Page 179 of Devious Knight

Trick us and she’s dead.

My heart splinters as I scan over the text message that’s just popped up on my phone. It’s from the same unknown number that contacted me before.

I was waiting for something like this—the ransom note. Isabelle has been gone for nearly half an hour.

I never stood a chance of following her. Those fuckers damaged her phone so I couldn’t track her down. I found it smashed in the dirt by the trees.

Tobias comes closer and looks at the message too. He frowns and shakes his head. “You can’t go alone, Kade.”

“I have to.”

What a fucking curse of a joke. This was the part that I wanted to do alone.

Except I never imagined things turning upside down like this. In my head I was supposed to be the one who backed Nikoli into the corner, not the other way around.

We were supposed to fight to the death, his death.

Now the tables have flipped around and I don’t have a leg to stand on.

“Kade listen to me. If you go by yourself you’re both dead. That’s the part they’re not saying.”

“They have her because of me. I can’t fuck this up and fuck with her life.”

“If you hope to save her you can’t go by yourself. They’re not expecting you to go alone either. We have to contact the Knights security squad.”

He’s right and they have the upper hand. I also know nothing other than they’ll be at the old power station in an hour. And they have Isabelle.

I also know I don’t have the luxury of time.

I think hard on what to do but the only thing that comes to my mind is what Tobias is telling me.

If we contact the Knights security squad, people I trust would come to my aid. People like Thorne and Caspian, and my guys Dmitri, Logan and Alek.

I would be a complete fool to refuse help like that.

“You contact the Knights,” I say to Tobias. “I’ll go ahead of you.”

He frowns. “You leave yourself open for attack.”

“But you can still get to Isabelle. The funds will unlock the instant I put the password in and ID my fingerprint. I won’t know what will happen after that. So please just make sure you get my girl out alive.”

It would have been nice to see my parents one more time, but Isabelle is all I care about now. My recklessness got us into this mess. Now I have to fix it and save her even if it cost me my life.

Tobias gives me a firm stare. “I haven’t come this far to fail your parents now. Take the car and go. I’ll round up the men. We’ll be just behind you. Focus on getting to Isabelle, then get yourselves to safety.”

“Okay, I’ll try.” Getting to safety is the best scenario I can hope for.

He hands me the keys and I rush out to the car. The power station is about forty minutes away from here.

I jump into the car and drive, my heart hammering and my hopes guiding me.

As I careen down the dusty road I think of Isabelle and all that we’ve been through in the time we’ve known each other.

It feels like we were destined to be together.

Fated souls.

Our story can’t end like this.

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