Page 51 of Pride
For Elena.
He wasn’t the only man moving toward the elevators. Members of the Faithful, all with the same hopes and dreams as Axel, moved in unison to fill elevators and stairwells. Many of them might not make it out alive, and they were happy for it.
Unease squirmed in his stomach. The elevator doors closed. He put his white Halloween mask on. When the doors opened on the top level, Axel went straight for the fire alarm and pulled the lever.
“I want this Sinner gone, and then all of them. Those bitches will ruin everything.”
19
From the privacyof his bedroom, Parker watched Alice in his office through the live CCTV footage on his laptop. He’d spent every waking hour for the past few days trying to calibrate his new arm, but even as his body healed, his mind struggled to fine tune the dexterity of the bionic arm. He could punch a hole in a wall, but playing the piano was beyond him. Recovery was taking too long, and since Evan and Tony returned from their expedition, the family had been working solidly on a plan so that once they finalized the other locations, they could launch into action immediately. They could take down each Syndicate base around the world. But to do that, he needed to be in top working condition.
He’d tackled his rehabilitation with dogged determination, no matter how taxing it had become. The only source of happiness he’d received was watching Alice being fitted for clothing and shopping. It seemed that simply from looking at her visage, his inner turmoil quietened. There was something about seeing this side of Alice. She was for his eyes only. No one in the office knew the real her, and the same went for the opposite. Only she knew the real him.
Each day that went past, he poured more money into George’s account, purely so he’d return the following day and make Alice smile again. The woman claimed she didn’t want the gifts, that she’d return them all, but he’d caught the lift of her lips and the straightening of her spine when she touched the goods.
He wanted to shower her with gifts.
But then Mary had walked in, and they’d fought. Anger tightened his jaw just thinking on it. What had his mother been thinking? To accost his mate, on her own, in his office. Without him.
Furious did not cover the words he had for his mother. The moment it started to go down, and he realized he was helpless watching from the penthouse, he’d tried to call and break it up. When that didn’t work, he’d rushed down to the basement and slipped on his Deadly battle outfit, except by the time he’d checked security footage, he’d found they’d stopped fighting and, suddenly, he’d felt like a voyeur. Like this was private Sinner business and he should leave them to it.
He’d pulled up a chair and watched.
Until Mary left, and then he’d needed to hear Alice’s voice. Now here he was, back in his penthouse, still dressed in his battle suit, but smiling at her on the security footage with the phone to his ear, listening to her defy him.
“You left your answer too long,” Alice said to him. “The Sisterhood doesn’t wait around. The alliance stands. We won’t attack you and you won’t attack us, but in terms of working together, it’s me for now.”
“When we have the final Syndicate base locations, will you provide Sinners for our attack?”
“Well, how long will it take to finalize those locations, and what does this attack involve? What are the parameters? You need to tell me these things, Parker.”
God, he loved it when she got pushy. When Alice mouthed off at him, all he could think of was how she would apply that same mouth on other parts of his body. How she would defy him then. He scrubbed his face to eliminate the image of her looking up at him from his cock, his hand fisted in her hair. Maybe he’d tie her hands behind her back. Maybe he’d—
“Parker? You still there?”
He cleared his throat. “Not too long. Maybe another week or so.”
“Okay. So it will depend on the resources we have available at the time and what the plan is.”
“Good. We can discuss details over drinks.”
She laughed down the handset. “Smooth.”
“We need to talk, so why not over drinks?”
Alice’s tone sobered. “Parker, there’s a lot we need to talk about. We need to talk about why the Syndicate attacked us at the cathedral. We need to talk about the stack of paperwork a mile high that you keep putting off. We need to talk about how you need to stop ignoring what’s happening here at the office.”
“Ignoring is the opposite of what I’ve been doing. Trust me. Drinks tonight, Alice.”
“I’m busy.”
“Yes, you are. With me.”
“Maybe if you ask nicely.” She twirled her finger around the telephone cord and rotated on the chair until her back was to the door. “Maybe if you get down on your knees and beg.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but then froze as the office door opened. Multiple men entered the room, all wearing white Halloween masks on their faces.
Syndicate. No white robes, which meant they weren’t there to make a splashy show. They were here to get in quietly, do the job, and get out without being recognized on camera. The job being Alice.
