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“Not that relates to what you’re doing,” I answer with a chuckle. “I just get to make fun of her when this is over for what she’s been up to.”
My best friend has a secret obsession with soap operas. She told me a couple years ago that she finally stopped watching, but I remember the schedule. I was always annoyed when she didn’t want to have lunch with me. She’s absolutely enjoying her drama shows.
They continue to dissect their plan, confirming all the little details that I don’t need to know about. I distract myself with a quick tour of the house. Random garbage is left here and there, but overall, it’s bigger than I would have expected.
Next to the dining room is a large family area with dark hardwood floors and a stained rug in the middle. Beyond that is another hallway which leads to a couple of bedrooms and stairs that go up, but before I can see what’s upstairs, Luca is calling my name.
I return to the kitchen to find Jaxon with the purse on his arm and the blueprints rolled up on the counter, but it’s Luca’s gaze that I keep my focus on.
“We’re going in,” he says. “This is going to happen fast, and I need you to remain calm. You’re here for several reasons, but the most important one is that we need you to get Tori and run straight back here. Wait in the SUV, count down for three minutes, and if we’re not back yet, drive. The keys are still in the ignition.”
I swallow hard at that last bit. “So, there’s a chance this is all going to go to shit?”
He reaches for me and cups my cheek. “There’s always a chance, but that’s why we’re prepared, so even if things don’t go as we hope, we know what to do.”
His relaxed and confident attitude is keeping me somewhat calm. I want to ask more questions, but before I can open my mouth, he’s pulling on my hand and we’re exiting out the front door.
He wasn’t wrong earlier about this moving fast. We’ve barely been here for five minutes, and the group is already splitting up, Jaxon still with the bomb.
My eyes follow his movements as I trust Luca to guide me to wherever I’m supposed to be. I’m suddenly jerked to the right and forced behind a mailbox that likely does a shitty job of hiding either of us.
“Someone is coming out the front door,” Luca mutters, leaning around me. “Stay here and wait for my whistle.”
He’s gone in the blink of an eye, moving along the manicured shrubs. I try to watch, but he disappears from my view. Just as I’m certain my heart is about to escape from my chest, a body is thrown over a small fence into a yard just one house over from where we’re headed.
Luca does his whistle, and I find myself working on autopilot since I’m too damn afraid at this point not to listen to every single thing he tells me to do. I run in the direction I saw him go, slowing only once I’m near the unconscious man.
I didn’t think I remembered anyone who hurt me when Titan had possession of me, but the moment I lay eyes on this one, dark memories filter through my thoughts.
This…monster. He enjoyed throwing me into the wall, laughing and screaming simultaneously in my face and flickering the lights until I threw up. He was sadistic and cruel and—I want to kill him.
I don’t even know how I can, but seeing him and no longer being the captive, I step closer without thinking. I’m nearly standing over his body when Luca finds me.
“What are you doing, Raven?” he asks, urgency in his voice that’s overshadowed by curiosity.
My eyes stay on the still-unconscious man. “He hurt me.”
My foot lifts without much thought. If I press my shoe over his throat, how long would I have to stand here before he suffocated?
I don’t know the answer, but I want to.
Except Luca is pulling me away and I lose my footing, falling onto the grassy lawn. I open my mouth to voice my displeasure, but Luca is bent over the body and when his arm moves, his hand is holding a bloody knife.
He wipes it over his pants, then tucks the blade away before turning back to me. “We need to move.”
My eyes don’t leave the body until I have confirmation. I need to know that whoever he is, he can’t hurt me or anyone else ever again.
When I see the crimson pooling around his chest from a gaping stab wound, I feel lighter than I expected. A peace fills me at knowing the world is a little safer without this stranger in it, and I willingly follow Luca to where he’s taking me.
Funny how bombs freak me the fuck out, but dead bodies not so much.
We get to the next fence, and he stops, pointing at the next house. “That’s where Tori is. She’s still in the living room and out of the radius for the bomb. It’s going off in two minutes, and it’s going to be louder than you realize. Push past the shock you’ll feel, go through the front door no sooner than twenty seconds after the explosion, grab Tori, and run. Don’t explain anything to her until you’re in the SUV. Do you understand?”
“Loud noises. Twenty seconds. Grab and run,” I repeat the instructions, trying to hide my shaking hands from him. “I can do that.”
“I know you can,” he replies earnestly, “or you wouldn’t be here. But I meant what I said earlier. Leave without us if we’re not back within three minutes of you getting to the car. Not a second later.”
“Got it.” I tap my phone in my back pocket. “I’ll even set a timer.”
