Page 19 of To Curse A Knight

Jonah nodded lazily beside him, fueled with whatever drug he’d taken before arriving at the family compound nestled in the hidden pass between Carlisle and Cascade Falls.

The three of us stood at the warehouse entrance, the open doors letting in frigid mountain air and freezing my skin. Several men and a few women were arming themselves with weapons, ammunition, and protective gear, awaiting their orders to move out.

My orders.

Before I could holler to the swelling crowd, the glaring headlights of a vehicle flooded the space behind us. Despite all the activity, the three us spun on our heels, weapons raised to take out the intruder.

I relaxed only slightly when I saw the familiar black SUV—our father had graced us with his presence tonight. A rarity.

His men stepped out first, the same three as last time with the bald man as his driver. Then Antonio climbed out of the vehicle dressed in black combat fatigues and armed to the teeth.

“El Companeros!” he cried, his breaths causing billows of steam in the chilly night air. “Tonight, we fight!”

Jonah and I exchanged a wary glance as Mical let out a bellowing war cry, as if our father showing up wasn’t an issue.

For him, it probably wasn’t. He thrived on chaos and this development only added to it. I clearly was losing my father’s trust, a dangerous position to be in, heir or not. I’d have to prove myself tonight or risk the consequences.

I counted to ten backwards in my mind as I made my way over to Antonio’s hired help.

“Getting bored at the palace?” I teased lightly as I shook his hand over the din of whoops and hollers behind me.

“I didn’t want to miss the takedown of our enemies,” he replied with a casual smile— his most dangerous. He gripped my wrist and pulled me closer, his steaming breath hot on my cheek. “What is the status of our other enemy? Is he buried yet?”

If he was asking, he already knew. I shook my head gruffly, as if his question annoyed me instead of terrified me.

“I have everything set up to take the heat away from us. This piece”—I nodded around us—“will be the perfect diversion. Billionaires can’t just go missing.”

He tutted a condescendingtskunder his breath while he continued to stare me down. “You plan too much,hijo. Sometimes, we must simply be men of action, yes?” He bared his teeth, the casual smile molding into a vicious sneer. “Be a man of action tonight, Kellan. I am tired of you disappointing me.”

I pulled out of his grasp, swallowed my hatred for the man, and turned to face the waiting crowd. “GPS coordinates are set,” I barked, my fury at my father filtering through my face as if for our enemies. “We hit them hard and fast. Kill shots for anyone about to kill you. We need a few alive, so incapacitate where possible.”

“Cut off their hands!” Mical shouted maniacally in the background to a myriad of hoots and enthusiastic screams. I ignored him and continued.

“Once everyone is incapacitated, get out of there. No witnesses, no stragglers. Get the fuck out of dodge, and do not come back here until one of us”—I nodded to my brothers, leaving out our latest Carlos guest—“reaches out to you. Drop the vehicles to the Cascade Falls black site and then get home as soon as possible.Capisce?”

Our trained soldiers immediately piled into the waiting black Jeeps, Mical and Jonah joining them. I stayed back until all the other vehicles were driving down the dirt road before turning to my father. “Are you driving with me?”

“I’ll drive on my own, but I want the prisoners brought to my site.” His hard stare was non-negotiable. He waved a hand toward the three stoic bodyguards still standing silently beside us. “My men will do the interrogating this time around.”

Dipping my head in acknowledgment, I headed to my own Jeep and took off down the road, determined to get to the site before everyone else, using the alternate route I’d programmed into my GPS. It should shave off five minutes or so. I needed to be there first to see what we were dealing with, and give Trish a head’s up we were taking out the trash tonight.

She was going to be pissed I’d given her so little notice, but our twenty-something year history would grant me some slack.

I arrived as I’d predicted and parked the vehicle off to the side of the road between two brick buildings at just the right distance. I staked out the scene before sending off a cryptic text to my mentor.

The building was nondescript at first glance—just a regular, metal-clad square box with a single light post outside to light up the front garage bay. We’d already scoped out the building using drone footage and two foot soldiers, so I knew where the four hidden security cameras were installed above the entry points and cover behind the building.

I hadn’t told Mical or Jonah about my secret weapon; a powerful signal jammer Hillary’s hacker had built for me. I’d hired her to do the job as a one-off, but now I knew the scope of her skill set, I’d be hiring her for more, but I didn’t need my brothers getting their hands on another tool to make them more dangerous.

I always used a security jammer when I had to show up to take-downs in person—but nothing as good as Blackbird’s hardware. It was the only way I could minimize the evidence of my involvement with Cartel business to keep tiptoeing on the FBI’s tightrope.

Hearing the rumble of our entourage in the distance, I set up the jammer and hit the red button. Climbing out of the vehicle, I pulled on my face mask and tightened my gun belt.

Black-clad trained killers nodded as they marched past me to the building beyond. Exhaling my unrelenting sense of foreboding, I followed our makeshift army into the fray.

The next hour flew by in a flurry of bloodshed. My brothers led the charge with me close behind, covering for their recklessness while they ripped through the building of trained killers like unbridled cowboys.

One quick fucker, a heavily scarred man with a shaved head, got through their formation and shoved a sawed-off shotgun into my face. My knife ripped through his spleen before he pulled the trigger, and he fell to the ground with a piercing scream of agony.

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