“Oh shit,” I gasp, snatching the pot from the machine before it can fully bubble over.
“I can’t reach Killian,” Archer says and my heart skips a beat, turning my gaze up to him.
“What do you mean?”
“His phone is going straight to voicemail and Dante’s line is just busy. He’ll be with Sienna though, I’m sure, but I have to talk to him about this. All of this.” Archer steps aside, gathering a couple of mugs from the top shelf as I turn to the opposite counter.
Blair’s pathetic form catches my attention as I set the pot down. Her hair seems somewhat dull now compared to before.
“You should go to him. We can’t leave this too long,” I decide, my voice deceptively calm.
“I don’t want to leave you here, with her,” Archer states cooly, his own distaste for the woman showing through with no attempts to hide it. For some reason that brings a warm flutter through my chest. Having Archer on our side definitely makes a difference.
“I’ll be fine. There are other guards out there. Besides, Dante and Sienna need to be told about who Blair was working with.” I pour the coffee slowly, watching the dark liquid slush up the sides of the cups as my hand trembles faintly from restrained anger. “They’ve worked so hard for peace, to bring us all together. It can’t fall apart because ofBlair.”
Her name is like acid on my tongue and still, Archer lingers until I give his shoulder a shove in the direction of the door.
“I’ll be fine, trust me!”
Archer shoots me a cool look before he relents. “I’ll be back as soon as someone picks up their damned phone, okay?”
“Okay.” I pick up the mugs as Archer casts a final, distasteful look at Blair before he heads into the hall and I walk into the lounge. Offering the coffee out to Blair, the front door clicks into life - and a gunshot rings out throughout the house.
The mugs slip from my grasp as a loud groan from Archer reaches my ears and suddenly gunfire erupts seemingly all around the house. Blair screams, throwing herself down onto the rug and shoving her hands over her head. I turn, my heart leaping into my mouth as Archer comes flying into the lounge, grappling with a man much thicker and taller than he is.
“Archer!”
Blood coats his right arm as he drives his knee up into the gut of the assailant, then throws his entire weight behind a punch that drives the stranger crashing into the kitchen counter.
“Cara!” Archer whips to me, blood leaking from a split on his lips. “get out of here!”
The storm of gunfire continues outside and I freeze.Get out? Where am I supposed to go?
The stranger is up in seconds, tackling Archer around the waist and crashing them both into the wall unit. Glass shatters and wood splinters as their bodies collide with the furniture and the noise shocks me into action. I dart over the coffee table, sprinting towards the kitchen.
I can use that door to get into the hall and up—
All thought shocks from my mind as a solid mass of muscle appears in front of me and I crash into a man as wide as a house. I lift my hands to shove him away but his large hands land on my shoulders, pulling me close. The gunfire dies down and the sickening sound of bone crunching reaches my ears. Archer screams in pain and the sound cuts as the stranger gives me a shake as if I’m nothing more than a rag doll.
“It’s them,” Blair sobs pathetically somewhere behind me.
Them? Russians? How the fuck did they find us here?
I glance over my shoulder at Blair wailing on the ground.
“Did you do this?” I gasp but before she can answer, the man holding me jerks my attention back onto him.
I’m face to face with an elderly man, a small mouth nestled amidst a graying beard and beady green eyes lock on mine as my heart collapses into my gut. Darkness tints the edges of my vision as my mind drifts hopelessly to my baby and Killian, such small comforts as I face down this brute.
“Ahh Cara,” the man says as the stink of smoke tickles my nose, drawing up the nausea from before. “Going zomewhere? I vas hoping ve could have a little chat.”
30
KILLIAN
Home is where Ishouldbe going but there’s one thought wriggling in my head that I just can’t let go, so my trip home through the city has been derailed by a little detour.
It’s for Cara though so it’s absolutely worth the delay in returning home.