Wicked Games by Jarica James

Keir

The moment we were back in the car, Sana broke down. She’d held her head high the entire time but hearing her sob in the backseat, wrapped in Killian’s arms, made me want to murder someone. Eros in particular. Though she was right, she’d more than earned that kill for herself and I intended to present it to her.

But for now our goal was to get her to a new location. The estate would be raided before too long at this rate. Eros seemed to have his hands in every aspect of this territory war and I felt like I was losing my mind trying to track his ass down.

“We’re here,” Ky announced as he pulled into the parking garage under the building. We’d purposefully made sure we picked a building with a blind spot. Eros was watching the security cameras too, which meant our movements were being tracked. Or at least, we assumed he was, and according to Sana it was a sure bet.

“You brought me to a warehouse?” Sana asked. Her voice was hoarse but thankfully her tears had stopped.

“Ouch. You think so little of us?” Killian joked as he helped her crawl out of the car. The parking garage was fairly small, big enough to fit under ten cars, and a singular elevator in the back. It was an old safe house, but we’d been working on fixing it up for this purpose just in case. Having her in our lives meant complications, we knew that, but she was worth it without a single doubt.

“Pay attention to this part,” I told her as we stepped into the elevator. We’d had it made to appear normal, the four floors would take them to abandoned floors, but just above the stop button was a small panel that only opened with pressure, a row of numbered buttons appearing.“It’s 67364.”

Once I hit the code in and closed the panel, the elevator shuddered to life. It protested the entire rise to the fifth floor, the groaning of gears making me a bit nervous, but it worked and that was all that mattered.

“Wouldn’t someone find it by the stairs,” she pointed out. I raised an eyebrow, proud of her for figuring that one out too.

“Actually, no,” Ky answered. “The only accessible staircase is through a heavily secured door in the basement. And there aren't any windows so from the outside it also looks like four floors. It’s a safe house in every sense of the word.”

“Impressive,” she mused as the elevator opened up. An amused laugh bubbled out at the stark contrast from the rest of the building. Up here we’d spared no expense, as per usual, though it was the first time seeing it since we’d commissioned the project. The floors were dark wood that was waxed and shined to perfection. The walls and high ceilings were exposed industrial style but all painted black. Contrasting artwork hung throughout the room. It was a studio, so a large bed rested in the back corner, a kitchen in the middle and living space across from the elevator. Next to the elevator was a security desk with full camera feeds for the interior of the building. The only private room was the bathroom. She’d definitely go crazy up here if we left her too long, but I had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case. Things had heated up significantly.

“We have a meeting with Joe,” I said as Killian dropped her bag on the kitchen island. “Everything is stocked and there are burner phones with our numbers in them. Call from a different one each time.”

“Okay,” she sighed, dropping to the couch. We hesitated, the sight of her looking lost didn’t exactly scream that we should leave her. But we had to protect her, no matter what.

“She’ll be fine. Let’s go,” I said. Ky and Kill glared at me but nodded once, following me to the elevator. She didn’t move, even as the doors were closing and I had a feeling she’d be right there when we got back.

* * *

Otsana

I wasn’t ashamedto admit that I spaced out for a long time after the guys left. But the more I thought about Gabe, the angrier I got. And it wasn’t only at Eros, it was at Dani too. Even if Eros did this on purpose, I could hear her in my head, blaming me for this death too. But something I’d learned since Helena’s death was that in the end, Eros was always the enemy.

Pulling out my phone, I decided to just see if Dani would respond. And If not then I guess it would be therapeutic or something.

Me: Eros killed Gabe. In case you didn't already know.

Her response was immediate and I could read the fury through the answer.

Dani:Why the fuck would I know that?

Me: I don’t know, Dani. It seems you’ve switched alliances. We’ve got footage of you speeding off after the guys shot up your little roadside meeting.

Dani:You don’t know a damn thing about me.

Me:Oh, you know that’s a fucking lie.

Dani: If you already know the answers, why the fuck are you texting me?

Me:I thought you might want to know that Gabe was gone. My mistake for thinking you cared about anyone but yourself. Won’t happen again. Have a nice life.

She didn’t respond, and I didn’t expect her to at that point. I’d said what I wanted to and I got my answer. Something more was going on with her than came off at first. She had never in her life not admitted to something she’d done, she took pride in every decision. So if she outright deflected away from admitting it, then she wasn’t involved. At least not directly.

So what was she doing?

And could I trust her after all this?

I knew the answer was no, I’d never trust her the same way again. But regardless of our personal thoughts on the matter, Dani wasn’t loyal to Eros, so she had a plan. I just hoped we figured it out before she got herself killed too.

* * *

Kyrell

“I wantall eyes on Dani, Eros, and every fucking accomplice they have in this city,” Keir thundered as he slammed into the room, grabbing an empty glass off of the table and chucking it against the far wall. To his credit, Joe didn’t even flinch, he just did as he was asked and pulled up his software to show the feeds.

“I’ve been doing that,” Joe explained. “I’ve got a whole team on it, in fact. They work remotely… I don’t share my space.”

Keir dropped into a seat and Killian and I did the same. This was escalating fast and we didn’t have enough answers for all of our problems. Eros should never have gotten to Gabe, we had him under our protection.

“How did they get him?” I asked flatly. Joe didn’t ask for information, he knew who I was referring to.

“He was inside of a restaurant. Our men parked out front. He stepped out of the side door to take a call and was taken. They didn’t have footage outside, but the inside cameras show him rushing out.”

“I want this dealt with,” Killian said. “Gabe never should have been his play. Eros has no respect and no morals.”

“That much we knew,” Keir countered. “But when it comes to breaking her down, he spares no cost. I’m almost positive it’s no longer about her being his predecessor, it’s deeper. Something about her makes him want to break her completely, force her to give up. It’s all a game for him, yes, but it’s also something more.”

“Maybe he had a thing for her mom and she rejected him, and Sana is like a daily reminder of that,” Killian mused. I could tell it was a joke, but once he said the words they hung in the air, all of us mulling them over to test their validity.

“She died when Sana was a kid,” Keir pointed out, clearly giving the thought some credit.

“Oh god. What if he is Sana’s father? I think we need more details,” I said, all three of us turning to Joe. He let out a sigh but pulled up a search engine.

“Do we know her name?”

“No, but it should be on Sana’s birth certificate,” Killian said, laughing when we both looked at him with surprise. Good ideas weren’t usually his forte and this was two for two.

“Lilliana Priamos, formerly Lilliana Trava,” he read out loud as he clicked through a few sites. “Ah, here is the death certificate. It’s listed as accidental death. A car accident that resulted in her death.”

“For some reason I thought Sana thought she was sick, and she was the last protector Sana had in that house.”

“Well, it looks like abuse. The medical examiner mentions several markers that speak of domestic violence. Bone fractures, scar tissue, even mentions borderline torture. I’m shocked Eros didn’t quiet that one up.”

“He might have tried, playing it off as an ex or childhood trauma. Do you think it was him or the husband?” Keir asked, rubbing a hand along the stubble on his chin.

“I don’t think we’ll find answers, but she’ll have yet another question to ask him when they come face to face again,” I said with a shake of my head. The more I found out about that Family, the more I knew they couldn’t continue to operate. We may not share territory or even states, but they needed to be eradicated. The entire Family was riddled with brutality and lack of morals.

“We need a location for Eros.”

“I’ll keep trying. You'll be the first ones to know,” Joe promised. “Want an update on the rest of the marks?”

We settled in, listening to him flip through the updates on his screen when a loud alarm started going off. Tension clawed at my chest as I watched the report, a group of cars heading right for the estate. We had enough guards to protect the place, but I was damn glad we got Sana out of there.

“Let’s go,” Keir ordered, rushing out of the door. Once we were on the road, I sped through the city and down the side road. The estate looked normal when we arrived, but damage to the gate and the way it stood open had me speeding faster. Lying in the grass were two of our men, gunned down and dumped to the side.

I parked in front of the door and rushed in, Xander and his team rushing the foyer at the sound of the door, guns raised but confusion on their faces.

“What’s going on, Boss?” Xander asked as they lowered their weapons. Something wasn’t adding up here.

“The gate was broken, the guards are dead,” I said, Xander’s eyebrows furrowing at the news.

“They must have used silencers,” he muttered, holding his comm and barking orders. “Report, now! Check the exterior, the interior is secured. Someone get eyes on Angelina.”

We waited in tense silence until Xander grabbed his ear again and confirmed the message, turning to us and holding up his hands.

“Area is secure, no signs of break in or anything else. Angelina is fine in her suite and even outside is quiet.”

“Fuck,” Keir said, turning to us. “It’s a diversion.”

Pulling out my phone I dialed Joe’s number. “Joe, something’s not right. It was a diversion. Get me eyes on the safe house.” We may have picked a blind spot for the city, but it wasn’t blind to us.

“Oh god. Check your phones.” The horror in his voice had mine going cold. He texted a link and it opened to a live feed of our place, the bottom four floors already crawling with men. Sana was upstairs and clearly aware. She had a big, half empty bottle of whiskey in one hand and a rope hanging from one of the pipes dangling in front of her. The way she wobbled on her feet meant she’d already been drinking for a while, and seeing as how we’d been gone for two good hours between driving to Joe’s and having our meeting, then out here, who knows how long they’d been trying to break in.

“What the fuck is she doing?” I asked, panic rising. Flashes of all the times Sana tried to tell us that she wasn’t going back, that her time was short and it wasn’t worth getting into a relationship, it all fell into place. This was her end game all along, wasn’t it?!

“Her final play against Eros. Go!”