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The man faced me. I had no idea what his name was and wasn’t about to ask but I had to say something.
“My blood sugar,” I stated. “I’m diabetic and need my medicine. It’s back at the house.”
“Then you’ll die at my table,” he said with a shrug.
“But I need it and the banks are closed until Monday. Romeo needs to transfer the money to you, but he can’t tonight.”
“You won’t be leaving until I have my money. Jordan won’t be coming after you.”
Dash chuckled, drawing my attention to him. “I’m not sure you realize who you’re dealing with. Jordan will put a bullet between your eyes. You doing this won’t get you a dime. You may think you can blackmail him, but I highly doubt you’ll be able to.”
“Dash,” Romeo whispered. “Stop.”
“No. I’m sick and tired of being intimidated by people.” He stood, pushing the chair back. “Fuck’s sake. Someone always wants something.” Dash kept talking but in standing, all three guns pointed at him and no longer at Romeo and me. All eyes were on Dash.
“Why is everything about money?” Dash continued. “Did your mother not raise you right? How would she feel if she saw you threaten to kill us?”
Through clenched teeth, the man said, “You will not speak of my mother.”
Dash moved to the sink to rest his hip against it. If I tried to take one of the bad guys down, I’d get us all killed. I didn’t know what to do.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Romeo slouch low in his seat. Fuck, he was going to do something he shouldn’t. There were three guns on Dash, and we weren’t armed.
Then I heard it… The faintclickof a gun being cocked or whatever the hell they called it. I didn’t know shit about guns, but I’d heard that noise in hundreds of movies. It came frombehind me while Dash kept talking, angering these men more and more.
“Put the gun down, Markus.” Jordan Altair Sr. had entered the equation. “I have your home surrounded and your men outside are dead.”
Markus spun slowly, the sneer on his face firmly in place. “You got here faster than I figured.”
“You didn’t account for the man I had waiting nearby who followed you here and reported your moves the entire way. No, he couldn’t take you on his own, but he kept me apprised as I gathered my men and secured the perimeter. You’ve only lasted this long in my city because I allowed you to. Did you think I didn’t know about you or your family? A low-level criminal thinking you could run drugs in my city. The only reason I didn’t squash you like the bug you are is because I was waiting for you to make a play. What I didn’t expect was for you to come for those under my protection. That was your mistake and one I will fix.” Jordan kept his gun trained on Markus as more of Jordan’s guards came into the room.
A trigger was pulled, a shot rang out, and my ears rang from the proximity to it. I was dragged to the ground by Romeo. He covered my body as I curled into a ball on instinct. I’d never seen someone get shot before. The way the bullet entered Markus’s head had bile rising in my throat.
Romeo’s body shook on top of mine as what sounded like a war broke out in the house. Windows shattered, glass rained onto the floor. More arms wrapped around us. If anything happened to the men I loved, I’d be lost.
31
DASH
Getting to Tristan and Romeo was my top priority when the guns started going off and I dropped to the ground. But then blood landed on me, and a fucking body hit me. As I moved across the floor that was quickly covering with crimson, none of it mattered. Only Tristan and Romeo did.
By the time I got to them and wrapped myself around them where they huddled under the kitchen table, Romeo shook so bad, I found it hard to hold him. The sounds around us eventually stopped. It was like Jordan and his men were trying to see how many bullets they could fire in a few minutes.
Rough hands pushed at me, but I refused to let my men go.
“Dash, you have to get up,” Jordan urged. “We need to leave before the police get here. There’s only so much I can do. There’s an entire neighborhood of people out there my men are currently paying off. Now get up. I have to make sure none of you are hurt then we run.”
I slowly peeled myself off Romeo and held my hand out for him. His eyes were big, and his hands shook. He clasped my hand and stood on trembling legs. Tristan rose next with my and Jordan’s help. He threw himself at Romeo and me firstthen lunged for Jordan, wrapping his arms around him while he thanked him profusely.
“I knew you’d come,” Tristan said. “I knew you wouldn’t leave Romeo.”
Jordan patted him on the back which was probably as close to a hug as Tristan was going to get. “I came for all of you, now go.” He released Tristan and started pushing us toward the already open back door. “No looking down, no touching anything. Move forward and keep going until you see an SUV on the street behind us. Don’t stop until you’re in it.”
With my hands in theirs and my shoes sliding on blood, and I didn’t want to know what else, we ran. The yard was dark, dogs barked, and people shouted. We had the cover of night without one light hitting us as we were quickly ushered into a waiting SUV that tore off the second the three of us were inside. Headlights bounced behind us, partially illuminating the vehicle we were in.
“It’s only Jordan and more of his men,” the guy driving said deeply. “You’re safe.” I hadn’t heard that voice before. It was calmer than I was used to from his guards. Most of them looked like they wanted to kill me when I opened my mouth to speak to Jordan. But this guy seemed to want to soothe us.
He handled the streets of East Dremest with practiced ease, not stopping until we were in the garage at Jordan’s building. “Take your shoes off and touch nothing as you go inside. Barry is waiting by the elevator. He’ll show you up to a room where you can shower and change. I’m going to dispose of the vehicle. Go.”
