“Aye, lassie. Interpol’s been activated, thanks to the bloody betrayal, and they’re on their way here.”
Islan winces, eying her lover under Keenan’s brutal interrogation. She turns away. I hate that for her. I hate it so fucking much.
“So much to tell you, Tate,” she says.
“Not yet,” I interrupt. “Trust me, it has to wait.”
“Aye. We get you out of here first. Then we fix the damage that’s been done.” Tate’s eyes look grave, as he looks about the room.
“I don’t understand why they took you. I don’t understand what they wanted,” he says, shaking his head. Then he sighs. “But I’ll ask them soon enough.”
“Aye. You will,” I say grimly. “I’m sure Keenan will bring them to his interrogation room in his basement, and then?—”
He eyes me sharply. I wince. “I know a lot more than you think I do,” I confess. “But in this case… just trust me, it’s going to come in very handy, very soon.”
He bends and kisses me.
“I trust you. Now get your pretty arse out of here before I have to throw you over my shoulder.”
That won’t be necessary.
We’ve come through one battle relatively unscathed, but we aren’t out of this yet.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Tate
“It was too easy.It was too bloody easy.” Fran looks around the room as if expecting someone to jump out at us at any moment.
“Fran.” I speak to her gently, aware that she may be experiencing some sort of trauma. She’s shivering, her arms wrapped around herself, and when I reach for her, she shrinks away. “Love, not sure how you can call a bloody fuckin’ ambush like we just did too easy.” Jesus, Keenan and his Clan came in droves, heavily armed and ready for war. The carnage around us bears testament to that.
She shakes her head. “No, that’s not it,” she says, then she gives me a watery smile. “I’m super impressed, by the way, don’t misunderstand. I mean, you guys did an awesome job.”
Did she get a head injury?
“But it isn’t that,” she says. “There’s something else going on, I know it. I can’t prove it yet, but you’ll see.” She winces. “I just hope that it all comes right in the end.”
What the bloody hell is she talking about?
“I’m sure we can—” a sudden, deafening explosion sounds behind me. Instinctively, I drag both Islan and Fran to the floor, as another explosion sounds. Parts of the ceiling fall, the walls crumbling around us, when I feel heat at my back.
“It’s on fire! Oh my God, the warehouse is on fire!” Fran screams. Flames billow from behind her as she rolls for cover. I can hear Keenan nearby, and Lachlan. Someone’s shouting orders, but it’s hard to hear anything amidst the chaos. I look blindly around for an exit, anything at all, but can’t bloody find one.
“Stay low!” Fran shouts. “Stay low to the ground.”
Islan and I crawl, side by side, looking for a way out, when there’s another explosion nearby and hot flames lick at us, barring our exit.
“Christ!” Fran screams, her voice choked. “There’s no way out!”
Smoke fills the air, my eyes burning from it. I try to draw in breath, but my lungs are constricted, and I can’t seem to move beyond this thick, pungent wall of smoke and flame.
“Get out!” Keenan shouts. “Whole bloody warehouse is going down!”
Figures they’d fight with fire, with a warehouse stocked with books. But who’s behind this?
“This way!” Fran shouts. “Follow me!”
She crawls through a pile of rubble to the left, and Islan and I follow behind her. Then I see it. An open doorway, the door blown straight off its hinges.
