for their paths to cross at all.
When Maddox had asked me to check Theo’s Will, I had no idea why, but it was worth it because we discovered a house in Epsom, the one Tommy was talking about.
We never knew Theo even owned a house out that way, part of the reason was because it was in Ciara’s name. But it seems Rogers didn’t give a fuck about using his own mother’s house to do what he does, and it makes my stomach roil in disgust. My hands tighten on the steering wheel as my thoughts travel down a dark path, and my blood lust rises to the surface, desperate for release.
Of course, Rogers thinks we are going to be at the warehouse for the meeting between Laskin and Bonner and that we have no idea about his little hideaway out here. But by the time he’ll be looking to leave, the meeting will done and so will Bonner.
I can’t fucking wait to see his face when he realises that he misjudged Rox and us. He put too much faith in his relationship with James and being Theo’s son, regardless of the fact Theo never intended for him to take over.
I feel my blade warming against my leg at the prospect of blood shed as I near the house. The three of us have a multitude of reasons to want to hurt him, and by the end of the night, he’ll be begging for death to come rescue him from his misery.
I park down the road out of sight and walk up to where Maddox and Rox are waiting for me.
“Hey. Anything?” I say, as I come and stand beside them.
“No. We’re still waiting for a message from Mitch. Have you spoken to Kavanagh since you split up?” Maddox asks, lighting up a cigarette. Rox looks to him with a raised brow. And shocking the crap out of us, she pulls the fag from Maddox’s mouth as he takes another drag and puts it to her own lips.
“What?” she asks, seeing us staring at her.
“Nothing,” I tell her with a shake of my head and a small grin, then I answer Maddox’s question. “Nope, and he was very tight lipped about where he was going. You got any ideas?”
“It’s Kavanagh, and he’s more like Theo than he thinks when it comes to keeping secrets,” Maddox answers, pulling his phone from his pocket to see a message.
He reads it, then holds it out so Rox and I can read it too.
The back door will be clear. Only six men inside excluding Rogers. They are alive. But you need to move now.
“Okay, good. Where’s Tommy?” Rox says, looking at her watch and passing the fag back to Maddox.
“In the boot. Although, he’s been quiet for the last fifteen minutes, so no guarantees he’s still alive. We taking him with us?”
“Nah, leave the cunt there. If he’s still alive when we get back, then we’ll drop him off at the police station. You ready?” Maddox asks, looking to Rox.
“Yes, I’m fucking ready,” she says, pulling her gun free and checking the chamber before holstering it again then checking the blade I didn’t know she had stashed inside her boot.
Maddox drops a kiss to her lips, it’s deep, and you can see everything he won’t say out loud. He releases her then begins walking along the fence line toward the back of the house.
I step up to her, gripping her chin. “Don’t you dare do anything crazy in there, Rox. I know you’ve been leashed for a long time but remember to be smart.” I kiss her, tasting her sweet lips now tainted by Maddox’s tobacco, and it makes me hard. She’s not really tainted. This is the real Rox. Our Rox. Letting her go, she sways a little as she opens her eyes.
“I don’t plan on dying tonight, Zak. Let’s go fucking slay the devil.”
I follow as she hurries to catch up with Maddox, who we find crouched low about halfway down, level with the back of the house. We join him and see he’s watching a guy stationed at the back of the property, walking the perimeter periodically.
Mitch’s message didn’t mention anyone outside keeping watch, but even Rogers can’t be that egotistical to think he doesn’t need men guarding his house. We watch him do a pass of the back garden, coming within a couple of feet of where we are hiding then head back. As he reaches the back door, a man steps out, greeting him and they exchange a few words. The man points in this direction, causing the guard to turn our way, and as soon as he does, the other man grasps his head and neck, giving it a quick snap, which reaches us like the sound of a twig breaking, and the man goes limp. The man lowers him to the ground, then grips his legs and begins dragging him round to the side of the house. Light from one of the windows catches his face, and I see it’s Noah.
Loathe as I am to admit it, it was a nice move. Yet, I’m still to be convinced he’s working for the right team. It could simply be a clever rouse to get us inside the house.
Noah disappears back inside, and Maddox pulls a pair of small wire cutters from his pocket. Cutting a vertical line up the fence, then one horizontal at the top, he peels it back, creating a hole big enough for us to fit through.
There are a few shrubs and trees in the garden that we use for cover as we make our way to the open back door.
