Page 24 of Kneel for Me

“Can he be trusted?” Jaxon asked.

“Yeah,” Adrian told him. “He was one of the only people Ivan let near me after our plane crash. He nursed me back to health. He’s trustworthy.”

“I’ll take your word for it, brother,” Jaxon said. “Be safe. I’ll let you know when we’re headed out and when we make it.”

With that, he hung up. Adrian looked over at me, a lust for blood glimmering in his eyes. My cock hardened at the sight of it.

There you are,kotik.Let the beast out to play.

“Ready to remind these mother fuckers of who you are?” I asked as Mark began to pull open my door.

Adrian nodded. “Let’s spill some fucking blood.”

20

Adrian

It was eerie to walk inside the home I’d spent the past twenty years in being so empty. There were no kids squealing and playing. No nannies rushing after the little ones. No members of the security team going here or there in a rush to follow someone’s orders or get to their next guarding shift.

It was so… silent. Eerily so.

Even Mrs. Judy, the woman who had been Darren and James’s nanny growing up, was missing, but she’d probably been instructed to go somewhere and hunker down until all of this was over. Or maybe she was at the hospital with the family. I hadn’t thought to ask after her, but I also wasn’t very close to her.

“This isn’t right,” I said quietly. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I sent a message off to Jaxon.

Adrian:

Where is our security team?

“Yeah,” Ivan agreed in a murmur, crossing his arms over his chest as he came to stand beside me. “Even though your family is at the hospital, where is your security personnel?”

I pushed my phone into my pocket and headed for the kitchen while I waited on Jaxon to reply since I wanted to see the scene for myself. With how empty the house was, I doubted anyone had cleaned it up. “That’s what I want to know. This place should never be unguarded, but there was no one at the door, no one at the gate, and there’s no one inside these walls.”

I stopped at the door to the kitchen, the smell of bleach bleeding through the closed door. Growling, I shoved it open, then stared at the pristine floors while I breathed in the overwhelming scent of bleach.

No one was in the fucking house, but someone had taken the time to clean this room up, more than likely to cover their own tracks. A glance at the camera in the corner showed it was busted, so it wouldn’t be recording anything else until it was replaced.

“Well, someone came to cover their tracks,” Ivan mused, looking around the room with a blank, bored expression on his face.

“Too fucking bad I already have their identity,” I growled, turning on my heel and heading for the stairs. Ivan was close on my heels as we ascended the staircase. When I pushed open my office door, I found everything just as I had left it, and I blew out a sigh of relief. If someone had come and fucked with my office, I might have blown the lid on my cool. Ihatedpeople fucking around in my personal space.

Ivan began to slowly prowl around my office, taking in my space as I sat behind my desk and booted up my laptop. Once it was on and I was logged in, I headed for my email, then opened up the encrypted file Jaxon sent me while we were in the car. Once it downloaded, I opened the PDF file, instantly locking onto Crane’s information.

Crane Westbrooke was twenty-four years old and had just recently been promoted to Captain by none other than James after much praise from his captain and Jaxon himself. On paper, the man was dedicated and loyal to the family.

Too bad it had all been a front because he was definitely a capable soldier and an asset to the family. His only other address besides his quarters here was his mother’s apartment over in Brooklyn. My phone vibrated just as I stood from my chair, ready to go pay his mother a visit. It was the most logical place to search for him first.

Men who were raised by their single mothers usually had a tie to them they couldn’t fathom breaking. And if that were true of Crane, it would be his downfall.

Slipping my phone from my pocket, I read Jaxon’s text.

Jaxon:

I ordered everyone but those I trust explicitly away from the house. There are still guards present. You just won’t see them, so long as they do their jobs correctly. But they have eyes on you.

Adrian:

Good.

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