Page 121 of Dash

My gaze locked with Thena. Her lips trembled but she blinked the tears from her eyes. She was trying to be brave. I wished I could erase the terror in her gaze. I might be able to get out one shot and take Arthur out, but after that, I’d be leaving Thena unprotected and alone in this world with Shaw.

Not an option.

“You played a good game,” Arthur growled. “But this is checkmate.”

Checkmate my ass. Let him believe the lie. I loosened my fingers around my gun.

Shaw snatched the Glock from my hand.

“Asshole,” I muttered.

I sensed more than saw Shaw’s gun coming at me. I’d known that, without my weapons, I faced violence and abuse, but the blow struck me like a wrecking ball to the side of the head. Pain rattled my skull. I made an effort to keep my feet, but failed. I collided with the floor. The world went black. Swimming in an obsidian sea, all I could see was darkness ahead.

Chapter Thirty-four

Dash

“Dash, please. Wake up!” Thena’s sobs pulled me out of the night.

When I managed to open my eyes, Shaw’s boots flickered within my field of vision. My cheek laid flat against the floor. My wrists were cuffed behind my back and the room whirled around me. I was on the merry-go-round from hell.

I forced myself to think. I must’ve been out for a few minutes. Yanking my wrists, I confirmed Shaw had used the time to put me in zip cuffs. Cursing in my head, I blinked the fog from my eyes and willed the room to stop spinning.

“On your knees.” A rough grip dragged me onto my shins.

I felt the air blow over the exposed skin of my chest. Looking down, I could see that my shirt had been ripped apart. Something circled my neck. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it.

The tremors in Thena’s voice dragged me back to full awareness. “What did you put on him?”

“It’s a surprise.” Arthur’s chuckles irked me to no end. “I’ll show you how it works in a moment.”

Shaking off the pain squeezing and stretching my skull as if it were an accordion, I lifted my head and scoured the room for weapons. A stiff poke to the back of my head revealed Shaw’s Beretta was in play and ready to kill. A backward glance also showed me his carbine, strapped across his chest, and my gun, tucked into his holster.

I wanted my Glock in my hand and my team at my back.

I turned my head and squinted across the room. Standing to the right of Thena, Arthur braced on his feet. Between me and his Colt stood my abandoned chair, the colossal dinner table, and the dessert cart holding the remains of the destroyed cake.

The lights in my head came full on. So that was how Shaw had smuggled Arthur’s gun into the house. He’d probably created a diversion when Cook was decorating the cake. He’d used it to sneak in Arthur’s weapon.

Since Tracker Team’s inception, I’d had a Trojan horse embedded with us all along. Shaw had been a ticking time bomb, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He’d also shared intel with Arthur and his thugs. This explained the ambush along the backroad on the way to the airport.

Were there any other traitors in my team?

I fought the waves of vertigo and the urge to vomit. What happened next would tell me if Tracker Team had been further compromised. If Shaw had more accomplices among my crew, they’d come to his assist. Today was Tracker Team’s ultimate membership test.

With a yank, I challenged the hold of the plastic cuffs again. They didn’t budge. Ignoring my throbbing headache, I lifted my chin in defiance. The glower I directed at Shaw should’ve turned him to ashes. No such luck. Nothing like a mole in your team to sink an op and get your people killed.

“Don’t be a hero, Dashiell.” Arthur flashed a smug smirk. “If you start something, Thena dies an instant, gruesome death and everyone in this house goes directly to hell.”

“Stop pussyfooting around your tiny dick.” I was getting damn tired of Arthur’s smirks and Shaw’s violent mood. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Arthur expanded his irritating grin. “The cameo that Thena is wearing is a very powerful explosive device thatIcontrol.”

My guts froze and the blood in my veins coagulated. In that instant, I must’ve aged a hundred years. The weight of the thing had given me pause. My instincts had alerted to the danger. Why hadn’t I shot the bastard then?

For the moment, I kept my mouth shut and my face blank.

“As to Astor House…” The way Arthur wiggled his tangled eyebrows warned me that the situation was gonna go from bad to critical. “Your bro Shaw had all the time and access in the world to do his thing. He wired it to blow up when and if I so wish.”

---