“Nolan’s gotten sloppy. His soldiers just get worse as he sends them. Although I’m impressed he found Bane Falls,” he says stiffly to Callum as he assesses us.
I wrap Roman in my arms and keep my hand firmly over his neck.
“I’m sorry, sir, this is not how I intended for you to meet Briar.”
Wait, this is the boss? Chills spread over my arms, and the shivering gets so bad my teeth start to chatter again.
The man helps me up. I glare at him and shrink closer to Roman. He pauses and watches me closely. “May I check your neck?” he asks.
I nod, unsure if Roman will attack this man or not but prepare for it nonetheless.
He dips down and moves my wet hair enough to inspect the backside of my neck. A small scar is there, from the tracker, according to Grahm.
“Who removed this?” he asks Callum.
Callum lifts a brow. “The tracker? Grahm. He traded secrets with that sleeper agent before we took him out. We gave him the fake locations to the dark cities, and he gave us a box that lets you take those high-grade trackers out. It’s how we got that one soldier last year before we left him in the field.”
The boss narrows his eyes. “What was the man’s name?”
“Arnold,” I answer.
The man looks down at me, the scar over his eye is intimidating, but I don’t find him to have any malice.
He nods and is about to say more when Roman thrusts his knife into Callum’s ankle. Callum shrieks in pain, and the other Sub-Rosa men abandon their positions over the squad to help him.
Roman doesn’t give Callum time to do anything; he’s already on his feet with his fists up, the KA-BAR with the blade facingout in one hand. Callum puts all of his weight on his good leg as he jerks his hand up and fires his pistol. He’s not even close to hitting Roman in his panicked state.
Roman takes advantage of that, ducking out of the way of the Sub-Rosa guard swinging his rifle at Roman’s neck. They follow through too far and end up smacking one of their comrades in the back of the head and knocking them clean off the boat.
“Let’s leave it to them, shall we?” I flinch as the boss speaks to me, grabbing my arm and guiding me to a small ?paddleboat tied off at the back. “Come, Briar.”
He extends his gloved hand, and I hesitantly take it.
39
ROMAN
Five of them left,including sack-of-shit Callum.
They’re very insistent on protecting him, which only makes me that much more eager to kill him. I dodge away from a knife swipe and bury my blade into the man behind me. He chokes and reaches for his chest.
I kick him back and tear my knife out. It’s slick with blood, and my grip is already not as tight as it would be. The metal mesh protected my vitals from that bullet, but with the cold air and blood loss, I’m already starting to lose my strength.
Gale manages to stand and shouts something that gets muffled by the gag around his mouth, but I understand what he’s getting at. One of the Sub-Rosa guards does too and tries to kick Gale off the boat.
I don’t have time to cut him free, so I chuck my knife at the guard. It pierces his neck, downing him, his throat gushing blood.Jesus, that would’ve been me if I didn’t have the full metal, I muse.
Gale nods at me and quickly sets to cutting his binds with the part of the blade that’s sticking out of the guy’s throat.
Three left.
I turn my focus back to Callum a beat too late. His gun is lined up with my forehead, and a wicked smile curls his lips. He doesn’t waste his breath saying stupid things like his grand design and his plan for my girl. He just pulls the trigger.
My head is thrown back violently.
I hear the sound of a hundred cries, from people I’ve killed—their begging and pained looks when they know I’m not letting them go.
Then I hear Briar. “Roman!”
