Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 49989 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49989 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 250(@200wpm)___ 200(@250wpm)___ 167(@300wpm)
“Cleo, it’s safe. Come down to me,” he shouted.
She moved quickly, wrapping herself around one of his arms within seconds. “Oh, my God,” she said when she saw the carnage, blood splattered on the white walls and bodies strewn about at unnatural angles.
“Don’t look, just keep walking.”
The gunfight upstairs sounded like distant fireworks on the Fourth of July with the soundproofing in the stairwell. Two of the biggest underworld leaders were in the same room. Killer of Kings and The Circle of Monsters. But they weren’t fighting each other. Instead, they were on the same side, trying to take out an unknown enemy. There were many mafia crime bosses who had a beef with Viko. And there always seemed to be a contract out on Boss. That man was invincible.
Were the shooters trying to take out Cleo just to make her father suffer? To weaken The Circle of Monsters? Or was this revenge for the cop Priest had murdered? Was it something else entirely?
This had to be the anonymous asshole who’d put out a hit on Cleo, but why? Because of her bloodline? Target was a high-ranking soldier in The Circle of Monsters, a loner but lethal.
They got to the main floor. He had no clue what could be waiting in the foyer at this point.
He turned and looked at Cleo. She looked so scared, and he hated it. Priest leaned down and kissed her. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Priest pulled a smoke flare from his vest, opened the door an inch, and tossed it along the marble floors, briefly watching it skip and hop away.
A door above them opened. Fuck. He readied his gun.
“Priest, you alive down there?”
“Alive and breathing.”
“We’re coming down. Don’t shoot.” It was Bain’s voice.
He came unceremoniously down the stairs. Boss was behind him, but came forward, running a hand through his hair. “Go around to the rear. Maurice says the getaway car is a blue Jaguar. He’s watching our grid on satellite. Harb has one alive upstairs. No one escapes. Understand?”
Viper came down next with an AR ready to go.
“What about Cleo?” Priest asked.
“If you want to keep her, I suggest you don’t let her get shot.” Then Boss, Bain, and Viper used the door into the foyer, disappearing into the smoke.
Shit.
“Stay close to me,” he said. Priest moved quickly down the hallway toward the emergency exit at the rear of the building. He had to get to the blue Jaguar before their enemies. This was more than just eliminating a threat. It was ensuring Cleo could live without being constantly targeted. Whoever wanted her dead was about to regret it.
He burst out the metal door, doing a sweep across the darkened parking lot with his gun. After a quick walk through, he spotted the car.
“Get in,” he said, holding open the passenger door. Priest slid across the hood and got behind the driver’s seat. He pulled off the lower panel and began to hotwire the car. It purred to life, and it was almost a shame he planned to fuck up this classic car. He popped the trunk and waited.
“Now what?” she asked. Cleo had been unusually quiet and a few shades paler than usual. He wanted to get her somewhere safe. When the car jostled abruptly, Cleo screamed.
“It’s okay. It’s just Harb.”
He dumped the living dead man into the trunk and slammed it shut. Then he walked around to the driver’s side window. Priest lowered it.
“Update.”
“The guys corralled what’s left of the others at the front. We’re good. Boss says to bring this one to the warehouse. We’ll meet you there,” Harb said.
Priest nodded and then immediately drove out of the lot, heading toward the place Boss liked them to use for their messier interrogations.
“What happens now?” she asked. “Do we go back to the safe house?”
“Boss wants you relocated. We’ll find out our next move after we meet up again.”
“My father? Do you know if he’s still alive?”
It always amazed him how parents held such esteem with kids, even when they’d royally fucked them over. He’d seen it time and time again. Cleo may claim not to care about her roots, but he knew her better than that. She craved that connection, a sense of belonging even he couldn’t give her. It pissed him off knowing her happiness was in the hands of a sociopath. It would have been better for Target never to make contact, to let her live her life without knowing all the filthy details surrounding him.
“I’m sure he’s fine. Things went down fast.”
“That’s good, right?”
“We had a lot of big players upstairs. They know how to handle themselves,” Priest said. He pulled onto the freeway shortly afterward. At this time of night, it was clear driving. So much was on his mind, so he just focused on the road ahead of him, zoning out.