Page 66 of Everest

The other rooms I clear tell the same story—an empty space and no trace of my woman. My chest tightens, and dread claws its way up my throat like a monster trying to rip me open from the inside.

She was here.

I feel it.

And I am too late.

“Place is empty.” I hear Wick’s voice just outside the room.

I let out a roar and slam my fist through the window. Glass explodes around my hand, pain blooming in my knuckles, blood trickling down my fingers.

We have nothing.

No direction.

No fucking time.

Then, my phone buzzes in my cut pocket, and I yank it out like it might explode.

Blocked number.

The hair on the back of my neck stands up.

I answer, each word deliberate, like ice sliding off my tongue. “Who the fuck is this?”

There’s a pause.

Then, laughter. It’s distorted and warped like it’s coming from a broken speaker—different than before. The laugh is low and sinister. This motherfucker is enjoying himself, playing with me.

My stomach drops like I stepped off a cliff.

I put him on speaker.

“Velasco?” I growl.

“Perhaps.” There’s a second of silence, then, “You want her…” the voice drawls, followed by another laugh, deeper this time, malicious. “Come get her.”

My feet feel like they’re sinking into the concrete, and my jaw clenches so tightly I taste blood.

The voice chuckles again, slower.

Then it’s quiet again.

“SouthPort. By the River.” Another pause. “I’ll be waiting.”

The line goes dead.

“The bastard is fuckin’ with us,” Fender seethes.

My hands curl into fists. The quiet inside me is worse than the rage. It’s a hollow space where something dark hides, needing to destroy something and not stopping until it does. Whoever the fuck it is, just put a match to the gasoline I’ve been drowning in since London was taken.

I don’t stop to think. I move. My feet carry me across the empty lot. Ready to kill every one of them.

“Hold it.” Riggs barks behind me, causing me to freeze. “I already have one man lying on an operating table who might not survive. I’m not putting another one in the ground. Get your head right before we do this.” The steel in his voice cuts deep, each word hitting like a blade to the gut, sharp with truth.

I nod once, keeping my mouth shut.

“He knows we’re coming. When we get there, we move fast and don’t stop,” Riggs says, eyeing each of us. “We leave no manalive. We spill blood for our brother. This ends tonight.” Then Riggs looks back at me. “Let's go get your woman.”

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