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I expected terror. I expected screams.
But this wasn’t a normal crowd and my mind was cast back to the first time I’d meet Finley when I'd stumbled into that room I shouldn’t have seen, back when I was stupid and naive, one that’d seen its fair share of blood and pain. But I wasn’t naive now. I knew all too well what was happening.
Evan and Xael just rose. Xael took the bottle as she slipped her hand into Evan’s and glanced toward me. “Straight home, Anna, or you can come and stay with us?”
“No.” I forced a smile and rose. “I’ll be okay.”
Kat huddled against Damon, her face pale. One look my way, and I knew tonight I’d be on my own. I gave Kat a nod. “Stay, I’m fine.”
“You sure?” she mouthed.
No.“Yes,” I answered with a smile.
“Okay, let’s go people. I want to be the one notified the first instant you hear from Baldeon,” the Commander spoke as they headed to the elevator in pairs and small groups. Smiles had been replaced with hard gazes.
“Mr. Rossi,” the Commander spoke, looking at Lazarus. “Can I expect you in my office?”
But Lazarus didn’t shift his gaze from Kat, who turned and clung to Damon. “Sure, you can expect me,” he muttered, and severed his stare. “But you’re not going to fucking like it.”
The Commander and Lazarus left.
Evan and Xael were gone.
I followed the others, crowding into the elevator along with the guards. There were more men in suits waiting downstairs. Each one broke away as we stepped out of the elevator and walked through the foyer in somber silence.
Baldeon was missing…
And suddenly the night stretched before me…cold and very much alone.
19
Finley
Blood.
It was everywhere.
Pooling under his body lying face down on the concrete floor.
The white gauze bandage over his shoulder showed stark crimson in the bright neon lights.
“He died screaming,” the doctor sighed beside me.
I turned away from the sight, the image of Baldeon’s head burned into my mind. “Yeah, he died screaming.”
Footsteps echoed in the distance. Max and Pavlov were focused, their guns in their hands, muzzles trained on the resounding thuds.
“Easy, it’s us,” the Commander called from the darkness before he stepped into the light.
Rossi was behind him, his hands curled into fists. His gaze, already savage, had been pushed to the edge before he even got here. His blue eyes met mine and there they stayed.
There was no love lost between us, that was for sure. Our families had been at war for a fucking century. Still, in that moment there was no hate, no rage…just a knowing…this could’ve been either of us.
His guards spread out, moving around the basement of Baldeon’s own apartment building as the Commander’s voice echoed. “What the fuck happened?”
The doctor took that opportunity to bend beside the body and turn it over. “Lacerations in a crisscross pattern across his chest.” He probed gloved fingers into a couple of the wounds. “Just from here, I’m counting five, six stab wounds deep enough to cause death. But I’m guessing the cut across his throat was the final straw.”
The body…not Baldeon anymore.
