Inked in Lies (The Fallen Men 5)

I hadn’t expected Irina to call.

Not after she found Ransom snooping around.

I’d just assumed, as the rest of the club had, that she had guessed I was a traitor because of my ties to Nova and therefore the club.

I wasn’t planning on going back to Wet Works, or ever seeing Irina again if I could help it.

“I can hear you breathing, pretty girl,” Irina crooned through the speaker. “I know you are scared, si? You are scared because you know who I am, you know what I am, and you know I do not tolerate spies. Do you think I will have you killed, chica?”

I didn’t say anything. Instead, I scrambled to slot my keys into the car and started the engine.

“I won’t kill you,” she promised sweetly. “I can restrain myself. Did you see the sexy little boy I left alive at your doorstep? I didn’t kill him. And I won’t kill you, Lila Davalos. You are too valuable, you see. Don’t worry, I have bigger plans for you.”

I hung up as the sound of her laughter filled my car, releasing the emergency break as I made to pull out.

My phone rang again.

I was going to ignore it, but then something made me check the number.

It was different than the one before.

Hesitantly, I answered, not speaking, just accepting the call.

“Lila?” Dane’s voice exploded through the phone. “Lila, where are you?”

“Dane,” I breathed, relief sluicing through me. Part of me had thought seeing him at Wet Works had only been a dream. “Oh, my God, I’m so glad you called.”

“Where are you?” he hissed in a rough, low whisper as static sounded over the line. “Are you somewhere safe?”

“I’m in my car,” I told him with a frown. “Just heading to the Booths’.”

“Don’t,” he ordered, panic carbonating his words so they fizzed and popped. “Get to Jonathon, get to a police station, get anywhere safe.”

“Why?”

“Irina’s coming for you. You’re on her manifest.”

“Manifest?” I asked, my entire body growing cold. “What do you mean?”

“You’re on the list of women she’s selling to the people I work for,” he snapped. “The exchange is happening tonight, so if she doesn’t already have you, she’s coming.”

My heart crashed against a wall of sheer panic then tumbled upright into a sprint.

Over the roar of blood in my ears, there was a soft rap of knuckles against my driver’s side window.

I startled, a scream ripping from my throat as the door to my car was torn open, and I was dragged from it by my hair by Arturo, Irina’s right-hand man. I struggled, thrashing and kicking out, turning my head to bite savagely into his wrist, the hot, copper tang of blood flooding into my mouth.

My phone dropped to the ground, Dane’s voice a tinny wail from the speaker as Arturo reared back and landed his elbow at the back of my neck.

The next second, everything went black.

NOVA

We were in the middle of church when the phones started blowin’ up in the bucket we kept for them outside of the room.

No one moved to answer them.

We were deep in conversations about how to storm Irina’s house at the base of the mountains behind Wet Works Production so we could hold her for ransom against Javier or just fuckin’ end her like she deserved.

It was only when the front door busted open with a rip and a thunderous clap, that we surged to our feet as a unit, reachin’ for the weapons we all had tagged at our hips.

A second later, the door to the chapel burst open, and a huge man stood in the frame, face broke open with horror, chest heavin’ as he panted.

“Lysander Garrison,” Zeus grumbled darkly, already stalkin’ forward with his gun raised to the man’s chest. “What the fuck are you doin’ in my house?”

“They took ’em,” Lysander huffed out, completely ignorin’ Zeus, his eyes goin’ wild as they searched the men then pinned on me. “They took the girls. They got Honey, Talia…all of them. Even Lila.”

Everythin’ in me turned to stone as he spoke, forebodin’ coursin’ through me like quick dry cement and then, when he said the name of my Flower Child, it struck me hard as a hammer blow and I went crackin’ right down the middle.

Zeus dropped his gun, pulled out his phone, and dialled a number as he said, “Tell me the facts. How’d you know this? Where did they take ’em?”

Sander licked his chapped lips and sucked in a deep breath. “Went to pick up Honey, she was gone. Went to Wet Works lot, it was empty except for basic security and a girl dead from an O.D. on set. I don’t got much, I usually work with Javier’s men, but he put me on loan to Irina to watch over her operation. He didn’t trust her lately not to fuck up.”