Page 89 of The Thief

“Are you saying we’re a lot to handle?” Colton gasped, feigning offence.

“Some more than others,” Adam retorted.

“I’ll see what she says,” I answered in a non-committal way. “Maybe after I’ve made her some breakfast.”

“Do you fancy some of this bacon?” Devon asked, but before I could respond, the door burst open and a breathless Jake, our head barman, stalked into the room.

“There’s someone downstairs... says he wants to see you... he wont leave. I told him you weren’t on duty... but he won’t go.”

Adam stood up.

“It’s fine, Jake. I’ll speak to him,” he said, but Jake shook his head.

“No. He said he wants to see all five of you. He said he won’t leave until he does.”

We exchanged glances.

Who had crawled out of the woodwork to torment us this time?

“Did he say what it was about?” Devon asked.

“No. I asked but he wouldn’t tell me. Just said you’d wanna see him.”

“I have a feeling shit is about to go down,” Colton stated, puffing out his chest as he stood from the sofa. “And you know howmuch we love fucking shit up, so let’s go. The man wants to see us, let’s make sure he sees us at our best.”

Colton and Will walked over to the kitchen, opened one of the drawers and took out a screwdriver and a hammer. Yes, we kept certain tools to hand in here, too. You never knew when you’d need them, and something told us we’d need them today.

I abandoned the boiling kettle, going over to the drawer and taking out a carving knife.

“I’m already armed,” Adam announced, heading for the door.

“Me too,” Devon added.

It didn’t surprise me.

We followed Jake along the corridor, then down the stairs, until we came to the ground floor. A few of our security guys were standing around, watching over things, and by the door stood a man, just an ordinary guy in grey sweats and a white T-shirt.

Our security drifted into the shadows as we walked further into the room. The man just stared at us, not a hint of fear in his eyes.

“You wanted to see us?” Adam announced, and the guy huffed quietly, shaking his head in a bemused, and quite frankly, fucking rude way.

“I think it’s the other way around,” he replied, lifting his chin arrogantly. “You want to see me...” He lifted his arms up. “So, here I am.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Colton sneered.

The guy looked right at me, narrowing his eyes as he spoke.

“My name’s Dan Armitage.” He nodded towards me. “But you know me better as The Ghost... or... Number One.”

Instinct took over and I launched myself across the room, holding my knife out as I hissed, “You motherfucker.”

He didn’t fight me, just let me slam him into the wall as I held my arm across his chest and pressed my knife to his throat. My brothers stood beside me, helping to hold him down.

“You’ve got some fucking nerve,” I spat. “Coming in here after what you’ve done.”

“Isn’t that what you want?” he replied calmly, not even trying to get away from us. “For me to come here, give myself up. You’ve been trying to find me. Well, here I am.”

“We’d find you when we wanted to find you. Don’t think we wouldn’t,” Devon snarled; menace clear in his tone as he stood beside me, ready to take this motherfucker down.