“The blood? Yeah.”
“Good, because I did a shitty job during the first round of cleaning.”
Katya frowns. “You did. It took three crews to fix it.”
Jenny squirms in my arms. “Wait, Amanda Chase is in this building?”
Katya smirks. “Now isn’t the best time for a meet and greet.”
Dimitri and Katya talk in Russian to each other for a few minutes, when more footsteps come down the hall. The sweet female voice makes me jump up to my feet. It's a relief I feel in my soul.
Izzy, Lance, and Thiago enter the room, each looking worse than the other. Lance's hair is all over the place, his shirt stained with sweat. Thiago's hands and knees are all dirty. Only Izzy, who came back from the dead, seems relatively unharmed.
“Izzy, you’re ok!”
I wrap my arms around her, pangs of worst fears clawing at my brain. I almost lost her.
She accepts the hug and hugs me back. “Awe, were you worried?”
“Fuck you, of course I was.” I don’t know why she thought I wouldn’t be.
She steps out of our hug. “Alana spent money upgrading all the cars with bulletproof glass and armor. Plus, she added AI video imaging to make it appear like wherever there was impact from a bullet, the people inside would have the correct injury. Bang bang bang… we’re playing possum. She intercepted the ambulance and the police to make it one of our guys.”
Lance rubs his eyes with the heel of his hands. “A fact I forgot about when I received the video, which those motherfuckers sent to everyone with any connection to the Four Families.” He exhales and his shoulders slump. “Once I stopped having a panic attack and realized my fiancée and best friend weren’t dead, I’ve been running everything from screens for the last two hours. Everyone is coming back here.”
The terror Lance must have had in those minutes… I can’t even imagine. I rub Kingston’s ears between my fingers and he spreads his body out the length of the couch. Thank God Dimitri went back to the cabin to find him. He digs his head into my lap, raising his hips and tail up for butt scratches. This stupid fuzzy terror has no idea what happened tonight, but he knows we were scared and is doing what he can to make me feel better. Was everyone else aware that animals were this empathic?
Thiago brushes his hands against his knees and frowns. “What happened to you?” I ask.
“I was moving the programmers and the rest of the staff out of the compound to a secure location. The last thing I wanted was for the women to be recaptured by the Deviant and forced to work for him again. But they had other plans. They kicked me out of the car, and waged war on the Deviant themselves.”
Lance nods. “If he’s got his guys attacking us, then no one is protecting his assets. Early reports suggest they’re kicking ass, and one of our guys in the FBI already has a SWAT team ready to raid one of the Deviant’s strongholds.”
The door opens again, and this time I don’t recognize the man. He has sandy blond hair, glasses, and a navy-blue Mastodon T-shirt. “All VIPS are in the rooms. Feds will be here in twenty to escort them to a safe location until we get the all clear.”
Lance gives him a fist bump. “Nice work, Markus.” Is this the guy Uri keeps talking about?
The room is filling quickly, but it’s large enough for us not to feel we’re on top of each other. Still, it's nice to be with my people, the things that are important. A few years ago, it was just me and Donny. Then Alana brought us all back together and added extras.
Uri enters, and he looks the worst out of everyone. His face is pale, eyes wide, and he’s biting his nails. That’s something he hasn’t done since he was a teenager.
“You ok, Uri?” I ask.
He rubs his temples. “Long night, man.” But he gives me a little smirk. “Glad to see you made it out okay.”
The door opens and in steps Alana, her hair typically in a perfect ponytail, now cocked to the side. She seems pale, or maybe it’s lighting. Her all-black suit has various darker wet stains, and there are speckles of blood on her face. Our greatest warrior is home. We’re all together and safe and for the first time since we left the cabin, the vice grip around my heart loosens, and I can finally breathe.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Joey
I have a billion questions I want to ask her—about the evening, how she pulled all this off, and whose blood is on her face. I glance at Izzy, who shakes her head slowly. It’s a warning glare. Shit. Is Jenny going to pick up on that, or is she going to blurt out the same questions?
It’s not often my family shows restraint, but we know when it’s a good time to share a secret. Now isn’t the time.
“Is Lena here?” Alana asks, staring directly at Izzy. There’s something off about her face, and it’s even stranger that she’s asking about this Lena girl.
“Lena? Like Lena Lovegood?” Jenny whispers. “She’s here and Amanda Chase? My little fan girl heart is exploding right now.”
