Page 68 of Twisted Revelations

31

Dax

Ring! Ring!

The chime of the phone jarred us, pulling us from the quiet wait we’d settled into. We huddled together, walking toward the door, me in the middle. I entered first, the gun leading us into the large living room.

The silenced weapon introduced hot led to two men, one of them Oliver, as soon as they peered across the back of the couch they sat on and noticed we weren’t their friends. Their bodies sat slumped against each other, their blood thankfully, hidden by the back of the large black couch.

My gaze scanned the room before heading toward the front door, flipping the lights off to conceal the dirty deed that had gone down. Six bodies…Housekeeping was going to be pissed.

It took willpower, but I fought the urge to creep through the penthouse to find Santino. Being that close to a target and leaving him alive was not something I was used to. However, the sight of Beverly and Laura reminded me that my main goal was to keep them safe.

The last thing I’d wanted was them tangled up in this mission as active participants, but the power of female persuasion was an entity of enormous strength, and here they were, walking through the devil’s belly.

Beverly was at my side and Laura was at my back. If there was anyone coming up at our rear, even with one arm, I was confident she wouldn’t hesitate to give them a one-way ticket to see Lucifer.

As soon as I sprang the front door opened, we stepped across two bodies, the second time in weeks we’d stepped across bodies at a front door.

Two more sat near the elevator. They lay at the foot of the lady in a Yale-blue dress, the one D had identified. She’d managed not to get a drop of blood on her dress or shiny beige platform heels. Had she taken out all these men on her own? Where the hell were all these alpha women coming from all of a sudden?

“Dax, Beverly, Laura?” Miss Yale questioned with a pinched brow. I nodded. Her fingertips stroked the spot below her ear, her eyes aiming up as she listened.

“D says, OTS,” she expressed, confirming the code D would send to let me know I could trust this woman. I nodded again.

The elevator door opened upon our approach, and we climbed in without hesitation. The woman scanned the area once more before backing into the elevator with us. She’d taken one of the keycards off one of the dead men and keyed in the code I’d memorized.

We were lowered in silence, the flashing red numbers counting down our descent with a lingering pace and a noisy buzz with each new level.

Miss Yale stood near the lighted panel as Laura, Beverly, and I held up the back wall of the elevator. The lady’s gaze never met ours. She kept her face aimed at the door. Her silenced gun aimed at the floor.

When we reached the third floor, Yale Dress, Laura, and I had our weapons raised and aimed. I trusted D with my life, but going into the unknown had my hackles up, and I wasn’t willing to take any chances.

When the doors parted, we were met with the same greeting—a gun aimed at us by a woman in a turquoise dress. Yale Dress dropped her weapon, so Laura and I dropped ours. The women were familiar because they too had been inside the ball.

D was holding out on me. Who the heck were these women? I appreciated the assist, considering we were injured. However, I didn’t know these women and remained on guard as I glanced around the dim hall we’d stepped off the elevator into.

“This way,” Miss Turquoise and the taller of the two stated as she pointed into the darkness behind us. Her gun scanned the area as much as her eyes did.

“We’ll take you to D,” Miss Yale volunteered.

They hadn’t requested we surrender our weapons, so there was no threat as far as I was concerned. We approached a door with a posted warning stating an alarm would sound if we exited.

“The alarm has been silenced,” Miss Turquoise informed without a backward glance.

Miss Yale shoved her shoulder into the door to get it open. We entered the dark space of the parking garage, and the silent call of night met us.

Four parking spots from the door was a white van decorated with the logo of Brick’s Catering, the company that had prepared the food for the event. Turquoise Dress was our faithful guard while we climbed into the back of the van and sat on the hard metal floor.

As we exited the garage and merged into the bustling city traffic, Laura’s small hand wrapped around mine, filling my body with warm sparks of energy that cause me to smile. Her simple gesture helped to decrease the pain in my side and caused my eyes to fall closed to the buzzing sensations she’d filled me with.

She’d never say it out loud, but she was worried about me. Taking care of people when they were down and out, hurt, or wounded was something she was good at, and I wasn’t altogether sure she understood it was a gift. Beverly was on the opposite side of me, her head against my shoulder. We’d been through hell together.

We circled several of the towering buildings, their shadows following us, lurking as we moved along the one-way streets and dodged anxious motorists for ten minutes. Our bodies swayed when we slowed to enter the garage of a building no less than three buildings down and to the back of The Greenbrier Hotel we’d just left.

The door of the van was snatched open, and D’s face emerged. A beautiful woman in a royal blue dress stood next to him. There were no handshakes or introductions, only a meeting of the eyes. D knew these women. Based on how well organized they were, I believed they were agents. They’d dropped bodies, so they were of a high-level of law enforcement.

“This is where we part ways. Send me a copy of the video,” the woman in the royal-blue dress requested, glaring at D. He and the woman locked gazes for a brief moment before he nodded, and all three of the women climbed into the van.

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