Page 143 of Restitution

Lu tenses her jaw, but before she can yell at him, the door bursts open, a large figure wearing a gas mask and riot gear filling the doorway, his gun pointing at us. “Jackpot,” he says in an English accent. “I found Kade and Luciella Mitchell.”

He speaks into his earpiece, but my view is blocked as Kade slides in front of me, giving me a full view of his blood-soaked back. Base pulls Lu behind him too.

“I want the four of you to put your hands above your heads and drop to your goddamn knees.”

“This one is mine,” Base mutters under his breath, but we can all hear. “I let you have the last one.”

Kade lets out a breathy laugh and shakes his head. “You got your ass handed to you, and I had to step in.”

When the man realises no one is listening, he radios to his team. “Send everyone to—”

The words stop, gurgling hits my ears then there’s a thud. I look around Kade to see the man on his front, a blade in his skull. The murderer steps over him, the gas mask he’s wearing drops to the floor and we all gasp.

“No time for dramatics,” Tobias Mitchell says in a deep voice, standing above the dead body. He’s wearing the same uniform as his victim. He nods to the door. “Let’s go. The building’s on fire, ifyou didn’t notice.”

“Dad?” Kade and Luciella say at the same time.

The former steps forward, hesitant. They don’t believe their eyes. “How are you here?”

“Run now, talk later.” His eyes fall on me. “Hello, little one.” He looks at Base. “Sebastian.”

“Shit,” Base blurts. “I’m too scared to tell you to not call me that.”

I grin at Tobias. “I knew you weren’t dead.”

“But I am,” he says, smirking. “To the world, I am dead. Let’s keep it that way.”

“You’re really here…” His son takes another step forward. Luciella is frozen in place, probably in shock.

Kade advances forward slowly and presses his hand on his dad’s shoulder, who nods once, before his son lets out a sigh of relief and hugs him. And against his psychotic nature, Tobias hugs his son back, pulling Luciella in too when she finally runs at him.

Base is pale. Maybe from seeing a ghost – or the news that Luciella is carrying his child. It can’t be all the people he killed tonight or the gaping wound in his shoulder.

“I thought you were dead,” Kade chokes. “They identified your body.”

Tobias pushes them back and nods. “Bernadette wanted them off my back. She faked my death. The stupid bitch only made things worse for herself.”

Even her name makes me shiver.

The ceiling crackles as the flames eat at the wood, and Tobias kisses his daughter’s head. “Stop crying, sweetheart. I’m okay. Look?” He pats his chest, over his heart. “I’m okay.”

Kade pulls on the dead guy’s uniform, and they both pretendto hustle us through the manor. Luciella keeps crying and whispering to her father that she loves him. He keeps telling her that he knows and begging her to shut up, so we don’t get caught.

Kade holds my arm tightly to keep pressure off my legs, and I try to hold in my tears when I see the bodies lying everywhere. Russians. Officers. Kade’s team. And others dressed in the same uniform as Kade and his dad.

The boy Kade saved, the one who wasn’t allowed to work for him until he was eighteen, is lying in a pool of his own blood, a bullet between his eyes.

Kade pauses when he sees the boy’s body then shoves me forward.

Whoever it is that attacked, their soldiers are swarming the place. Tobias mumbles in his worst English accent that he’s taking us to the van and that Kade Mitchell was in the east wing trying to escape.

All of them sprint in that direction.

We veer into the kitchen where Kade kissed me that second time, out onto the part of the grounds that leads to the pool house where we met, where we thankfully find the dogs cowering, and Tobias stops.

“Where’s your mother? I couldn’t find her.”

“Ewan got her out,” Kade replies as he bends down to comfort the dogs. “The police are surrounding the manor and trying to get everyone to safety. They think there are more bombs planted, so they won’t come onto the grounds without their bomb disposal squad. What if they see you?”