Page 41 of Queen of Spades

I’ve never seen her look so flabbergasted.

“It’s Annika now.” Her chin tilts in the air, and despite our dire circumstances, I still laugh.

“What’s the game plan?” Grady asks. It’s hard to see him as anything except the slimy assassin that he used to be, but to keep things simple, I’m willing to call them both by their new names. “You haven’t tried to put a bullet in my brain, so that leads me to believe we’re on the same side, at least for right now.”

“You know each other?” Annika asks, glancing between us. “Of course you do. I need a weapon.”

“Goddamn, you make my dick hard,” the idiot says, grabbing her arm and dragging her into the bedroom on the right. “The closet is stacked. Pick your poison.”

“If either of you mistakenly believes I’ll go back to my brother without a fight, you better hear me when I say, I won’t be giving warning shots.” She continues browsing the massive amount of weapons.

“How about you lock her ass in here while we handle this?” I growl, tilting my head to listen for the sounds of approaching men.

“Do we have time to bail?” Grady asks, grabbing several spare magazines and shoving them in his pockets.

“Doubtful,” I admit.

“Gotcha, yeah. I’m thinking he’s right on this one, Anni Girl.” He grabs Annika around the middle while she kicks and flails. He yanks open a door that looks like it would lead to a bathroom and scans his thumb.

“Don’t you dare try to lock me in a safe room that I have no idea how to get out of,” she shrieks, kicking backward into his shins. “What if you die? I’ll be trapped in there forever!”

“You’re the only person in the world that I care about keeping safe. Look at it like a nest.” He chucks her unceremoniously onto the mattress in the corner and strides out, slamming the door before she can escape. “She’s gonna be mighty fucking pissed when we let her out.” He grimaces, shrugging.

Multiple windows crash around the house simultaneously, and I’m actually grateful to have backup. Ten-on-one isn’t impossible odds, but it’s not great, either. Ten-on-two is more than manageable with the right partner. It sours my stomach to admit that, considering the circumstances, Grady isn’t a bad ally.

“Truce until these dicks are handled?” he asks, jogging toward the door.

“Fucking fine,” I agree as the wall explodes two feet away from my head. “We need to be quick. They might be using silenced weapons, but it’s not like they’re going for full stealth mode. One of your neighbors could call the cops.”

“They’re all old as dirt,” he muses, diving out the door, like he has a death wish. “I picked this place because they’re all retirees in bed by ten.”

I scoff, pulling up my gun and offering him cover. My shots land, taking out the asshole who was about to dispatch Annika’s favorite alpha.

Hmm, maybe I should be slightly less helpful.

“The safe room has cameras.” Grady returns fire, but I can’t see if he hits his target from where I stand just inside the bedroom doorway. “She’ll see it if you think about shooting me in the back.”

I grunt and shimmy up to the doorframe. The sound of the window exploding behind me has me turning to return fire. One of the shots from outside barely nicks my arm, causing my shot to miss and embed in the wall.

“Oh, you motherfucker,” Grady growls as I correct to take the shot. I don’t have the first clue what happened there, but I’ve got my own assholes to focus on.

I’m so fucking done with the Andretti brothers. I guess taking out a few of their minions will have to suffice.

Grady kicks the bloody body of the last assassin. “You ready to play defense in case she tries to kneecap me?”

“I fucking suppose,” I grunt, shoving my gun into the waistband of my jeans at my back.

Grady snorts. “Well, my house is trashed. I locked my girlfriend in a safe room after telling her I loved her for the first time, and she discovered that I occasionally like to stalk her. This day started out so damn good too. It’s hard to determine how it fell to shit so fast.” He jumps over the corpse and aims for the bedroom with the safe room. Holy fuck. Now that I’m paying attention, I spot the multitude of pictures that prove his stalking comments true. The door pops open as he scans his thumb. “Remember you like my dick,” he calls out in a very sing-song tone of voice.

“Don’t even get me started,” she says, tossing herself at him. “I more than like your cock, and I love you. I never got to say it earlier. You could have died, and I wouldn’t have said it.”

“Aww, baby,” he coos, lifting her and wrapping her around his chest. “It’d take a lot more than those guys to keep me from you. I’ve got incentive to live a long and happy life at your side.”

“I’m still mad at you. Don’t think this means you’re getting a free pass from everything you’ve been keeping from me. We are going to be talking that through, but I just need you to know I’m happy you’re alive.” Annika wraps her hands around his neck, pulling his mouth to hers.

My blood pressure spikes.

They’re a little too close for comfort, since I still have plans to kill him at the first opportunity I get.

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