Page 81 of Trouble

I paused, my fingers stilling on the dial. “Ido.”

“I—”

“We’ll talk about it after,” I said softly. I knew what she was about to say. That things were so complicated between the three of us, how could I possibly talk about marriage? But everything we’d been through, the night the three of us had shared in the bothy in the Welsh mountains… it changed nothing. There would be heartache, I knew that, maybe even a lifetime’s worth, but I would always want to say my vows of forever to this woman, of that I wascertain.

But right now, I had to focus if I wanted any chance at saving my brother, because if he died, nothing would ever matteragain.

“After,” she agreed. “Once Louis issafe.”

* * *

“Why is it always warehouses?”Imuttered.

Audrey looked at me from behind the wooden pallet where we were bothcrouched.

Even in the shadows shielding us from detection, I could see the question on herface.

“Every time there’s a liquidation planned, it’s always in a fucking warehouse,” I explained, though I was aware my irritation with the location was ridiculous. And not really the point, regardless, but it was a lot easier to focus on than the knowledge that somewhere in there my twin sat, hurt and alone, with a gun aimed at hishead.

“Easier clean up.” The way she said it, so matter-of-factly, I couldn’t help butsnort.

“Fucking mafia princess indeed.” I gave her another glance, this time more appreciative. In some ways, she was calmer about the darkness in our world than Louis and I were—and she’d only been privy to it for a measly fewweeks.

She smiled grimly, not taking her eyes off the front of the warehouse where a couple of my dad’s men were standing guard. “I’m done being a delicate flower who’s too scared of the world to bite back. They took Louis from us. They’re going topay.”

“Yes,” I agreed. Her deadly tone fueled my own anger, fanning it through my blood until it blessedly quelled the fear and uncertainty that’d been gnawing at my gut since Louis surrendered to our father. “Theyare.”

39

Audrey

It tookseveral minutes before the men guarding the entrance to the warehouse turned their backs in favor of a couple of approaching cars, and Liam waved meforward.

In a shock of recognition, I noticed Gregory Perkinson in the passenger side of the front car just as they pulled up. To see my nightmare client under such circumstances was beyond surreal, but I didn’t have time to waste on the rush of emotion the sight of himinspired.

I hurried after Liam in a bent-over run and threw myself around the corner of the warehouse just as the the sound of opening and closing car doors announced the newcomers’arrival.

Liam put a hand on my shoulder and wordlessly told me to stay put. Then, quickly and soundlessly, he crept forward, still in a crouch, toward the far end of the warehouse. I could see the outline of a man pacing down there, oblivious to ourpresence.

Quicker than my eyes could follow, Liam leapt up from behind the man, put both hands on his head, andtwisted.

A bolt of nausea shot through me at the faintcrack.The man dropped like a sack ofpotatoes.

Liam turned to where I was hiding and waved meforward.

It was an odd sensation—while I’d known they were mafia for some time now, and they’d told me they’d killed before… somehow actuallyseeingLiam break that man’s neck rammed home how little I’d truly known of the man I’d fallen in lovewith.

But the truly surprising part was that, as I stepped over the body on the ground to join him, it didn’t bother me. I’d seen a man get killed, and I felt nothing but a passing moment’s discomfort, my focus still solidly on saving Louis and casualties be damned. This man, though nothing more than a grunt, would still have caught and hurt us if Liam hadn’t taken himout.

It’s funny, the things you never have to learn about yourself when you work an office job and spend your nights in front of the TV. I’d always considered myself a compassionate person, but as I snuck in the side door the now dead guard had been standing in front of, I realized that I was the kind of person who’d feel nothing at taking someone’s life if it was between them and someone I loved. It was an oddly liberatingsensation.

The side door led to the main room, but fortunately someone had stacked several pallets and crates around it, creating a perfect hidingspot.

Liam waved me over to a crack between two crates and I bit my lip at what I saw. The warehouse was very big, but it was nearly halfway full of grim-looking men. Mafia, I assumed. All here to see the twins’ father show them what happened to anyone who crossed him. Even his ownblood.

It took a little while for me to spot Louis, the angle of the crates narrowing my view of the other end of the warehouse, but when I did, my heartdropped.

He sat on a chair on top of a small dais with his arms and ankles tied. Blood dripped from a split eyebrow and a busted lip, and pain was etched across his face. Next to him, Wesley had a gun casually pointed at his head. He said something we were too far away to hear, and Louis grimaced in return, his lips moving in reply. Whatever he’d said, Wesley didn’t seem to appreciate it. He thwacked the butt of the gun against Louis’ shoulder, hard, making him cry out before he clamped his jaw shut indefiance.

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