Page 38 of As Darkness Fall
“They are not mylovers,” I ground out. “I don’t have a harem of dudes, Jo, come on. You know me better than that.”
“Mmm,” she said. “You seem happy.”
“Some of the changes have been good,” I said, thinking of the fact that I was no longer Soulbound to Johnathan. “But I’ll be happier when we have you out of here safely.”
We reached the top of the stairs.
“Here,” I said, giving Jo to Vir. “You should probably take her. I can carry her, but you can do thatandmove fast, and I think we might need that.”
Vir took her without a word, holding Jo tightly to him. I tried not to get jealous at the way she curled up into his massive chest, secured by the sinews of his arms, but it was tough. Far tougher than it should have been.
Focus, girl. Focus.
We made our way as quietly as we could down the hallway, heading for our exit door. I couldn’t believe it. We were going to get away with this.
Alexi, in the lead, as usual, halted near the door, fist in the air.
Shit, I mouthed to nobody in particular as the team froze. We stopped moving, and the sound of voices in the distance reached my ears. That must be what Alexi had heard. Someone was outside the door.
“The back,” I whispered as quietly as I could, pointing. “Let’s go.”
We doubled back and took a left, heading for the rear of the house to try and avoid whoever was there. It would add fifty or sixty yards to our trek but wouldn’t encumber us otherwise.
Alexi reached the door first, nodded, and pulled it open for us. Aaron led the way, then Pieter, then me, followed by Vir with Jo, Fred, and the others. We raced outside—
And came to a stumbling halt as we found ourselves face to face with Lars and a cadre of his top enforcers. Both sides froze. Judging from the looks of shock on Lars and his men’s faces, they hadn’t been coming to intercept us. Until we’d walked right into their path, they hadn’t known we were there.
We’d comethatclose to leaving easily.
Only to be caught red-handed via fluke accident as Lars and his inner council returned from somewhere out on the property together. I briefly wondered what the hell they’d been doing, but Lars started speaking before I could get very far.
“Howdareyou bring that kind of filth onto my lands,” he snarled, stabbing a finger at Aaron.
I stared at him for a moment, then threw back my head and laughed harder than I’d laughed in a long time.
“Filth?” I sputtered out eventually. “Filth? You call them that, and yet Iknowyou have mirrors in that mansion of yours, you piece of shit. The filth is already here, and it calls itself leader of this town. We’re just here to class up the joint a bit.”
“We’ll see about that,” Lars said icily, snapping at his enforcers, who fanned out, though they were all looking warily at Aaron’s men and their guns.
“Remember,” I said quietly. “Minimal casualties, except for that asshole. He’s mine.”
“We don’t have time for this, Dani,” Vir said. “He will summon more men.”
“You just worry about keeping Jo safe,” I ordered, keeping my eyes focused on Lars.
“He’s right, Dani,” Aaron added.
“Just think of the bonus you’re going to earn,” I told Aaron. “Paid straight from Vir.”
Aaron brightened. “Right. Well, perhaps there’s time for aquickdustup. But not long. Not if you want us to avoid casualties.”
Lars’s men, who outnumbered us by three, waited for us to make the first move.
I grinned. “Well, come on, let’s get this thing started!
And I ran at them.
Chapter Twenty
