called Finn--who stared back, his dark eyes unreadable.
"Lady, you just fucked up my night."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gareth Woods really was well and truly terrified.
From the trees at the edge of the property, Dallas watched the house through a pair of zoom lenses and listened to Bren's report. "Looks like Fleming cleared out pretty good. Most of the guards left seem to have come with Woods. Cruz and I can go in, work together, kill the ones from Eden, neutralize the ones from Five."
Maybe not the most satisfying approach, but Fleming wouldn't appreciate having his guards murdered, and Woods was less likely to slip through Dallas's fingers if his guards died quick, silent deaths. "Anyone from Two?"
"One driver. No guards."
And no sign of Cerys. Hard to say if that was good or bad, but it did simplify things. "Take Cruz and get as many as you can out of the way without being seen."
"Got it." Bren dropped his rifle, checked the pistols in his holsters, and drew a knife from his boot. "Give us a lead. Two, three minutes."
Dallas watched the two men disappear, following them with his gaze as he spoke to Jasper. "You ready to put this bastard down?" Easier to ask the question without having to look the man in the eyes. Something fragile had almost snapped between them, something that had been strained for a while. Jasper was a man of divided loyalties now, and the person who held his heart might cheerfully sink a knife into Dallas's.
"Would've thought you'd be more excited." Jas knelt beside him and lifted his own binoculars. "This is what you wanted, right? Gareth Woods's blood?"
"Sure it is." It had been his obsession for damn near a month, but he'd hardly thought about it from the moment he'd wrapped that collar around Lex's throat. Hell, he hadn't even worked up half the excitement he should have over getting his hands on Three. Sending Bren to do recon, recruiting new members when a little extra legwork could have resulted in more money...
Lazy. He'd been lazy, because he wanted to keep his ass in bed, preferably with Lex under him. Or riding him.
If he hadn't been so hot to blow a hole in Woods's brain, Lex might be under him right now. So he had to make this the highlight of his goddamn year.
A branch snapped behind them. Jasper spun, already drawing his hunting knife as the foliage parted.
A bleary, red-eyed Dylan Jordan held up both hands. "I surrender."
Jas sheathed his blade. "You almost got hurt there, Doc."
"Almost." The man snorted out a laugh. "Only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, isn't that what they used to say?"
Dallas groaned and rubbed his thumb and forefinger over his eyes. Whatever pills the man popped like candy didn't do a damn thing to fix the fact that he was fucknuts crazy. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Both of his eyebrows shot up. "Lex told me to meet her. When I saw you over here, I figured you were in on it."
"Lex told you to meet her here?" Dallas echoed, his brain struggling to process the words.
His body moved.
Dodging Jasper's attempt to grab him, he snatched up a gun and jammed it under Doc's chin, adrenaline and fear graying out the edges of the world. "How long ago? How fucking long ago?"
He didn't flinch. "This afternoon. She said it was a pickup--a girl who needed help to detox."
Which meant she'd known almost as long as he had, and had made her own choices about what to do with the information. Just imagining what that choice was likely to be--
Dallas bit off a curse as he shoved Doc to the side and whirled to snarl at Jasper, who was blocking his path. "I will go through you."
"No, you won't." Jas glanced at his watch. "Not for thirty more seconds."
Thirty seconds of knowing Lex was trapped inside with a monster and his guards. Thirty seconds of wondering what she'd had to sacrifice to get there, what she'd endured because Dallas hadn't found a way to finish this bastard off weeks ago.
Thirty seconds of rage that she would willingly walk into a trap he'd helped to set, knowing it could spring shut on her. Christ, they were in Sector Five. How many ways could Fleming administer drugs? They could be in the water, in the food, in the fucking air.
"I'm going to strangle her," he growled, shaking with the effort it took to restrain himself. Raising an alarm could get her