Page 95 of The Pretty Psycho

Dima pulled the automatic rifle he had strapped to his back, and as he and Arseniy came closer to the gate, he aimed it at the guards who were still looking at the trucks passing through.

"Dima, on my count," Ethan said, ignoring Gabriela's remark. "One, two…" he trailed off. "Now!"

The sound of the shots got muffled by the sound of the trucks rolling inside the courtyard of the factory, and by the time the second guard realized what was happening as his colleague fell down, Dima was already aiming at him and pressing on the trigger just as we passed.

I kept my eyes to the front, at Gabriela's back, as she passed through, still keeping herself close to the truck in front of her.

"So far so good," I mumbled to myself, feeling the wind on my arms as we slowed down just as the trucks started pulling to a stop at the main courtyard.

"Any issues?" Ethan asked, his voice holding a note of trepidation all of us felt as we went into this mission. We knew this might as well become a suicide mission, but we were done chasing ghosts and wanted to finish this once and for all.

We didn't want to keep on looking over our shoulders and waiting for Gerard Zylla to strike.

We needed to strike first.

"All good," I confirmed, but I guess I spoke too fucking soon.

Just as we slowed to a stop, still keeping ourselves plastered to the back of the last truck, the previously empty courtyard suddenly started filling up with guards, all of them in tactical gear, and I fucking knew these weren't regular guards, which also confirmed our theory of Gerard hiding here.

We chose to go after midnight because we assumed the place would have a lower number of guards on duty then, but we were wrong. We were so fucking wrong.

Gabriela practically jumped from her bike, pulling out the two guns from their holders, and aimed them at the incoming crowd of more than ten guards. Dima followed after her with Arseniy behind him, while I slowly got off of mine, ready for action.

We might not have expected this many guards, but it wasn't as if we didn't anticipate the possibility of being betrayed by our inside man.

"Showtime." Ethan chuckled, just as the doors on the back of three of the trucks started opening, revealing our plan at last.

We weren't following these trucks because they were transporting paper for shredding and further recycling in the factory. We followed them because both of the trucks were filled with Brotherhood soldiers, and as the doors opened wide at the last one, my lips pulled into a wicked smile, seeing him standing there in his tactical gear, strapped with more guns and knivesthan was maybe even necessary, and that little pitter-patter in my heart only increased as his dark eyes connected with mine.

Hi, he mouthed, smiling at me, and even though he couldn't see my face behind my helmet, I knew he could feel what I felt.

He stood there with The Brotherhood at his back and my heart in his hands.

My once target.

The man I loved more than anything in this world.

My Adrian.

His eyes suddenly widened at something behind me, but before I could turn around, I was tackled to the ground, hitting it with a huff.

"What the?—"

"Stay down," said a familiar voice, and as I turned around my own eyes widened at the sight of Dante holding me to the ground.

"Dante?" Just as the question popped out of me, someone fell just behind the man in question and I realized what Adrian was looking at. Someone tried to come at me from behind, most probably one of the guards. "Holy shit!" I exclaimed, pushing him off of me. "You're here!" I all but shrieked, equally shocked and concerned by his presence.

I pulled off my helmet just as Adrian rushed to me, pulling me off of the ground.

"Are you okay?" he asked frantically, completely ignoring the elephant in the room. Well, elephant in the courtyard.

Dante was back.

"I'm peachy," I mumbled, dropping a chaste kiss to his cheek. "Dante is here."

"I know," he said, so matter-of-factly, as if this wouldn't fuck everything up.

"And." I looked over my shoulder at Gabriela, who still hadn’t noticed the man standing in front of me. "You know who else is here," I said, not really asking.

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