I rethink my plan and head in the direction of the kitchen. There’s another hallway that leads to the right wing and I head that way. Several closed doors greet me but the one at the end of the hallway with the light spilling from beneath it calls my name. I edge cautiously closer but hear no voices.
Reaching out I slide a hand over the mahogany door and try the handle to find it unlocked. Inside there’s a low fire in the hearth.
I risk a glance behind me. When I find no one, I take a breath, enter and quietly shut the door behind me with a click.
Papers of various sizes scatter across a massive desk that takes up the back portion of the spacious office that doubles as a library.
Rich leathers, dark carpet, and a fully stocked bar all clue me in on this being Ares’ office.
“Bingo, baby.”
I rifle through the papers. Bank statements with amounts circled with the name Asylum printed across the top don’t tell me much but that fact they are on his desk is good enough for me.
Others have more numbers from a place called Aurum. A casino. Ares owns, I’m assuming. I don’t have a degree in forensic accounting, but the FEDs do and I bet they’d love to see these papers.
I shuffle a few pages together, fold and slide them into the tops of my jeans securing my long shirt over the top. I guess something good came of wearing this thing after all.
To the side of all the papers, there is a small note with the word Genesis circled and a date beneath it.
“That’s five days from now.”
Ares’ words come back to me. He said the merchandise wouldn’t be moved for five days. I haven’t the slightest clue what genesis means but I file that information away for later.
Given the messy state of the desk, I don’t worry about reorganizing anything. Instead, I look for a phone. There’s nothing but a landline. I grab the receiver and dial in the only number I know besides my own and my sister’s.
Someone picks up. “Hey, let me speak to Jacob.”
“Not here.”
Crap. My brain hiccups before spitting out a reasonable backup plan. One that might land me in Ares’ cuffs again. If he catches me. “Tell him Reina will be there tonight.”
I hang up the phone and slip out the office door to find the hallway abandoned. Music blares and everyone is either screwing someone or about to. I hit the stairs and come to a sudden stop on the second landing. There’s a huge opening that gives me a direct view of the party below.
Ares is surrounded by women all fawning over him and the fucker looks like he’s eating it up.
Let them have him. Our eyes connect but I flick away the come-hither gesture he aims my way. Holding his gaze with a feverish glare, I opt out of the party.Yeah, not into groupies. Thanks.
I turn and with that my thoughts fall back to my plan. There’s more than one way to find who I am looking for. It was Jacob’s bar they kidnapped us from. Someone needs to warn him his clients are being targeted. And the proof I need to take down these fuckers is on his security feed. All I have to do is get to it beforetheydo.
Should be easy.
Eleven
Ares
The raging fire inside that woman rivals the stubbornness she harbors for anyone who doesn’t see life through her special-colored lens. And I know it’s my fault too. I haven’t exactly come clean about why she’s here. I’d planned on doing that tonight, but the woman pushes me to my limit and I’m only human. Resisting her tempting body proved far more difficult than I anticipated. The shower acted like gasoline on the fire of her fury. One second she’s a fire I can control and the next she’s an inferno of grit and fight.
Only thing that kept my dick behind my zipper and not in her sweet pussy was the fact I would have given her all of me. Taking her bareback would be my personal heaven but I don’t need the weakness that comes with it. Anything my enemies can use against me is a weakness I can’t afford.
Admittedly, the revelation about her sister still being back at the Volkov compound threw me off balance and why I had Rage pull Dragon back in tonight.
I’m about to take her back upstairs and teach her the demon inside her holds no sway over the one inside me when the person I need to see walks through my door, bringing with him the fires of hell.
One look at Dragon’s worn face and I know it’s bad. What he has to tell me in private reveals my deepest fears.
“I found her. She’s alive but the friend isn’t. Me asking around might have set off some alarms. Sorry about that, Prez. The Volkov brothers are more than a little spooked.”
“Fuck. How the hell did we miss this shit?” I throw a hand up. “Never mind. I know how.” I’d called Devil off her that night. We’d had a fire down at Asylum and I needed all hands on deck. What was one night, right?