Page 4 of Escape My Love

I stepped back, reaching behind me to find Mia’s hand and hitting nothing but air. When I turned, she was gone. I scanned the dark corners of the room and every face in front of me. Fuck.

“I just told you someone wants us dead. And this is your solution? Shoot the remaining society members?” Rex nodded to one of the men next to him. He immediately left his post protecting Rex and came to stand next to me.

After the group scattered into the waiting room and then the hallway, another man in a dark suit shut the door. I shoved the guy standing guard next to me and glowered at Rex. “Where the hell is my wife?”

“I read your file.”

My blood rushed to my feet. Which file? Tyler’s or Chase’s?

“Rossi raised you outside of all this. Soon you’ll learn that relationships will get you killed.” He sat on his chair and downed his untouched drink.

“Why did you bring us here? This isn’t our fight.”

“As of tonight, it is.”

“What?”

“Isn’t this what your grandfather wanted? A seat at the table for the Rossi family?”

Everything Jax Rossi had done since he became head boss had been toward this goal, the Big 5. The irony wasn’t lost on me. Rossi didn’t make it here because I killed him. Now Rex was offering me the job.You keep what you kill.

When I first started this assignment, I had a pretty good understanding of who the bad guys were. From this side of the fence, though, things weren’t so clear. “And if I refuse?”

“No one’s ever refused.” Rex shrugged.

“What exactly are you offering?”

“Jax had our protection. Whenever things didn’t go his way, we’d step in...quietly. Now I’m asking you to return the favor. Find the assholes who are doing this to us.”

“What if I can’t?”

“We all die.” He furrowed his brows with a slight shake to his head, as if the answer were so obvious.

It was and it wasn’t, because technically this shitshow wasn’t my problem. “You mean you die. I just got there.”

“The society has been in place this long because even though we hate each other’s guts, we understand one thing. We stand together, or we don’t stand at all. Don’t let their theatrics fool you. Once they see this for the very real threat that it is, they’ll come back.”

“That means shit to me. You’ll find that my grandfather and I are very different people.” Whatever deal Jax Rossi cut with Rex, I knew it couldn’t be anything good. What did he offer? More drugs, more human trafficking? I wasn’t about to start up that fucked-up idea again. My brothers and I had just dismantled Jax’s business venture with the Venezuelan cartel.

“If I didn’t know that already, you wouldn’t be here. Jax was never going to be one of us.” He rose to his feet and poured himself a drink before he offered me one.

“No, thanks.” Though I did need a drink in the worst way.

“You start tomorrow.”

Chase Rossi would have no clue as to where to start looking for the would-be killers of the society members. But Agent Tyler Cole knew exactly where to dig. I gripped the backrest of my chair and shoved it against the table. “You can’t expect me to solve this for you. It doesn’t work like that.”

“I need people like you and Mia on my side. If the society goes under, chaos will ensue. This country’s economy needs us. It may not be apparent to you, but we’re the ones keeping peace. We’re the good guys.”

I rubbed the creases on my forehead. My brother Wesley had said we needed a different type of good guy. Was Rex Valentino it— the vigilante this city needed? Or was he feeding me pretty lies to save his ass?

“I’ll see you around.” My heart thrashed in my ears as I headed for the door, half-expecting his men to stop me, but they didn’t. When I reached the antechamber, the charge in the air shifted from murderous to slightly menacing. My life was this side of fucked up, if I considered that an improvement. The minute the door closed behind me, I picked up the pace without breaking into a run. Mia couldn’t have gone too far. I hated that Rex knew how much she meant to me. There wasn’t anything in this world I wouldn’t do to keep her and the baby safe.

“Mia,” I called out in the cavernous hallway. The carpet had been recently replaced, but the corridor still had that musty smell old buildings had.

“Tyler.” A muffled sound came from behind the walls.

“Mia.” I pressed my palms to the panel, following the whimpers and thumps that tumbled down the corridor. Mia was giving them hell. These assholes didn’t know who they were dealing with. She wasn’t the type to go down without a fight. When I reached a spot where the wood trim had a slight separation, I shoved the panel in and a door swung open. I chased after them down the hidden passage, which was well lit and looked fairly new. I made a right, then a left.

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