Bile rises in my throat, burning like a motherfucker, then I feel a sharp tug on my arm.
Looking at where the tug came from, I see Lucifer holding up the metal prong between his fingers, inspecting it.
James takes one look at my arm and the small puncture wound created by the prong before he bellows, “Where the fuck is Andrew?”
“Right here!” a dark-haired, muscular man says as he steps over Calvet’s dead body and comes jogging over to us. “I had to run back for my bag.”
Dropping the bag on the other side of me, Andrew yanks it open and asks, “How much time do we have?”
I feel another sharp tug, this time coming from my shoulder.
“I believe Simon said twenty minutes, twenty minutes ago,” Lucifer says casually as inspects the second prong.
“I did,” Simon says from across the room. “The Russians could show up any second now.”
Looking in his direction, I see him just inside the open doorway, glancing down at his watch.
“Shit.” Andrew says then I feel his attention on me. “Maybe we should do this in the car.”
“That would probably be for the best,” Lucifer sighs and fists the prong before shoving it in his pocket. “We should move this show to the warehouse before we end up in a firefight or worse.”
James gives Trent another kick in the ribs. “Thank your fucking lucky stars you get to live for a few more minutes.” Then he grins a wicked grin. “We’ll play in the car, though.”
It finally dawns on me what they’re discussing as Lucifer stands from the bed and Andrew closes his bag.
“The Russians aren’t coming,” I force myself to say, each word extremely hoarse and painful.
Everyone seems to pause and look at me.
“What was that?” Lucifer asks, arching a brow with interest. “The Russians aren’t coming?”
I slowly nod my head.
Simon straightens away from the wall and stares hard at me through his glasses. “That doesn’t make any sense… Why wouldn’t they come?”
I open my mouth to try to explain everything I heard Dickers say, but it’s so much, so many damn words, I don’t even know where to begin.
My throat is fucking killing me.
“It’s okay, baby,” James says, his face darkening with anger as he watches me struggle with the pain. “You don’t have to explain.”
“The fuck she doesn’t!” Simon snaps. “I need to know why the Russians aren’t coming!”
James whirls around to face him, and I’ve never seen him look so angry…
Face contorted with rage, he looks a lot like Lucifer looked when I was on top of him—fucking terrifying.
“My wife is no position to answer your questions right now, Spider. And I suggest you back the fuck off before I answer them for you,” James warns.
Simon seems to shrink in a bit on himself at James’s warning before he realizes what he’s doing and straightens. Sighing, he shakes his head and reaches up to lift his glasses and pinch the bridge of his nose.
Dropping his glasses back down, Simon looks at James. “I meant no disrespect. I just really need to fucking know why the Russians aren’t coming. What’s changed? Is someone else going to be coming down on us? These things are fucking important!”
“Gentlemen,” Lucifer cuts in smoothly. “I have an easy solution that will work for everyone.”
Once everyone’s attention is on Lucifer, he pulls out his phone and slides it open. After pulling up an app, he holds his phone out to me. “Sophia, do you think you can type in what you know so we can put everyone’s mind at ease?”
I glance at James and Simon, taking in their tense faces, then nod at Lucifer.
Lucifer smiles a pleased smile as I accept his phone from him.
When I just stare down at the blank screen, wondering where to begin, Lucifer’s voice softens and he says gently, “We don’t need to know everything, just the important bits.”
Taking a little breath to steel myself, I decide to begin by typing in the most important thing first.
The Russians aren’t coming because they want to kill them. The Russians blame them for what happened to Alexei.
“Interesting,” Lucifer drawls out, peering down at his phone, and I sense the other men moving in closer.
“What’s interesting?” Simon asks, as if his curiosity is killing him.
Lucifer snickers. “You’ll see.” Then he asks me, “Will any other backup be arriving?”
I almost shake my head before I remember I can just type in the answer.
No. All their backup was at James’s…
I quickly erase James’s and replace it with our house.
That’s why the wanted to kill me. They wanted to kill me so they could call it in and blame it on you guys.
“Fuckers,” Andrew grumbles beside me and I look up in surprise to see him peering over my shoulder at what I’m typing.
“I agree,” Lucifer says, his voice dropping to a near growl. “Is there anything else we need to know, Sophia?”