Page 65 of The Fortunate Ones
Luca got his phone out first. His eyes widened in horror. “Get away from the body. We need to go, now.”
I was up and Luca was shoving all of us away in seconds. I didn’t need to ask any questions. If Luca said we needed to move, then I moved. I trusted him implicitly.
We were about ten feet away when I heard a clicking sound. One I knew intimately. “Down!” Luca and I screamed at the same time. My body hit the ground roughly, a heavy weight on top of me. I barely had gotten my hands over my head when the deafening sound hit, and Verlice’s body exploded.
CHAPTER 27
DIEGO
I watchedin horror as the events unfolded in front of me. I saw it all on the security cameras and was helpless to stop it. I could only hope that they’d gotten far enough away, that my warning had given them enough time.
We’d done it. Ari and I had managed to get into Crimson Rose’s main servers. We had everything. We could bring the whole organization to its knees. But none of it would matter if my men didn’t survive.
Two of the cameras went black. They must’ve been hit by the explosion. Fuck. Ari was saying something to me, but I could barely hear him, my focus on the visuals I still had as I waited for the smoke to clear, waited to make sure they were okay.
Footsteps pounded down the hall, and then my door burst open. I didn’t turn around, but I knew it was Brooks.
“I heard a boom. What the fuck happened?”
Ari must’ve answered him because he responded with, “Oh my god.” I felt him standing at my back, but I still didn’t turn around. I couldn’t. Not till I knew for sure that everyone was safe.
“Brooks, stay here. I’m going,” Skye snapped. Skye? He was here too?
That brought me to my senses enough to remember the rest of what I’d discovered. “No! It’s a distraction! You need to go to the back gate. They’re coming in. Full fucking artillery. They want to kill us all.”
“Fuck. Brooks, get Matty and Everett. Bring them in here.” My office doubled as a safe room. I could lock down the whole thing and no one could get in. “I’m going out there,” Skye announced, and then both of them were gone before I could say anything, before I could argue they needed to stay here, where it was safe.
“Diego, can you hear me, angel?” I nearly sobbed at Wes’s voice. Someone must’ve had their comms on them.
“Daddy?” I didn’t even care that Ari was here or that there was a chance other people could hear me.
“Yeah, it’s me, angel.”
“Are you okay? Luca? Mav? Leo and the others?”
“We’re all okay, thankfully. A little bruised, and Luca can’t hear out of his left ear, but we’ll be fine, thanks to you. You did it.”
I didn’t do anything. But now wasn’t the time to argue. “You have to go. Skye is heading to the back. That was a distraction. They’re coming in through the utility entrance. They want to kill us all. I-I’m reaching out to anyone on the estate, sending them there.”
“We’re on our way. We need people here though, in case they try to come back this way.”
“Okay. I’ll handle it.” I sucked in a deep breath. I was expecting to be in a full panic attack now, but I was surprisingly calm. “You’re really okay, Wes?”
“Yes, angel. I promise. I’ll see you soon, okay? Keep Everett and Matty safe.”
“We will. I—” My voice cracked on the words, but I forced them through. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Wes didn’t cut the connection, but he turned his attention to getting to the other side of the estate. There was a slight tremor in my hands, but I managed to steady them, focusing on the utility entrance in the back.
We’d found all the correspondence regarding this attack. It had been the leaders of the Crimson Rose, the governing council so to speak, that had taken out Verlice. They’d ordered Everett dead, but Verlice had been obsessed with him and had gone behind their backs and hired Andre and Sven to capture him alive.
That, obviously, had failed spectacularly, and the Crimson Rose was pissed. It looked like they had been fed up with Verlice for quite some time and were ready to cut ties with him. They’d sent their assassins to kill him and then used his body as an explosive to gain entry to our property.
God, we’d almost been too late. If Ari and I hadn’t broken through when we had, there was a chance that they’d all be dead. An image of Wes lying still on the ground, not breathing, came into my mind unbidden. I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t melt down. Not yet. The danger wasn’t gone. I needed to be present.
My office door crashed open again, and in flew Brooks with Matty and Everett. Matty was in full protective mode, his arms wrapped around Everett and his eyes taking in everything. Everett looked shaken. I had no idea what Brooks had told them, but it had been enough to have everyone’s guard up. Brooks closed and locked the door. He had his knife in his good hand and placed himself right in front of the door. I hadn’t initiated the lockdown protocol yet. Once I did, it would be locked for a minimum of five hours and only the fail-safe could open it. It was a last-minute Hail Mary, and we weren’t at that point. They hadn’t breached the property. I would keep the office accessiblein case our men needed to get in until locking it down was our only choice.
