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The industrial-grade carpet muffled the sound of shoes as they briskly walked along the empty corridor. They had only a few minutes before the next security sweep came down this way and attempted to detour them back to the party. Rowe’s men had only nodded at the sight of Lucas and Andrei, apparently already keyed in by Rowe that they were stepping away for a moment. The police were being less understanding and it had taken two attempts to slip from their sight. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the cops to cover them…well, he didn’t completely trust them. It was obvious that one or more cops were on Jagger’s payroll considering the number of times Jagger had slipped away or a witness had turned up dead. Lucas was willing to trust his back and Andrei’s life to his friends and Rowe’s men.
Near the end of the long corridor, they came to the double doors for the library. A look through the frosted-glass windows showed that only a dim security light burned inside, revealing several rows of tall bookshelves and a series of tables and couches in the center of the room. Lucas glanced over at Andrei one last time as he put his hand on the door handle. The muscles in his jaw were tensed as if he were clenching his teeth and his eyes were endlessly searching the room for the man determined to end their lives.
“I’ll meet you in the romance section,” Lucas whispered and then winked at Andrei. There was only the slightest quirk of his mouth at his words, but it was enough. He trusted Andrei to protect him.
Pulling open the door, Lucas stepped inside and Andrei followed soundlessly behind him. He looked back in time to see his lover dissolving into the shadows that lined the sides of the room, moving among the stacks as he searched out their would-be attacker, a gun tightly clutched in his right hand. Lucas continued forward into the center of the room, brushing against one of the tables half hidden in the darkness. The only sound he could make out was the pounding of his own heart in his ears. The air smelled slightly dusty, of old books and wax that had been used to make the wood tables shine in the dim light. But no one stepped forward. No Jagger.
Had it all been a trick to pull him away from his friends?
Yet even as the thought occurred to him, he pushed it aside. No one had raised an alarm. There was nothing from the earpiece.
As he made it to the center of the room, he caught the hint of another light. There were a handful of meeting areas lining the right side of the library. He glanced around, looking one last time for an attacker or even Andrei, but saw no one.
“Last meeting room,” he murmured for either Andrei or even the rest of their friends.
It turned out to be a storage area of some sort. With his gun clutched in his right hand, he pushed open the heavy metal door and squinted against the bright light. It appeared to be empty. Raising the gun, he walked in slowly, rolling his feet to minimize the sound of his hard-soled shoes on the lacquered floor. He slipped behind the rows of shelves holding more books and documents behind glass, but there was no one hiding in the shadows. As he crossed to the other side of the room, checking behind the other row of shelves, Andrei entered, his gun still drawn.
Alarm bells screamed in his head. This all felt wrong. He’d been sure that Jagger would take the opportunity to seek him out, to kill him personally. They’d all planned on a moment like this.
“We need to get back to the party,” Andrei suddenly said as he reached Lucas at the back of the small room.
Lucas nodded and opened his mouth to speak when the sound of another set of shoes on the hard floor trapped the words in the back of his throat. They turned as one to find a large man standing in the open doorway with a gun trained on both of them.
“Jagger sends his regrets,” he growled before squeezing off several rounds at them while at the same time grabbing the handle of the metal door.
Releasing all hold on conscious thought, Lucas let instinct take over. He gave Andrei a hard shove to his left, pushing him toward the safety of the stacks while he dove in the opposite direction. They both fired back at the man. Their bullets plunged into his chest, but their attacker still managed to pull the door closed as he fell backward.
Lucas hit the ground, his cry echoing through the small room as pain suddenly seared through his side, radiating up into his chest. For a second he couldn’t draw a breath and his vision threatened to black out, but he pushed above the pain. He blinked several times and Andrei suddenly came into focus above him, his handsome face deathly pale.