DAMON
Fuck! It had taken longer than I had anticipated dealing with Eric, that I’d lost sight of my goal—to get to Paige. By the time I’d knocked him out and left him for the Feds to deal with, she had been loaded into the back of an ambulance and was being rushed to a hospital. Dread started to pool within my gut thinking the worst as I scanned the chaos around me, looking for the one person responsible for the shit storm we were currently facing.
“Did anyone see where Blaze went?” I yelled down the comms, hoping that at least someone in my team had been keeping an eye on him. Maybe it had been the guilt that had stopped me from going straight for her, I couldn’t tell. “We need to find out which hospital they are taking her to, I want feet on the ground there when she arrives, we can’t leave her unprotected.”
All day I had been quietly trying to convince myself that everything would be okay after this, we’d be able to go back to what we were, but somewhere deep inside I knew that that wouldn’t be the case. Our relationship was still new, we were too much alike, both stubborn as fuck and both knew how to hold a grudge. And now I may never get the chance.
“I saw Blaze heading after Alex,” Teirnan answered, breaking me from my stupor. “I lost track when he hit the stands on the far side.Was Paige okay when they loaded her up?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t make it to her, Eric got in the way,” I answered, the urge to get out of here was strong, I needed to get to my Princess, a dull ache had started to spread throughout my body. “We need to get out of here. Tiernan I want you to get to the hospital, keep me updated. I fucked up earlier, I won’t do it again and when she’s ready we’ll have a pleasant surprise for her.”
“Blaze and Alexander headed down the last corridor near the medical station,” Madden added, his voice was gravelly, like he’d gone round for round in the ring. I’d lost sight of him when I went for Paige. “I’m waiting at the entry for you.”
“Roger, heading your way now,” I let him know, scanning the room for the rest of my guys. The Feds had started to gain the upper hand, the raid not going as planned but from what I could see they had started to round up most of the fighters and the kingpins, the only absentees were the Ducanes. With that realization I knew I needed more than the guys on the ground, “Jonah, you there?”
“Yeah Prez and I’m one step ahead of you but you will need to hurry.” There was a sense of urgency in his voice, I was fucking greatful he had taken the initiative to hack the security feed. “I can see Alexander is closing in on one of the hidden exits, the Fed is catching him fast.”
“Thanks Jonah, keep an eye on him and keep me updated,” I said, reaching Madden before nodding and heading down the corridor.
“Turn left at the end then take the second right,” Jonah came through the comms, thankful that I had someone able to direct us through this rabbit warren. “You might want to pick up your pace Prez, Ducane just took out a guard near the exit.”
“Don’t worry Prez we will get them,” Madden tried to alleviate the dark thoughts that had begun to creep back in. If he got away, who knew how long it would be until we tracked him down again and this would all have been for nothing.
Rounding the second corner we found the guard slumped unconscious against the wall. He was covered in perspiration, his breathing labored, leaning down I checked his pulse, it was beating crazy fast. The guy was not in a good way.
“Poor fuck got tasered, “ I stated, making note to be aware that the asshole was armed. “Make sure someone comes down here to get him.”
Ahead of us, the sounds of a scuffle could be heard. We turned the corner, to find another guard on the ground, looking exactly like the other, and just near the exit Blaze was facing off with the psychopath who masterminded tonight.
“It’s no use Alexander,” Blaze addressed him, his tone hard, I hadn’t seen him in the main arena and looking at Blaze now, he was a man on a mission. Covered in blood he looked pissed. “The place is surrounded, just give it up.”
Alexander just stood there and chuckled. “Blaze you disappoint me, you had great potential, much better suited for the Lords than Eric, and then you go and pull this.”
“Alexander,” I growled, drawing my gun and taking aim, but it was too late, I was too late again. Alexander stood there, acrimoniously staring me down. A deviant grin spread, he moved further towards the door as Blaze leaned forward and tried to grab him, only to miss and catch his suit pocket.
“Always too late Damon,” he mocked, chuckling to himself, before he barged out the door.
“What the fuck Damon?” Blaze yelled, looking towards the door then back to where Madden and I were standing.
“Yeah I was thinking the same thing,” Madden answered he was pissed. I couldn't do anything but stand there in muted silence. Paige was on the way to the hospital and the psychopath had just slipped away.
“I thought you said she would be protected.” I snapped, grabbing Blaze, I pushed him up against the white brick wall, using my forearm and held him there. I was seething now, seeing this guy in front of me, the one who promised he would get her out safely, yet he had failed her as well, did little to calm the beast that had now stirred within me “You couldn’t spare anymore men? You are the whole reason she was here in the first place Blaze and you fucking left her out in the open in a fucking cage like a sitting duck?”
“It’s not what you think Damon,” He started to mollify me. His eyes darted around the corridor, as if he was waiting for backup to join him. “We haven’t lost her, you need to trust me.”
“Trust you?” You fucked up again Blaze. She was fucking shot,” I sneered in his face. Behind me I could feel Madden trying to pull me off him. “How can you say we haven’t lost her?”
“If you let me go, I’ll explain, but I’m not the only one that deviated from the plan, am I? What was with the explosives?” Blaze countered as he pushed back off the wall breaking my hold making me stumble. “I thought we agreed to do this the right way?”
“That wasn’t us, trust me if we were going to go off plan, we’d have done it in a way that would never be traced back to us,” Madden smirked at my answer, both of us knowing that we’d had our own plan hatched but neither wanted to admit to it. “You had to know there was unrest amongst the other backers, there’s been talk all week about them wanting to pull out.”
We could hear that the chaos from the event floor had started to calm down. From what I could hear from Blaze’s earpiece the FBI had rounded up most of the crowd. They had all the fighters and money backers loaded, the only people they were missing were the Ducane brothers. I didn’t care much for Max, he had his own encounter with karma coming. It was Alexander that I wanted.
“The plan changed at the last minute, we couldn’t let the tournament go ahead Damon,” he said, straightening up. He checked his phone then turned his attention back to me. “The higher ups decided you weren’t to know.”
“She was fucking shot Blaze, she is on the way to hospital,” I grounded out, stepping towards him again, but this time he didn’t back down. I was barely holding it together now that the adrenaline was wearing off, I had to hold on to the anger now. I owed it to my Princess to see this through to the end. “And now Alexander is gone too.”
“All is not what it seems Damon, I’ll explain soon,” he started to make his way to the door Alexander just disappeared from. “And I placed a tracker on him, when you interrupted me just now, so we haven’t lost him.”
This changed everything, and this time the only way Alexander was going to escape would be in a body bag.