Consumed (Blood Ties Book 9)

BANG!

I flinched, my knees trembling as I drooped in the doorway. Vivienne’s eyes widened as I whispered. “We have a way in…we have a way in to Hale.”

The thud of heavy footsteps sounded behind me and for a minute, I didn’t want to turn for fear of who I’d find holding the gun. But I didn’t need to look because movement came from the corner of my eye as the bodyguard headed straight for the man he was loyal to…Lazarus Rossi.

The Stidda Mafia leader looked savage. His blue eyes were vibrant and cruel, cutting almost, as he met my stare. There wasn’t a flicker of compassion in that glare, just a pitiless, unforgiving look before he turned away.

“Trouble.” Riven stopped at my side.

He lowered his hand, his fingers caressing my arm quieting and comforting. “I’m sorry.”

I swallowed the pain, blinked away the tears, and forced my voice louder. “He said a private airport.”

“What?” Anna lifted her head from the keyboard.

Her fingers were still moving, punching in codes that raced across the screen as next to her London’s IT man, Harper, did the same.

“He said, there’s a warehouse next to a private airport.”

Anna shook her head, then punched in a few new commands and lifted her stare to the screen in front of them. “This is all the points we’ve tracked where the tunnels lead to so far.”

I froze, my focus on the map displayed with a mess of red dots. There were just too many of them. Too many to count, let alone search. It was like a needle in a haystack. Where could we start?

“Private airfields should be listed, but not always, especially when you’re dealing with someone like Hale. If he can get access to the government military bases, then he can hide a damn airfield…somewhere out there is the warehouse we need.” She stared at the mess of red dots like we all did. “There has to be another map, another plan somewhere.”

“The map,” Thomas murmured as he turned to Kane. “The one we took from Coulter’s study.”

“You mean the one we almost died for?” Kane’s eyebrow rose.

“I have that.” Hunter stepped forward, pulling his cell from his pocket. “It’s a digital copy. What’s your email address and I’ll send it.”

Anna gave him the details, hovering over her keyboard before she hit the button and displayed the map on the screen. I’d looked at that more times than I could count, we all had scoured over every inch of it. Part was topographical, the other was a layout of a building…but what building, we’d had no way of knowing.

There’s a door. At the northeast side of the warehouse that’s not far from the private airfield. The door is small, you’d miss it really. You get in that door and it’ll take you straight down a hallway to where Hale’s private quarters are.

The Son’s words came back to me. “It’s a warehouse, Hale’s warehouse.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“That right there looks like a navigation code.” Anna zeroed in on a faint number that was printed in the corner of the map. One so faint, you’d easily miss it. In fact, we had missed it, all of us.

Anna focused in and sharpened the numbers before glancing at Harper. But he was already on it, punching in the details, and all of a sudden, the map of the red points from the tunnel narrowed down to three…

Three little red dots, all of them so close they were almost on top of each other.

“Gotcha.” Harper muttered.

An icy feeling rushed through me. He was there…hiding behind a single door in a massive warehouse. The screen changed, pulling up a satellite view. We stared down at…nothing.

“There’s nothing there.” Nick snapped.

Anna shook her head, confusion and panic pushing into her stare. “It’s there…it’s right there.”

“Maybe it’s gone.” Fin looked at his wife.

“Gone? How can a building that size just up and disappear?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.” He stared at the screen. “But it’s not there.”

“It is.” She sat forward, typing in more commands.

The view narrowed in, moving toward the private hangar and the closed gates. But the moment the camera swung back, there was…something.

“Wait,” London snapped, striding forward. “Move back.”

Anna glanced his way, then shifted the camera back the way it’d come.

“Did you see that?” He glanced around the room. “Do it again, only slower.”

She did, panning the camera over very slowly this time, until the air shimmered. It was gone in an instant.

“Holy shit.” Came a mutter somewhere behind us as Anna tried again, only this time, stopping mid-motion and revealing a towering building that had somehow blended in with the environment, leaving it completely hidden.

“Jesus Christ.” Nick snapped. “What the fuck is that?”

It was Hell, that’s what it was.

“That’s some high-tech shit right there,” Harper muttered beside Anna.

“If that’s the outside, I can’t imagine what the inside is like.” Fin shook his head.

He looked scared now. We all looked scared.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Lazarus glanced at his man. “Looks like we have our target.”

“Gotcha,” London growled, stepping closer until he was right in front of the screen. “You piece of fucking shit.”

Movement came, slow at first, until the room was a flurry of movement. Calls were made, a lot of calls. I turned around, finding Riven first, then Hunter, Thomas, and Kane. They all waited, dodging towering armed men as they hauled bags over their shoulders and grabbed their guns. We had enough men to form a small militia, armed to the teeth, savage in their hunger.

It was our hunger too. But my men sidestepped those leaving and headed my way.

“We stay together.” Riven ordered, glancing around at everyone else. “Because we have no idea what we’re in for.”

They all looked at me. I knew exactly what they were thinking…more like remembering. The tunnels under Coulter’s mansion were one thing. But what Hale and Melanie had done to us at that place would haunt me forever.

“We stay together,” I whispered as a shiver raced through me.

Hunter grabbed his pack and heaved it over his shoulder. “Then let’s get that motherfucker once and for all.”

We all followed, allowing Hunter to lead the way as we made our way out to the front of the Salvatore house. They were all waiting, standing outside four-wheel drives and military trucks, ready to invade.

“The Son told me how to get in,” I said as we headed toward the Explorer. In the corner of my eye, the driver’s door was opened and one of the soldiers climbed in behind the wheel. “He told me the small door to the⁠—”

BOOM!

I was lifted off my feet and thrown backwards. Air was all I felt, rushing against my face before the sudden bone-crushing impact as I hit the ground. Agony roared through me, stealing my air and my thoughts. Screams came a second later, before the deafening sound of gunfire and the ear-splitting yell from one of the men as he bellowed. “We’re under attack!”