“We need to regroup and think about where she is. Let's go.”
52
MMy team is talking, but their voices are background sounds to me. There is a ringing in my ears as I clasp my hands together and hold them underneath my chin. My leg is bouncing as I can’t seem to calm the fuck down. In my wicked life as an assassin, I have learned that stealth and staying calm are the elixir to a long life. All my hits were calculated and well-thought-out, but now? At this moment, the ground is breaking underneath me, and it’s swallowing me whole.
“M,” I hear someone say. “You have to talk to us.” I ignore the person standing behind me. This is complete bullsh—
Slap.
The sharp sting of the back of a hand snaps me out of my state, and I’m grateful for whoever did this. I look up and see Sara standing there, arms crossed, fucking angry.
“You stupid fucking asshole. Snap out of it! Lana is missing, and you are here sulking like a baby. Every minute that she isgone, we are losing precious time!” Sara’s voice is usually low and tight; now it’s booming off the walls. Every syllable is bitten off because she doesn’t have any patience for softness right now.
I want to look down, and with that slight movement, I hear a gun clicking. Sara is pointing a gun at me.
“Intelligence is a rare commodity these days, and you don’t collect any antiques, apparently.” Adrenaline is tightening her throat, giving her voice that gravelly, “don’t test me” quality. And I have learned that women are not to be fucked with.
But she is right. I need to snap out of it.
I stand up and look at my team, who are all standing up too.
“We need to get to the bottom of this.” I guide them toward my kitchen table, and we sit down. Josh is listening intently, Oliver is twisting a knife in his hand, Sara still has her gun in her hands, and Adam has that dangerous glint in his eye.
Carnage.
“Lana was last seen at Emin’s house. Where is he, and where is our guy?” I ask them. Josh clears his throat.
“I sent him back home. He is safe. But he did provide some valuable information.”
“Proceed.”
“Lana was at the house for two hours, and our guy confirms that. He had a watchful eye on the garden where the henhouse is, and he confirms that she was there the entire time.” Josh purses his lips together because he knows I’m getting even angrier. Incompetence isn’t something I tolerate. “After two hours, Emin’s landline started ringing, and she went in.”
“So, what? She didn’t come back out?” I inquire.
“That’s the thing, he doesn’t know. While he was watching her, an officer approached him. He asked him if he was looking for something, and then they chatted for a bit. He only took his eyes off Lana for three minutes.”
Three. Whole. Fucking. Minutes.
Three minutes in our world can be the difference between life and death.
“An officer? In that part of town?” I ask him as I stop bouncing my leg. I’m locked in for this information.
“Yeah,” Adam interjects. “That doesn’t sound right. That part of town is shitty, yes, but it has almost no crime.”
“I believe the officer wasn’t a real man of the law. It was someone—”
“On Leon’s payroll. Fuck!” I stand up and take a fucking vase I didn’t even know I had, and smash it against the floor. Heat rises fast—anger, frustration, humiliation, all tangled together because Ishouldhave been a step ahead. Just when I think that I am going to nail this asshole, he does it fucking again.
“M, stop!” Josh screams at me. I stare at the broken pieces on the floor, and it mirrors how I feel—broken. My pulse spikes with that predatory, restless energy, the kind that makes my hands curl into fists because Leon is playing me like I’m predictable.
I’m supposed to be the monster they warn you about, not the other way around.
I sit back down and look at Sara—the most level-headed one.
“How the fuck does he keep doing this? It’s like he knows our every move.”
“I don’t know. But let’s focus on finding Lana. M—” I nod at her, “—do you have Emin’s phone number?” I grab my phone and dial Lana’s friend. After the third ring, he picks up.
