Chapter 402 404

Chapter 402 404
“Jesus. That fucker’s a wild card.”

“I’m pretty sure your brother scared the shit out of him,” she tells me with a quiet chuckle. “He’s going to play his part.”

“You can’t say anything for sure. There’s no telling what that slimy Italian bastard will do.”

“Rokiades left him for dead. He knows that he can’t trust the Greek. Don’t worry so much,” she tells me. “Just trust the plan.”

“That would be easier if you’d tell me what the plan actually is.”

“Glad you asked,” she says wryly, pulling something from her coat pockets.

“Is that blood?”

She nods and jiggles the plastic pouch in her hand. “You’re going to cough up some of this lovely, fresh, A-positive blood like it’s your very own. I’m going to call for the guards while you pretend like you’re choking on it and you’re going to die if I don’t intervene. I’ll have to flip you over and ask them to take off the cuffs,” she continues. “Once you’re free, we can fight them off and get you out of here.”

I raise my eyebrows. “There are three guards out there,” I point out. “All armed. Unless you have a couple of Glocks under all those layers, this seems like an easy way to get a couple bullets in my chest.”

She smiles. “Glocks? Not quite. But I do have this.” She pulls out a small surgeon’s scalpel and offers it to me.

In the wrong hands, it’s next to useless. In the right hands, it’s a weapon of mass destruction.

Guess which category I belong to?

I tuck the razor-sharp blade away in the waistband of my pants.

“Be careful with that,” she warns. “It’s sharp.”

“Got it, Mom.”

She glares at me. “I could just leave you in here, you know. It would spare me a lot of your sass.”

“Then who would play the part of your fearless leader?” I drawl. I’m already looking up beyond her, to the door separating us from the guards that are usually stationed right outside.

With the scalpel at my disposal, I’m confident that I can take them all. And Sarah’s no slouch in the fighting department, either. She trained on Clan premises for a few years before I decided to cultivate her undercover persona. That being said, it’s been a minute since she’s been required to fight at all.

“You remember your training?” I ask.

“Don’t insult me.”

“There’s three of them out there.”

“I know. It’s hardly fair to the poor bastards.”

I smirk as she cuts open the bag of blood and starts strategically splashing it all over my body.

“Does Renata know where your loyalties lie?” I ask while she does her work.

“Of course not. Telling her would have only complicated matters.”

“How does she seem…?”

“About what, dear?”

“You’re going to make me say it?”

Sarah grins wickedly. “I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”

“How does she seem about my baby in her womb?” I grimace.

“Oh! That silly thing?” Her smile fades somewhat. “She doesn’t trust me enough to confide in me, Kian. She feels lost. Trapped. I’ve experienced that enough to recognize it on someone else’s face.”

“I’m gonna get her out of here,” I vow.

“First things first,” Sarah says, splattering her own clothes with a little blood. “We get you out of here.” She finishes up and pushes the bag of remaining blood into my hands. “Pretend it’s Guinness and take a nice, big swig.”

“Oi. Don’t joke. That’s grim, even for you.” I hold my breath and take a gulp just as Sarah starts banging on the door, her face contorted into controlled hysteria.

“Help! Help! Guards, get in here! Hurry!”

The door bursts open as I stash the bag of blood under the mattress. My mouth is suffused with the metallic taste of blood from who-the-fuck-knows-where.

I flop to the ground and start spasming. All three guards pour in with their weapons drawn. Clearly, they’ve assumed I’m attacking the doctor. Instead, they find me thrashing around on the floor next to the bed, spurting out blood intermittently and groaning like a dying goat. I let my eyes pinwheel around in their sockets.

“He’s got some internal bleeding!” Sarah tells the guards. “I need to turn him over. You’ll have to uncuff him.”

I can’t see the guards’ expressions as Sarah makes a show out of trying to roll me over.

“Hurry!” she barks. “He’ll die if I don’t do this fast!”

I hear the scurrying of feet. One of the guards kneels behind me and undoes the cuffs. My hands fall free instantly.

The scalpel is digging into my side. Sarah was right—it’s sharp as hell. The skin at my waist parts effortlessly beneath the blade. More blood—my own, this time—starts to trickle down my torso as Sarah and the guards work together to heave me onto my back.

“Okay, I need two of you to hold him down for me,” Sarah says urgently. “Hurry, or we might lose him! Rokiades still needs the Irish bastard.”

Still uncertain but in no mood to argue with the fiery doctor, two of the guards crouch down on either side of me.

It’s the last thing they’ll ever do.

I snatch the scalpel out of my waistband. Before either one has a chance to realize what’s happening, my arm slashes across the air. I slit the first guard’s throat so fast that he never even realizes it’s happened.

The second one has maybe a quarter-second of awareness before his throat is slit, too.

The third guard is standing in front of me as I rise. He’s got a look of sheer horror etched on his face. Frozen in place, the gun dangling from his hand uselessly.

But before he’s even realized he’s still armed, Sarah’s hand flashes from behind. His throat opens up just like the others. His knees buckle a second later and he hits the ground with a low thud.

All in all, they’ve been in the room for less than thirty seconds. What a fucking way to die.

“Nice work,” I say, looking down at Sarah’s kill. “Clean.”

“You taught me well. Not bad yourself, either.”

“I taught you everything you know,” I remind her with a laugh. “I didn’t teach you everything I know.” I bend over to sweep up the guns from the dead men. “Time to go, though,” I say, handing one of the firearms over to Sarah.

Once we’re properly armed, we run out of the cell, keeping our eyes open.

“How many guards are stationed around the warehouse?” I ask.

“At least two by the main entrance.”

“Let’s try and kill them as silently as possible,” I say. “If a gunshot goes off, we’re fucked.”

The moment I finish speaking, I hear footsteps approaching from the opposite side of the corridor. Before I can jump out of sight, the guard turns and spots me. His face goes bug-eyed. His mouth opens, getting ready to alert the others.

Then a gunshot pierces the air before a single word can escape his lips. The guard drops to the floor instantly.

I turn to see the end of Sarah’s gun smoking slightly. “Sorry,” she says wryly, “I missed that last bit you said. Something about killing silently?”

“Fuck,” I groan. “We gotta move.”

But as soon as I break into a run, a cacophony of gunshots fills the air. It’s followed a beat later by an explosion that makes the bones of the warehouse shake.

I don’t know much about what’s happening right now, but when I hear those sounds, I know one thing for sure: all hell is about to break loose.