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"Good boy," he murmured, the praise making my stomach turn. "You see? You can be obedient when properly motivated."
He stepped back, leaving me on all fours, head bowed. "Today is just the beginning, Matthew. By the time I'm finished, you'll be begging to serve me."
A knock at the door interrupted whatever he planned to say next. Degrassi frowned, setting the crop aside.
"Wait here," he commanded unnecessarily—where exactly did he think I could go?
Degrassi moved to the door, opening it just enough to speak with someone outside. Their voices were too low for me to hear clearly, but Degrassi's posture stiffened. And then I heard it.
Gunfire.
Chapter nineteen
Novo
We were lucky. Thewarehouse was exactly that. Low tech, thank fuck, because we had nothing with us. Degrassi was either stupid or so convinced of his superiority he wasn’t worried about being caught. But then, he assumed I could be paid off. They had no idea about my own personal revenge. Which pulled me up short.
I'd been right when I'd said Mom would have loved Matty.She’d have smothered him with as much care and attention as he could stand, and neither of my parents would have judged me for the choices I made.
I’d spent years consumed with the need for revenge until Matty had snuck up on me and snuggled into my heart.
And now he was all I wanted, and I knew Mom and Dad would be the first to agree. I also knew that if Coombes walked away and left Matty with me, he could take every cent. I just wanted my baby boy back in my arms where he belonged.
Jono whistled low for the signal, and we watched Tik Tac drive up to the door.
The warehouse entrance was guarded by two men in dark suits—private security, not street muscle. I watched from our position behind stacked shipping containers as Tik Tac approached them. He swaggered, cocky and ready to cause trouble.
"Remember," Jono had told him, "you just need to get inside. Once they open the door, make some noise."
Tik Tac nodded to the guards, saying something we couldn't hear. One guard spoke into a radio while the other patted him down. Then Tik Tac became belligerent, and a third guard arrived.
“Now,” I ordered. We moved as one unit, silent and deadly, approaching the entrance from three different angles. The guards never saw us coming.
I took the first one down with a choke hold, dragging him into the shadows while Jono and Bolt neutralized the second and third. Tik Tac followed us. No shots fired—we couldn't risk alerting anyone inside.
"Clear," Jono whispered, retrieving the guard's radio and gun.
We moved forward into a dimly lit corridor. The warehouse had been partitioned into smaller spaces, making it impossible to see what lay ahead. We moved carefully, checking each doorway.
"Stairs," Tik Tac pointed to our right to stairs heading down. "I was only here once a year ago, but it looks the same."
Of course Degrassi would keep Matty underground. Somewhere isolated, soundproof.
We descended silently, weapons ready. At the bottom, a long hallway stretched before us, fluorescent lights buzzing overhead. Three doors on each side, one at the end. Which one held Matty?
A muffled shout from the far end answered my question.
"Go," I ordered, abandoning stealth for speed, but two guards came out of the end door and raised their guns. Jono and I dropped them one two without drawing breath. I caught a glance of Degrassi as he saw us and fumbled for his own gun, but Bolt didn't give him a chance. I shot inside the room, stepping over the fucker's dead body and my eyes fell to the shivering, naked man on the floor. I bent and, with exaggerated care, picked Matty up from the floor. “Little one,” I whispered.
He blinked and opened dazed eyes. “Daddy,” he whispered back.
It was the best word I’d ever heard in my entire life.
For the first time in fifteen years, I let someone else ride my bike. Daisy drove the truck, and I held Matty carefully wrapped in a blanket and in my lap. He had a scraped and bruised neck from the collar, and two welts where the fucker had hit him, but curled into me, he wasn’t putting any pressure on them.
Matty didn't say a word the entire ride back to the compound. He just clung to me, face pressed against my chest, fingers twisted in my shirt like he was afraid I'd disappear if he let go. I kept one arm wrapped securely around him, the other gently stroking his hair, murmuring reassurances that probably made no sense but seemed to soothe him anyway.
We’d left Gunner and Cruise in charge of making sure there was nothing to tie us to the place, forensically or otherwise, and they would put in an anonymous tip to the cops as soon as they’d finished.