Page 91 of Devilish

“I didn’t say that.”

Then I turned to our resident enforcer, and Lachlan sat up a little straighter. “Say more.”

“Whatever night we decide to go, Rupert needs to be there.”

Lachlan gave a wolfish smile. “Go on.”

“It’ll be you and me. I don’t want to chance anyone seeing a whole parade of guys breaking and entering his house.”

“I can get access,” Alessio piped up. “Make sure to have eyes on you, give intel.”

“Perfect.” I nodded. “We get in, secure that fucker, get the certificates, and then…”

“And then?” Theo asked as though I’d been telling a bedtime story.

“Then Lachlan is going to give me ten minutes alone with him.”

“Wait, what?” Lachlan screwed his nose up. “I have to leave?”

“Look, it’s going to be hard enough formeto leave him breathing,” I said with a little more force than I intended. “I don’t want to have to worry about keeping you under control.”

“And who’s going to keepyouunder control?” King’s voice was cool as can be as he looked to my curled fists.

“That won’t be a problem.”

He raised a brow. “Are you sure?”

No, I wasn’t. But I’d had years of training in learning to control my emotions. Years of training in showing restraint. I was hoping I’d be able to apply some of that when I came face to face with that bastard.

“I’m sure. I’ll fuck him up, but I’ll leave him breathing.”

“Okay,” King said, then looked to Lachlan. “You are to defer to Lucien when you get the go-ahead. I don’t want to get a phone call requiring a cleanup crew. Got it?”

Lachlan held his hands up. “Got it. I don’t like it, but I’ve got it.”

“Very good.” King’s sharp gaze swept over everyone at the table, before landing on Alessio. “Find out what this Rupert’s daily schedule is. Does he follow a pattern and so forth? Getthe information together, along with any plans he might have in the evenings. If you can hack into his cell, computer, Wi-Fi—whatever it is you do to know more about these fuckers than they do themselves—do it. Then get with Lucien to work out a day or night that suits.”

As King and the rest of my brothers started to work out what their specific role in this takedown would be, I felt a sense of determination rise. Rupert wasn’t going to know what hit him by the time I was done with him—other than my fist before I walked out his door.

My phone vibrated in my pocket just as I’d been about to sit back down, and I pulled it out and saw a text from an unknown number. Usually I’d just delete it and not give it another thought. But as my finger hovered over the trash can, something started to scratch at my brain.

Maybe it was what we were all gathered here talking about today. Or maybe it was the fact I rarely, if ever, got spam texts. But something wouldn’t let me delete it. Instead, I tapped the message open, and what I read had every muscle in my body tensing.

Unknown

Now you know how it feels when someone takes your property.

And below that was a link.

Blood rushed to my head, the ringing in my ears getting louder and louder until it drowned out everyone’s voices. Then I pressed the link and a video appeared.

It was a video of Kai. He was standing in what looked like the small café at the corner of my block, purchasing his morningtea. That wasn’t anything new—he’d told me he’d wanted to experiment with some new flavors now that he’d worked out the way he liked to drink it, so I’d suggested the little place on the corner.

Lachlan’s guy should’ve been there to accompany him, so where the hell was he?

Seconds later, as Kai moved off to the back of the café, a tall, muscled guy with his hat pulled down low grabbed hold of his arm. Kai startled, and just as he was about to yell out, the goon clamped a hand over his mouth. He jerked in the fucker’s grip before he was muscled toward the back door, but he didn’t kick or fight, which made me think something—a gun or maybe a knife—had been at his back.

Then the video ended.

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