Page 66 of Run

“His face…” she whispered at the sight of the gashes covering Marcus’ face, rendering him almost unrecognizable.

“Cutter.” Abasi was cold as ice. “That’s his trademark.”

“Don’t look, Blue,” David begged her. “Remember him the way he was yesterday. Not like this.”

“Shit, man,” the guy filming it said. “That’s Marcus James from the James Syndicate. We need to get outta here. The cops are gonna be crawling all over this.”

“He’s definitely dead,” said the other voice. “Tortured too, poor bastard. Look at his—”

The TV screen went mercifully blank.

Slowly, Abasi turned to Elle. It didn’t take a genius to recognize the fury emanating from him. It was written in every taut muscle. The team hovered around him like catchers at a game, ready to deal with whatever came their way. Their caution was unnecessary. Abasi kept it contained.

With precise movements, he reached into the neck of his shirt and pulled out a set of silver dog tags. Not bothering to unhook the chain, he yanked the tags from his neck he strode the few steps to Elle.

He held them out to her. “Marcus would have wanted you to have these. You’ll know what to do with them.”

With a trembling hand, Elle took them from him. “What are you going to do?”

“Take down as many of those fuckers as I can before they get me.” He grabbed his jacket from the bed he’d slept on and shrugged into it.

Elle freed herself with a jerk and rushed over to Abasi. She hugged him tight from behind. “Don’t do it. Don’t give them anyone else.” Tears streamed down her face now. “Marcus wouldn’t want you to die for him. He wouldn’t. You know that.”

“Marcus was an idiot.” Abasi twisted around to hold her. “If he’d listened to me in the first place, he’d still be alive.”

“Please don’t go,” Elle begged. “Please.”

Abasi stepped back and cupped her cheek. “You do you, little sister, and I’ll do me.” He looked over at David. “She’s yours now.”

David closed the distance between them and tugged Elle from Abasi. “You don’t need to do this. You can work with us, and we’ll take him down together.”

“Maybe. But right now, I need my own payback.” With a nod to Callum, Abasi strode from the room.

Leaving Elle sobbing in David’s arms.

* * *

It wasa somber team that returned to the safe house. David worried that Elle would need sedation to get her to stop crying and make her rest, but in the end, she’d worn herself out and fallen asleep in the car on the way across London. She’d been fast asleep for hours and showed no signs of waking anytime soon.

Callum spent most of the day on the phone to Lake, who was running point for Benson Security with the police. Tessa Sharp, their main police contact, wasn’t happy that the London part of the business had gone into hiding and was threatening all sorts of retribution if they didn’t surface soon.

Ryan, Megan, Dimitri, and Joe hit the streets, talking with their contacts in the hope of getting a better idea of what was happening in the James camp. Word was the Albanians had taken out Marcus, and Tommy was gearing for war. In other words, Tommy killed his son and was using his death as an excuse for a power grab. It was ironic that the war David had hoped to start was actually going to happen, but instead of taking down Tommy, it would make him more powerful. And to make matters worse, Tommy had gone to ground. Hiding from the coming violence and from Abasi, because even Tommy had to realize Marcus’ loyal friend would want revenge.

As for Marcus’ death itself, one of David’s contacts leaked the initial coroner’s report to him, and it read like a how-to manual on mutilation. There wasn’t an inch on Marcus’ body that’d escaped Cutter’s knife, and several parts had been cut off entirely. Elle’s brother hadn’t died quickly. Or easily. But he had died without saying a word. David knew this because there wasn’t even a murmur about Elle on the streets. He also knew it because, according to the coroner, the last thing removed from Marcus was his tongue.

“You okay?” Harvard asked quietly as he came up beside him in the hallway, where he was peering in on Elle.

There was no stopping himself from checking on her frequently. He closed the door quietly before answering. “I’m pissed,” he said, jerking his head toward the stairs.

“I get that.” Harvard followed him downstairs. “All signs point to Tommy hiding in his bunker while his soldiers go to war. Kinda hard to kill a man when you can’t get at him.”

No kidding. David entered the kitchen, opened the fridge, and took out two beers. He handed one to Harvard.

“We need some way to draw him out,” David said.

“After what he did to Marcus, there’s no way he’ll surface. Especially with Abasi in the wind.” Harvard took a drink. “He’s got to know Abasi’s out for payback. Far as I can tell, that boy never bothered to hide where his loyalty lay, and it sure wasn’t with Tommy.”

“As long as Tommy’s alive and his organization thriving, Elle’s life is at risk.” David drained his beer and put the bottle in the sink. “As far as we can tell, the James Syndicate is the only organization that knows about Elle’s new identity and where she’s hiding. Once Tommy’s dead, we can bury any mention of her along with him, and that should remove any immediate threat. She’ll always have to be careful, cover her tracks and keep her head down, but we can help her do that by laying a false trail elsewhere—for anyone still searching for her.”