Library
Home / Queen of Spades / Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Fifteen Minutes Earlier

Stakeouts are miserable in general. This is an entirely different level of hell. Knowing Sparrow is inside that house…

That's not even her name anymore, and that irritates the fuck out of me.

Annika.

Why the hell did she pick that name?

Is it one of her favorites?

Was it randomly what was available?

I've got way too many questions.

I actually thought she was boring during the months I lived with her when she went to college. It was hard to fathom how she was even related to her family.

She had me fooled completely.

Or maybe I never took the time to get to know the real her.

I've been accused of being a judgy bastard on more than a handful of occasions.

I've just never been so blatantly wrong about anyone.

Not before, nor since.

I sigh, stretching back in the seat of the uncomfortable rental SUV.

Grady Wells has done well for himself, if that house is any indication.

Hell, it might have belonged to the previous Grady.

Jesus Christ, I'm anxious.

My instincts are paranoid and on full alert. I'm not sure what is setting off my trouble is headed your way radar, but I don't think I'll settle down until I'm able to snatch Sparrow up and take her home.

Once she's back on the East Coast, I might be able to breathe again.

I'll just have a very pouty little omega to contend with. My cock jolts in my jeans at the thought. Hell, even I can admit I'm fucked up.

My phone rings, and Merrick's name pops up. I'm instantly even more paranoid than before. The tech guy for Assurance Security never calls me with good news.

I answer the call. "Yo."

"Grab her and the merc and get the fuck out now," Merrick growls in my ear. My hand falls to the glove box as I stretch to grab extra magazines. "Two SUVs. Three, maybe four, minutes out. There are no traffic lights I can catch them at. It's a hit squad."

"From Andretti?" My head shakes.

That was a dumb question.

There's no other possibility.

"At least nine, maybe ten or eleven guys, based on the traffic camera stills I caught them on." Merrick clicks away in the background as I toss the door open and jog for the front door. "Ranger wants his sister and the merc brought in safely. Clean that up, and I'll be in touch."

I grunt, hanging up and shoving my phone into my pocket.

I hit the front door without trying to be quiet about it.

Raiden Michaels—Grady—whatever the fuck he's going by now, has Sparrow wrapped up in his arms as I come around the corner into his living room. He yanks her behind him, pulling his Glock and aiming at my head.

"Michaels, long time no see," I growl.

The last time I saw that motherfucker before getting to Vegas was when Ranger had us both strung up in his basement. We made a pact that whichever of us should get out first would come back for the other.

Only, Ranger let him out a week before he released me.

Michaels disappeared rather than coming back to let me out.

Supposedly, he assured Ranger that he wouldn't complete the kill contract on Sparrow from Lucien Andretti, and if he found her, he would immediately surrender her to her brother.

Only, he quite convincingly faked his own demise, so he didn't have to do either.

I shake away that anger and lay out the details. "Kill squad. Less than three minutes out. Somewhere in the neighborhood of ten men."

"How the fuck?" he hisses. "That motherfucker. I knew there was more to him. No one loses a hand and keeps their mouth shut, not unless they're highly fucking trained. Also, I go by Grady now." He stomps over to a door a few feet away and aims before pulling the trigger twice. The silenced thump of the bullets landing fills the air.

"Hello, Sparrow," I say to the wide-eyed little omega.

I've never seen her look so flabbergasted.

"It's Annika now." Her chin tilts in the air, and despite our dire circumstances, I still laugh.

"What's the game plan?" Grady asks. It's hard to see him as anything except the slimy assassin that he used to be, but to keep things simple, I'm willing to call them both by their new names. "You haven't tried to put a bullet in my brain, so that leads me to believe we're on the same side, at least for right now."

"You know each other?" Annika asks, glancing between us. "Of course you do. I need a weapon."

"Goddamn, you make my dick hard," the idiot says, grabbing her arm and dragging her into the bedroom on the right. "The closet is stacked. Pick your poison."

"If either of you mistakenly believes I'll go back to my brother without a fight, you better hear me when I say, I won't be giving warning shots." She continues browsing the massive amount of weapons.

"How about you lock her ass in here while we handle this?" I growl, tilting my head to listen for the sounds of approaching men.

"Do we have time to bail?" Grady asks, grabbing several spare magazines and shoving them in his pockets.

"Doubtful," I admit.

"Gotcha, yeah. I'm thinking he's right on this one, Anni Girl." He grabs Annika around the middle while she kicks and flails. He yanks open a door that looks like it would lead to a bathroom and scans his thumb.

"Don't you dare try to lock me in a safe room that I have no idea how to get out of," she shrieks, kicking backward into his shins. "What if you die? I'll be trapped in there forever!"

"You're the only person in the world that I care about keeping safe. Look at it like a nest." He chucks her unceremoniously onto the mattress in the corner and strides out, slamming the door before she can escape. "She's gonna be mighty fucking pissed when we let her out." He grimaces, shrugging.

Multiple windows crash around the house simultaneously, and I'm actually grateful to have backup. Ten-on-one isn't impossible odds, but it's not great, either. Ten-on-two is more than manageable with the right partner. It sours my stomach to admit that, considering the circumstances, Grady isn't a bad ally.

"Truce until these dicks are handled?" he asks, jogging toward the door.

"Fucking fine," I agree as the wall explodes two feet away from my head. "We need to be quick. They might be using silenced weapons, but it's not like they're going for full stealth mode. One of your neighbors could call the cops."

"They're all old as dirt," he muses, diving out the door, like he has a death wish. "I picked this place because they're all retirees in bed by ten."

I scoff, pulling up my gun and offering him cover. My shots land, taking out the asshole who was about to dispatch Annika's favorite alpha.

Hmm, maybe I should be slightly less helpful.

"The safe room has cameras." Grady returns fire, but I can't see if he hits his target from where I stand just inside the bedroom doorway. "She'll see it if you think about shooting me in the back."

I grunt and shimmy up to the doorframe. The sound of the window exploding behind me has me turning to return fire. One of the shots from outside barely nicks my arm, causing my shot to miss and embed in the wall.

"Oh, you motherfucker," Grady growls as I correct to take the shot. I don't have the first clue what happened there, but I've got my own assholes to focus on.

I'm so fucking done with the Andretti brothers. I guess taking out a few of their minions will have to suffice.

Grady kicks the bloody body of the last assassin. "You ready to play defense in case she tries to kneecap me?"

"I fucking suppose," I grunt, shoving my gun into the waistband of my jeans at my back.

Grady snorts. "Well, my house is trashed. I locked my girlfriend in a safe room after telling her I loved her for the first time, and she discovered that I occasionally like to stalk her. This day started out so damn good too. It's hard to determine how it fell to shit so fast." He jumps over the corpse and aims for the bedroom with the safe room. Holy fuck. Now that I'm paying attention, I spot the multitude of pictures that prove his stalking comments true. The door pops open as he scans his thumb. "Remember you like my dick," he calls out in a very sing-song tone of voice.

"Don't even get me started," she says, tossing herself at him. "I more than like your cock, and I love you. I never got to say it earlier. You could have died, and I wouldn't have said it."

"Aww, baby," he coos, lifting her and wrapping her around his chest. "It'd take a lot more than those guys to keep me from you. I've got incentive to live a long and happy life at your side."

"I'm still mad at you. Don't think this means you're getting a free pass from everything you've been keeping from me. We are going to be talking that through, but I just need you to know I'm happy you're alive." Annika wraps her hands around his neck, pulling his mouth to hers.

My blood pressure spikes.

They're a little too close for comfort, since I still have plans to kill him at the first opportunity I get.

"You can suck face in the car," I growl. "We need to move now. I don't care if your neighbors are elderly. This was loud. The cops could be on the way right now."

"Shit, he's right," Grady says as they pull back. "I've got a couple bags I need to grab from the safe room, and I'm ready to split."

Annika's honey-brown eyes meet mine over his shoulder as he strides off with her still in his arms. "I'm sorry I shot you. I've felt guilty about that for a long time."

Holy fuck, I've missed her.

I nod, licking my lips as she disappears into the small room. "We'll talk more about that later."

If she thinks a single apology is going to keep her from going over my knee, she's sorely mistaken.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.