Page 65 of Broken Surrender
I issued new orders to the guards, then got in my car, driving myself to Shin & Co Inc. But then I slammed on the brakes.
If the Marked Blooms Syndicate’s security was still guarding the place, like Dalton had requested, then there was no way I could get past them. It was suicide.
I flipped a u-turn and immediately headed to the Bloom Estate. The estate manager led me through the house to a private study. Bloom stood, smoothing his shirt.
“Apologies for my recurring lack of announcements,” I said, shaking his hand.
“Mr. Callen,” Bloom said. His belly jiggled. My phone buzzed again; I glanced at it: she was getting closer to the headquarters. But a second notification meant she was okay for now. “What can I do for you?”
“My final offering,” I said. “I will sacrifice Floyd Vaughn.”
“Interesting.” Bloom leaned forward. “Mr. Vaughn… Is he of value to you?”
Was his life valuable to me? “In a way, yes,” I said. I wanted to kill him more than anyone in the world, and giving him up to the Marked Blooms Syndicate would drive me insane. I hadn’t gotten to kill John, and to add Floyd on top of that? It was a sacrifice, but not the kind that the Syndicate had intended. “Call off your security.”
Bloom studied me, tapping his desk. “Unfortunately, as you have not completed the third test, we cannot give you any support. Until you bring back Vaughn as an offering to the masquerades, there’s simply nothing we can do.”
“I could bring Vaughn if you called off your soldiers.”
“That may be the case, but—”
“What about the masquerade?” a woman’s voice interrupted us. In the doorway, Zira shook the blond hair out of her face and put a hand on her hip. “It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Callen.”
“Same to—”
My phone buzzed in my pocket again. My heart rate spiked. What was Vaughn going to do to Lena?
“Is everything all right, Mr. Callen?” Bloom asked. I swiped to the GPS tracking.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice low. “I—” My phone buzzed again, this time, an unknown number flashing on the screen. “I’ve got to take this.” I stepped into the hallway, answering the phone.
“Is that you, Callen?” that grating, mellow voice asked.
I clenched my fists. “Vaughn.”
“We found this little device in your girl’s pocket.” My blood throbbed; what had he done to Lena? “Figured I’d use it to let you know we have her.”
“If you so much as lay a hand on her, I’ll—”
“What? Kill me?” he asked. “Go ahead. You’ve been failing to kill me for years now.”
I clenched my jaw together so hard that I tasted blood in my mouth. The anger came out, ripping through me. I growled, “What do you want, Vaughn?”
“Bring your sister to me, and I’ll let your mistress go.”
I kept my voice low: “Give me Lena, and I won’t destroy Shin & Co Inc.”
“You think I care about the company?” he laughed. “It’s already gone. But Mr. Shin would enjoy seeing how the Eros is working on Lena. Corinne would be a better test subject, though.”
My blood boiled. “I’m going to murder you,” I said.
“Not unless I kill you first.”
I hung up. When I swung back around, Zira was staring up at me. “Is everything all right?” she asked.
“Lena has been taken hostage,” I said, trying to keep my tone even and measured.
“Dalton’s wife?” She held her chest, then bowed her head to her father. “The soldiers need a break, don’t you think?”
