Paul held his arms tight. “Not here, bud. Not now.”
Adam looked around to where his people were barely winning the fight. If they didn’t retreat now, they’d needlessly lose lives.
But he could do it… He could kill Blake with his bare hands right there. He could end it. Recklessly, sure, but it’d be over.
It took all his energy to recognize the bad timing, clenching his jaw as he nodded once and instructed his team to draw back. “Let’s go!”
They all ducked and returned fire, barely stumbling across the lot as they retreated from the ambush.
Adam made it to Mercedes’s car with Dan, Paul, and Carlos, waiting until the very last second to make sure everyone had the chance to retreat before he took the flame thrower from Lulu and allowed his people a head start.
Once the grass was burning again, Adam jumped into the passenger seat. He checked over the vehicle. Dan, Carlos, Paul, Mercedes. His family. Present and accounted for.
Mercedes was speeding off again, leaving their enemies in ruin, before he could wipe the dirt and blood from his face.
“Fuck!” Carlos said.
“That was… unexpected,” Paul said, eyes wide in shock.
“Apparently Dorian found some tape of your dumb ass at the shooting range,” Mercedes said, though her eyes smiled. “I barely had time to round up the team to save you. Again, I might add.”
“Blake knows Adam’s alive…” Dan said, shoulders dropping.
“Yeah…” Carlos said, giving Dan an incredulous look. “Obviously.”
“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Dan said.
“No,” Adam said, frowning as Mercedes’s hands tightened on the wheel. “It was not.”
* * *
After they’d ditched the getaway vehicle, they went back to Adam’s room in low spirits, slumping into various corners of the suite when they arrived.
“Well, we’ve really done it now,” Dan said, settling in the kitchen and pouring a heavy drink. He took a full swig and finished it one glass, pouring another without delay.
“He wasnotmeant to know you were alive until you were pointing a gun in his face,” Carlos said.
Adam nodded his agreement and sank down onto the edge of his bed. “Nobody leaves this place now,” he said. “You guys can’t go home.”
“Why the fuck not?” Dan said, pausing his sip.
“He’ll be waiting for you there,” Adam said. “Now that he knows the players, he’ll be looking for us.”
“He’s right,” Mercedes said, standing with her arms folded by the door. “He will send people to stake out your apartments.”
Dan downed the second drink and replenished it, while Carlos and Paul slumped at the dining table.
“How the hell are we meant to finish this now?” Dan said.
“This only ends one way,” Mercedes said. “With a fucking bullet in his head.”
Carlos sighed. “But we’ve lost the upper hand. He knows Adam’s alive. He knows for certain there’s a fifth one of us,andhe knows about our people.”
Mercedes opened her mouth to fire back, but Paul shot her a short look and she stopped in her tracks. Her anger was clearly clouding her emotions too much for the time being.
Adam rubbed at his temples. This wasn’t supposed to be the plan. He had always known that if he was going to kill Dorian Blake, it had to be before the election. Had to be before Blake became too powerful to ever stop. And Blake was going to win the election, too, if Diego’s murder and the ballot tampering were anything to go by.
No, they couldn’t let Blake make it to the election. There was absolutely no way he could allow it. But now, though…now Blake would see it coming.
