He walked back inside, but I stood there a long time, struggling with my ghosts and demons.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
killian
“Declan Thompson has a penthouse in the Gramercy building. It’s got pretty decent security, but there are holes. He has a dedicated elevator, but it locks when it reaches the top, calling it down will alert them we’re there. But there’s a maintenance elevator that goes to the floor just under his. We take that, disable it, climb up a floor and enter using the maintenance hatch.” Damian pointed on the blueprints. “We enter here. There’s a security station manned twenty-four seven by two guards. We take them out, then Mic becomes our eyes and ears.”
Killian didn’t know how Damian did it, but the man was efficient. It was almost an art form.
“So, we have the in, but how do we know he’s going to be there?” Razor asked.
“Because he thinks he’s meeting with Dominic Medici, the man he’s been laundering money for,” Anton offered.
“Alright then,” Razor said.
Brock looked around the room. “You don’t owe me shit.”
“Not doing it for you. A brother calls in a marker, we answer,” Damian said.
Brock’s focus swung to Killian. He knew what the younger man was thinking; he’d owe him, and he would. Killian knew exactly what he wanted from him, but that was for later.
Brock nodded and looked around the room. “Regardless, you’ve got my marker.”
“Fair enough,” Anton said. “Dominic has agreed to let the dust settle, see what shakes out.” Then he asked Brock, “Did you really steal twenty million that someone else stole from Dominic?”
“Yeah. I earned it.”
Anton shook his head but he grinned. “That takes balls.”
“When you got nothing left to lose…” Brock said. A sentiment many in the room could appreciate.
“Alright, so we take Declan’s army and then what?” Matthew asked.
Brock curled his fists. “Then I ask him a few questions.”
They were moving out, weapons were loaded, equipment packed in the black SUVs parked behind the gym. Killian found Cedar in the kitchen with some of the women. She saw him, moved from her place at the counter where she was helping prepare food, and crossed the room to him. He walked her from the kitchen to a dark corner.
“Guy and Donnelly will be here.”
She looked across the room to the men in question, nodded her head before her wide, fearful eyes came back to him. He cradled her face. “It’s going to be okay.”
“You’ve done this before in your agent days, but this is all new to me, so I’m going freak out.”
He grinned.
“Come back to me,” she whispered.
“Always.”
As much as he hated it, he stepped back when Brock approached. Her eyes turned to him, before she stepped into him and hugged him hard. “Be safe,” she whispered.
Brock’s focus turned to Killian as he held Cedar close. “Will do.”
Killian was a patient man, but he was losing his patience. Brock touched her cheek, grinned then walked away. She watched Brock before she turned back to Killian. He saw the tears in her eyes. She stepped into him, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Her lips lingered against his. “I love you, Sheriff.”
He kissed her again, longer, harder and deeper. “Love you, too.”
Then he walked away, right out the door. They needed to get this shit done because he had plans for that woman.
There was silence as they drove through Midtown. They parked in the shadows, and moved through them to the back door, leading to the maintenance halls. Two figures stood in the shadows. Killian had seen enough drug deals to know what they were doing, but it worked in their favor, because those two wouldn’t report suspicious activity without shining a light on their own, being where they shouldn’t be. The elevator opened, Mic was the last in, putting the cone in front of it, before the door closed. A musical version of Islands in the Stream played as fifteen men in black rode to the top. Mic pulled the card from the elevator to disable it. They climbed up the shaft to the top floor, entering through the maintenance hatch. Damian signaled to Razor and Mic, who moved soundlessly to the security box. A few minutes later, Razor’s voice came over the radio. “Secure.”
Mic pulled the body from the monitoring station and took the chair. Razor kept guard. “Got two monitors down, looks like the one for the front hall and the elevator. They know we’re coming, probably waiting to ambush at the elevators,” Mic warned then said, “Got two in the kitchen. Another two in the living room.”
“You got one coming around the corner, Brock.” Brock, pressed up against the wall, grabbed the guard around the neck and ran his blade across his throat. He then moved into the kitchen, grabbed the bottle on the counter and knocked one over the head, and threw his knife, catching the other in the chest.
Killian took the guard closest to the door in the living room, putting him in a chokehold until he passed out. Anton followed behind him, taking his blade to the second guard.
Who had warned them?
They moved through the penthouse, picking off the guards, making their way to the front hall. Damian signaled. They took positions and then all hell broke loose.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cedar
My stomach hadn’t stopped churning. I tried to sketch, tried to play with the kids, but I couldn’t focus. I paced the living room, working my lower lip, holding my phone, waiting for Killian to call.
“What’s your story?” Piper asked.
I turned to find the other women looking at me.
“Your sheriff reminds me of Damian,” Kimber said. “But I saw how that biker was looking at you.”
“Leave her alone, girls,” Rosalie, Thea’s mom, said, and
