Chapter 41

Chapter Forty-One

Feenix Blaylock

I hold the gun Noll gave me out in front of me as I approach Andre’s boathouse. The lights are on inside, and behind me, people are getting arrested as a swarm of local PD makes the arrests both inside the boathouses and outside on the shore.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Feenix,” Noll murmurs behind me.

I don’t strain my focus by dividing it between him and the lights that are on inside Andre’s boathouse. I don’t know where they’re keeping her; I’ve never been inside before, but I know it’s not going to be with a window facing the dock. Not that I’d be able to tell. All the curtains are drawn.

We round the dock to the back of the house where most have sliding glass doors that overlook the water. I’d rather go in the back than in the front. I’ll shoot my way in if I have to .

Hell, I’d do more than just shoot my way in.

My heart hammers with the desire to kill any and all that are in there because I know damn well who is part of this. It all clicked together perfectly, especially when Miles didn’t answer his phone when the Department called him to coordinate. There was no backup. There was no Miles, and that’s because Miles is part of this.

We round the corner, and at the same time, someone exits the door. His back is turned to us first, but even from behind, I know who it is.

Noll told me he believed that Nathan was still alive. It was in the file – if I had just read the whole thing. I was more consumed with Charlie than I was with learning about someone who may or may not be dead and how that came about. It’s my fault she’s in this mess because I had been so wrapped up in her that I hadn’t thought to look at all the angles.

I couldn’t have foreseen this. I know that. But I could have at least looked at the folder my best friend, my handler, gave me.

And now? Now I might pay dearly for it.

Nathan spins at the sound of my final footfall, and for a second, he has a shocked look on his face. In his hand is a knife, and the blade has a little blood on it. My heartbeat skips for a minute because I know damn well who that blood belongs to.

I raise my gun, fully intending to shoot my way past him and not caring about the consequences, to get to my girl. But Noll’s strong presence behind me keeps my head in the right place. For now.

“I expected to be gone before you came looking for her, Feenix,” Nathan says. His grip on the knife tightens, and I spare it a glance before tuning myself into his body movements .

“Where is she?” I demand.

He nudges his head toward the door. “Inside, but you’re going to be too late.”

“And why is that?” Noll asks.

“Because he has a choice. Either he arrests me, or he saves her.”

“Or I could just kill you and then save her.” My tone is deep and gravelly, dangerous to even my own ears.

“Nix,” Noll warns so softly behind me.

“You won’t kill me,” Nathan says, calling my bluff. “You’ll do things by the book now that you’re back with your pals.”

I stand loosely, but inside, I stiffen, and Nathan must know that because he adds, “No, I didn’t know you were undercover. That’s my fault. I hadn’t figured it out until just now because, although you’re good at keeping your feelings inside, you can’t hide your expression now. Not when your emotions are so raw. Not when my wife is inside, bleeding for profit.”

I grind my jaw. “She’s not your wife. Not anymore.”

He shrugs a little. “Maybe not. But she won’t be yours either. Not if she’s dead. So what choice are you making, Nix?”

I stand there for too long – I know I do – while I try to make a choice. And Noll? He stands firm behind me too, waiting. I know he’ll back me up either way, but he’ll expect more from me, and so would Charlie. If I let him get away, he’ll just move the business elsewhere, possibly to a whole other country, and countless more men and women will be forced into this life. She’d want me to save them over her.

And if I kill him? Another snake will take his place.

I don’t know what Nathan sees on his face, but he must see my decision, even though it’s killing me to make it.

Countless lives over one. I gave the same advice to Charlie, and I hate that I’m taking it now.

“I won’t let you take me in,” he growls. The sound is pathetic.

“You won’t have a choice,” Noll grits out. “Put down the knife, and come quietly.”

I level the gun at his head and breathe evenly in and out of my mouth. No emotions. There’s no place for them here. I repeat this in my head as he laughs out loud.

“There is always a choice.” And then he raises the knife so fast that I almost didn’t catch the movement. The knife plunges into his chest, and a look of shock takes over his face before blood starts seeping down his shirt.

“Fuck,” Noll barks before rushing forward. He’s too late to catch Nathan though, and he drops like a rock to the deck, gasping for breath with the knife poking out of his ribs. I stay rooted to my spot, gun poised as he splutters his last breath.

Noll rubs a hand over his head and then looks at me with a scowl. “What a bastard.”

I don’t respond. I stir to action and open the sliding glass door as cops begin to run up the deck. “Charlie!” I shout into the home. I stand in the ornate living room, trying to listen past my own adrenaline-laced, labored breathing, but I hear nothing.

As cops reach Nathan’s body, Noll tells them that there is a victim inside, but I’m already running toward the front of the boathouse. There seems to be a few rooms down here, and I have every intention of going through them before making my way to the second floor.

My pulse thumps heavily in my neck when I find the first room empty of a living soul. Then the second. And once I reach the third, I can smell it. The blood.

I shove the door open, and fear nearly cripples me at what I find. Naked and suspended from the ceiling by her feet is Charlie. A pool of deep, red blood spreads out on the tile below her.

“Mama,” I whisper as I step into the room, my shoe slicking with her blood.

Her eyelids are closed, but they flutter at the sound of my voice.

Noll comes in behind me and whispers a string of curses.

“Get her down,” I demand as I head to Charlie. I grab her face and tap her cheek. “Charlie, stay with me. Eyes on me. Wake up. Don’t go to sleep. Charlie!”

In the next moment, she’s being lowered to the ground, and cops are starting to enter. One of them calls for the paramedics on his radio while I take off my suit jacket, rip the sleeves off, and tie them around her sluggishly bleeding wrists. I fashion them as tight as I can, but there’s nothing I can do about the blood seeping into my clothes, slicking down her back as she lies in it.

I murmur things to her as she makes strangled little moans, and I don’t know how long time passes, but it feels like an eternity before the paramedics come in.

Body numb, I get shoved to the wall as they get to work on her, and for the first time in a long time, I feel something. Something inside. Some kind of internal shift. Fear. Crippling anxiety. A genuine agony that this will be the last time I see the woman I love alive.

Because that’s a lot of blood. And now? Now she isn’t responding.