As I put my hand on the door handle, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I jumped at the sound, and grabbed for it quickly, praying that it hadn’t alerted anyone to my whereabouts. I twisted away from the door, hoping that whoever was inside didn’t take a look out the window and spot my shadow lurking by the door. Who the fuck was texting me at this time of the evening, anyway? Well, my signal was bad in the city, maybe it was just some stupid service provider text that hadn’t bothered to make itself known until now. I clicked on the message to open it, and my stomach dropped to my shoes as I took a look at what was in front of me.
“Shit,” I hissed through my teeth. This night just got better and better. It was a picture, sent from a number I didn’t recognize, of Sabrina and Lily bound to chairs I recognized as the ones in the dining room of the apartment. I had to fight the urge to kick the door in right there and then and deal with whoever was sending me these photos, but I knew that wouldn’t achieve anything. No, if I wanted to get them out alive, I would need to be a little sneakier about this. I didn’t know who was in there, but I had a feeling that it was Saffron. Leo had a twisted sense of humor, and it would be just like him to send my ex to take out the woman I loved.
Loved. I was frozen by the word in my brain. It had been a long time since I had thought that about anyone, let alone acknowledged it. I tried to shake it from my brain, knowing that I had more important things to worry about at that moment in time. I couldn’t get stuck on the fact that I was falling for Sabrina, and hard. I scurried back down to the car as quickly and as quietly as I could, hoping my training would have kicked in and reminded me to move as silently as I could.
My mind raced as I got back to the car. Why did they send someone out here? Was the plan to take out me, and then Sabrina and Lily? Was Sabrina’s friend just collateral damage, or was this all planned out this way as Lily co-ran the restaurant? If they intended to kill the two of them, why send me a picture of them all tied up, knowing I would come after them? Shit, and if they were texting me, that meant that they probably knew I was alive too. That I had escaped the wreck that killed Taylor. I closed my eyes and pressed my head up against the wheel for a second, trying to still my brain and failing. I didn’t know why this was happening; I just knew that it was happening and that I had to put a stop to it as quickly as I could.
I looked up at the house again. Squinting, I could see that it wasn’t in darkness as I had initially assumed, but rather lit by the dim red light of the emergency back-up system. Okay, so whoever was in there had cut the lights out, and that’s why I hadn’t been alerted by the alarm system going off. Whoever was doing this obviously wasn’t an idiot - they had done it before. Broken into houses, held hostages, hunted people down. So they’d been at this for a while. This must have been Leo’s backup plan in case Taylor failed to take me out. Hell, maybe he’d been counting on me finishing Taylor off and tying up another loose end for him, I had no idea. All I could think about was the fact that I needed to save Sabrina, and I didn’t know how I was meant to do it without kicking that door in and blasting the place apart.
And then, it hit me. Yes… when I’d first moved in… they’d been installing the security systems, and one of the guys working on the project had made some flippant, offhand remark about how far I was going with this. What, you expecting to be fighting off a lot of bad guys? I had replied with a cock-eyed yes, not expecting anything to come of it, and then to my surprise, he’d suggested something. A little extra, something they didn’t normally do for their clients. It was probably overkill, he warned me, but it could come in handy if I couldn’t get into the house but needed to neutralize the people inside. I had considered turning it down, but at that point, I had the money to pay for anything I wanted. Why would I have passed up the chance for another piece of ridiculous over-the-topness in my life?
I got out of the car and made my way back up to the house, but this time, instead of approaching the door, I slipped off down a tight side passage that ran along the length of the building. It was the kind of thing you wouldn’t look twice at if you were making your way into the apartment, the kind of place you had to know was there to find it. But it led down a back passage and a few steps to a door with fingerprint recognition. I pressed my palm against the relevant pad, held my breath, and listened for the soft “click” within. I’d had it specifically set up so that it wouldn’t attract any attention if I needed to use it. I had pictured James-Bond-esque situations where I’d need to take out scores of enemy hostiles who’d somehow infiltrated the house, not a backup for when I needed to take down whoever was in there along with the woman I loved and the woman she loved most in the world. I pressed on the door, praying it wouldn’t creak, and slipped inside the tiny control room.
As soon as I was in there, I felt my heart beat faster against my ribs. Did I really want to do this? I didn’t know how bad it could be - bad enough to take down whoever was in there, obviously, but what if it did Sabrina or Lily some serious harm too? What if they turned out to be allergic or some shit, and wound up dying on me just when I’d been trying to save them? I placed my hand on the lever, then drew it back again. I took a deep breath. I never thought I’d have to use this, but now I wish I’d tested it out before hand to see just how much damage it could do. But there was no time for recriminations, no time to back out - this was the only way I could guarantee to take down whoever was inside without kicking that door in myself. I didn’t know what they were armed with or what their temperament was like. What if they started firing and wound up hitting one of the women I’d promised to take care of? No, there was no option for me here - I had to do this.
I gripped the lever, and with an almighty shove, pushed it into the “on” position.