Khane
“Ihave a shot,” Gunz stated, his voice coming across clearly in my ear.
“Don’t take it!” I hissed out.
“Hold your fire!” Arjen barked. Neither of us was willing to risk Desiree’s life, although we knew Gunz was the best sharpshooter we had.
“I can certainly understand why two of the leading men in the Syndicate would risk their lives and break some major rules over this lovely little lady. The sweet scent of her alone is enough to spark a wildfire in the hearts of beasts. Mmm…” Angel groaned, sniffing Desiree as unshed tears sat in her eyes.
Arjen stood in front of her and Angel, but her gaze had found me at the foot of the stairs and remained aimed down in my direction.
“Did you all think it would be this easy to come into my place and take what rightfully belongs to me?”
Belongs to him?
“Men!” Angel called into a device on his wrist, letting us know we had been set up after all. His men outside had been decoys, unaware that they were in the middle of a major fight.
The heavy march of boots creeping out from what must have been the basement came flooding into the room as automatic weapons were drawn and ready to fire.
“Tell your men to stand down, Arjen, or I’ll have one of mine put a fucking bullet in your brother’s head!” he yelled.
“No!” I yelled. “Don’t stand down. Hold your positions. If he shoots me, it starts a war with the syndicate,” I barked.
“A syndicate that I am sure has no idea where two of their most prized possessions are. One vicious enough to kill the both of you for being here.” Angel sneered as his gazed bounced between me and Arjen. He had shifted his arm tighter around Desiree, pressing it under her chin as he lifted his free hand, preparing to signal his man to aim at me and shoot.
My unblinking glare remained on Angel’s face, letting him know his threat meant nothing, although I knew he was serious. Anyone crazy enough to use their own men as pawns didn’t make idle threats.
However, if Angel’s aim was to kill us, Arjen and I, along with our team, would have been toasting the devil because Angel and a lot of his men were going to die with us.
I would rather go out shooting than surrender without fighting. My gaze landed back on Desiree, the desperation in her tensed body, and the pleading in her eyes ripped away pieces of my heart. Hell no, I wasn’t giving up. If that meant my death, at least she would know I was willing to die for her.
Angel dropped his hand when we didn’t waver, being careful to keep the gun aimed at Desiree as he switched hands. The arm he had around Desiree’s shoulders shifted so that his fingers were now around her neck, squeezing. The fear-riding her pinched expression along with her straining cry broke something in me as his men continued to pour through openings at the east and west sides of the house.
“Team,” Arjen called. Desiree’s eyes started to flutter as Angel’s glare pivoted from Arjen standing in front of him to me at the foot of the stairs.
“Team,” I said, readying them when it appeared Desiree was on the verge of passing out. I was a hair pull away from letting my finger flex against the trigger to put a bullet in Angel’s head. As Desiree’s body shook, a vein in her forehead protruded from the strain of trying to breathe. Her fingers scratched at Angel’s tight grip around her throat as she edged up on her toes to relieve the pressure he was applying.
The threat of imminent death hadn’t been enough to make me stand down, but seeing Desiree in pain had folded my will in half. I couldn’t take it. I was unable to stand there while Angel was hurting her.
Our men came out, but like me, they refused to drop their weapons, even with at least forty of Angel’s men circling us. Good.
I kept my weapon trained on Angel’s forehead, and so did Arjen. Angel would die instantly if either of us took a shot, but so would Desiree. My bold movement, when I started up the steps, caused weapons to be charged and pointed at me from every angle.
The harmonic clinking of metal sounded like deathly wind chimes. Angel’s men were trained soldiers that weren’t going to take a shot unless Angel ordered it. Same went for our men. In this type of situation, they weren’t going to flex a finger against their triggers unless Arjen or I gave the word.
My heavy steps echoed as I marched up the stairs, noticing at least twenty men with clear shots aimed at me, but I didn’t give a solitary fuck about any of them. If I was about to die, I was doing it standing next to my brother, and staring at the only woman my heart ever beat for.
“Let him approach,” Angel called to his anxious men, all itching to send death in my direction.
“Tell your men to drop their weapons,” Angel stated with his glare aimed at Arjen. I should have been stressing about dying, but Angel’s smirk was scraping the fuck out of my nerves.
A glimpse of Arjen’s face as I stood next to him suggested he wasn’t going to obey Angel’s request, even as the number of enemy forces continued to grow.
“Tell your men to drop their weapons. No one else has to die here tonight. I would like for you to stay alive since you two are the best I’ve dealt with in the arms business.” His grip around Desiree’s neck had loosened since he was distracted with me and Arjen.
Angel, along with a few others, had special buy-in deals with the syndicate to purchase their arms from us although they were not in any of the syndicate’s operational regions. Neither Arjen nor I spoke a word, only stood staring, waiting with our guns gripped tightly.
Angel’s head tilted as he glared at us, realizing something was off because of our unflinching stances even with the threat of sudden death. A quick glance revealed Arjen’s smirk, the devil inside shining through his expression. Here we stood, soaked in death, but instead of fear, pure hell was shooting through our veins.