Sebastian

My whole body is strung tight as I start the BMW. I don’t even wait for Calder to fully shut his door before I gun the engine and shoot into traffic, taking off after the car that squealed away in the darkness.

Calder grabs the dash and mutters, “Fucking hell, Bash!” as he pulls his door closed. The second his hand is free, he points ahead, barking, “There! Do you see him? Four cars ahead.”

I shift gears and weave around two cars, gaining on the sports car speeding away. Thankfully the traffic isn’t bumper to bumper, but it’s enough to make keeping a constant eye on the car difficult as more cars merge onto the road from side streets.

I zoom through the next light and Calder jerks a surprised gaze my way. “Where are you going? He just turned down that side street.”

“No, he didn’t. He’s three cars ahead,” I snap.

Calder leans to the side trying to see around the traffic. “That’s the wrong car, Bash.”

“It’s the right one,” I insist, my hands gripping the wheel tight.

“That’s a light blue Mustang. The one we’re after is white.” Frowning, Calder points to the road ahead. “Take that next left and hopefully we can cut him off.”

Frustrated with myself, the wheels squeal as I take a sharp turn and hit the pedal to make up time down the side street.

A Mustang zooms past right as I reach the crossroad, and I immediately turn to follow it. Jamming my foot to the floor, I curse the lack of streetlights on this road.

“Can you read the license plate?” I growl.

Calder leans forward and squints. “It’s nine-nine-six, I think. It’s too dark to make out the letters.”

“The light’s changing ahead. We’ll get the fucker!”

When we’re within a couple car lengths from the Mustang, another car pulls from a a side alleyway, its front end blocking our pursuit of the sports car.

The Mustang blows through the yellow light and I lay on the horn at the girl with a bob haircut and bright red lipstick. She shrugs and flips me off before straightening her car with its unicorn hood ornament in front of mine just as the light turns red.

“Sonofabitch!” I slam my hand against the steering wheel. As I pull my phone out and dial Elijah, Calder kicks off his shoe, then hands me his sock.

“Bind your wound. You’re bleeding all over Den’s car.”

Grunting, I glance down and see I have a gash on the side of my hand that’s bleeding pretty bad. “Fucking hell,” I mutter.

“Come again?” Elijah says.

Calder grabs my phone and puts it on speaker while I wrap his sock around my wound to stop the bleeding. “We need a DMV search.”

I take my phone back and tell Elijah, “Run it for the following: Light blue Mustang, partial New York plate: nine-nine-six.”

“Got it. Any other details?”

“That’s all we—”

“Yeah,” Calder cuts in, sliding a look my way. “It was one of those custom plates with the New York Knicks symbol on it.”

“That’ll narrow it some. I’ll call you back.”

As soon as I hit the End button, Calder says in a quiet tone, “What was that about?”

I can feel my cousin’s gaze drilling into me, but I keep my focus on the road. Folding my hands on the wheel, I wince. Now that the rush of the chase is over, the pain in my hand is kicking in. “What was what about?” I grit through the sting and push on the gas once the light switches to the green position.

“How the hell did you mix up blue and white?”

“They’re both light colors,” I say in a tight tone, hating that my limited vision screwed us over tonight.

“You blanked on the Knicks symbol on the license plate too. It’s not like you to miss details, Bash. Fucking ever. I’ve seen you remember details in the middle of a firefight, but tonight you missed both details.”

I curl my fingers tight on the wheel and welcome the shooting pain. “I’m colorblind, Cald.”

“Since when? I’ve known you since we were teens.”

When I shake my head, his silence makes me tense, but I refuse to look his way. “It happened on my last mission. A bomb went off, I took a hit, and when I woke in the hospital, the only color I could see was red. Otherwise everything is various shades of gray.”

“How long have you been colorblind?”

“Years.”

“How is that possible?” My cousin turns in the seat toward me. “If you can only see in shades of gray, then how in the hell did you defuse that bomb under that MMA ring?”

I cut a look his way. “Talia’s nail clippers weren’t the only tool I used that night.”

“She told you the wire colors?”

Nodding, I roll to a stop at another light. “Be glad Talia listened to her intuition that she needed to be at the fight that night or you and I might not be here.”

“What the fuck, Bash!”

I exhale and roll my shoulders. “I’ll disclose the truth about my sight to the whole BLACK Security team tonight. I’ll never let my visual limitation put anyone I care about in danger again.”

“Goddamnit, if you weren’t driving I’d punch you square in the jaw. I don’t give a rat’s ass about the team right now. I’m pissed that you didn’t tell me. Or was your speech about considering me your brother just bullshit to get me talking?”

“Family always matters,” I grate, glaring at him just as the light turns green.

“Apparently only when it’s convenient for you.”

Surprised by the underlying hurt in his comment, I turn my attention back to the road. “It’s hard enough to admit to myself that I’ll never be in top form again, let alone share that with anyone else.”

“Talia knows.”

“And I’m sure you’ve shared things with Cass that you’ve never told me, but you deserve to know the one area your business partner will fall short, Cald.”

“So we’ll argue about colors. Big fucking deal.” He snorts, waving his hand. “It’s not like we’re a couple of decorators. But the moment you can’t tell the difference between dark and light beer whenever you lose a bet, then we’ll have a problem.”

I grunt, appreciating how much lighter I feel now that Calder knows. “Your prize of choice is safe.”

My chest tightens all over again as I turn onto the road that leads back to the church. I feel for Mina. She’ll be devastated by this. While Isabel’s death is horrifically tragic, the danger her loss represents to the rest of the Blake family is my highest priority. Was Isabel the target? I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t her only enemy; that woman’s tiger stripes were tree-ring deep. But it’s not lost on me that I could’ve been the target. My run in with Banks plays over in my mind as I consider that the limo was marked for Talia and me.

The moment the church comes into view, I’m relieved to see Den looking intimidating as hell as he glares at the two police officers standing in front of him just inside the church doors. And though I would prefer the safer scenario of my whole family behind the church’s main doors, closed and locked, seeing Den flanking Talia’s right and Theo standing between Talia and Cass, while the BLACK Security team not only holds the perimeter, but keeps the news crews away, my mind is eased a little. Talia glances our way, her heart-broken gaze following the BMW’s arrival back on the scene. Even when she’s sad, she’s beautiful. God, I fucking love every bit of her.

What if I had stayed behind to double check security for the wedding tomorrow? The thought that I could’ve lost Talia if she’d driven off in that limo instead of Isabel makes me feel equally violent and nauseous. My siblings, Cass’s parents and Talia’s father are standing farther back in the church’s entryway talking with two uniformed police officers. Now that the fire is doused, several firemen are swarming the wet, charred limo, trying to pry the damaged door off. I glance at Calder as I park in a spot across the street from the spectacle. At least the gawking news people are completely oblivious to our arrival.

“All non-critical BLACK Security assignments go on the back burner until we find the bastard who did this. After I brief the team on a possible lead—”

“You have something other than the Mustang driver?”

I talk over Calder’s interruption. “We need to question the family to see if anything was going on with any of them or Isabel, any kind of threats that we didn’t know about. Then we can assign a security detail to each family member to go with them for the night.”

“We’ll be stretched thin trying to cover everyone on top of our current client base.”

I shake my head. “Two contracts are up in a couple of days. I’m going to request an early release due to exigent circumstances. Any client who reads the news will know the reason why.”

“What lead, Bash?”

“A guy named Banks from Banks’s Boys in my old neighborhood was a bit pissed about a raid the police did on his place and paid me a visit today. He assumed I was behind it, but I thought he was all bluff and bluster. I just want to make sure that’s all it was.”

“Jesus! You could’ve lead with that!”

“It could be nothing,” I say, keeping my tone even.

Shaking his head, Calder stares intently at the crowd. “I know our guys have their hands full right now, but why the hell hasn’t Den at least closed the family in?” My cousin echoes my thoughts as he cranes his neck to see around the crush of people. “Ah, now I see…your dad hasn’t left the steps,” he continues, the heat of anger leaving his tone. “I know Gavin and Damien will deal, but do you think your father and Mina will be okay?”

It’s ironic that the one person who would care the most about the sensationalism the paparazzi will make of tonight’s tragedy isn’t here. Isabel would be beside herself worrying what the rags would print as to why this happened to our family. So long as no one’s reputation is unjustly slandered, I don’t give a damn. “The guys will be fine and my father will most likely bury himself in work. Mina…” Talia’s comment about my sister being stronger than I give her credit for flickers through my mind. “She has us. Come on. It’s time to convince Adam to move inside.” I open the car door, not looking forward to plowing through the paparazzi to get to my family. “I want those damn church doors shut.”