The Deadliest Sin Series Complete Collection, page 135
“What?” The phone jostles slightly as I take a turn. “Who was it?”
“I don't know. I'm assuming our mystery gang of thugs.”
“Fuck, are you hit?”
“No.”
“I heard you weren't so lucky a few days ago.”
I glance at Aleksei, who gives me a look but doesn't say anything. “Yes, that was unfortunate, but I’m fine.”
“Why are you calling me, Valerian? Shouldn't you be phoning your best buddy, Galen, for help?”
Swallowing thickly, I cast another quick look toward Aleksei before I take another turn and have to stop at a red light. Tension tightens my shoulders as I scan around the car and watch in the rearview for any threats coming after us.
The city seems quiet, almost peaceful, at the moment, but we all know how swiftly that can change for the worse. What I’m about to do could be the catalyst for that change, or it could be the salvation I need.
Here it goes.
The moment of truth.
I can't go to Galen. Not with this information. Not about Sofia. Not yet. But Valentina and Cutter will see how important it is to get her back, how essential she could be in the future of shaping this city if we have her on our side. Which was the only thing keeping me from lashing out at her when she revealed the truth.
“I need you to have Valentina on the line, too.”
Cutter may pull the trigger, but Valentina makes the decisions. She’s the one who needs to hear this and ultimately determine my fate.
“Who the fuck are you to give me any orders?” Cutter’s anger vibrates through the line. “If there's something she needs to know, I'll tell her.”
“Get. Her. On. The. Line.” I growl the words as the light changes to green. Then I make a left-hand turn to pull onto the street where one of our safe houses sits, a modicum finally hitting me, knowing we’re so close.
After some muttered cursing and jostling of the phone, Valentina clears her throat. “Cutter filled me in. Why did you need to talk to me?”
To confess. At least some things…
“Whoever just hit my place took a woman who is very important to me.”
A momentary pause lingers while I wait for her to say something.
“I'm very sorry to hear that, Valerian. I wasn't aware you were with anyone.”
With anyone…
Those words somehow seem inadequate to describe whatever is happening between Sofia and me, but I can’t let the Marconis know that. It would expose a major weakness they will leverage against me.
“I'm not.” The lie burns like acid on my tongue. “She's important in another way. A way that’s important to you, too."
I pull down the alley behind the safe house and throw the car into park beside the dilapidated garage. Aleksei furrows his brows at me in confusion.
I'm going to have some serious explaining to do after tonight.
“The night Galen and I took out the Luna Cartel’s warehouse, a woman showed up at my club. She and I have grown…friendly over the last couple of weeks, and she could be a major asset to both of us if we want to return this city to what it once was.”
“I don't know what you're talking about, Valerian.”
You’re about to.
“It's Sofia Rose.”
“What?” The phone jostles again. Cutter growls. “Did I just fucking hear you right? You've been harboring Sofia rose this entire time?”
“No. I never knew where she was. She showed up unannounced with a false name and under false pretenses.”
“Where the hell has she been? What has she been doing?”
“That's not for me to tell, but suffice it to say, I need her. We need her. She has information no one else in the world does against people who have made our lives Hell, and now, she was just taken by whoever attacked my house. I need your help finding her and getting her back—before her brothers realize what's going on.”
Cutter offers a scoff. “Jesus Christ, Valerian, you really know how to put us in a fucked-up position, don't you?”
Valentina whispers something to Cutter in Italian. “I'm not sure we can assist you, Valerian. If the Roses get wind that we knew where she was and think we knew the whole time—”
“I know, but I'm telling you, they don't suspect a thing. They won’t know unless whoever took her approaches them directly before we can find her.” I shut off the engine and scrub a hand over my face. “We can cut this off at the pass and ensure she remains an asset to us and not a pawn in her brothers’ games.”
“Fuck”—Cutter growls again—“give us a second.”
The line goes silent for a moment as Aleksei scowls at me.
He finally shakes his head incredulously. “Julia is Sofia, the Roses’ sister?”
I give him a sharp nod and open the car door, snatching the phone from his hand and putting it to my ear. He climbs from the car and slams the door, following me up the rear stairs. With a trembling hand that I do my best to hide, I manage to punch in the code on the lock and step inside. Aleksei closes the door behind us and throws the deadbolt back into place.
Valentina clears her throat again. “I'll help you…under one condition.”
“What's that?”
“When we get her back, Sofia comes with me, not you.”
I freeze midway through the living room of the old brownstone that’s still under renovation. “You expect me to let you take her? Over my fucking dead body.”
“It sounds like that’s likely happening soon, anyway, Valerian. Someone wants you dead, and you're the one who called us, remember? Those are my terms.”
Bylad!
My closest and most trusted men have been killed. My house was destroyed. My body is already in shambles. And the woman I am in love with has been taken.
What other choice do I have?
VALERIAN
My bullet strikes the oblivious man squarely in the chest, and his lifeless body crumbles to the ground outside the inconspicuous dilapidated warehouse. It was the perfect shot, but there isn't any time to celebrate that small victory. The man standing guard beside him whirls toward me, ready to return fire, but I get off four more rounds before he can. They slam into him center mass, and he drops beside his comrade before he even has a chance to see who was shooting at him.
Cutter glances over at me from my left side, his weapon ready but unfired. “You said you needed my help.”
I offer him an incredulous snort as we advance toward the door that will get us inside now that it isn’t “protected” by these two. Moving fast and being deadly accurate is the only way we have any chance of finding Sofia alive and unscathed.
Too much time has passed since they took her.
Anything could have happened in the hours since then.
I can’t even allow myself to consider the possibilities. If I do, it will only cloud my judgment and prevent me from doing what’s important right now—killing all these fuckers and getting her back.
“I do need your help.” I continue to scan the area around the outside of the building to ensure no one else poses a threat—not that those two really did. They never saw us coming, likely thought no one would ever find them here since they’ve managed to hide well the last few months. “I never would have found her if it weren't for you.”
Not a chance in hell.
This is the last place I would have looked for a well-trained group like the ones who have been coming after us. Only technology and skills I’ll never have made this possible.
Cutter’s friend, Preacher, really is a miracle worker. In less than an hour after my call to them, he had hacked the traffic light cameras around my house and was able to follow the vehicle that left my place and brought the attackers—and Sofia—here. Their apparent headquarters, though, whether they’ve been here the entire time they’ve been wreaking havoc on Chicago or have kept moving to avoid detection, remains to be seen.
And while Cutter’s computer guru uses what he’s found to dig more, Aleksei, Dmitri, Cutter, and a few men in his crew have come with me to do the dirty work.
It doesn't matter that my body aches and is on the verge of giving out completely or that we haphazardly sewed Aleksei’s wound before we got the call from Cutter and came.
In these situations, time is of the essence. The longer they have Sofia, the greater chance she says something that will get me—and her—killed. If she reveals what she knows and it comes out, Cutter, Aleksei, and Dmitri will likely turn their guns on me before I ever have a chance to explain.
My long-term, well-thought-out plan may end up putting me in an early grave, which is exactly what I had hoped to avoid by doing it in the first place.
Cutter motions for me to fall in line behind him as we approach the main entry door that the two men were not protecting very well. Aleksei, Dmitri, and two of Cutter’s guys follow closely, prepared to split off from us once we're inside to cover the entire warehouse. We don’t know how many men might be inside or how well-armed they are, so we have to be ready for anything they could possibly throw at us.
The attacks they’ve executed have proven they’re worthy adversaries, meaning this fight could get very dirty.
Cutter places a small charge on the door and steps back, raising his hand for everyone to hold while he alerts Preacher to cut the power and counts down to the detonation. The lights go out on the exterior of the building, and the sharp crack of the explosion echoes through the night. If the shots didn't alert anyone inside to what's happening, that sure did.
We enter through the lingering smoke and advance down a short hallway toward a barely visible T intersection of halls ahead of us. Heavy, rushed footsteps echo somewhere in the space, and we hit the end of the hallway, where it branches off in two different directions. Cutter motions for me to follow him, along with Dmitri, while Aleksei and two of his men split off the other way.
Everyone knows the plan—find the girl, kill everyone else on sight.
No matter how badly we want to take a prisoner for questioning, it can’t be at the risk of Sofia—Julia to everyone except Cutter and Aleksei, who are the only ones privy to the truth in this group. But if we can manage to get one of these fuckers alive, we certainly aren't going to pass up the chance to potentially find out who's really behind all of this.
It’s gone on long enough and interfered with my plans, and now these fuckers think they can take what’s mine. They’ll pay for it in blood.
A barrage of bullets flies at us the moment we turn the corner, and we return fire and press against the wall—our only cover for whatever lies dead ahead of us. The old building plans Preacher found likely aren’t accurate anymore, so we're going in partially blind against an unknown enemy.
The shots stop, and we move forward again, stepping over the bodies of three men dressed in black sprawled across the floor. It seems our aim is better than theirs—or luck is on our side tonight.
It certainly isn’t God.
With all the sins we’ve committed, there won’t be any help from Him anytime soon.
We’ve already taken out five, but we have no idea how many more there might or how much resistance we'll meet. Given how aggressively they’ve come on in their previous attacks, there’s every reason to believe they’ll go down fighting if we try to take their only bargaining chip—and that’s without them knowing who they really hold.
If they discover she’s Sofia Rose, all bets are off.
There’s no way I’ll get her back…
My chest tightens painfully, and I force myself to shake off that thought. If I let it linger, it will cloud my judgment and slow my reactions. That would spell certain death against these opponents.
We approach the end of the hallway, where it seems to open up to the main warehouse area. Cutter holds up his hand to stop us and scans around the corner, signaling there are two more men just on the other side. He motions for me to take the guy on the left and he'll take the one on the right.
I suck in a deep breath, then we move around the corner and step into the open space, immediately firing shots at our intended targets. Mine hit their mark, as do his. The two men drop, leaving the warehouse empty but for a few chairs and tables set up on one side next to a closed door that must lead to some sort of office.
This can’t be where they’ve been operating from the whole time. There isn’t anything here. It’s just a temporary holding location for their prize, somewhere to interrogate her and do whatever else they want to the beautiful woman who has twisted me up and made me forget all the reasons why getting involved with her, knowing who she was, was such a horrible idea.
Cutter signals to the other men to hang back and secure the room while we approach the unknown on the other side of the dilapidated wood. A million scenarios of what we might be walking into flash through my head, each worse than the last.
Pausing just outside, we listen for signs of any movement, and Cutter indicates he’s going in first. He turns and kicks open the door. The old material gives easily, shattering inward to the small room.
My breath catches in my throat.
Kotyonok!
Sofia stands at the center of it, blood streaking down one side of her face and over her arm. A gun is pressed to her temple by a dark-haired man behind her, using her as a shield.
Rage boils through my blood, heating my body and making my hand tighten on the gun grip. I'm a good shot, but I'm not good enough to risk trying to take him out with that gun on Sofia.
Cutter is another story. The man has the kind of skills and accuracy I could only dream of, and he has his weapon trained on them like he’s ready to shoot. But something twists in my gut, a feeling that something is about to go very wrong if I let him take the shot.
Without even thinking, I step up and put myself slightly in front of him, directly in his line of fire and in the sightline of the man holding Sofia hostage. It takes a second for my brain to process his face.
Bylad!
Fury surges through my veins.
I never forget a face, and I know exactly where I saw his—which makes this standoff even more dangerous. Even without Sofia, he knows things he shouldn’t, things that could destroy me.
He presses the muzzle of the gun more tightly into her temple that's already bloodied from a gash. She was either grazed by a bullet or pistol-whipped. Likely what caused the cry of pain I heard from the ground below the window back at the house.
His lips curl into a sneer. “I’m impressed you found us, but it won't matter in the end. All of you will be dead.”
Cutter sidesteps me and offers a sardonic snort-laugh, his gun zeroed in on the man. “If I were going to let you live, I would have you tell whoever you're working for to go fuck themselves if they think any of us will go down that easily.”
A sinister grin spreads across his lips. “There are a lot of things you don't know. I wouldn't be so confident.” His gaze darts over to me. “Right, Valerian? Why don’t you tell—”
I pull the trigger before he can utter another word.
VALERIAN
My bullet hits him between the temples, and the back of his head explodes against the dingy, dirty wall behind them—the only place I could aim without hitting Sofia. If she had moved even slightly, she would have been the one taking the lead in the face, but I couldn’t risk him saying anything else that might put me in hot water with the scarred mercenary next to me.
He isn’t the type who would offer me any chance to explain if anything else has been said, if my secret had been exposed…
The gunman collapses, his weapon tumbling to the ground beside his body as Sofia sags to her knees on the concrete floor, her legs incapable of supporting her anymore.
I holster my gun and rush forward, pulling her into my arms. She trembles against my chest, her body practically vibrating, but she isn't crying.
Not a sob.
Not a tear.
Nothing but silence.
Slowly, I pull back and take her face between my palms, looking into her bourbon eyes. “Are you okay?”
Pure rage stares back at me—the kind of anger that burns down entire cities with a single word. The kind of fury that set her on this path in the first place. This is the Sofia who wants revenge, the one willing to do anything to get it, the one who swallowed her fear and came into Gluttony to find a partner.
Squaring her shoulders, she swallows and nods. “I will be”—her rock-hard gaze flashes briefly to where her captor’s body lies—“when all these fuckers are gone.”
“What the hell was that, Valerian?” Cutter approaches, his marred face hard and lips twisted into a sneer. “We could have questioned him and tried to find out who they're working for.”
I shake my head. “He wouldn't have told us. He was going to kill her, anyway, because he knew you were going to kill him.”
“Bullshit. I could have gotten something out of him—something useful.”
That was exactly my concern…
I help Sofia to unsteady feet, and she turns to face Cutter, undeterred by his wrath.
“He wouldn't have told you. They were too careful about what they said in front of me to have ever revealed anything. He would have shot himself before letting you take him to torture and question.”
Cutter scowls at Sofia. “I'd say it's a pleasure to see you again, Sofia, but under the circumstances…” He takes a step forward. “We’ll have time catch up later. Now, you’re coming with me.”
He takes another step and freezes when Dmitri nestles the muzzle of his gun against the back of Cutter’s head.
I shift to place myself firmly between him and Sofia. “You're not going to be taking her anywhere, Cutter.”
Even from behind the sunglasses he wears, the hatred with which he looks at me sends heat radiating from him. “What the fuck are you doing, Valerian? This wasn't our deal.”
Cutter glances behind him to where Dmitri stands and beyond to where Aleksei holds Cutter’s two men at gunpoint, too. There isn’t any way out of this for them—at least, not alive or with Sofia.
