Page 106 of Reaper Flame

“I assume you were responsible for our security breach?” Bryce said, referencing the guard bleeding out upstairs.

I looked straight past him to see West and Mieko loitering by the bar. She caught my eye and shook her head, a quick movement only I detected. Damn it! They hadn’t seen Hiram either. The big man’s eyes darted around the room, and his fists clenched by his sides. He was losing patience.

Mieko’s hand tightened around her purse as she registered who we were talking to. Her eyes locked on Bryce’s back. We may not have found Hiram, but we had another mission to complete.

“Candy!” Bryce acknowledged me. “I didn’t realize you’d be bringing company. Have you come to give me a gift?”

I ignored him as my stare scanned the space. A mirror propped up behind the bar reflected a familiar face in the crowd.

“We need to go.” I grabbed Zander’s arm and turned around. “Now!”

“What did my father mean—”

Explanations could wait. I was in hunter mode. I’d caught a whiff of my prey, and everything else had fallen into insignificance. All of my focus was on a man at the opposite side of the dance pit.

“Him!” I pointed at the man who hadn’t moved from his position. “He’s with Hiram.”

I’d recognize his pock-marked face anywhere. He was one of Hiram’s sadistic security guards. The misogynistic rat-faced bastard would soon regret leering at me in a wedding dress. If he was around, Hiram wouldn’t be far.

Zander’s shoulders tensed. He saw him before I did. The devil came into view, flanked by three of his most devout followers through the throng of bodies. He’d have more guards, but taking out those three would be a good start. We weren’t the only ones staring, though. Hiram’s eyes seared into mine. He raised his hand, and a sick smile spread over his twisted face. He was expecting me. We were so fucking close that I could almost smell his blood.

I dropped Zander’s arm and started charging forward. As I ran, a surge of people rushed towards us. There were too many of them! They forced us further from our destination. Zander wouldn’t let that stop us. He started throwing punches and flooring anyone in our way, but it was an impossible task. For everyone we took down, the tsunami of people kept coming. Why had this suddenly become the perfect spot for a fucking mosh pit?

The hairs on my arms stood on end as a guttural roar ripped through the air.

West.

My hypnotic focus lapsed, making me spin around. West towered above the crowd because of his height. A storm brewed around him. He was right in the center of a brawl. Fury blurred his features as he pummeled into everyone in touching distance like a human bulldozer. They kept coming at him, descending like a pack of rabid wolves.

“Mieko!” I turned to Zander in panic. “What about Mieko?”

A few moments ago, she’d been next to him. I craned my neck to see, but it was no use. Meiko was short, and everyone was so densely packed in that I couldn’t see through the gaps in between elbows and throwing punches. Had she slipped away before the fight began?

“We need to keep going,” Zander insisted, pulling me after him. “This is our chance. This is the plan!”

We couldn’t move. Everyone was out for blood. Fights were breaking out all over, and people kept shoving in our direction with no sign of stopping. At least fifty people stood between us and the spot where Hiram was. We’d lost sight of him in all of the commotion. Had he already made his escape?

The shouts of the crowds grew deafening. I swerved to avoid getting a fist in my face and kneed the offender in the balls, causing him to double over. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of a blade in the hands of a junkie who was blindly slashing at anyone in sight. West could hold his own in any fight, but a group of high and violent thugs were unpredictable.

We had a choice to make.

“Zander!” I yelled in his ear. “We need to go back!”

I lost my reasoning ability with the Blackbird, but it gave me renewed clarity. I wanted Hiram dead, but if I had to choose between killing him now and keeping West alive, I’d pick West every fucking time. I couldn’t stand by and watch him have his kidneys carved out!

“But—”

“We can’t lose anyone else!” I interrupted.

For all we knew, Hiram may already be on his way out of town. In which case, pounding our way through flesh would be useless. We had to focus on what we could control: getting everyone out alive.

Zander delivered a jaw-shattering blow to a stranger on his left to take out his frustration. A gold tooth flew out of the victim’s mouth, which someone else snatched up, and the two of them wrestled for it.

Zander knew I was right. This wasn’t how any of us wanted the night to unfold but we made an agreement that we needed to honor.

We were all going in and all coming out together.

A man dropped to the floor in front of us, and Rocky appeared behind him.

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