Page 30

30

Roman

A s they dipped down into a steep valley out in the middle of nowhere, an explosion painted the night’s sky in rippling hot hues of red and orange. It illuminated the chaos they found before them. Vehicles surrounded the warehouse that lay at its centre, the explosion’s shockwave passing over them. Roman recognised most of them as Syndicate cars. Helmeted men in dark clothing milled amongst them, watching the flames curl around the stars, the outlines of their weapons starkly contrasted in the night. Uncovered pitfall traps bolstered either side of the road, thick smoke pouring from both. Something’s burning in there—but what?

Was this the Syndicate? Surely this must be where Bri was, but what the fuck was happening.

Roman swallowed, his eyes jumping around the scene laid out before them. His first, most desperate instinct was to clutch at the few straws he could. Only the two smaller buildings are on fire. That was something , wasn’t it?

A set of headlights crested the hill behind them. The Silvas cartel were searching the area, just like him and Aldous. The coordinates the seizure watch spat out had only given them a general area to search, meaning they’d split up to cover more ground.

Roman and Aldous had been closest to the explosion, but he knew the others wouldn’t be too far behind.

“Let me handle the talking,” Roman murmured, looking for any sight of Koa as he pulled to a stop. A barrier prevented them from going any farther.

“Whatever happens here.” Aldous’s voice was a rasp of emotion, his eyes burning brighter than the fire outside. “I—I just want you to know that I love you.”

His heart close to crashing through his chest, Roman hauled Aldous closer, entwining a hand around the back of his neck as he took his lips in a kiss that tasted of torment and worry. “I love you more. Whatever happens.” He leant his forehead against Aldous’s, breathing in his scent to stop him tumbling headfirst into anguish. “Stay in the car for a minute while I try and find Koa, okay?”

Aldous’s eyes widened. “What? No .”

“Please,” he whispered. “There’s Syndicate members everywhere. I won’t be able to stop them jostling against you.” Roman watched the lump in Aldous’s throat move. “Just let me go and find Koa.”

Finally, Aldous nodded.

A wave of heat struck Roman as he left the SUV, warm enough to make him sweat beneath the thick bulletproof vest—something he’d absolutely insisted Aldous wear before they left. Except Aldous had then pulled an uno reverse and made him wear one too.

Roman had embraced his inner secret squirrel and given his best bulletproof vest to Aldous to wear—not that he’d admit that.

He ploughed on, ducking beneath the barrier towards a trio of warehouses. He passed the two smaller buildings first, their flames almost singeing his eyebrows, but at first glance the largest building seemed largely untouched by the fire.

The shattered glass and collapsed ceilings told a different story. A metal beam sizeable enough to crush Aldous’s fancy SUV had been propelled into the side of the building, partially collapsing the mezzanine level. A truck sat in the open warehouse bays, the winch sitting on its front bumper attempting to tow the mezzanine away from the back wall—from whatever it was blocking.

In the parking lot in front of the largest building stood a small group of men in dark clothing, gathered behind a blacked-out Syndicate truck. One had what looked like a bloodied M82 on his shoulder, his face obscured by a balaclava. A man after my own heart.

Roman caught the eye of the one nearest him. “Is Koa Pomaika'i here? Or Reina Yarborough?” The two people who had picked Bri up this morning.

The man’s eyes narrowed beneath his dark helmet, glancing over Roman’s shoulder to Aldous’s SUV. “And who might you be?”

He followed the man’s line of sight, gesturing to the car behind him. “I’m Roman Blackthorne. I work for Vivian Yarbo—”

His voice fell away as his attention caught on a silver medallion hanging around the neck of the man before him. A silver medallion in the shape of a skull .

Despite the heat in the air, an arctic chill locked around his heart. Suddenly, they were everywhere he looked. How hadn’t he seen them before? Skulls.

These men weren’t the Syndicate at all.

They were the Wraiths.

As the man’s lips curled into a smug smirk, Roman made a split-second decision. Even with all the firepower he’d brought, there was no way he’d be able to escape. He was outgunned and outmatched before he’d even stepped into the ring. His one hope was that the Wraiths were holding Bri captive somewhere, and that they’d take him there if he was captured too—which also meant he couldn’t do enough damage that they killed him outright.

He was one man against many, caught by surprise. He wasn’t walking away from this.

His one plan was to be compliant enough that they dropped their guard.

But first he had to warn Aldous.

Roman turned on his heel, sprinting across the concrete back towards the car. It sat just beyond the barrier, with the Silvas boys still nowhere in sight. “ Go!” he roared desperately, feeling all eyes hitting him. “ Leav—!”

Eyes weren’t the only thing that hit him. Unsurprisingly, he was tackled from behind before he’d taken three steps, squeezing the breath from his lungs as he hit the hard, dusty concrete. He tried to choke out more warnings, but his struggle to breathe stole them from him. A knee dug into his spine too forcefully for it not to be intentional.

Roman felt his handgun being stripped from his holster at the same time he heard a car door slamming. Oh fuck, no.

A gun pressed against his skull. “Get on your knees or I blow his brains out,” the man on top of him snarled, folding Roman’s arms behind his back painfully high.

Roman looked up just enough to lock eyes with Aldous, his heart tearing open as Aldous’s knees hit the concrete. “He has nothing to do with this,” he pleaded.

“Couldn’t give a shit. Hands on your head.”

“Don’t you dare fucking touch him,” Roman snarled, fighting against his restraints.

“Roman?” a surprise voice asked, so unexpected it took him a moment to register. Koa . “Fucking hell. Let him up, let him up. He’s with me. They’re both with me.”

A fragile surge of hope coursed through his veins. If Koa was here, then they were a step closer to finding Bri.

Koa’s gigantic hands pulled Roman to his feet in the middle of the parking lot, dusting dirt from his shirt like this was an everyday occurrence. “How did you—?”

“Where’s Bri?” Aldous demanded.

“Her watch says she’s here. And that she had another seizure. Is she okay?” Roman’s addition was weak, his lungs struggling to draw in air as he pushed Aldous behind him. “What the fuck is going on here, Koa? The Wraiths…”

“Bri had a seizure,” Koa agreed. “It was a couple minutes long, but she was sleeping last time I saw her. Reina’s with her. I’m sure she’s fine.”

“And I’m sure lembas is delicious, but it doesn’t mean jack shit without the evidence to back it up.” Roman was angrier with every word. “Where the fuck is she?”

Why was Koa with the Wraiths ? And why were they listening to him?

Koa held his hands up. “She’s in the basement of that building over there with Vivian and Reina. Bri’s asleep on the sofa. Put her there myself. We’re just clearing a path to the door.” A reedy ringtone filled the air, and Koa pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Yep?” he answered, holding it against his ear.

Roman lowered his voice to a whisper, holding Aldous’s eye. “Are you all right? Did they touch you?”

“I’m fine,” Aldous assured him. “They came close but didn’t touch me.”

“The Silvas cartel? You’re sure?” Koa’s voice broke through Aldous’s assurances. He glanced over his shoulder, towards the road he and Aldous had driven in on. “ Here ?”

“They’re with us,” Roman said. At Koa’s questioning look, he elaborated, “I was helping them locate some human traffickers when I saw the notification from Bri’s seizure watch. We didn’t know what had happened to her, so they insisted on coming.”

“Why would the Silvas cartel care about what happened to Bri?”

“Uh…” Roman hesitated, looking at the suspicious eyes of the Wraiths around them. Most were dispersing, but he still had so many questions . “So you know how Bri went searching for someone after her wedding?”

It took Koa a second to light up with realisation. He pulled them away from the group of Wraiths, lowering his voice. “Yeah?”

“She found him in the Silvas cartel. Please tell me whoever is on the other end of that phone didn’t kill them.”

Koa shook his head. “We’re not going to kill prisoners, Roman. The fuck do you take me for? Give me the man’s name.”

We. Did that mean Koa was with the Wraiths? The fuck is happening? “Dante,” Roman answered. “Plus two bonus surprises in his sons.”

“Are they here?”

Roman nodded.

Koa returned to his phone call. “Bring Dante and his sons down to the warehouse complex. Only them. Leave the rest under guard,” he said to the person on the other end of the line before hanging up.

He couldn’t hold in his question any longer. “You wanna tell me what the fuck you’re doing in bed with the Wraiths?”

With a resigned sigh, Koa’s dark brown eyes found his. “I haven’t been entirely truthful with you.”

Oh fucking hell.

“You remember me saying I was in a gang before I joined the military?”

“The gang your father led. Am I remembering that right?”

Koa nodded, hooking his finger through a chain around his neck—pulling it out to reveal a Wraith medallion painted orange by the flames. “I never left. Not truly.”

He stepped backwards, bumping into Aldous. Koa was a Wraith? And had been this whole time? “Why… why didn’t you tell me?”

“The fewer people that knew, the better. I needed it to be air-tight, especially when I was looking to get hired by the Syndicate.”

Roman wanted to laugh. “I genuinely thought you were the most honest, straight-laced friend I had.”

Koa gave him a half-smile. “I’m still me. Nothing’s changed.”

“Except your intentions. Why were you looking to get hired by the Syndicate?”

“Not the Syndicate itself. Vivian. Remember what the Syndicate used to be? Vivian’s power seemed almost limitless. Politicians and businessmen in her back pocket. Multi-million-dollar shipments coming in on the regular. Laundering millions of dollars every year.”

“I remember,” Roman answered slowly.

“Drug trafficking, arms deals, and extortion used to be their main sources of income, but a couple years ago Vivian needed to switch to something more profitable. Human trafficking. Did you know that?”

“Before today? No.”

“And then high-level Syndicate members started getting picked off, one by one. Strange disappearances. Accidental overdoses. Freak accidents.” Koa glanced behind him towards the burning buildings. “Good old-fashioned murder.”

“You’re saying it was all you?”

“I had some help. As Vivian’s security, I didn’t have access to the home addresses of Syndicate members, but I found that someone from within the Syndicate had a similar goal in mind.”

That was a surprise. “Who?”

The slamming of several car doors made him glance over his shoulder. He could make out the mountain that was Arturo from a good distance away, but as they came closer Dante and Tomas were visible too. Thank fuck they’re all in one piece.

Dante and Arturo stared distastefully at the Wraiths escorting them towards the burning warehouse complex. Their weapons had disappeared, but both the Silvas boys and the Wraiths bore signs of a fight.

Tomas cradled his right arm. A waterfall of blood gushed from a wound above Arturo’s ear, glistening in the firelight. There was a split in his shirt, revealing a gash along his ribs. His knuckledusters remained on, and Roman imagined he was responsible for a good deal of the injuries sported by the Wraiths around him. Dante wasn’t far behind, limping as the torrent of blood flowing from his nose was joined by a smaller stream from a split lip.

For a man in his seventies, Dante apparently still had that dog in him. Game recognises game .

“We found ‘em approaching an abandoned farmhouse to the north,” the woman leading the escort reported to Koa, her black hair tightly bound in a ponytail sitting over one shoulder. “Thought they were escaping Syndicate members at first.”

“Not fuckin’ likely,” Arturo snarled.

“Just because you say it doesn’t mean I have to believe it,” the woman shot back, the fire reflecting in her eyes.

“They’re not the Syndicate,” Koa confirmed, before addressing the group as a whole. “Tell us why you’re here.”

“Ouch.” Roman held a hand over his heart. “Don’t you trust me?”

Koa gave him a knowing look. “I trust you. I don’t trust them .”

“We’re here for Brianna.” Dante’s eyes searched the crowded parking lot before landing on Roman and Aldous. “Where is she? Why are the Wraiths here?”

“Bri’s apparently asleep, although I’m taking that with a grain of pepper because that explosion could have woken Gandalf post-Balrog,” Roman supplied helpfully. “And this is one of my oldest friends who is apparently also a Wraith. Say hi, Koa.”

Koa was prevented from answering as a particularly muscular Wraith mumbled in his ear. Roman strained to listen to their secret whispers, but failed courtesy of the crackling flames. He needn’t have bothered straining though, because Koa raised his voice afterwards. “We’ve cleared a path to the lower level. Brianna and Reina are off limits, but for now I want Vivian alive .”

Arturo spoke up. “Can we have our weapons back?”

“Eat shit,” replied the female Wraith. “You’re allowed to be here. Be thankful you’re getting that.”

But Roman was curious. What use did the Wraiths have for Vivian alive?

Addressing several men draped in Glocks, Koa pointed over to where the Silvas boys stood. “You keep a close eye on them,” he said. “Try anything—anything at all—and we’ll kill all three of you. Understand?”

Dante and his sons nodded, wearing strikingly similar expressions of hate.

Koa opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a volley of automatic gunfire from within the largest warehouse.

Roman’s instinct kicked in. Covering Aldous’s body with his own, Roman bundled them both behind the nearest metal object—one of the Syndicate’s trucks. From his vantage point, he could see Dante and his sons taking shelter behind a low wall, shots passing somewhere around them. Koa huddled behind the next truck along, his back pressed against a hubcap as he frowned into his phone.

He went to slide his gun from his holster, but snarled in frustration as he realised it was empty. Thieving fucking Wraiths. Roman tried to see what was happening through the truck’s windows—but Aldous yanked him back down. “Are you insane?” he hissed. “You’ll get your head blown off.”

Roman patted Aldous’s chest before popping back up. “It’s okay, I’ll put my safety squints on.”

Aldous tried to join him, but Roman shoved him back down. “Nope,” he said, hearing Koa shouting. “Only one whack-a-mole at a time.”

“Why is it okay for you to—?”

Ducking back down, Roman held Aldous’s gaze. “We’re not both risking our lives, baby. And because I actually know what I’m doing. Follow me, but stay low.”

In a perfect situation, Aldous would go back to the car, throw it in reverse, and book it out of here, but Roman knew there was no chance of that happening. Even if he could have reached it.

The vast majority of the shots currently whizzing over their heads were coming from inside the warehouse, from behind the crumpled mezzanine level. How much of the Syndicate was left standing? Koa and the rest of the Wraiths wouldn’t have been loitering in the parking lot if they were still on the loose, surely. For all her years in the Syndicate, Roman couldn’t see Reina opening fire on a crowd of people, and Bri certainly wasn’t going to.

Vivian, though? Shit, Roman could see her doing it for shits and giggles.

“I can’t see any sign of Bri,” he murmured, peeping his head over the bed of a truck before ducking back down. He might have seen a streak of blonde behind the mezzanine, but whether it was Reina or Vivian remained to be seen. “All I know is the Wraiths aren’t returning fire, thank fuck .”

Aldous let out a grumble. “Can you actually see who’s shooting?”

The more he focused on the shots, though, the more they sounded… odd. The shots were loud, but strangely hollow. There was no kick to them, like throwing back a whisky and discovering it was non-alcoholic.

“What’s wrong?” A frown pulled Aldous’s brows together. “Can you see Bri?”

“I think some of the bullets she’s firing are blanks,” Roman realised. “The shots are weaker, can you hear?”

Aldous looked at him as though he’d lost his marbles. “I’d never even seen a gun before I stepped off the plane. Obviously I can’t hear the fucking difference.”

“Fair point.” He let out a huff, deciding on the best course of action. “Come over to Koa with me, but stay low.”

Positioning his body in front of Aldous’s, Roman swiftly bridged the gap between the two cars. He glanced behind him as they skidded to the ground in front of a worried Koa. No sign of bullets kicking up dust as they hit the ground .

Roman didn’t bother with niceties. It wasn’t like he was having afternoon tea with the Queen. “Some of them are blanks,” he told Koa. “Can you hear?”

Koa’s expression went from confusion to surprise. “I think you might be right.”

He fought the urge to roll his eyes. Obviously he was right. Instead, Roman pulled out one of his back-up handguns from the holster on his ankle. “This isn’t filled with blanks though, and I’d wager that Glock on your hip isn’t either.”

“I’m trying to call the others to get a hold on the situation,” Koa said. “But there’s fuck-all reception in this valley.”

Aldous snorted, no doubt thinking of the clusterfuck of trying to find this place. “Yeah, we ran into that problem too.”

“You and I could sort things out,” Roman suggested, with a hint of a smirk. “Just like old times. It’ll be like taking candy from a homicidal baby.”

Koa let out an exhausted huff, whipped away by the rising wind. “Fine. I just want this to be over now.”

“Then let’s go and end it.” His eyes watering as smoke blew into them, Roman withdrew the gun from the holster on his other ankle and gave it to Aldous; he wasn’t going to leave him defenceless with Vivian out and about. “Stay here. And don’t give me that look. I’m a big boy, I know what I’m doing.”

For once, Aldous didn’t argue. “Just find her.”

The path Koa took them on came perilously close to one of the burning warehouses. Holding his shirt over his mouth to keep out the taste of ash, Roman ducked and dived between the cars, recognising the one he was currently hiding behind as the one Koa usually drove for Vivian. It was parked directly in front of the warehouse, just feet away from Vivian’s line of fire.

The angle gave them a solid view of the back of the building. Roman blinked, fear squeezing his heart like a fist. Flames curled high into the sky, unleashing gusts of black smoke high above them. Bri’s in there. “I guess that’s why she hasn’t escaped out the back.”

“And my men on the other side of the parking lot are why she hasn’t escaped out the front.”

Getting down on his hands and knees, Roman pressed his head against the ground to look beneath the SUV. “I can see two paths back behind the mezzanine. The right is fairly clear, but the left is littered with corrugated metal. We’d need to step into her line of fire to get to either—but she can’t shoot us both. And look on the bright side, some of her shots are blanks.”

“Some of them aren’t .”

He waved a haphazard hand. “Desperate times call for desperate housewives. You go right and I go left?”

With a resigned sigh, Koa nodded. “The wind’s blowing the smoke into her line of sight. On the next big gust, we go. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

Guns in hand, they waited with bated breath, watching the wind play with the smoke curling above them, their fate in its hand. Beneath his chest, his heart beat steadily, keeping apprehension at bay. At a time like this, adrenaline wasn’t his friend. He didn’t need his muscles contracting and throwing his aim off, not when Bri could be behind the mezzanine with Vivian.

And then a particularly strong blast of wind sent thick black smoke into the warehouse.

Roman’s movements were strong and purposeful. He darted into the warehouse behind Koa, pulling to the left as Koa moved to the right, disappearing into the soot-streaked mist. Every step had to be precise, avoiding the obstacles littered across the floor—presumably torn loose in the explosion.

He was halfway to the mezzanine when the first shot came, so close it was deafening. The smoke was clearing quickly, but Roman couldn’t stop. In any other situation, he’d have returned fire, but with Bri potentially back there it wasn’t something he could risk.

When the second shot came, it found its target: him.

He let out a harsh grunt as pain slammed into his ribs like an iron fist. A third shot fired just as he tripped over something heavy—something disconcertingly fleshy. The ground came up to meet him with a vengeance, and he just caught himself before his skull slammed into the concrete.

The wet concrete, as it turned out.

Blood seeped through the fabric of his clothes as he locked eyes with the corpse, its brain matter spilling across the concrete. “Ah,” he told the deceased Syndicate member, realising Vivian had directed her fire over to the other side of the warehouse. Please don’t hit Koa . I still have so many questions to ask him.

Squinting, Roman didn’t remember the corpse by name, but he recognised them from Bri’s wedding. If his ribs weren’t aching, he’d have yoinked that corpse up to use as a meat shield.

As it was, all he did was step over it. “Oops,” Roman murmured, wincing at the squish of brain matter beneath his boot. “Stepped on a bit of your brain there.”

Two more bodies littered his path as he moved, both wearing Wraith medallions around their necks. Were they who Vivian began shooting at in the first place?

His steps were light as he rounded the bulk of the mezzanine, scenting the charred gunpowder in the air right as he caught sight of the scene before him.

Koa and Vivian stood toe to toe, each pointing a gun at the other. One side of Koa’s face was drenched in blood, but Vivian had her back to Roman.

“—since the beginning,” she snarled, apparently unaware of Roman’s presence. A thick wall of smoke billowed into the warehouse, obscuring their view.

Koa did an admirable job of ignoring Roman quickly approaching Vivian. “I was born into them.”

“Then tell me something.” Vivian paused, her shoulders heaving with exertion, but her voice filled with something dangerous—before she pointed her gun towards the darkened corridor opposite them, more smoke pouring from within. “At what point did you fall in love with my daughter?”

Above the shots ringing in his ears, a small, feminine gasp came from the smoky corridor.

“Put your gun back on me.” Koa’s voice descended into a thunderous rumble. “Not her.”

“Place your weapons on the floor and I’ll consider it,” Vivian shot back. “You and whoever is behind me. Take another step and I’ll shoot her.”

Roman didn’t have to wait for Koa’s instructions to obey, the pain in his ribs loudly protesting as he bent to lay down his guns. Judging by the heat coming from within the corridor, the flames would soon force them out whether they wanted to leave or not.

But Vivian wasn’t content. “Now kick them away and step aside. Both of you.”

Their weapons sailed across the floor, impeded by the debris scattered across it. No sooner had Koa stepped out of her path did Vivian dart down it, disappearing into the smoke—but Roman had bigger things to concern himself with.

Namely, was it Bri in the corridor, or Reina?

Roman snatched up his gun on his way to find out, just as a murky, lopsided figure emerged from within. He remained puzzled for half a second before he realised what he was looking at wasn’t some strange three-legged Syndicate monster but an exhausted Reina dragging Bri out of the thick haze.

A sob of relief left Bri as their gazes connected. “Roman,” she croaked, her voice ragged with smoke.

“You’re safe,” Roman told her, relieving Reina of Bri’s weight and lifting her into his arms. Fuck what my ribs think. Purplish bruises of exhaustion shadowed Bri’s eyes. She sagged into his arms, sapped of her strength. “We need to get out of here,” he coughed, ignoring the tenderness in his ribs.

Roman followed Koa’s cautious lead out into the warehouse, keeping his eyes open for Vivian.

They didn’t have to look very far.

Vivian didn’t seem overly concerned that three of the Wraiths had guns trained on her—but then she was aiming her own weapon at Dante. “I’ll put it down when I’m finished with it,” she said softly, her voice just audible above the crackling of the flames.

Dante’s attention zeroed in on Roman as he emerged, widening slightly at the sight of Bri in his arms. “Is she okay?”

Roman nodded, partially obscuring Bri behind Koa’s bulk and mentally thanking him for his service. He cast his gaze around the parking lot, noticing Aldous’s hazy outline on the other side of Vivian’s standoff with Dante. Thank Christ he’s behind Vivian, not downwind of her weapon.

Vivian looked between Dante and Bri, a thread of understanding weaving into her gaze. “I see you found your father then.”

Roman sucked in a smoky breath as he realised what was about to happen.

With a hateful smile, Vivian pulled the trigger.