Entwined, page 16
With me flat against the wall, and Vander acting like a human shield, Cole has the room he needs to slide past and join Jasper on the same step. The three of them communicate out of my view.
I could be pissed that they are sheltering me. But I’m smart enough to know that when it comes to this kind of thing, I’m an amateur. Sure, I’ve killed plenty at this point, but this isn’t the same ball game. I have full confidence they won’t coddle me so much once I have more experience. If not… well, they’ll meet my pretty little knife hidden in the cuff Jasper gave me. I should give her a name.
Jasper and Cole advance on the stairs at the same time, and the moment they get a clear shot, they take it. Not able to get them all at once—because why would they? It’s not like they are carrying automatic weapons—the men left standing shoot back. Wood splinters fly in the air from bullets missing their mark.
The guards aren’t using silencers like we have on our guns; the pops echoing through the open stairway sounding louder than they should. I know from experience my ears will ring for a while.
Vander and I hold our guns up, aiming them at the top floor, simply waiting for the chance to shoot one of them. Every so often, one of the guys will duck, trying their best to hide from the oncoming bullets.
That is, until Cole jerks back and slips on the stairs. He tumbles toward me, my instinct is to stop his progress before he gets hurt even more, but Vander’s hand returns to my chest, slamming me against the wall once more.
Cole’s groans are overshadowed by the gunshots, and I’m torn. Part of me wants to storm up the stairs to end this fight, and the other needs to check on him.
The latter wins out and I rush down the steps until I reach the landing. The bastard has the nerve to pat his body down like he’s checking that he’s in one piece before holding the back of his head.
“Fuck, that hurts,” he whines.
In the upper left side of his vest is a bullet lodged in the material. I can’t help myself, I press the barrel of the silencer against the side of his head and fist the top of his vest with my other hand. “If you ever let someone other than me shoot you again, I’ll kill you.”
“I love you too, Luv.” He sounds out of breath, although I’m not sure if it was the bullet or the ride down the stairs.
“I mean it,” I hiss.
“Yes, Luv. I know you do.” He pats my arm placatingly, and my finger itches to move over the trigger.
“Now isn’t the time for flirting,” Vander barks under his breath. It makes me realize the shooting has stopped.
“Come along, Little Bird,” Jasper says, grabbing my arm and drawing me away from Cole.
Vander reaches his hand out, offering to help him to his feet, which Cole takes with a groan. “This Ravenmaster needs his Raven to kiss his bruise later.”
“Kiss it yourself,” I huff.
The fucking psycho chuckles behind me. Damn idiot made my heart stop for a moment there. I won’t say it out loud, but I’m really happy that the bullet didn’t hit him. I’m more thankful than ever for my access to the weapons development company my father owns. Well, adopted father, I guess.
Jasper and I make it to the top of the staircase, and I’m once again tucked behind one of my men. He quickly checks around the corner for any surprise shooters lurking in wait, and finding the coast clear, he continues on down the hallway.
We step over bodies, making it to the bedroom where we hope to find TB. I'm not sure these men could’ve ended up more sprawled out if we tried. I tiptoe around, doing my best to avoid arms, legs, a severed finger, and weapons.
I'm not sure how Jasper does it, the man must have ballerina feet because I'm a wobbly mess. Navigating this carnage is dreadful. I would've been better off stepping directly on them like a swaying bridge, which is proven when I trip over a tiny plastic object. The slight crunch under my shoe is enough to set me off balance.
The floor careens toward my face and just as quickly turns into a view of the banister, then the hallway as I'm set to rights with fingertips digging into my sides. Cole lets out a pain filled groan and grips his chest as he steps away from me. The impact from the bullet, while greatly deflected from the vest, will still leave him with a bruise. Seems I’m not the only one leaving this mission with a mark.
I glare at the ground where I just stepped and find some kind of small clicker that fell out of a man’s pocket. I bend to pick it up and flip it over in my hand. On the back there’s a crack in the plastic, but it seems to be intact enough to still work. For some reason beyond me, I slide it into my skin tight leggings. They don’t have any pockets, so I tuck it into my waistband.
My men have continued moving into position to bust open the bedroom door, everyone except Vander. He moves to stand so I’m between him and the others, always making sure I’m protected. Forever my bodyguard.
He nods with his head indicating I should continue on. His broad hand presses against my back, helping me to stay upright as I make it through the minefield of bodies. Five people should not span so much space.
When my back presses against the wall next to Cole, my excitement rises. This is the dream, hunting a target, killing with my men. Death and destruction. I’m not sure how I became so lucky to find them—a family who doesn’t judge, who embraces the same things I do.
Jasper reaches out and twists the doorknob, finding it locked. Instead of kicking it down and becoming an easy target, he reaches into his side pocket, removing a small device. It’s something still in development from Halston Solutions. One of the things we had sent to us while waiting for a plan.
He affixes sticky pads around the doorknob and turns his back toward it before pressing the button. A small charge goes off, enough to free the door from the jamb. Not wasting a second, he swings the wood out with a nudge of his hand that he quickly draws back into his body.
As predicted, gunshots go off, embedding in the hall wall across from the opening. Three of them before silence takes over.
“Trent,” Jasper calls into the void. That must be the Tulip Broker’s actual name. “There’s nowhere to go.”
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my brother, come for a visit,” a smooth voice pronounces. It’s not what I pictured him sounding like at all. “I’d say it’s a pleasure to hear from you, but it’s really not. Don’t worry, I’ll be disposing of you soon.”
Before we can do anything, a loud bang resonates from the room. In a burst of motion, we all run inside. Nothing good can come from that sound.
Chapter 21
Raven
Nothing. There’s nothing in the room, and we stop as a group in the middle. A bed, nightstands, dressers, all the normal things you’d expect to see in a bedroom. But not a single thing that would explain what we heard.
Vander and Jasper branch off, both searching what I assume are the bathroom and closet. They’re the only two doorways in the room other than where we came in from.
“Clear,” Vander shouts first, closely followed by Jasper saying the same thing.
All the while, Cole ransacks everything his fingers touch. He shoves furniture out of place. Runs his hands around all the edges. Rips frames off the walls. Tears the curtains from their rods. Then starts running his hands along the walls on the decorative molding that adds texture to the back wall as an accent.
I’m not sure what he’s searching for, which means I won’t be any help at all, and with the way he’s acting, I don’t think he’ll even hear me if I ask. Instead, I make my way to the window, right in time to find the Tulip Broker tumbling out of the side of the building through a trapdoor. I get the impression it wasn’t the smooth exit he thought it was supposed to be with the way he stumbles getting to his feet. It very well might be what Cole is wanting to find.
“He’s running in the back,” I shout, drawing the others to me, everyone but Cole, who doesn’t stop. I watch as the bastard darts across the lawn, sprinting full speed like he’s being chased by a bull.
Cole must find the secret exit because that same sound we heard before fills the room and when I turn around he’s gone. Fuck.
“I saw where he was,” Vander says, squeezing my shoulder. “I’ll follow him.”
He’s gone before I can even open my mouth to respond, and I sigh. There’s no way either of them makes it in time to stop TB. He has too much of a head start; he’s over halfway to what looks to be a pool house.
Obviously, he’s running there for a reason. My question is if that’s some kind of safe haven from attack, then why the fuck isn’t it attached to the main part of the mansion? Seems like a deeply flawed plan from someone who runs an underground, prosperous, slave trade production.
As I expected, TB makes it to the pool house and a split second later, metal shutters slam into place over the windows, and a door covers the entry point. It appears to be impenetrable from here. I mean… why wouldn’t it be?
Cole still has a good chunk of the lawn to run across, but he doesn’t stop, and neither does Vander, who’s chasing after him. When Cole makes it to the door, he tries pushing it open. His hands clearly slide against the metal, doing nothing at all.
Jasper wraps his arm around me, encouraging me to turn away. And honestly, I go willingly. This doesn’t feel like something I want to watch. “Let’s keep looking. There will probably be some hidden way to unlock it from the outside. If not, Cole can work on hacking into the system once he cools down.”
I nod and follow him out of the room. The moment we enter the hall once more, I see movement of someone sneaking up the stairs. Knowing my two men are outside, I don’t hesitate to shoot. The bullet hits his forehead, and he drops like a sack of potatoes, thumping along several stairs until his weight settles.
Jasper edges along, making sure that was the only one trying to catch us off guard. He’s so focused on watching the stairs that he doesn’t notice someone entering from the other end of the hall where it turns to the other half of the mansion.
Not having time to tell him to duck, I step to the side, getting Jasper out of my shot and fire at the new attacker. He ducks right before I pull the trigger, making my bullet slam into the wall. It draws Jasper’s attention enough to focus on our newest opponent.
He kneels and points his hand, indicating he wants me to keep an eye out on the staircase too. It’s several seconds before the man tries poking his head around the corner again, but when you're waiting in the middle of a firefight, it feels like an eternity. The seconds tick in your head like the deafening sound of the hand on a clock.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Until, finally, you get that spark of movement. In a situation like this, reflexes are everything—being able to get the shot off first before your opponent could be the difference between life or death. Thankfully, Jasper has a quicker trigger finger. The man goes down, dropping his gun, and it skitters across the floor.
Making any progress through the mansion feels like it takes forever. We take slow steps, and once again I’m stuck climbing over the sprawled bodies from before. I wish I could say I’m more graceful, but I’m not. It’s a miracle I don’t end up starfished on top of them, goochplanting in some dead guy's crotch.
My ass feels warm at the mere thought of Jasper punishing me for being that close to another man’s cock.
We finally make it down the hall to where the blueprints said the office door should be located, but it’s nothing other than a blank wall. We assumed there would be differences, and there have been. But being on the same floor as TB’s bedroom… I’m worried about what we’ll find.
Following the wall, there are no breaks, no doors until the very end of the hall, meaning it’s most likely one solid room. There’s one problem though. The door we’re staring at doesn’t have any handles, no keypad, nothing.
“How are we supposed to get in?” I ask, watching as Jasper runs his fingers along the outside of the door.
“Not sure,” he grunts. “Maybe there’s a secret button or a latch. If not, we’ll need to get Cole to hack this too. But I doubt he’ll give it any of his attention until after the Tulip Broker is dead.”
“Why do you call him that instead of his name? I heard you use it earlier.” I move to the window and shift the curtains to the side, searching if the secret way to open the door is hidden here. Something tells me it won’t be some obvious trick.
“Because it humanizes him, and he’s a fucking monster. He doesn’t deserve any sympathy. The things that happened in his past doesn’t give him carte blanche for what he’s done. I’m a sick and twisted man, I’ve started an assassin’s wet dream of a guild for finding business, but even I’m disgusted by what he’s done.
“When I think about it for too long, I hate myself for knowing who he is, for knowing what kind of sick things he dipped his fingers in, and I’ve done nothing about it. Let him hide away with no recourse. I could’ve stopped him and I turned a blind eye.” He turns around and rests his back against the metal door and pinches the bridge of his nose.
“Someone we care about was affected by him, and it’s all my fault. Cole might not blame me now, but he will some day, and I don’t want that to rip apart your happiness too.” He turns around and punches the sheetrock next to the door, the force of it going right through. Then he starts tearing at the material, working to uncover it.
I’m not sure what to do. Emotions aren’t my area of expertise. But I do know who excels in it. I walk partially down the hall to attempt to hide my conversation. “Grayson? Did you hear?”
“Yeah, I did.” He has access to all of our coms, but it doesn’t mean he’s listening to mine specifically.
Eyeing Jasper, I whisper, “What do I say?”
Grayson blows out a breath. “Remi, babe, you know what to say.”
“No, I don’t,” I practically hiss. The back of my neck prickles with sweat, and I rub my hand at it.
“You’ve got this. I have faith in you,” he tells me. No fucking help at all.
I walk back to Jasper and rest my hand on his shoulder. “Hindsight is always clearer. The important thing is you're doing something now. You’re doing everything you can to exterminate TB and to help Cole find his sister.”
He turns to face me, and I swallow hard. “I—I don’t know what to say to reassure you.” He suddenly wraps me in a hug, squeezing me tight.
“You wanting to is enough. I know there’s a disconnect when it comes to things like this.” He kisses my forehead. “Next time you feel this way, tell me ‘I’m here’, and I’ll know.”
How did things get turned around to him comforting me instead of the other way? That’s Jasper, though, always wanting to take care of those around him. I swipe my hands down my body, stepping away from him so we can continue working the problem.
My hand bumps against the fob I tucked in my pants. I completely forgot about it. It seems curious one of the security guys would have something like this that isn’t attached to any keys. Palming it in my hand, I turn it over so the button faces up, and I press it.
With a slight hiss of flowing air, the metal door opens. Jasper and I share a look, then move toward it at the same time. The first thing I process is the guard shooting to his feet and fumbling to grasp an object.
The second thing I see is the woman banging on a clear wall and shaking her other hand like she’s desperately telling us to hold off.
“Hold,” I snap out, not even risking the use of Jasper’s name. He freezes immediately, but we both keep our guns trained on the man. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the woman breath out a sigh of relief.
“I’m holding a deadman’s switch. You shoot me, all the air out of her chamber gets sucked out,” he says, pointing to the woman.
Fuck.
“I’m letting the others know,” Grayson says, reading my mind. I’m at a loss of what to do. This is so far out of my realm. I’m used to killing people, and not giving a single shit. But my heart clenches with desperation to save this woman.
Jasper lowers his gun, holding up a placating hand. “Seems we’re at a bit of an impasse. What will it take for you to put that button down?”
“You can put the barrel of that gun in your mouth and pull the trigger.” I growl, fisting my gun tighter as I stare the man down. He’s older. Wrinkles mar his skin where crow's feet would usually be, but somehow these lines don’t give the impression they came from smiling. His hair is salt and pepper, buzzed close on the sides and only slightly longer on top. The most defining characteristic, though, is a burn mark starting at the bottom of his jaw, trailing into his shirt.
“We both know that won’t happen, so how about something more realistic,” Jasper counters.
Scarface scowls. “I won’t betray the Tulip Broker.” His hand dips behind his back, and the moment I see a peek of black reminiscent of a gun, I don’t hesitate. I can’t. Nobody’s life is worth me losing Jasper.
It’s as easy as breathing. I pull the trigger. Deadman’s switch be damned.
Chapter 22
Raven
Jasper lunges into action, running toward Scarface. His hands fumble, trying his best to grab the switch and keep pressure on the button, but my shot wasn’t immediately lethal. The man rips his hand out of reach and drops the trigger.
A hissing sound comes from the far side of the room, drawing my attention. The woman inside the enclosure stares at the wall behind her, then turns panicked eyes on me. She bangs on the thick glass and points to the computer that Scarface was sitting at. It’s similar to what Cole had at his house in D.C.
Monitors hang on the wall with a dizzying array of information. Cole should be the one here, not me. I don’t know the first thing about what I’m looking at. Glancing at the woman again, I find she’s trying to say something. Her mouth is moving, but I can’t hear a sound. Whatever the enclosure is made out of, it dims the sound too much to be intelligible.
