Page 53 of Taking Over the Dark

I’m trying not to draw attention to us, and thankfully we’re on the side that no traffic comes down, but still.

I hope Noah’s clearing the cameras…

“We need to get him to Doc, but he’ll be okay. There’s an exit wound in the back,” Vin explains. I’m still looking shocked at all the bodies. “Boss gave me the clear to kill, and that never happens. They were coming after you guys.”

Zamir walks over to one of the bodies and pulls out the wallet in his pocket.

“Fuck,” is all he murmurs.

After stopping by the surgery gallery and seeing Doc already at work on Dino I feel a little bit better, but then I remember the whole reason we had to come to the warehouse in the first place… Zamir’s cousin Alex is here.

Zamir’s holding my hand, practically dragging me down the hallway, trying to find Marcello and Ellie, and in turn Alex and Arben. To my surprise, we pass by every torture room and find that no one is tied up in them.

And to my even bigger surprise, they’re in the boardroom. Marcello and Ellie are on the side with their faces to the door, and I’m guessing this is Alex and Arben with their backs to us.

As we enter the boardroom, Ellie explains, “I figured I would be courteous to our guests and show them the boardroom instead of the torture rooms…”

“That was very sweet of you,Shpirt Im.” I watch as Alex’s brows raise at Zamir’s pet name for Ellie. He presses a kiss to the top of her head and sits beside her at the table.

I lean down to her ear closest to Marcello and whisper, “You’d look real hot at the head of the table, in charge.” And my head immediately goes to lying her out and making a meal of her.

Alex looks at Zamir and starts to explain, “Agron is doing all the deals and working for Andrei, and we need to take him out if we want to have any symbolization of normalcy back in our lives. I don’t know what they’re after, but they’re clearly not going to stop for anything.”

Zamir considers this for a moment. “We knew it was my dad when your dad and mine were both heading to the Valley of Fire and only one of them walked out of there alive.”

Noah walks into the boardroom. “Boss, can I have a word?”

Marcello questions, “What’s this pertaining to?” Noah’s eyes fall onto Alex and Arben, and Marcello’s quick to say, “If it’s them needing to be harvested, just tell me now so I can tell Doc he has an even longer night ahead of him.”

The dry, completely unbothered tone he uses always makes me want to giggle when it comes to him harvesting these fucking organs.

* Colors - Elvis Drew

* Caraphernelia - Pierce The Veil

THIRTY-FIVE

MARCELLO

Noah steps forward. “I’ve found evidence that they would’ve had no clue about anything that went on with Agron and Andrei working together.”

We were about to start questioning them, but Arben speaks up, “I dropped that file where you would see it when we landed.”

?*Noah wonders outloud, “That was behind one of the best defenses I’ve seen in a while.” His eyes narrow, probably wondering how Arben is trained so well.

“I knew you were good enough to break through it, and you did,” is all Arben responds with, and I don’t mind him being a man of few words. When he does speak, you know it’s essential.

Ellie shuts it down quickly. “Okay, enough of the circle jerking. We did plenty of that the other night.” I look past her to smile down at Zamir and Nash because we sure as hell did.

Zamir speaks up again, “I need to know what’s been going on in Chicago because shit has clearly hit the fan, and Dad’s off his rocker.” I see the wince on Alex’s face, then Zamir adds, “Shit, obviously, you know that my piece of shit father killed yours…”

“We would’ve had to kill him too. They’re both too far gone. Vito was a sick man in the head, and they’re making this a hell of a lot easier to clean our syndicate out. There’s no one left back athome. They brought everyone out here with them, and I’m pretty sure that crazy mother fucker just took the rest of them out.” Vin would normally take offense to that, but he’s just smiling proudly at Alex.

“He doesn’t get to have all that fun normally… you just picked the wrong day to try shit,” I inform them.

But he’s quick to correct me. “They picked the wrong day. It didn’t have anything to do with us.”

“Seriously, what does Agron want from us?” Ellie asks them in an exhausted tone, which makes me want to scoop her up and take her to bed so she can get the rest she needs.

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