27. ~Levi~

27

~Levi~

I stood on the periphery of a battle I'd been craving for six whole years.

I could almost taste the coming victory on my tongue.

We'd already defeated so many of our enemies, men who'd thought themselves kings.

Royce Humphrey, Tommy Dixon, Peter Hall.

Tonight, the last twisted king would fall.

Brianna, my dad, and I stood with Kyle as he made the call to Malcolm Lynch to confirm the shutdown of the security system in and around the twenty-five story apartment building. He was actually bringing it really well and playing up his paranoia and fear to a T.

It was frustrating waiting for it to happen, knowing how quickly and efficiently I could see to it on my own. But if I cut it myself, it would alert Lynch that an attack was imminent. Given how important the element of surprise was in this particular case, we couldn't have that.

As we were waiting in the shadows of an alley opposite our target location, four of my dad's guys who he'd been able to bring in on this on short notice—part of his security unit—were over on the other side at the south side of the building with Mason and Colt waiting on our word to move in once the security system was down. They'd be taking the stairwells and putting down all Osiris members who they encountered.

I stared at the live feed of the penthouse where our chief target was located. I'd accessed his system through a covert backdoor route, a weakness I'd identified in the system—far too easily—to get a lay of the land. I'd been able to give Mason's team the precise current locations of the Osiris members scattered throughout the building, while I'd also been able to determine that there were six members stationed on the penthouse floor with Lynch.

Curt Walker was tapped into us via COMMs waiting on our word to move it too so he could take out the remaining members located elsewhere, their locations I'd been able to determine with ease now that everything else had fallen into place.

We couldn't have him move in before we did, because any one of the shitheads could notify Lynch that they were being set upon, which would alert him to the fact that something major was up, thus ruining our element of surprise.

Finally, I watched as the security system I was viewing on my phone went dead.

A moment later, Kyle was off the phone and telling us, "He's shut it off. We're good to go. He says there are two of his guys who'll be waiting at the lobby elevator bay to escort me on up."

"Good," my dad said, then looked at me and Brianna. "That will be your window. I'll take them out, you head on up to the penthouse."

"Sounds good." I slid my hand into Brianna's and looked out at her clad in all black like we all were, along with all of us sporting bulletproof vests. The leather pants she had on were really working for her—and me. I'd had to shore up my focus when she'd first come downstairs in the mansion wearing them. Christ almighty. "Ready for this, my Wildflower?"

She nodded vehemently, her ponytail swinging every which way. "Let's end this."

And end it we would.

Then we'd finally be free of the demons that had haunted us for far too long.

I tapped my earpiece. "Move in."

In the next second, I had Kyle leading the way across from the alleyway and approaching the parking lot of the building where the elevator bay was, the three of us following behind.

As we made our way over, I saw the shadows moving toward the other side of the building near the stairwell entrances—Mason's team going for it.

Excitement thrummed through me that this was finally happening, that we were so close. It slammed up against a whole lot of adrenaline, putting me in that same hyper aware and unforgiving state that I entered when I engaged in my street fighting hobby.

As we reached the elevator bay, two Osiris members bolted from around either corner.

We'd known they were there, so we were prepared.

Brianna reacted impressively quickly, snagging the closest one's arm and using his weight against him to haul him into the wall. As he jarred hard against it and ricocheted forward, she swept her leg at his ankles and ripped him off his feet. I was there in the next beat, slicing my tactical knife across his throat.

Before we could work in sync again, we spun toward the second guy to see my dad dropping him, the guy with a blade buried in his chest, right through the heart.

"Save your energy for up there," my dad told us.

Kyle looked on in a whole lot of shock.

"Focus up," I snapped, jarring him back to himself.

He didn't have any other option then as the elevator doors opened and two more guys came into view, dressed in cheap black suits like the other two we'd just taken out.

As soon as they saw that Kyle wasn't alone, they realized Lynch had been played, and they launched themselves at us.

I pushed into the elevator, dragging Kyle with me, and slammed one of them into the wall. As he threw his fist, I deflected it, snatched his wrist, then used the hold to twist him around, then slam my boot into his back, sending him flying out of the elevator.

My dad was wailing on the other one.

And then a knife shot through the air and tore right through the left eye socket of the guy I'd just kicked out toward my dad.

I spun to see Brianna's arm still in throwing position.

She caught my eye and slicked her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue.

Hot as the fires of hell. "Fuck, baby."

"Go," my dad said, as he disposed of the other guy. "I'll be here. None of them will get out."

I nodded, then held the elevator door open as I tapped my earpiece to communicate with Mason. "Status?"

"Four down, approaching tenth floor."

"Nice. Everyone okay?"

"All good."

"Keep me posted."

"Will do."

I disconnected, then looked out at my dad. "The team is ahead of schedule."

He smiled. "Be careful, Levi."

"Always," I said, winking.

"He means always starting now ," Brianna clarified to reassure my dad.

"Exactly." I ushered Brianna into the elevator.

My dad gave me a nod, and then I punched in the button for the penthouse, the doors closing in the next moment.

"Shit. Shit. Shit," Kyle was murmuring.

"Keep it together," I said, pulling another blade to go with my other and readying both, while Brianna spun the knife I'd gifted her around down by her side.

"Just play your part and you'll be fine," she told him, the spinning growing faster and wilder.

I nudged her with my shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

"Fine, yeah. Just gearing up."

"Brianna," I pushed.

"Just worried how I may react to seeing the psycho again for the first time in six years since the time in that hellscape."

"I know. I feel some of that too. Try to keep your focus on the mission and the fact that he'll be gone soon, that it'll finally be done."

"You weren't weak," Kyle spoke suddenly.

"What?" Brianna questioned.

"You were both kids when Malcolm hurt you and traumatized you, but look at you both. You're strong, independent, successful. You're powerful. You don't need to fear coming face to face with him, or even feel anxious about it, he needs to fear you both. Just so you know, he's done similar things to others before—just his actual enemies, not the children of them like he did with you—and they were broken. Grown adults." He smiled sadly. "There's no place for shame here. You two are something else. Strong, resilient as hell, and fighters to the core. Now , let's go get your lethal justice, shall we?"

Brianna and I stared at him in stunned silence.

Definitely hadn't expected that.

I saw a little smile grace her lips and she gave him a chin lift.

"All right," I said. "It's appreciated."

It was as much as I could muster. He might be repentant and all that shit now, but he'd still been there back then.

The elevator was just a couple of floors out, so Brianna and I took position, our backs flat against either side of the door to remain out of sight when it first opened.

I'd discovered that Lynch's protocol when somebody entered the penthouse was to have four guards flanking the elevator. We couldn't risk them shoving us back in, or that welcoming committee descending on us in such a tight space and jeopardizing our mission to get access to Lynch directly.

The elevator dinged just as Kyle sucked in a breath and wiped his sweaty palms on his suit pants.

The door whooshed open and Kyle fed us intel, uttering aloud in a casual tone, "Quite the welcoming committee. Four of you. Where's the big boss at?"

"Living room. Come on through," one of the guys answered.

Kyle walked on out and I listened carefully as their footsteps disappeared down the corridor. I slapped my hand to the elevator door so it didn't close, and when I'd determined they were far enough away, I inched out and shot a look the way they'd come.

"All clear," I told Brianna.

We stepped out together and crept along the corridor, following their path.

Voices caught our attention and we peered around the wall, finding the living room.

Kyle was standing there in front of a tacky bright-red pleather wraparound couch with two of the four guys dispersing and walking off through to another room to the right through the double doors I'd seen on the floor plan. It was a game room with video game equipment visible along with a massive flatscreen TV, a pool table, and even a bar. One such method to keep his guys happy. Until he gathered more power like before and then treated them like shit, as he'd done to Kyle.

The remaining two guys took a seat on the adjacent armchairs and Kyle shifted a little, moving to the side.

I realized why in the next moment as it revealed who he was standing in front of, the person who'd been blocked from view by him at first.

Christ.

There he was in the flesh.

Malcolm Lynch.

He was sporting that same dirty-blond buzz cut. Those beady eyes were as creepy as ever. He was dressed in an ill-fitting black pinstripe suit this time, his linebacker form filling it out.

I felt Brianna shudder against me and I turned to her, nuzzling her neck and whispering, "We've got this, Wildflower. No more haunting after this, no more shame, no more shackles." I kissed her cheek.

"Yeah," she murmured. "Yeah."

"Time to let it all out."

She nodded fervently, then nuzzled against me. "I love you."

"I love you ," I whispered back.

I heard Kyle uttering the spiel we'd worked out, right down to every little detail.

I saw Lynch relax into it as he listened to what he was saying, his eyes lighting with malice as Kyle gave him the fake key to my downfall.

Despite his nerves, he was pulling it off really well.

Until he wasn't.

Until he fucked up.

His nerves got the best of him and he tried to push it along too fast, the plan to ascertain the location of all six of the Osiris members up here, then contain them while Brianna and I took Lynch out. We only had four so far.

Kyle asked for privacy, gesturing for Lynch to empty the room of his soldiers.

"Hell," Brianna grunted.

I cursed under my breath as Lynch stilled, then suspicion lit his eyes.

"Why the insistence on us being alone?" He looked Kyle up and down. "If you came here under false pretenses, to harm me or something, you shouldn't come packing heat. My men frisked you and found zilch."

He pushed to his feet.

When his soldiers went to rise with him, he signaled them to stay where they were, as he focused on Kyle. "Is that it? Is that why you really came here? You were always far too sympathetic to the kids back then. Now Royce is dead, you thought you'd go for broke, huh? With him gone there's nobody to keep you hidden and as a ghost, so you figured you might as well set out on a suicide mission and try to take me out before I took you out?"

"And you call me the paranoid one."

"I call you the weak-ass one, Kyle."

Kyle held up his hands as Lynch advanced on him. "It's nothing like you've said. Just… chill."

"Chill?" Lynch gritted out. He snapped his fingers behind him and his two guys rose to their feet. "Nah, the heat's about to get turned up all the fucking way. You're nervous. Even for you. Something is off." He pulled his phone out and typed for a moment, before stowing it away.

Not five seconds later, the missing two guys burst out from a closed door that I recalled was the kitchen.

"Fuck," I whispered.

"We can't retreat," Brianna said. "I won't, Levi."

"The plan's gone off the rails, but I'm always a fan of improvising and cutting another path through. Ready to move?"

"Absolutely," she responded resolutely.

In fact, she beat me to it, bursting from our cover and crossing the threshold into the living room and tossing her blade through the air.

It ripped into the shoulder of one of the guys standing in front of the couch, driving right through his flesh and embedding in the pleather behind him, pinning him to it. He roared and flailed.

And then all eyes were on us.

Through the rest, all I saw were Lynch's soulless fucking orbs of depravity.

He looked at his soldier in pain and then turned away, not giving a fuck, his attention on me and Brianna.

His lip curled as he took us in. "You've grown up well." He raked his eyes over Brianna none too subtly. "Especially you, pretty princess."

A snarl escaped me before I could even begin to reel it in and then my blade left my hand almost of its own accord. Motherfucker!

It buried itself in Lynch's left shoulder, blowing him back, a satisfying grunt escaping him.

All hell broke loose then.

Kyle ran away to the edge of the room as the four guys descended on us and the other two burst out from the game room.

"Beat them down, but keep them alive. We're gonna play again like the old days."

Piece of motherfucking shit!

His callback to that nightmare and the threat to make us live to repeat it was so fucking despicable, it triggered my bloodlust full-force.

And this time, I didn't even try to hold it back.

Not one bit.

Pulling my bo-staff from the holster at my belt, I snapped it down so it extended fully, and roared as I sprinted into the room, headed for the closest two by the kitchen.

In my peripheral vision, I saw Brianna toss her blade at the guy trying to help Lynch and his buddy also still pinned to the couch. It ripped into the throat of the shit, blood spraying every-fucking-where as she hit his carotid artery dead-on. Dead being the operative word, because he'd meet that fate any second. Nicely done, Wildflower.

I jabbed my staff into the gut of the closest one.

As he doubled over, I spun and swept it at the side of his head, making him stagger into the wall beside the kitchen door.

The other cheap suit with him came at me and threw his fist.

I brought my arm down, deflecting it easily, the asshole relying way too much on his humungous roided-out form, rather than precision. And then I swept my staff up, driving it into his chin and making his head snap back.

Before the two of them could fully recover, I was between them, jabbing and sweeping my bo-staff back and forth and taking them both on at once.

Cries and curses rang out, blood sprayed, cracks of broken bones filled my senses.

Music to my fucking ears.

And fuel to my bloodlust.

It was all a blur of rapid-fire violence and blood-red within moments as I gave into it, tearing into the motherfuckers like a wild beast.

Punish! Destroy! Slaughter!

It took me some time through it to realize that the two of them had stopped moving, and I looked either side of me to see them downed as I was crouched over them, smashing my bo-staff into each one in turn.

They were so bloodied and beaten, their features were barely discernible.

My staff and hands were slick with their blood.

A snarl sounded, pulling me from the carnage I'd wrought, and I pushed to my feet just as another soldier ran at me.

The moment he hit, I angled my body as I grabbed at his tie and used it as leverage to haul him over my shoulder and into a floor-length mirror. He crashed to the ground, disorientated.

I was about to move in to finish it when a cry from Brianna broke my focus and I instinctively spun around to see her being thrown onto the pool table, one of the guys about to leap on top of her. Fuck!

I went to start over there, only to see her snatch up a pool ball and smash it into her opponent's face, shattering his nose and making him stagger back. Then she reared back and used the momentum to spring to her feet on the table. She spun into a spinning kick that smashed into the piece of shit and had him falling back against the double doors.

I didn't get to see her finish him because me being distracted cost me as the guy I'd left conscious jumped on my back.

Roaring, I slammed all my weight backward into the kitchen door.

It gave way and his grip broke around me as he hit the floor.

I dove for the knife block on the counter to my left, ripped out a butcher's knife, then drove it through his chest just as he was trying to get up.

Another one down.

I pushed out of the kitchen and frantically searched out Brianna.

Relief sung through me as I caught sight of her tossing a knife at a fucker running at her.

It plunged into his eye.

And that was the end of that.

He stilled, then dropped hard, dead instantly.

"Can't keep your focus with the pretty princess around, huh?"

I jolted at the sound of Malcolm Lynch's voice and spun to my left.

A fresh wave of adrenaline shot down my spine as I saw him standing there, a gun trained on me.

He grinned wickedly, then fired off a shot at me.

I cursed as it plunged into my chest, the force of it, and at close range too, blowing me off my feet. I grunted as I landed hard on my back.

"Levi!" Brianna screamed at the top of her lungs. " No! Levi!"

Before I could fully process it, he was there standing over me, taking aim at my head.

I saw Brianna running toward me in my peripheral vision.

But she was out of her knives.

And her screaming protests went completely ignored by Lynch who was staring down at me with twisted glee.

"Thought you could best me. Thought you had the balls to fucking well stop me?" He scoffed. "Fucking kid."

The air moved and I saw Kyle suddenly there with a pool cue in his grasp a moment before he swung it at Lynch, ripping him away.

Lynch crashed into the coffee table and the weak-ass glass thing gave way under his weight. He cursed and brought his hand to the side of his face that was now bleeding from Kyle's strike.

"Christ," I breathed.

"Got you," he said.

"Go. Get out of here."

"What?"

"You're done. Thank you."

He hesitated for a moment, looking out at Lynch and seeing Brianna frantically running over to me.

"Appreciate it, Levi."

And with that, he took off, free of this shitshow.

Brianna reached me in the next moment.

"Oh my God! Oh my God, Levi!" she was screaming.

As she skidded to her knees beside me, I caught sight of Lynch staggering away, wiping blood away from his face with the back of his hand.

No!

Brianna's hands were on my hoodie then, pushing it up frantically.

"I'm good," I croaked. "It's okay," I tried to tell her.

But she wasn't having any of it and she accessed my vest.

A choked sigh of major relief escaped her as she saw the bullet embedded there, having been stopped by the vest. Even at close range. It was one of Knightsridge Engineering's ace products. Lightweight and massively resistant.

Getting hit close range still shocked you like a bitch of a thing, though, and I could feel a hell of a deep bruise forming that I'd feel for days.

But none of that mattered.

Especially not right now.

She helped me to my feet. "You're sure you're okay, lovely?"

"Okay enough to function and to put down that motherfucker."

"He's trying to make a run for it."

I sucked in a breath and shoved a hand through my hair, taking a beat.

That was all we had time for, because I heard Lynch's heavy, frantic footsteps all the way down by the elevator.

"Let's go," I told Brianna.

And then we were running out of the room and veering down the corridor.

There was no way he was escaping our wrath.

He was dying here tonight. By our goddamn hands!

Reaching the elevator, he slapped the button to call it.

I smiled when it didn't come right away.

My dad had clearly been on top of it, keeping it down at the bottom for precisely this reason, so Lynch couldn't get away from us.

He spun and I caught sight of something in his hand, concealed for the most part.

And then a sadistic smile played on his lips a moment before he opened his hand.

A motherfucking grenade.

No.

"Oh my God," Brianna breathed.

"Are you fucking crazy?" I yelled over to him.

His lips pulled into a sadistic grin. "You already know the answer to that."

He pulled the pin.

"Go! Go! Go!" I yelled to Brianna, snatching her arm and dragging her with me to the closest stairwell entrance.

I slammed my hands into the emergency exit bar and the door gave way just as the grenade went off, the blast sending us careening down the steps.

The fiery heat and the smell of smoke was the last thing I was aware of before everything went black.