Page 40 of Pike’s Redemption

A figure stood by the stone wall in the courtyard’s dim light, partially hidden in the shadows. My breath hitched as recognition hit me like a cold wave—Victor. This must be him. We’d calculated it all wrong. He was here, in the courtyard, watching me.

A surge of adrenaline flooded my veins as I realized just how close he was. My mind raced with possibilities—what did he want? How long had he been there? And most importantly, how had he gotten this close without anyone noticing? The roof, maybe?

I quickly shut the laptop, the snap of it breaking the heavy silence. I couldn’t let him see the fear that skittered along my spine. I stood slowly, trying to keep my composure, and met his gaze head-on. His eyes were dark and unreadable, sending a shiver down my spine. He was slim, with blond hair slicked against his head, almost skeletal, and he looked like an absolute psycho.

“Hello.”

CHAPTER

EIGHTEEN

PIKE

The house was too damn quiet for my liking. I sat there, watching the monitor with Dimitri and Maddox, but my mind was elsewhere. The plan was simple—watch and wait for Victor to arrive at Kent’s place and finish the job. But all we’d seen so far was Kent, the disgusting piece of shit, lounging on his couch, stuffing his face with chips, and watching garbage TV. The longer we sat here, the more I felt we’d made a mistake, and I knew that Dimitri and Maddox felt the same way.

I clenched my jaw as I watched him scratch his beer belly through that filthy, stained tank top. Just looking at him made my skin crawl. The kind of scum that didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as the rest of us. I should have killed him years ago instead of hanging on to this idea of my brother. The tenuous thread that I’d manufactured. The odd part was that it had worked. In the end, it had brought Eli back to me. Still, my fingers itched to grab my gun and put a bullet in Kent’s head, but I knew better than to act on impulse. We just needed Victor to take the bait.

“How much more of this shit do we have to watch?” Maddox muttered next to me, his voice laced with irritation. “I swear if I see him stick his hand down his pants one more time, I’m gonna lose it.”

Dimitri snorted. “You’re not the only one. It’s like watching a rat in a cage, waiting for it to do something interesting.”

I leaned back in my chair, my eyes narrowing at the screen. Kent had switched the channel to some late-night rerun, his beady eyes half-closed. For a moment, I wished the bastard would choke on a chip and save us all the trouble. But no such luck. Instead, he yawned, scratched his armpit, and eventually dragged his sorry ass off to bed, the camera in the bedroom catching his every move.

“Jesus, this is a waste of time,” Maddox grumbled, running a hand through his hair. “Victor’s not coming. He’s probably out there, somewhere else, planning his next move while we’re stuck watching this asshole sleep.”

Dimitri looked over at me. “What do you think?”

I didn’t answer right away. Something was gnawing at me, deep in my gut. It wasn’t just the boredom or the disgust I felt watching Kent exist. No, this was something else that made my skin prickle with unease. My eyes shifted from the monitor to the clock on the wall, then around the room, searching for something I couldn’t quite place.

“You seen Natasha?” I finally asked, my voice gruff.

Dimitri blinked, caught off guard by the change in topic. “Not since earlier. Why?”

My frown deepened. “She’s been gone too long. I don’t like it.”

Maddox raised an eyebrow. “You worried about her? She’s a big girl, Pike. She can take care of herself.”

“I know that,” I snapped, the tension in my voice betraying me. Natasha was tough—there was no doubt about that. But she was also new to this world and the dangers that came with it. And if Victor was lurking around... I didn’t even want to think about what could happen.

Dimitri sighed, his concern starting to show. “Maybe we should check on the girls. Just to be sure. Ronnie, too.” He looked around for Enzo and Luca, but both had gotten bored hours ago due to the lack of action on the monitors, and they wandered off.

“Maybe we should send some club members to pick Kent up?” Maddox suggested.

“Do it.” I was wasting time tracking him, visiting him, and beating him. Even thinking about him was a waste of time when I had something good I needed to hold onto.

I was already on my feet before he finished talking. “Let’s go,” I said, heading for the door with a sense of urgency that hadn’t been there before.

Maddox and Dimitri exchanged glances before following me, their focus shifting from the screen to the real world outside. My mind raced as we moved through the house, thoughts of Kent forgotten. All I could think about now was finding Natasha and making sure she was safe.

Dimitri’s phone was ringing just as we were heading through the house. “What?” Dimitri barked, but he stilled and snapped his fingers at us. “Courtyard. She’s in the courtyard. There’s a man in there.”

We moved through the house with purpose, the urgency of Dimitri’s words pushing us faster. The courtyard. Natasha. A man. My heart pounded in my chest, anger flaring up with every step. How the hell had this happened under our noses?

We edged past the windows, staying low to the ground. I could see the courtyard now—small, enclosed, with doors only accessible from Natasha’s room. The light was dim, but I spotted her immediately. She was against the fountain, moving slowly away from a figure who lounged in the shadows, too comfortable, too confident. Victor. That bastard was toying with her, and every muscle in my body tensed with the urge to storm in there and tear him apart.

But I couldn’t do that. Not yet. We needed a plan. We needed to be smart.

“I’ll go around, create a distraction,” I whispered to Dimitri and Maddox, my eyes never leaving Natasha. She was keeping her cool, but I could tell she was tense. We couldn’t afford any mistakes and nothing could happen to her. I wouldn’t let it.

---