Silently, Nathan followed behind his wife admiring how fucking insane she was.
“Call your leader and tell him or her that we are willing to meet him or her at the S.O. building. We can make it there in ten minutes if we leave now.” When she noticed no man moved, she stopped walking, turned on her heel, and stared at them with a blank expression while crossing her arms over her chest.
Dead silence. Nobody moved, and nobody spoke for what seemed like an eternity. It was Cole that broke the silence when he came to stand near Carter and Nathan. He glanced at Nathan before turning his attention to Carter.
Sighing, he shook his head with an expression of disgust on his face. “I didn’t believe it when everyone said it, but it’s true.” He reached to the man next to him and took a gun from his him. “You are just like Silas. A fucking lunatic …”
“Is that right?” she asked softly.
Cole nodded. “Yes, caterpillar.” He released a long breath. “Sadly, our dear father is king no more. I’m working for a stronger man now, a man that possesses true power. You can’t beat us beautiful.”
Nathan should have known it’d happen the moment the motherfucker called his wife beautiful, but he still stared wide-eyed at what came next.
Reaching forward, Cole took a strand of Carter’s wet hair and ran it between his fingers. Was the action what one might consider simple? Maybe … Did Nathan give a fuck though? Hell no.
“Perhaps I can convince the boss to let you live after we use you to draw out Silas,” Cole said to her softly. “You can be my toy. It will be the second time I save your pathetic life …” With his other hand he brought the gun up and aimed it at Nathan’s head without even looking in his direction. “When I say I want a man dead, caterpillar, I mean it.” He pulled the trigger, not even a second after he said the words.
The moment Cole pulled the trigger was the moment Nathan’s world slowed … literally slowed completely down. It was as if he were watching every one of her movements in slow motion. If he hadn’t been looking at her, he would have missed the generous gift she’d given him.
Carter’s hand shot forward, knocking Cole’s arm to the side and sending the bullet from his gun breezing right past Nathan’s head. Cole stumbled and dropped the gun, nearly falling when Carter delivered a right then left hook to his face right before she pushed him in Nathan’s direction.
Nathan’s hand shot up without a thought. Now wrapped around Cole’s throat, his grip tightened until he felt Cole’s veins pressing against his palm. Adrenalin pulsed rapidly through Nathan’s veins as he watched the man fight for breath. Cole fought, scratched, and pulled at Nathan’s hand, but his efforts were worthless. Nathan didn’t budge.
Carter came next to him and placed a knife in his free hand. Nathan didn’t know where she had gotten the weapon, but he was thankful for it. The sound, feel, everything about the moment he pierced Cole Steele’s stomach with a knife was thrilling. Cole screamed as loud as he could manage with Nathan’s hand wrapped around his throat. Unaffected by the man’s cries, Nathan dragged the knife upward, watching the veins in Cole’s now red face nearly burst out of his forehead. Nathan loosened the hold on his neck as blood began to sputter from his mouth. Soon the life left Cole’s eyes and he released his hold, letting the body fall to the ground.
The silence surrounding him allowed him to hear his own heavy breaths. It always took a second for him to calm back down after such a significant kill, but because he knew they were pressed for time he pulled himself together quickly. He looked up at the many armed men now staring at him in silent interest; some with smiles, and some with blank expressions.
Nathan lifted his blood-covered hands. “Does anyone have a towel?”
Chapter 32: His father’s son
Nathan didn’t understand the Steele clan, but he was pretty sure he understood why the motherfuckers were so feared. They just came off … well, Nathan didn’t know how to explain it, not even in his mind. However, had he met them before going to war with them, he’d have thought twice before fucking with them. Yes, he would have ended up going to war with them still, but he would have at least been aware of the fact that he was going to war with some … very strange individuals. They did things that weren’t normal; such as blindly following a woman they didn’t even know. Even though it was because Carter was the closest thing to Silas they’d get, it was still odd.
Nathan and the men followed behind his crazy wife. Once they made it to the door, Nathan went ahead of her and used the emergency code to open the door. He was more than sure it was the reason why Carter had chosen for them to meet at the Salerno Building. Once the emergency code was entered, Nathan’s father would be alerted that something was wrong at S.O. and he would come with the reinforcements they needed to stop the inevitable face-off with a rebellious bunch of bastards. As usual, Carter was a genius. When Nathan had told her to take leadership of the Steele Clan, he hadn’t known it’d be this easy.
Everything was a little
too easy
for comfort, and Nathan was now waiting for the big shock. The thing that would knock them off of their feet and obliterate all of their plans. Something told him he wouldn’t have to wait long.
Once the light switched red, Nathan opened the door, allowing Carter to walk in first. He admired how well put together she was despite everything they’d been through tonight. The dinner party, the shooting, the car crash, nearly drowning, the battle on the bridge, and the encounter with her perverted brother would have shaken a lesser woman, but not Carter. Even dressed in a damp, oversized dress shirt, with shoeless feet and tangled hair, she appeared unaffected by the events of the evening.
Nathan quickly fell in to step next to her, sensing the need to because she was speeding up. “Carterina,” he whispered after her.
She didn’t slow down. “We need to figure this out or we’re dead, Nathan” she said in low voice, never once glancing in his direction. “These men are dead. Whoever orchestrated this attack is going to kill them. He won’t be happy we’re here. I chose this place; he’ll know they obeyed me because I’m Silas’s daughter. I need to think. Just being Silas’s daughter isn’t enough. They’d still shoot us with their leader here …”
He frowned. “Wait, I thought it was Aziz that—”
“Did you not hear what Cole said about his new leader, Nathan? He wouldn’t have spoken of Aziz that way. He would have just said Aziz’s name. Did you use the code?”
“Of course I did.”
“How long do you think it’ll take them to get here?”
“I don’t know. Ten or fifteen minutes.”
“Shit!” she whispered sharply with a fearful look on her face. Her eyes glossed with tears. “God, Nathan. We won’t be alive in five minutes … It’s probably a fucking army. We can’t fight them all before they inevitably kill us. Our kids, bubby, we’re parents. Aleksandr and Maksim shouldn’t have to grow up without their mother and father.”
Nathan sped up to keep pace with her and placed a hand on her back. “Baby, I’ll figure this out, I promise. We’re not dying here—”
“No, we’re not …” She swallowed her emotions and her expression once again became impassive. “We need to figure out something. We need to stall.”
Nathan’s face wore an expression of confusion. “But how?”
“Exactly. But how? By any means necessary …”
What?
Nathan didn’t get it.
Sometimes Carter really scares me.
The moment they neared the reception desk they both turned to face the Steele men behind them. Neither Nathan nor Carter had any clue what the hell they were going to do now that the plan they’d had was pretty much shot to shit. Now their only option was to wait and see who the hell was running this operation, and pray that Angelo showed up soon.
Abruptly, various unrecognizable men walked through the revolving doors into the massive lobby of the Salerno Organization. Only seconds after entering they raised their guns and killed every one of the men that had arrived with Nathan and Carter, just as she had predicted they would. Nathan peeked over at Carter while the murder took place. He’d expected her to at least grab on to his arm or grab him, urging him to run and hide behind something, but she didn’t move. She stood still while her eyes darted back and forth and her brows furrowed into a frown.
She had something, Nathan knew it. That was her, ‘Don’t mess with me, I’m putting something together’ face.
As soon as the shooting stopped all guns were aimed at them. Carter placed a hand on Nathan’s wrist and took a step in front of him.
“Trust me,” she whispered to him in Russian.
Reluctantly, Nathan nodded his head. He didn’t know exactly what it was she planned to do, but knowing Carter it would be something that would most likely push him closer to a heart attack.
“You would betray the man that has given you everything?” she asked the army of men in front of her.
No one responded.
“What will all of you say to him when he sees what you’ve done? You are all traitorous men—”
“We are not the traitors!” a man standing in front of the others shouted.
Nathan guessed he was from Germany, just like the Steeles they’d attacked a while back. The man lowered his gun and took a step forward.
“Your father has deserted us, leaving us with only the wages that he felt we earned. After all that we’ve done for him. After all we’ve given up to be a part of his vision—”
“You haven’t given up shit,” Carter said calmly, silencing the man. She took a menacing step toward him. “You had nothing until he gave you something. Had Silas not welcomed each and every one of you into
his vision
you’d have nothing to be pissed off about. You’re an ungrateful piece of shit. You can’t fight for what doesn’t belong to you.”
“But he said—”
Holding up her hand to once again stop him, Carter shook her head. “I don’t want to hear what he said back then. I want you to tell me
what he’d say now
, knowing of this betrayal. What would Silas say to you?”
This time, a different man spoke up. “He’d say many things. And then he’d say nothing. Silas will no longer love us for what we’ve done,” he muttered with his eyes to the ground and a frown on his face. “He will consider this treason and will execute us all …”
“Shut the fuck up, Zuri,” the first man yelled again. “Silas has already shown how much we mean to him by leaving. Our loyalty is to Roe now.”
The man called Zuri stepped forward, shaking his head and looking at the others behind him. “What were we thinking?”
“I mean it. Stop this talk before Roe hears you, and gives you the same punishment he gave them.” He pointed to the dead men on the floor. “The instructions were simple. Never listen to the fucking girl … she lies. She is a manipulator just like Anastacia Stone!”
Zuri pointed a shaky finger at Carter. “That is Cecilia fucking Steele, Zeek! Cecilia! Silas’s daughter. We were a part of a plot to assassinate Silas’s offspring. Do you not remember what he did to the Stone family? He wiped them out without our help. We didn’t even know he’d done it until he returned to Germany.”
“And your point is?”
“He did it for them; that’s my point!”
Nathan and Carter didn’t say a word. It seemed the man’s fear was beginning to spread throughout the small army of men.
“When it comes to Anastacia Stone and the children they created Silas couldn’t care less about us. I tried to tell you this before you convinced us to listen to Roe. We will all die, Zeek. We cannot beat him—”
“We can, and we will …” a familiar deep, heavily French-accented voice said from behind the men.
Heavy footsteps could be heard as the man responsible for the evenings events came forward, walking through the army of men.
“Silas has taken too much from us all. And now, it is time for our revenge. I will get his life, and they will receive what is owed to them …”
Nathan and Carter stood as still as a statue, staring in shock as the man speaking made his way to the front of the small army.
“Un-fucking-believable,” Carter whispered. “Impossible …”
“How?” Nathan asked in disbelief. “I saw you die.”
Nathan replayed the ambush on the bridge over and over in his head. Shadow Walker had been killed, so how was it that the man was standing in front of him now?
“You thought you saw me die, but you saw nothing. You shielded your wife like any strong man would.” He smiled. “You two weren’t supposed to survive the shooting, but just like always, you both survived and you’re still in love. Because I admire your love, and because I truly care for both of you, I will do you the courtesy of killing you together. Neither of you will have to live second on this earth without each other. I wish not to cause you heartbreak, just to finally have what is afforded to me for the pain I have suffered at Silas’s hands.”
“How could you do this, Shadow?”
“My name is Roe, dear girl.”
“I don’t care what your name is,” she snapped. “You work for my mother. How could you betray her like this? She loved you.”
He came forward, but stopped when Nathan tugged on her arm so that she was standing behind him. He raised his hands. “I mean her no harm, Nathan.”
“You take one more step toward my wife and I’ll break your neck.”