I glace at my watch again for the millionth time. It’s nearing four o’clock in the afternoon, and we’re doing nothing but staring at the phone that sits on the table between us. We haven’t left the plane. The crew already refueled and ran a quick check on the plane hours ago when we landed in Miami. The pilots have since gone to eat and come back, relaxing in their lounge until we might call for them again. But we haven’t moved.
We don’t know if we’re going to have to fly elsewhere. Our car is on standby if we have to move to another location. Grayson told us we have unlimited use of his plane and facilities, including the beach house he owns in Miami Beach until we catch Fuckface – the name Logan penned for Steve. He doesn’t deserve to be named, to be given more of a face than what he has already shown us.
I stand up when I can’t take the sitting anymore. So much is running through my mind. I have a feeling that whatever is about to happen, it’s just another battle and not the war. When that finally happens, either two people will come out alive after taking down a madman or none of us live. Either way, before the month is out, this is going to end.
And then there’s Logan. My fucking conflicted, sex-on-a-stick man. I saw it in his eyes last night. When he finally brought me back down to reality, when he finally made me realize that despite the fact of Fuckface getting away so many times, somehow in his claim of me, in his absolute rightful entitlement to my soul, I still saw his hesitation the same time I gained that understanding. We’re both fighting with ourselves, but I’ve finally opened my eyes and given in to my own reluctance.
He’ll let me have him and I’ll let him have me, but it comes with a price. I need to figure out how to tell him that letting me in won’t replace what is in his heart. Truthfully, I know that until he realizes that himself, there’s nothing I can do. And as fucked up as my heart and my mind are, I’ll let him have me in any way possible – however, whenever – if it means that I can be with him. And maybe it’ll convince him that I’m right here, waiting.
“Sit down, Cam. Your pacing is pissing me off.” Logan grumbles in the seat next to mine. He stares attentively out the window, sitting in the deathly silence of the plane. But I can see behind the façade. In his hand sits a pen twirling between his fingers. Every so often, his leg bounces. I notice the little tics that show his nervousness.
I sit to his left, ignoring the empty seat I had just left a few minutes earlier. I take his hand in my own and though he tries to yank it away, I clamp down. I gently rub circles with my thumb, trying to soothe his nerves. I relax somewhat when I feel the slight squeeze.
“It’s five after four, Cam. Why the hell hasn’t he called?”
“He will. He wants something from us, Logan. He’s not about to give up on us now.”
“And what’s that, Cam? Because the only thing that he has, or wants, is Irina and one mistake from us will get her killed.”
“We’re his endgame. We’re the ones he truly wants. We keep foiling his plans; we keep stopping him from attacking more people like he wants. We’re the ones that are coming after him and giving him the attention he needs. Taking Irina is just his way of getting ours.”
“Okay,” he replies, looking at me with a tight smile.
“Okay? That’s it?” I eye him suspiciously. It’s not like him to give in so easily.
“Cam, you’re right – don’t look so smug about it either!” I lift my head a little higher with an upturn of my lips.
The phone on the desk suddenly chirps and any good mood gets swept away. Logan grabs for it, answering with a scowl as he puts it on speakerphone. But not before starting the trace. All we need is a few seconds.
“You’re ten minutes late, asshole.”
“This isn’t your game, Logan, this is mine. I call when I want. Meet me at the address I’m about to text you. Come alone. No one else besides Cameron. How’s his nose, by the way?”
“Mother fucker, you – did he just hang up?” My words are met with a dial tone followed by an incoming text with the address he wants to meet at. My hand reaches for my still sore nose, the bruising nearly gone around it and my eyes. But the mental scars are still fresh; fresher now that he’s brought it up.
“Let’s go. We’ve got a few hours until we have to meet him and I don’t want to waste any more time than necessary. We need to make sure that he doesn’t come and go before we can get him.”
I only nod at the back of Logan’s head as he starts to exit the plane.
The address leads us to a dilapidated warehouse along the shipping ports in a rather unsightly area of Miami. The port seems to be abandoned, a favor to us. With our gear on, weapons loaded, we raise our guns high.
We both start walking the outside perimeter, getting a feel for the exits and the lay of the land. Earpieces on, we tiptoe in opposite directions, our footfalls never making a sound on the gravely ground. It takes a few minutes, but we meet up on the opposite side of the warehouse. Simultaneously, we enter through one of the rusted steel doors. It groans as we open it, not bothering to shut it behind us.
The inside is just as barren as the outside, and in no time, we’ve cased the entire place out. There’s an upstairs but no accessible way to get to it. The stairs have long fallen apart; the wood too rotted even to attempt.
“Three useable exits in plain sight. Luckily there’s two of us and one of him. There’s not much else in the way of getting out. The windows are nailed shut and the other two doors appear to be rusted through and through. No getting out there. If we stand between him and two of the exits and he tries to run, then we have a better shot of capturing him if we can make him go out the only exit we want him to leave through.”
Cameron eye’s the room as I point out all the vulnerable places. Hopefully, this meeting will be quick. The capture even quicker.
“Cam, when this is over –” I start but he jerks his head toward me.
“Shh,” he interrupts, his finger going to his lips. “Hear that?”
I close my eyes, and I hear what he does. The squealing of brakes perks my ears and I force my eyes open. My watch reads six-thirty, half an hour earlier than what he requested.
“Come on, let’s get out through the back door.” Cameron tugs on my arm and I follow him out before Fuckface spots us. We stare through the window as we watch the man limp into the old warehouse. I watch Cam’s face morph into something I’ve only seen a few times in my life – unreserved fury, eerie calmness, and absolute resolve – and as his fists clench and unclench, I watch the battle that plagues his face. He wants this as much as I do. And while it’s hard to admit, maybe he wants it more.
“Cam, you have to calm down. We’ll get him.”
He whips his head toward me. “We need to go in there now.”
“Not until you’re able to keep your cool. We don’t need him running off before we get answers. I have a plan but only if you cool your jets for two fucking seconds.”
“Fine. I’m calm. Tell me.”
“The ladder twenty feet to your right. I have a feeling that the door at the top gets us to the upstairs area. You saw the rafters; they’re sturdy. Steel. You can have an easy view of us, keep watch.”
I watch him shake his head as I speak but he has to. I need his conscious clear. Something tells me that this isn’t going to go as planned and I can’t have him completely breaking down if it goes south. My hands come to his face, framing them as his head slows.
“Cam, please.” He leans in, much like this morning. But the kiss he gives me isn’t chaste, it isn’t rushed, and it certainly doesn’t resemble anything platonic. It’s mind-blowing, soul-crushing, earth-shattering. It’s slow and sweet. Needy laced with a hint of reservation. When we break free, breathing doesn’t come easy.
“Only for you,” he whispers against my parted lips. His words are echoed with a promise I can’t quite bring myself to accept. He turns quickly and heads for the ladder, climbing fast and easily. I turn away and watch the man inside.
The man we’ve come to know as the Judge stands there, squirming and looking uneasy. It’s the first time seeing him where he looks uncomfortable, not the usual determined, assured man we’ve come across in the past.
I look for Cameron but all I see is a door coming to a close above me. I face the man inside once more before I open the door. He jumps at the loud screech but my gaze holds firmly with his startled face. He closes his eyes and shakes his head to regain his composure and when he sees me again, I see the devil staring back.
“Where is the other one?”
“It’s just me. The other one is up to no good.” Hopefully.
“So, tell me, Logan, how is it you figured out who I am? Stay back!” he adds with a roar when I step closer to him. “I don’t need your filth closer to me than you already are.”
I hold my hands up in surrender. “Easy. Your scheduled flights coincided with the club attacks. It wasn’t hard when Irina’s team contacted us.”
“I knew she was more trouble than she was worth.”
“Where is she, Steve?” I lower my hands as I storm over to him. I grab his collar and hold him up against the wall. “Where the fuck is Irina?”
“Such language won’t give you answers, Logan.” He barely gets the last word out before I drop him to his feet and I throw a punch at his jaw.
He has the audacity to laugh at me, his mouth dripping blood from the wound. The maniacal sounds pierce through the empty building until a shot rings down. Steve’s laughing stops, but only for a moment. He clenches his arm where a new source of blood pours. He grits his teeth, spitting out red.
“I thought you were alone!”
“I said he was up to no good. Up.” I bring my forearm against his throat, trapping him against the wall once more.
“Tell me now. Where is she.”
His face starts to turn red the harder I press into him. And as he chokes, I bite out the words again.
“Where, goddamnit! Tell me now before Cameron doesn’t miss.”
“Kill me…and you won’t find her…She’ll be miles in the sky.”
Immediately, my blood boils, but I release him. I let the choking stop before I interrogate further. “What do you mean?”
“See this?” He pulls up his phone and I see Irina walking around, explosives strapped to her chest. “That’s right. Unless I hit the combination every two hours, she goes boom. And I’d very much like to keep her around a little longer. We’ve got plans for her.”
“We?”
“God and I, you foolish man. We have our own mission to accomplish and if you get in the way, more harm will come to those you care about. Now, I’m going to leave here and you’re not going to follow. Because, if I see you, then boom goes the pretty supermodel. Oh, wait. The last I saw; her prettiness was gone.”
I start for him again but he holds his phone up. “Don’t even think about it.”
“What did you do?” I have to restrain myself from grabbing the gun at my hip and aiming it at his head.
“Oh, that would the jagged cut she earned. I believe it goes from cheek to chin. But don’t worry it won’t matter much longer. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe I have a plane to catch.”
I watch him walk out the door but a loud shot rings through the warehouse and Fuckface cries out. I turn to the man hidden in the shadows above me and spot him just to my left.
“Cameron! Don’t! He’s got Irina strapped to a bomb.”
“Don’t worry; I barely grazed his other arm.”
“Get down here, we’ve got a phone call to make.”