Page 42 of Bloody Wedding (The Order of the Owed #1)

TWENTY-SEVEN

THE BASEMENT

ADRIAN

D allas is waiting for us on the sidewalk outside of the Fortress.

Order members have priority parking along the street.

I let Bas pull his bike into the spot closest to Dallas, then double-park again to save time.

I already wasted precious minutes trying to talk him out of coming with me.

Bas ended the argument by throwing a hundred dollar bill on the table, grabbing his helmet, and running for his bike.

I owe him too much to get him involved with Jack’s bullshit when we all know my uncle’s been gunning for the Reynolds family for years.

If he’s decided to target Loni, my blood oath allows me some protection.

Not like that matters. I killed once for my wife, and I’d go after Jack in a heartbeat if I had to. But Bas…

As we jog over to Dallas, I try one more time. “You don’t have to do this.”

“The fuck I don’t. Dallas said they moved Loni to the basement. If Jack knows you’re here, he’ll never let you down there. But if I go up and distract him…”

I know. I know . “He’ll salivate at finding a reason to boot you from the Other at last,” I finish.

“Exactly. And I wouldn’t care. I mean, unless he decides whatever made-up offense I did is worth losing my head or something, it doesn’t matter. It’ll be a bitch to burn off the Order’s mark on my palm because, fuck, did that fire hurt … but I’d be free. And you? You’ll be happy with your wife.”

I had my own reasons for never Claiming an Offering.

Since we were eighteen and newly inducted, Bas made it clear that he wasn’t bothering because, technically, he didn’t have to.

In a founding family like his, it’s the firstborn son who needs to carry on the line, choosing a wife before they’re thirty.

That’s why Alexandre is feeling the pressure, and Bas is ducking his brother.

If Alex doesn’t take a wife, then Bas will have to.

And I know the truth. I know the real reason why he sticks with the Used instead of requesting his own Offering. But like how I shield Connor and Haven, and I keep Dallas’s secrets, I sure as hell will keep Sebastien’s.

“It’s easy,” he continues. “I’ll go up and see if he’s in his office?—”

Dallas joins us, cutting in with a quick, “I’m pretty sure he was before I came down here. He doesn’t realize that I showed up at the Fortress early for that meet with the vitamin company, or that I saw Loni be hustled inside.”

Jack . Even Dallas can’t call his father by anything other than his name.

I ball my hands into fists. “Hustled? Who had their hands on my wife?”

“Luke. I saw him yank her out of his car, dragging her into the building. I followed behind and watched them go into the elevator. It went to the top floors. To Jack’s office.

No one can go in there when he’s busy in the penthouse so that has to be where they went.

” Dallas glances at his phone. “I called the vitamin guys. Told them to postpone the meet. Stephen took a late lunch at the Court so his drunk ass wasn’t coming anyway.

As far as Jack knows, though, Adrian and me are doing Order business on the twentieth floor. ”

“He won’t expect us to check out the basement.”

Bas nods. “That’s my point. I’ll go to his office, see if Loni’s still there. If she isn’t, I’ll call you. Once, okay? It’ll ring a couple of times and you’ll know Jack’s distracted.”

Dallas scoffs. “Knowing my old man? Even if he isn’t in the office, he’ll be distracted.

He has Kiersten come over to the penthouse every other day about this time.

If not Kiersten, then Abigail. Sick fuck needs his twenty-year-old pussy daily or he thinks his dick will shrivel up and fall off.

Charlotte comes at night. Every night.” His green eyes gleam in disgust. “Poor girl thinks she’ll be the one to take my place.

As if Jack will ever marry one of the Used. ”

I rub Dallas’s shoulder. “Your father is fucking awful. You know that. I know that. But are you prepared to go against him? ‘Cause I’ll tell you the same thing, Dal. You don’t have to come with me. I’ll go to the basement alone.”

If she’s down there, it won’t be easy to rescue her.

You need a code and a fingerprint belonging to one of the old guard—or any other enforcer besides Dallas since Jack obviously knows better than to involve his boy in whatever the fuck he’s doing on the bottommost floor of the Fortress—but I’ll deal with it when I have to.

For now, I just need a direction to go before I plan.

Bas has his part; I’m not persuading him to quit. If Dallas wants to continue with his quiet rebellion, I understand. I love Loni, and there isn’t anything I won’t do for her, but I’m not going to ask my brothers—because one’s my friend, one’s my cousin, but they’re my brothers—to risk themselves.

Then Dallas gives me a quelling look. “I’m not afraid of Jack.”

“I know.”

“You need backup, Adrian. Fuck being the King. I’m an enforcer. Let me do my job.”

I don’t remind Dallas that he’s only an enforcer because his father likes to see him squirm. One day, Dallas might be the King, but until then… Jack will make his life hell. That’s what we do in our family, I guess. Hurt the ones we’re supposed to love…

Loni .

I nod. “Go, Bas. If we don’t get that call from you in five minutes, I’m going in anyway.”

No one is keeping me from my wife.

Taking his helmet off, shoving it at Dallas, Bas says, “Hold this. Jack loves bitching at me if he thinks I’m riding around without a helmet.”

Dallas accepts it. “I’ll drop it off inside.”

“Got it. Five minutes.” He pulls his phone out of his jacket. I do the same. “If the elevator’s on the ground floor, expect it in three.”

And, with that, Bas jogs toward the Fortress.

Dallas gives me a look, warning me from saying anything else about challenging his father way before we expected we would have to.

In a way, I always thought this day would come, but like me marrying Loni, I figured I’d have to wait until I was thirty—to be considered part of the next guard, not the young guard—before we went after him.

But then he interfered with me and my wife, and that’s just inexcusable.

I keep my focus on my phone, watching the minutes tick by excruciatingly slow. At three minutes, I hold my breath, waiting for it to ring. At four, I start stalking toward the front of the building, Dallas right behind me.

Right before it hits fives minutes, my phone buzzes. It’s Bas. Out of habit, I answer it, lifting it to my ear.

Through the open line, I hear Bas mutter something about a slow elevator before the call disconnects.

I glance back at Dallas. “Let’s go.”

Together, we walk into the Fortress as though we have every right to be in there—and we do, don’t we? Dallas is the Heir to the Order, and with the leverage I have on nearly every high-ranking member of the society, no one will dare stop me.

It takes too damn long for the elevator to reach the lobby again. Once the door opens, we step in, jabbing the B button.

Basement.

I’ve never been down here before. I know that there’s an outer room, kind of like a break room, with the locked door that leads to the actual basement. I’m kicking myself in the ass that I’ve ignored it, but that changes today.

I asked Dallas on the ride over what to expect. Because his father was careful not to involve him with the going-ons down in the basement, the most he can confirm is what I know: that it won’t be easy to get down there.

There are certain enforcers who get sent down there.

He thought it was a gag, that basement duty meant taking a nap or sneaking a Used over when you don’t have a free office in the Fortress to fuck them in.

He’s just as pissed that he didn’t know, and when this is all done, the three of us—Bas, Dallas, and me…

and maybe Connor, too—will sit down and make sure we’re all on the same page.

Especially if, one day—and fucking soon—the four of us will rule Harmony Heights.

For once, luck is on my side.

Dallas and I march step out of the elevator, taking the outer room in as quickly as possible. There’s a bright light, a single table, a solitary figure sitting at it, and a solid vault of a door on the opposite wall.

I recognize the figure hunched over the table, counting a huge stack of money. Luke. The same prick who likes to stand outside of Jack’s door, acting big and bad even though he’ll never be more than a basic enforcer.

Maybe I was wrong. If Jack lets this idiot anywhere that much money, it’s because he’s in on it. He has to know that that’s blood money. Sex money. The men who traded fat stacks to buy a woman at auction…

Fuck. If he’s counting money now, and Loni was picked up specifically today… how much do I want to bet that she’s down there at this very moment, ready to be someone’s Bought?

No fucking way.

“Where is she?”

Luke’s head whips around. His mouth falls open, and for a moment, he looks frightened. He recovers quickly, sneering at me. Sneering at Dallas . He takes a few threatening steps toward us before planting his feet against the floor. “I’m not telling.”

He didn’t ask who ‘she’ was. Either he doesn’t care—or he knows exactly who I’m looking for.

“Wrong answer, asshole,” I snap. “My wife. She’s down here. I know she is. I want her back.”

I’m bluffing. The only way I’ll know for sure that she’s in the basement is by laying eyes on her myself. But Luke doesn’t know that, and the way his beady eyes flicker toward the locked door tells me that my bluffing worked.

He shakes his head. “Sorry, Heller. Once a girl goes down, the only way she comes back up is on the arm of the rich bastard who Buys her.”

“I have a blood oath?—”