He lost control and they spun, the sound of metal scraping against metal as they slid against the guardrail piercing through his ears. His head whacked into the window and he saw stars, but fortunately the car came to a stop soon after.
Sila recovered before him, throwing off his seatbelt to lean over and check Bay. He cupped his cheek and tilted his head, inspected where he’d hit it, but he didn’t ask Bay if he was all right. When he was certain Bay was at least functioning, his eyes whipped toward the back and he growled when the black car came to a stop only a few feet behind them.
“Wait!” Bay tried to stop him when he tossed the passenger side door open, but Sila was too quick. He sucked in a breath when headlights appeared in front of them, another car entering the bridge from the opposite side, but before he could feel relief at there being help, it came to a crawl.
And Haroon Caddel stepped out.
He adjusted the collar of his jacket as though he was a cliché mob boss in a bad movie, and Bay would have rolled his eyes at the gesture if not for the fact he was approaching Sila who was standing at the front of the car already waiting.
Bay shot out, rounding it and coming to Sila’s side before Haroon could reach them.
“I wasn’t aware Tiberans had nine lives,” Haroon said. The sound of car doors opening and slamming shut at their backs drew his attention over their shoulders momentarily, and he smirked. “Looks like you’ve finally run out of luck tonight however.”
“Do I know you?” Sila slipped his hands casually into his front pockets and tipped his head, eyeing Haroon down like he’d never seen the guy before. “Your friends slammed into us. If this is about money, insurance should cover it. Don’t tell me you’re not insured?”
“Playing dumb?” he said. “Really?”
“It was worth a shot.”
“Why are you doing this, Haroon?” Bay asked. “Anyone could show up and see that you’re harassing us out in the open like this.”
“I wasn’t going to bother,” he admitted. “Especially since you never showed any interest in me or what happened with your grandmother before. Why couldn’t you have just stayed indifferent, Del?”
“Don’t call him that,” Sila ordered.
Only a few friends from college had ever referred to Bay by that nickname. Unfortunately, Haroon had been one of them, but he wasn’t going to disagree with Sila here. He didn’t like the closeness calling him by that name implied either.
“You murdered my grandmother and stole all her stuff,” Bay accused. “What kind of person stands by and allows that type of injustice to go unanswered??”
Haroon barked out a sharp burst of laughter. “Please. Injustice? You triedonceto get her name cleared and then promptly gave up. Let’s be real here, if anyone did that poor old lady an injustice, it was you. I actually thought you’d be a bigger issue, had planned to wait it out and deal with you later, but then you stopped talking about it and I was convinced you didn’t care anymore. Is he what changed?” He jutted his chin toward Sila. “That was a mistake. He’s the reason you’re both going to have to die tonight.”
“Interesting logic,” Sila replied. “I’m curious though, if you’re so well informed and know we’ve been digging around your closet, shouldn’t you also be aware that we’ve found no evidence? Why so afraid? Ah,” he hummed mockingly. “Afraid to face the Devil?”
It was clear by the way Haroon scoffed haughtily that only Bay understood which Devil Sila had been referring to. This only became more apparent when he spoke a second later.
“Your future brother-in-law can’t help you now, Varun,” Haroon declared. “And neither can Baikal Void.”
Sila’s brow quirked. “Are you saying the only reason you’ve escalated things this far is because of my connections? Allowing an emotion like fear to drive you is dangerous, Haroon. Someone in your position, someone in charge of a group of people like the Shepards, should know better than that. But then, rumors all mention you’re shit at your job, so I suppose I shouldn’t be all that surprised, should I?”
If Bay hadn’t involved Sila, did that mean Haroon never would have attacked them in the first place? He didn’t view Bay as a threat, but Sila was a different story because his brother was publicly tied to the Imperial Prince, and Sila was openly friends with Rabbit Trace, who was also well-known to be linked to Baikal Void.
He’d been aware it was his fault Sila had been targeted, of course, he wasn’t an idiot. But this made things a little clearer, and not in a good way. Guilt assaulted him a second before Haroon lifted a hand and motioned to the people who’d crashed into their car.
The sound of approaching footsteps had Bay turning, gasping when he spotted four fit men who were no doubt Shepards. Two of them even smiled at him, the promise of pain in their expressions.
Not the kind of pain Bay was into, thank you.
The last guy at the back of the group caught his eye and winked. He looked familiar, enough so that Bay wondered if he was also a student at Vail.
“Sila,” he tugged on his sleeve. “We should get back to the car.”
“Too late for that, Kitten.” Unlike Bay, he didn’t sound nearly as concerned about their current predicament. In fact, he actually sounded…
“You can’t seriously be excited right now?” Bay might have been comforted by that if he didn’t know himself as well as he did. Fighting had never been his forte.
“Why not?” Sila cracked his neck and grinned at Haroon, who he’d yet to take his gaze off of even as the men surrounded them. “After all that time in the hospital, I could use a good workout. Here’s to hoping you and your boys are worth the time. I’m already in an irritable mood. Would suck if I got bored before I could properly hack you to pieces and let the professor here listen to you beg.”
Haroon blinked, clearly caught off guard by that type of threat coming out of someone with Sila’s kind reputation, but his stupor didn’t last nearly long enough to make much of a difference. He snapped his fingers and the Shepards moved in.
