Page 60 of Ashes

Kai. Fuck.

I wanted to stay here for hours, her company surprisingly more delightful than I anticipated. However, I knew I couldn’t, so reluctantly, I said, “I’m so sorry. I have to go.”

“It’s okay,” she said, her previous smile dimming.

“Have a good night,wife,” I teased her, but deep down I was starting to love the way the word sounded.

She laughed. “You too,husband.”

I got up and was about to walk out when she said, “Thank you, Jamal. For everything.

I turned around to face her, her eyes meeting mine. “You’re my wife. You never have to thank me for taking care of you,” I said sincerely and closed the door behind me.

CHAPTER 15

JAMAL

“Any movement?”I asked through my earpiece.

“None,” Kai answered first.

“Negative,” Valentina mirrored.

“The meeting should be any minute now. I’m surprised no one’s here yet.”

We’d been waiting in the building for the last two hours, each in our respective locations. Kai and I had entered the building through the front door, passing security under the pretense that we were meeting a client, while Valentina came in through the roof.

The floor where the meeting was taking place was still under construction, so I sat on a wooden box in the back and waited patiently for Barrera and Bianchi to show up.

Kai was currently on the floor below me, watching through his surveillance equipment, while Valentina wasstationed on the floor above mine, near the exit staircase if anyone decided to make a run for it.

Valentina and Kai had spent the last three weeks training since we’d planned for him to be by my side, but before we showed up, I’d lied and told him that I needed him to be my eyes and ears instead of another helping hand.

He might have been prepared, but I’d lost too many people to be willing to jeopardize his safety. Besides, Kai didn’t have a bad bone in his body. He might have witnessed me torture and kill a few people in the past, but watching and actually taking someone’s life were two different things.

One was scarring while the other was life-altering.

“Jamal—” Kai started saying, but his voice cut off, an unending buzzing replacing it.

“Kai, repeat.”

No answer.

I tried again, but a single pair of footsteps echoed down the hall.

Something’s off.

I got up and grabbed both of my guns out of their holsters, my fingers ready on the triggers. Pushing the tarp hanging from the ceiling out of my way with one of the barrels, I aimed both weapons at the door whoever was here would have to walk through to access the floor.

“Jamal, retreat,” I finally heard Valentina shouting in my ear, warning me, the sound of her running down the stairs echoing in my earpiece. “It’s a trap.”

Before I could register what she’d just said, I watched the door open on someone I hadn’t expected to see.

Mateo Barrera.

I cursed under my breath.C’est quoi ce bordel.

He let out a dark chuckle, his rusty laugh grating my nerves. “I’m not who you were expecting, now am I?”