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A laugh falls from between my lips. “You were willing to marry her off to someone who beat her, so I figured your standards can’t be that high.”
CHAPTERSIXTY-FIVE
WYATT
What the fuck is he doing?
I glare at my best friend. We had a plan, and pissing them off isn’t a part of it. We just have to stall until Kovu can find another way in and get the element of surprise on our side, then we take all these motherfuckers out before getting our girl and getting the fuck out of here.
Simple.
Elias loves a fucking plan. He thrives on the goddamn things and gets mad when I don’t follow them to the letter, and yet here he is, with more at stake than ever before, fucking up the plan we meticulously thought out and discussed for hours.
The commissioner’s face glows red with anger as he shoves the gun tighter against Leighton’s temple. She’s barely conscious, held up only by his grip across her chest as he uses her as a shield. “How dare you?” he snarls. “Jason is an upstanding citizen—”
“Who beat your daughter mercilessly,” Elias finishes for him. “I have the photos of that by the way. If anything happens to Wyatt and me tonight, or to Leighton for that matter, those photos will be released to the press. They have a date stamp and a written testimony from Leighton on the night it happened.”
I look at him out of the corner of my eye. That was our last resort. The thing we were going to throw out to them if all else fails. Why the fuck is he compromising the whole fucking plan?
“We also have footage of your security staff holding a knife against your daughter’s side as you escorted her from the church. I can’t imagine that will look very good for your career.”
Kaos turns to me, his brows pulled together in confusion. I’m glad I’m not the only one out of the goddamn loop.
The earpiece crackles to life again, and I expect to hear Crew losing his ever-loving mind at Elias going off script, but instead he says, “Elias is doing as instructed. It’s taking Kovu longer than expected to get around the back so we need a diversion.”
I release a breath and try my best to settle my erratic heart. I thought I’d feel relieved once Leighton was in front of me, but this is worse than not knowing. Seeing a gun held against her temple, her body limp and bloody, it takes everything I am not to cross the cold concrete floor and tear her from her father’s arms.
“There’s no way to prove my son had anything to do with that. For all the press knows you hurt her and made her write that letter,” the governor says.
Elias nods like he agrees, but he and I both know we covered our bases over and over. “Normally I’d agree with you, but we also have the footage of Leighton fleeing, barefoot in nothing but a coat from the scene, her in the taxi, her on our doorstep, and of her writing the letter, all with time stamps of course.” I smile. “So I think that’s what most would call checkmate.”
Silence falls over the dimly lit warehouse, but silence is the last thing you want in a situation like this, because silence usually means desperation, and desperation leads to mistakes. The last thing we need when our woman is in the hands of the enemy, and she already looks worse for wear.
The safety of a gun clicks off nearby, and I hold my breath as I stare at my angel. She can’t die. I can’t let her die.
“Sorry, gentlemen. I’m a little late to the party,” Kovu’s voice booms through the warehouse, but it takes me a moment to figure out he’s on a small platform on the other side of the space, his gun trained on the men in front of us.
“Start shooting,” Crew instructs. “Let’s get this done and get your girl the fuck out of there.”
I take out the two men directly in front of me, not hesitating to put a bullet right between their eyes as Elias and Kaos do the same.
Kovu takes out a couple of the men who were circling around us, while gunshots ricochet off the tin walls.
I look up just in time to see a guy aiming at Elias with his finger tight on the trigger, and manage to knock my best friend out of the way. The bullet misses us by inches, and I let out an unsteady breath. This mission is about saving Leighton, but there’s every chance in the world one of us may not come home from this.
He gives me a quick nod before turning back to the task at hand.
Kovu lets out a maniacal laugh as he sends bullet after bullet into the enemy, never missing a target. The crazy motherfucker has no formal training, he wasn’t in the SEALs like Elias and I, but he’s the best fucking shot I’ve ever seen.
I take careful steps closer to where Leighton is pressed against her father, and the governor and Jason are a foot ahead of them. I can’t believe any of these assholes are still standing in this room with bullets flying around bothering to pretend their plan is still operational.
Elias is at my side, his gun trained on Jason. I fucking wish we had the time to drag his death out, to make him feel every fucking pain there is to feel in this world as amends for the pain he caused our angel, but I’ll settle for a bullet in the head if it means we get her back.
“That’s quite close enough,” the commissioner snaps, tugging Leighton against himself tighter.
Her eyes flick open, but her lids are heavy. From how far the blood has spread across the delicate lace of her dress, I’d say she’s been bleeding for hours. She’s fading fast, and we need to get her the hell out of here.
“Just hand her over, and we can all walk out of here without any more casualties,” Elias says.
