“I want to kill him.”
My eyebrows shoot up. Stepping back, I flip the knife in the air, catching the blade and holding the handle out to her. “Be my guest.”
With steady hands, she takes it and stomps toward him, pressing the blade against him in the same fashion as I had a moment ago.
“Go to hell, you sick fuck,” she whispers, running the metal across his skin.
Blood sprays onto her skin but she doesn’t flinch. After a moment, his head sags forward. She hands me the knife back and rejoins the other girls. Dresden and I walk them back to the front. After letting the girls out of the building, we quickly go through the buyers’ rooms and put a bullet in each one.
Standing by the front door, we each pull out a regular grenade. Together, we pull the pins the throw them down each hallway. Darting out of the building, the bangs go off, setting off the rest of the building, anything and everything flammable catching. Within moments, the whole building is burning.
I pull the glasses from my face and turn them so I’m looking into the camera. “I bet you all are ready to puke. Welcome to hell, guys. We’ll be home soon. Oh, and Sammi, disconnect the transmitter and wipe the internal memory. See you all in a few hours.”
I press the power button on the camera as Dresden does the same. Several Interpol vehicles pull up, agents who are part of our undercover detail pour out to help survivors. The low hum of the helicopter vibrates through the air.
Dresden grabs my face in his hands and stares into my eyes. “You okay?”
“I?
??m fine. You?”
“Yeah. Don’t scare me like that again. Next time, we stick together.” He leans forward and plants a hard kiss on my forehead before walking away to wait for the helicopter.
Well . . . that was . . . unexpected.
7
~Blake~
Lily cut the camera feed six hours ago, and Sammi wiped the hard drive within minutes of the request. Sitting at the breakfast bar, tapping my thumb against the countertop, I squeeze my eyes closed remembering the way Dresden held Lily and cupped her face. Rage and jealousy have burned through my veins since that moment, despite her whispers of loving me while she was there.
“You know she was probably fucking him the entire time they were off chasing bad guys,” Maria says from behind me.
My entire body tenses. She’s done this all night— constantly making comments, trying to feed the anger already about to explode from my chest. She’s hoping Lily had an affair because, in Maria’s mind, that would make what we did less wrong. Not to me though. Two wrongs don’t make it right, as the old saying goes.
“Miss Lily would never do that,” Teresa snaps, setting a mug of coffee in front of me more forcefully than she usually does. Teresa, like everyone else in this house, is fully aware of my one night fuck up with this crazy bitch. “And you need to go away. Stop trying to make shit worse.”
Maria glares at her, eyes narrowed, lips curled in a wicked grin. Teresa may be older, but she’s not above slapping the shit out of someone if they need it.
“Maria, go away. I don’t need this shit tonight,” I say with force.
She huffs, her heels clicking against the floor, fading until a door slams. Letting out a relieved sigh, I take a sip of my coffee. Teresa leans against the counter, her eyebrows raised, waiting.
“What?”
“Mr. Mason, how long you think it’s gonna be before that woman tells Miss Lily the truth, huh?”
I shrug, wincing as pain radiates through my left shoulder. Lily’s right, I should keep it in the sling and rest, but lying around doing nothing doesn’t appeal to me. I did that for a year and am over it at this point.
“You need to tell her first. It’ll be better coming from you, not that puta.”
I chuckle. “You’re very sweary lately, Teresa.”
“Lo siento, sir. It’s just . . . you and Lily have been through too much. Don’t let that woman ruin everything.”
She turns her back on me, twisting on the faucets, and begins washing dishes. Zoning out, the light click of the front door snaps me back to attention. I jump up and twist, freezing as Lily and Dresden stroll into the house . . . holding hands.
Her eyes meet mine and she lets go of him, rushing to me and throwing her arms around my neck. She smells of sweat, blood, gunpowder . . . and Lily. I bury my face in her hair and squeeze her to me.