Page 56 of Wicked Games (Silvercrest U #1)

KILLIAN

“Not to sound paranoid or anything,” Jace says a few minutes after Felix disappears into the house. “But my Spidey sense is going a bit nuts right now.”

“Mine too,” I admit and glance back at the twins.

Jax nods. “I don’t like any of what’s happening right now.”

“I’ve gone over Felix’s financials with a fine-toothed comb,” Jace says. “Everything is in order. There’s literally not a single uncrossed T or undotted I anywhere in his paperwork. The only reason he’d have to sign something is if the terms are being changed.”

“What about his uncle?” I ask Jax.

He’s already told me everything he found out, but with his pattern recognition skills, it’s not unusual for him to figure out links that I never would have made myself after hearing the information again.

“On paper, he’s exactly what you’d expect,” Jax says. “Never been married, no kids. No record, and according to all his financials, he’s a stand-up guy who works hard and has a charity that actually gives to the causes it says it will and doesn’t just launder cash.”

“And off paper?” I ask. “What’s your gut telling you?”

“That he’s shady as fuck, and it’s a really big coincidence that he’s the only one out of the whole family who isn’t dead or has someone trying to kill him.”

“Even the grandfather?” I ask.

Jax nods. “Someone blew up his car last week. He wasn’t in it, or even in the vicinity at the time, but it was a huge security breach that someone could get close enough to plant the bomb.”

“Did they find who did it?” Jace asks, and I can practically see the wheels turning in his head as he processes what his brother is telling us.

“Yes and no. They found him, but he was already dead.”

“Suicide?” Jace asks.

Jax shakes his head. “Not unless he shot himself in the back of the head at a downward angle.”

“Sounds like someone was cleaning up loose ends and wasn’t pleased he fucked up,” Jace says thoughtfully. “Does Felix know about this?”

“I don’t think so. He never said anything,” I say.

“I doubt he does,” Jax says. “I only found out about it last night when I was doing some more digging after you told me about this meeting. They did everything they could to keep it under wraps.”

“I don’t know about you,” Jace says. “But I feel like we just sent a lamb into a slaughterhouse. People have killed for a lot less money than his uncle is going to get if Felix dies. He’s the only person on this earth who has that kind of motivation to make sure Felix doesn’t live to see twenty-five. ”

Fear snakes through my chest, and I pull my phone out of my pocket to text him.

Killian : do whatever you have to do to get out of there NOW

I stare at the screen, waiting for my text to be read.

Instead of an answer, all three of our phones light up and buzz with an SOS message from Felix’s phone.

My heart is in my throat as I open the message and check the tracking. He’s still in the house, and by the looks of it, he’s on the main floor on the eastern side of the building.

“How the fuck are we going to get in there without having a SWAT team come down on us?” Jace asks as I’m about to shove the car door open.

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

Jax grabs my arm and stops me. “Don’t be a dumbass,” he chastises. “You don’t even have a weapon. What good are you going to be if you get yourself killed? You think he’s going to be okay without you?”

That stops my panic, and I let go of the door.

He’s right. Rushing in there is only going to get me killed, and I can’t protect Felix if I’m dead.

Now that I’m thinking clearer, I grab the gun and suppressor that are stashed in the glove box and pull another out of the holster under my seat. When I’ve got both guns, I quickly screw on the suppressors as Jax frees Jace’s laptop from the seat pocket and puts it on Jace’s lap.

Jace isn’t wearing his sling anymore, and he grimaces as he opens his laptop and types in his code to unlock it.

“This would be so much easier if that fucker hadn’t shot me,” he mutters, his movements jerky and unnatural as he types.

“Can you get in?” Jax asks as he frees a gun from a compartment in his door and mounts the suppressor.

Jace nods. “Just need a second to override this, and another to shut this down.” He clicks a few keys.

“Ha, I’m in. For someone who’s like, really evil, he’s not all that concerned with his security system.

I just need to do a few little tweaks here.

” He pauses, presumably to do whatever those tweaks are.

“And put this on a loop.” There’s another pause.

“And reset this.” Another quick pause. “And voilà.” He grins triumphantly.

“His system is now my bitch, and we’re almost good to go.

It doesn’t look like anyone’s on patrol, so it’s gonna be a full house in there. ”

It takes everything in me to wait as Jace links his phone with his computer, then shoves the phone into his brother’s hands. “You’re on point. I can’t fuck shit up and play Oracle with my arm.”

“I’ve got you, bro.” Jax checks something on the phone, then looks between us. “Let’s do this.”

He doesn’t need to tell me twice, and the three of us scramble out of the car.

I hand Jace the extra gun and wait for Jax’s orders.

As much as I want to just bust in there with guns blazing, that will only get us killed, even with control of the security system.

Jax checks the phone, then gives us a quick nod.

We fall into step behind him and make a beeline for the side of the house. Once we’re next to it, Jax leads us down the side of the property, keeping us close to the wall and ducking under windows to stay out of sight.

I’m so antsy it’s hard not to break formation and just run into the house so I can get to Felix right fucking now, but I stay in position. This is why Jax is in charge. I’m too emotional, and I’ll end up getting us all killed if I give in to my urges and ignore my common sense and instincts.

It doesn’t take us long to skirt around to the back of the house, but each second that we’re out here is a second where anything could be happening to Felix.

Jax stops us when we’re at his tracked location.

“In there,” he whispers and points to the window in front of him.

Jace uses his arm to stop me when I surge forward to take a look. “You’re being a dumbass again,” he whispers. “Stop it.”

Jax pulls a compact mirror out of his pocket and flips it open.

I bite my lip and wait as he lifts the mirror and puts it in the bottom corner of the window so he can see into the room.

I wait impatiently as he angles the mirror around.

“What?” I hiss when he drops the mirror and gives us a grim look.

Wordlessly, he hands me the mirror.

I switch places with him and use it to look into the room.

It’s an office, but the thing that draws my attention isn’t the god-awful gold accents the entire room is covered in; it’s the man pointing a gun at my boyfriend’s head while Felix is bent over and scribbling something on a stack of papers on his lap.

The angle from the window to where he’s standing is sharp, and it’ll be a tough shot, but it’s not impossible.

“I’ve got the window.” Jace looks between me and Jax. “You take the shot,” he says to Jax, then looks at me. “You get Felix.”

Jax slips under the window and stands on the other side of it, his gun up and leveled into the room. Jace takes a few steps back and crouches low. I stay exactly where I am and flick the safety off my gun.

“On three,” Jace whispers. “One. Two.”

The glass goes white as an intricate pattern of spiderwebs appears on it, then the entire window sort of slips out of the frame and falls inside the room.

Before the glass has even had a chance to hit the floor, Jax fires two shots through the window.

The suppressors keep our shots quiet, but the shattering window and the thud of something heavy hitting the floor aren’t quiet at all.

Not giving a shit about what I might be jumping into, I vault through the window and into the room, landing in a superhero crouch in a puddle of shattered glass.

Felix’s uncle is lying on the floor, and the gun is about a foot away from his outstretched hand.

Felix’s terrified eyes meet mine, but before either of us can move, the door flies open and two men rush inside, their guns up and ready.

Four shots take them out, and they hit the floor in rapid succession.

Footsteps thunder outside the room as more security rushes toward the chaos, but I’m already running to Felix.

He dives for the gun and snatches it up. When he has it, he does an impressive roll and bounces to his feet. He does a quick pivot and rushes toward me, the weapon clutched in his hand.

Two more men bust through the doorway but are dropped by Jace and Jax’s shots before they can even raise their guns at us.

As soon as he’s close enough, I grab Felix’s arm and shove him toward the window. Jace and Jax give us cover as I help boost him through it, then dive out after him.

“Wait,” Jace catches Felix around the waist as he starts to run away from the house and hauls him to a stop. He holds him against his side with his hurt arm and shoots through the busted window with his other.

Jax pulls Jace’s phone out of his pocket, and I raise my gun and take down two more goons as Jax focuses on the phone and does his thing.

Alarms go off, but they’re quickly silenced. Then steel bars shoot up from the bottoms of the windows as the sounds of slamming doors echo from inside the house.

The door to the office is one of the doors that slams closed, stopping any more goons from rushing in.

“How long will it hold?” I ask. I’m assuming the house is under some sort of lockdown.

“Long enough.” Jace gives Felix a little squeeze. “You good, kid?”

“Yeah.” He gives Jace a tight smile. “All good.”

“Get him to the car and call it in,” Jace says and gives Felix a little push in my direction.

“What are you going to do?” Felix asks.

“Take care of the rest of them.” Jace gives him a little smile.

Felix looks like he wants to argue, but I don’t give him the chance. The twins can take care of themselves, and they’ll be a hell of a lot more effective if they’re not worried about us.

“You know how to use that?” I nod at the gun he’s still clutching.

“Yeah,” he says, his eyes hard and determined.

“Then shoot anything that moves and doesn’t look like us,” Jax orders.

“Keep your head down, and don’t stop no matter what,” I tell him.

He narrows his eyes, and I can tell he’s about to argue, but I just press a lightning-fast kiss against his lips and slap his ass. “Go.”

Thankfully he listens, and we take off down the side of the house. I keep a step behind him just to be sure there are no immediate threats, and we make it to the car without incident.

“Where are they?” he asks when we’re inside the vehicle.

“They’ll be here,” I tell him, my phone already at my ear.

“Killian?” Dad answers on the second ring.

“We’ve got a situation,” I tell him. “At Felix’s uncle’s house.”

“What happened?”

“Turns out he’s the guy who’s trying to kill Felix.”

Dad swears under his breath.

“We took him out before he hurt Felix, but it’s messy.”

“Is everyone all right?”

“So far. The twins are doing a final sweep for stragglers, but last I saw them, they were fine.”

“ETA is twenty minutes,” he says grimly. “I’ll keep eyes on you.”

“’Kay. I’ll let you know if we have to bug out of here.”

“Stay safe, all of you.”

“We will. See you soon.” I end the call.

“Eyes?” Felix asks, his eyes darting from window to window.

“Come on.” I throw open the door to the car and step out.

He follows suit, and I motion for him to follow me into a small crop of trees and ornamental bushes.

“All of our phones are tracked, so he’ll use them to keep eyes on us and make sure we don’t get taken anywhere,” I tell him as we hide in the foliage. “Are you okay?” I ask now that I’m finally able to give him my full attention.

I look him up and down, searching for any sign that he’s hurt. He seems okay, but that could just be adrenaline and shock.

“Fine.” He shoots me a genuine smile. “Like for real.”

“Are you sure? You’re not hurt at all?” I resist the urge to tell him to spin around so I can make sure he really is fine.

He shakes his head. “Did the phone thing work? The SOS message.”

“Yeah.” I want so badly to pull him into my arms and hold him close, but we’re not out of danger yet, and letting our guard down now would be another dumbass move. “Smart thinking using it like that.”

He smiles and opens his mouth to say something, but instead of speaking, he jumps out from behind the bushes.

I’m so surprised I don’t have a chance to grab him, but I relax when I see him rushing toward the twins.

They’re walking toward us, looking as calm as can be with not even a hair out of place.

“It’s all good,” Jax calls.

“Got ’em,” Jace confirms as Felix launches himself at both twins and hugs them tight.

“We’re happy to see you too, kid,” Jace says with a chuckle as they give him a big bear hug.

“Are you okay?” he asks when he steps back. “Are you hurt?” He looks between them.

“Nope, but you should see the other guys.” Jace makes a face. “Or maybe you shouldn’t. It’s not pretty in there.”

“Definitely shouldn’t,” Jax says and flicks his gaze to me.

“ETA is about fifteen minutes,” I tell him.

“So what do we do now?” Felix asks.

“We wait for the teams and hopefully get some answers,” I tell him.

“What happened in there?” Jax asks.

“He wanted me to sign some documents without letting me read them. I’m not positive, but it looks like he was trying to take control of my trust. And he had a new will drawn up for me.”

“A new will?” I look at him in alarm.

He nods. “I have no idea what was in it, but from what I could tell, it has to do with my shares in the company.”

“I know protocol is to wait, but I wanna get my hands on his computer so bad.” Jace shoots his brother a hopeful look.

“No,” Jax says firmly. “Dad will lose his shit if you break protocol again, and I’m the one who’s going to have to hear about it.”

“So what I’m hearing is that there’s really no downside to me going back in there and?—”

“No.” Jax levels him with a flat look. “Don’t make me tell Mom you were trying to go into an unsecured scene. You know how that’s going to end.”

Jace makes a face. “Fine. I can wait.”

Now that the danger is gone, I put the safety on my gun. Felix does the same and holds it out to me. “I know how to use it, but that doesn’t mean I want to.”

I take it and slip it into the back of my waistband. Then I pull him toward me and hold him against my side.

“Is it over?” he asks softly.

I press a soft kiss against his temple. “It’s over.”

He heaves a huge sigh and sags against me.

I hold him tighter and let him process everything that just happened. It’s going to take a while for everything to fully hit, and I’ll be right there by his side to help him through it when it does.