Page 112 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ZACH
“ W hat the fuck is going on, Noah?” Jolie barked as we raced to the elevator.
“Some kind of electronic lock engaged when Max and Bennett breached Andrea’s safe,” he replied.
I could hear his rapid typing in the background.
“Silver and Marcus are trying to access it, but, as you know, the Shadows have tried for years and haven’t been able to hack Spencer or Ferrero at their highest levels like this. ”
Marcus’ voice popped online. “Ferrero, if you can get your phone close to the lock, I can get in that way.”
“What the fuck kind of shit have you put on my phone, man?” I asked as I jammed my finger into the button to call the elevator. We were headed to the highest floor we could reach without a top-level security card, and then we’d take the fire stairs.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Marcus replied, the evasive fuck. “Just fucking get up there. We don’t know who this alarm notifies and how fast they’ll be able to get to the office.”
“Cool, cool, cool,” I chanted as we stepped into the elevator. “Seeing as how we only have the one small knife in Princess’s bra between the two of us.”
“We’ll improvise,” Jojo said, her face now eerily calm as she focused solely on saving Bennett and her brother .
Bennett was also cool as a cucumber as he said, “We’re fine. We’re both armed and can handle whatever they throw at us. Angel, do not put yourself in unnecessary danger.”
“Fat chance,” Noah, Max, and I muttered all at once.
Jojo scowled at me, and I just pulled her closer to press a little kiss to her shoulder.
“I’ll gut Anderson for failing to inform us of this new little enhancement to Andrea’s security,” she declared. “I’ll do things to him that make Frankie look like a fucking lovable Care Bear.”
Fuck me, now was not the time for an erection.
“Oh, Spencer looks turned on now,” Max said, chuckling. “Gross, I do not need to be on the line for your phone sex, sis.”
The elevator dinged, stopping us at the sixtieth floor and saving all of us from a tongue lashing from the Princess.
She bolted out the doors, moving impressively quickly in those sexy stiletto heels I’d spent the evening imagining digging into my ass as I buried my dick in her, and I raced after her.
The door to the emergency stairwell just off the elevator bank was never locked—safety first, people—and in a few quick, arduous minutes, we’d run up six flights of stairs to the locked door that accessed the first floor of the place I no longer called my home.
“Hold your phone to the keypad, Ferrero,” Marcus instructed.
I did, and within seconds, the loud beep announced the door unlocking.
“You know,” Jolie muttered, breathing hard. “This would’ve been nice to have back when I was breaking and entering into Family towers.”
“No fucking shit,” Max said in our ears.
“It’s in beta,” Marcus replied, nonchalantly.
Noah added, “And apparently it doesn’t mask the entry—it’ll still appear to security like foreign access, so it’s only for emergencies, such as the one we find ourselves in now.”
“You don’t need to remind us,” I griped, grabbing Jolie’s hand and leading us through the entryway toward the kitchen, to find the main level dark and completely devoid of life. “So far the house is clear.”
“Still clear here,” Bennett added. “Get a fucking move on.”
“We are on the way, Your Highness,” I drawled.
Mom’s office was located just off the kitchen down a short hallway. We raced that way, the light clicking of Jojo’s heels against the marble tiles the only discernible noise in the eerily quiet penthouse. When we arrived at the locked door, I swore viciously.
“What in the ever-loving fuck is this?”
Mom rarely kept her home office locked, presumably because the penthouse security as a whole was tight, and also because until very recently, she’d kept her most sensitive items locked away in the basement at the Club.
But now I was staring at some kind of electronic deadbolt—not a Knight brand, either—that had been remotely activated to lock the occupant inside.
“Just hold your phone up to it, dude,” Marcus barked in my ears.
I did, and the seconds ticked by as we all listened to Marcus’ rapid typing. Bennett, the impatient fuck, grumbled, “Why isn’t this extremely useful tech on anyone else’s phone?”
“I said it was in beta ,” Marcus growled. “I didn’t anticipate you lot getting yourselves trapped in a fucking Family penthouse.”
Finally, a bright green light flashed, and the whir of the locking mechanism disengaging was music to our ears.
We heard Noah chuckle. “Oh, don’t look so impressed, Silver.”
Jojo, not in the mood to fuck around, shoved the door open and darted inside. I followed on her heels, ready to lay my eyes on our brothers to ensure they were unharmed and then get the fuck out of here with the documents we’d come for.
The office was dark, the City lights outside the large window giving us just enough light to make out the shapes and features of the room.
Max and Bennett had both parked themselves on the front of Mom’s large desk, their booted feet swinging and their boredom evident even under their face coverings.
Jojo threw herself into Bennett’s arms while Max mumbled something about being chopped liver, and I took a moment to scan the office for anything else I might want to abscond with before we bailed.
“All good?” Noah asked. “Get moving. There’s no way that alarm didn’t dispatch the security team. Jojo, can you shimmy up the elevator shaft in your dress?”
Princess scoffed, sounding offended. “Noah, I fucking scaled the side of Hargraves Tower in one of those stupid little skirts the Holywell bitches love to wear. ”
“You did what ?” Bennett growled.
Silver cut in, apparently having wrestled control from Marcus because he was a little bitch. “Focus, please, everyone. Get to the roof. The helicopter will meet you?—”
The creaking hinges of a door being opened at the back of the office where there was not actually a door sent a jolt of fear and adrenaline through me as though it was the sound of a gunshot.
Bennett and Max whirled, pistols raised and aimed toward the sound. Bennett shoved Jojo behind him while Max stepped in front of me like the upstanding dude he actually was despite how much he liked to annoy the shit out of me.
“Well, well, well.” I knew that silky feminine voice so very well. “Zachary, it appears you lied to me.”
We were staring at a secret fucking doorway. A secret fucking passage into this office, hidden behind a bookshelf, that I had no idea about, and I’d lived in this fucking penthouse for eighteen years of my life.
Mom stepped into the room, still wearing her ridiculous pink dress, her new bodyguard at her side. Both of them had their handguns raised and pointed at us, so it was two guns to two.
Stalemate.
“Oh, Zachary, stop looking so shocked,” she said, flicking on a lamp that sat atop a nearby side table while keeping her dark eyes pinned on me. “I’ve made some sensible upgrades to this office since you decided to abandon your Family. I do know a thing or two about being prepared.”
The fact that this actually wasn’t something she’d hidden from me for years only made me feel marginally like less of an idiot.
“Rocky’s team was on standby, and we’re sending them in,” Noah said, his voice soft in our ears. “But it is going to take some time.”
I would stall, then.
“Mom, I have to say I’m extremely disappointed in you,” I began, stepping out from behind Max.
“Or, I should say, I’m even more disappointed than I already was, given what you’ve done to me and the woman I love.
I’m ashamed , even. Human trafficking? You said things were going just fine here at Ferrero, but it seems you’re more desperate than even I thought. ”
Her brow no longer had the ability to furrow, but I could still make out her pout in the soft yellow light of the lamp.
“That’s hurtful, Zachary. Ferrero has always been in the business of procuring rare, pretty things for those with the proper funds.
This is your legacy, baby. Now,” she went on, pausing to smooth her dress with her free hand.
“I am willing to let you, Mr. Spencer, and even this little Southside street rat you’ve brought into my house walk out of here—after you’ve returned what you’ve taken from my safe, of course.
Then I’d like to have a… private conversation with Miss Knight. ”
“No fucking way,” came from me, Bennett, Max, and Noah all at once.
Jojo tried to muscle her way between Bennett and Max but did not get very far. “I like that idea, Andrea,” she said with a feral smile. “Send your bodyguard-slash-fuckbuddy out with your weapon, and you and I can settle this like women.”
My mom barked out a laugh. “Nice try, you little bitch. I suggest you do as I say—it’s your only chance to save your brother before the rest of my team arrives. I’ll make sure he dies first—while you watch. And I can’t really guarantee the safety of Mr. Spencer, either.”
Jojo struggled against Bennett and Max, but those two were unmovable, thank God. “Fuck you,” she spat at my mom.
Noah’s quiet voice cut in again. “ETA ten minutes for Rocky’s team. We can’t find her Enforcers, so they must be coming via the secret entrance we had no fucking idea about. Be ready, and please be careful.”
We were running out of time here. I knew I was going to jump in front of our entire group if I had to—ultimately, my mom didn’t want me dead. Hopefully, that would buy them enough time to lay down some cover fire and get the fuck out of this office.
I would never let my mom hurt Jojo again. I would take fifty bullets from her shitty Enforcer team if it meant my Princess—the love of my life, the other half of my soul, the missing piece who had finally made my brothers and me whole again—walked out of here alive.