Page 57 of Whispered Desire

“I would think you’d appreciate the ease of having a woman at your beck and call. Ms. Field’s presence suits until I find someone else who interests me,” I lie. I’m never giving Allie up, but all I can do is fake disinterest in the hope that Petit believes me.

“You’re lying.”

“And you’re boring me,” Luca interjects. He tosses several folders on the table. “These reports outline how you’ve been siphoning money for The Syndicate into various illegal avenues. Copies have been sent to Interpol, who should be on their way as we speak.”

“You think I’m going to prison?” Another bark of humor rises from Petit. It’s getting on my fucking nerves how amused he finds this.

Let him laugh.

All the way to fucking jail.

“We know you are. You’re done, Petit,” Jonah says. “With your criminal dealings exposed, The Syndicate can’t risk protecting you.”

“You boys really think you have everything figured out, don’t you? Conrad filled your heads with nonsense about revenge as if children can dismantle a century’s old establishment.”

The elevator bell rings again. “Ah, that will be Sergei. I’m sure he took care of the poor Interpol agents sent to apprehend me.”

Sergei Petrov, Dmitri and Aleksei’s father and notorious arms dealer, stepped out of the elevator with a swath of men armed to the teeth.

Goddammit!Our last bit of intel said Sergei was home in Russia. Somehow he slipped Dmitri’s surveillance.

“Louis, why am I always cleaning up your messes?” Sergei drawls with a heavy Russian accent as he studies the room. “I see my son didn’t come with you three. Too bad. I would’ve liked to see him.”

He shrugs before raising his gun and shooting the Blackthorn guard next to Nathaniel. The man’s body drops dead to the carpet, and all hell breaks loose as everyone ducks for cover while pulling out their own weapons.

I scramble to Allison’s side and pull her to the floor under the table. “Allie? Stay with me, baby. I’m getting you out of here.”

We crawl down the length of the table toward the door leading to a supply closet. Last night, Jonah and Luca cut an escape route through the side wall, and I’ve never been so glad for plotting a hundred ways how something can go wrong and finding solutions to every single contingency.

Except for Allie being captured and drugged.

My failure weighs on me, but dwelling on it now won’t do me any good. Luca and Jonah already have the closet door open, shooting decisively at Sergei and Petit’s men.

“Thank fuck for that paranoid mind of yours,” Luca shouts, pushing Jonah down as a bullet explodes in the wall where his head used to be.

“Thank me later. Let’s kill these sons of bitches and get out of here. I preferred plan B anyway.” Plan A was Interpol and going the legal route for retribution. Plan B is the ‘fuck it, let’s just kill him’ solution.

Except someone already beat me to it because my father is crumpled on the ground with blood seeping out of a hole in his forehead. Of course the fucker robbed me of my chance to finish him off.

“Damn, which one of you killed him?”

“I think it was a stray bullet. Sorry, brother. Take your girl and get out of here. We’ve got this. Nathaniel and his guys are helping us finish off who is left. Sergei already fucking left.”

“More slippery than a snake,” Jonah mutters.

Annoyance flares in my gut, but dead is dead. Petit is finally out of my life permanently. Later, maybe I'll examine how that makes me feel after decades of loathing the man. Or maybe I'll just drink a tumbler of Scotch and call it a day.

“We'll get Sergei. We'll get all of them,” I promise while covering Allie’s head and ushering her into the supply closet.

I remove the shelving unit covering the large hole cut into the drywall, and a few minutes later, we crouch and shuffle through the opening into the hallway.

“Come on, Allie. Just a little further to go.”

“I knew… you'd save… me,” she heaves, holding a hand to her stomach.

“Don't try to talk yet. You’re still fighting the drug they injected.” We hurry toward the emergency exit stairs. Our heavy breathing drowned out by the firestorm happening behind us. “Soon, you'll be safe. A doctor will check—”

“Mathias!”

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