Unlocked (The Alpha Group 3)

Her shoulders slumped a little, but she tried to remain stoic. "That makes sense."

"Hey," I said, reaching out to brush her cheek with one knuckle. "This is a big step forward. With any luck, they'll crack quickly and tell us everything we need to know. I suspect you'll be back burning the midnight oil at work and getting tanked with Ruth and Lou again in no time."

The smile returned. "I have missed excessive quantities of wine."

"You're allowed to drink more than a glass or two with me, you know."

"And be that embarrassing drunk with the begrudgingly tolerant boyfriend? I don't think so."

"So maybe I'll have more than one or two as well."

She raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realise you did messy drunk."

"I haven't for a few years. But I'm willing to make an exception for you."

She laughed. "That might just be the most romantic offer you've ever made me. It's settled then. When this is all over, we will drink to excess!"

"Deal," I replied.

Another minute passed. "You know, something about this still doesn't sit quite right with me," she said.

"In what way?"

"Well, when you rescued me, you fought your way through a whole house of guards, right?"

I nodded.

"So why did they hire out the killing this time around? Why not use their own people?"

"That's been bothering me too," I replied. "So much of this still makes no sense. Obviously they had their reasons. Maybe we hurt them worse than we thought when we raided that house?"

"Maybe," she replied, although she didn't sound convinced.

"We'll have some answers soon."

"I know," she said.

At that moment, another car appeared at the gate. It was one of the fleet of black Alpha BMWs. I felt something heavy settle in my stomach. Behind those doors was one of my brothers. A man I would have trusted with my life. A man who had betrayed me. I took a deep breath and tried to remain calm.

Through the tinted glass window I watched as the car pulled slowly into the empty lot and stopped about thirty meters away. Iman was standing off to one side, flanked by two of Anton's thugs. He was doing a good job of playing the part. He looked impatient, perhaps even a little bored. Just a guy on another routine pickup.

For a few moments, nothing happened; then the back door opened and out stepped a man.

Ewan.

Something hot surged in my chest. Until that moment, I think part of me had still refused to accept it. A tiny voice in the back of my head, arguing that there was some other explanation for the way those assassins had surprised us; a hacked security system, or a building flaw we didn't spot. But seeing Ewan there, delivering payment for our deaths, meant that I couldn't lie to myself anymore. The group had been compromised.

It made me feel so damn stupid. I'd always believed the group rhetoric, those wonderful tenants that spoke of using power for the greater good, but now I realised how naive that was. The Alpha Group wasn't some last bastion of nobility. We were as susceptible to greed and self-interest as anyone. I still didn't understand what would possess Ewan to do these things, but I was going to do everything in my power to find out. He would pay for the pain he'd caused.

I looked to Sophia. She had every right to be wearing an 'I told you so' expression, but she seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. Instead, she just shot me a sympathetic smile and reached out to squeeze my knee.

Two Alpha security personnel followed Ewan out of the car, but after a few seconds of hushed conversation, they stayed in place while Ewan began to stride purposefully over the dust towards us. I wondered if the guards had turned on us too, or if they were just doing their job and simply had no idea of the traitorous deal going on right under their noses. I suspected the latter. In our line of work, you naturally see a lot of strange things, and they were taught not to ask questions. Besides, Ewan had kept them purposefully out of earshot. If he had nothing to hide, he'd have brought them in with him. They were probably just here to stop Iman and his men trying anything shady. Only a fool wouldn't tread carefully around Anton Silva.

It felt like it took Ewan forever to cross the empty yard. The animal inside me was raring to simply charge out of the car and let loose with all my rage, until he was just a bloody wreck on the ground, but I knew I needed to hold back. The situation could get messy in a heartbeat, if not handled carefully, and we needed Ewan alive if we wanted any chance of ending this.

When he was a few feet away from Anton's men, he stopped. In his hand he held a plain black briefcase that no doubt contained the rest of Anton's money. "You had me worried," he said. I had the window down ever so slightly, so we could hear everything clearly. "When they escaped the house I thought we'd lost our shot."

Iman smirked. "We find them. Or rather, they find us."

Ewan's eyes narrowed, but before he could react, all three of Anton's men had guns trained on him. The Alpha guys were good. In a split second they were both charging forward and reaching inside their jackets, but they froze as two more thugs emerged from the shadows behind them with weapons raised.

"What is this?" Ewan asked, but there already was a sense of understanding in his voice.

I nodded to Sophia, and we both reached for our door handles. I was expecting fear, but all I saw in his eyes when they fell on us was surprise, followed by resignation. The anger inside me flared. I didn't want him to be okay with what was coming. I wanted him to feel the same terror Sophia had, when he'd taken her from her house. That raw hopelessness of knowing that there was nothing left for him, beyond pain and death.

"This is you, getting what you deserve," I growled, and before I could stop myself, I clocked him with an enormous uppercut that lifted his body from the ground. I was on top of him, moments later, my fists a blur in front of me, my vision clouded red. There were people yelling behind me, but they were muted and distant. All that mattered was Ewan and the pain I wanted him to feel.

It wasn't until Sophia grabbed my face and yanked my gaze up to hers that the rest of the world came back into focus. "Sebastian, stop! You're killing him!"

I looked down at the crumpled form below me. Ewan's face was a mask of blood and dirt. His hair was matted and his breathing shallow. He wasn't moving.

I closed my eyes and flung myself to my feet. I'd never lost control like that before. It was frightening. And scarier still, it had felt good. I wanted someone to blame for everything that had happened, someone that wasn't myself. And now that someone had finally presented himself, I could finally unleash some of the guilt that was devouring me from the inside. "I'm okay," I said. "I'm okay."