Swallow (Kindred Book 2) (33 page)

“I’m tired of your lies! And you need to be taught a lesson,” Grant said. “You lied to me about your association with this Neanderthal, you betrayed me just to get into his bed. You hid your connection to him, hid your love.” Being a CEO, his ego was healthy and he was used to people sucking up to him. He was also used to being on the inside, making the decisions, and it was obvious he couldn’t handle that power being taken away from him. “Get over there beside him!”

Grant’s fury fogged his intention, but she didn’t trust his stability. Neither did Brodie. Because as soon as she reached his side, he twisted his body to put her behind him. She didn’t fight or shun his protection. She just wished that she could offer him the same security. Staying a few feet behind him, she edged out enough that she could see Grant glaring at them with disgust.

Brodie had figured it out, that Grant could never have accepted her back into his life after she chose her love over her boss. This had been a ruse from the beginning, only this time, she was the victim of the subterfuge. “You directed them to me,” she said, realizing what had happened at Purdy’s during the assault. “You were with me and you signaled them, didn’t you? They didn’t pull me up because of my phone. You told them I’d be there with you and that I should be singled out. Why did you do that?”

“To draw him out,” Grant said, pointing at Brodie. “Because of Art, he’d gone too deep for us to reach. I wanted him out in the open. After the murders of my people, Sutcliffe called me, told me I could make it right. He wanted Game Time and he wanted Raven, which suited me. I wanted both of you punished.”

“So you set it up to look like I’d screwed Raven over to break us up? That was your master plan?” She struggled to see the committed and harmless man she’d worked with for five years. Losing his guardian, Frank, had taken its toll on him. But her betrayal, her affiliation with Brodie, somehow that screwed him up more.

“The plan was to kill him, but Sutcliffe was okay with punishing you both first. It was your sordid affair that caused us to lose Game Time.”

Brodie had killed the cult leader and spared his brother. Her love didn’t hesitate to do the job while others were dicking around having their own fun. “Neither of you banked on him pulling the trigger first,” she said.

Grant wasn’t defeated. “Ultimately did me a favor,” he said. “I wanted him and Sutcliffe dead, so I could take over here.”

“Why?” she asked. “How could you hate your own brother so much? He was protecting people.”

“Because he took what didn’t belong to him!” Grant exclaimed with an ire that made his eyes water. “Just like he always does. He’s so entitled, he storms in and steals whatever the hell he wants, and doesn’t give a damn about the damage he causes.”

Rigor was seated on the floor on the other side of Tuck, but the man with him was lifeless. Tuck and Brodie blocked her from harm, and didn’t appear to be effected by Grant’s words, but Zara was dumbfounded. She had never seen Grant so emotional. She had no idea he cared so much about Game Time.

Brodie revealed that Grant’s emotion wasn’t connected to the device. Her protecting wall of a man inhaled. “You wanted her,” he sneered. “We always knew it.”

“I had her! She was mine,” Grant insisted.

Zara wasn’t a toy in the sandbox that they were fighting over. She was a person. She and Grant had never been romantically involved, not even close. But she had been his employee for half a decade. He’d confided in her, trusted her with everything professional. She had a relationship with Frank Mitchell before he died too. She had been part of the CI machine, an intrinsic part. Being Grant’s executive assistant had given her power in the firm and she’d enjoyed wielding it, she liked being valued by him and being indispensable. Then Brodie had come along and shot it all to pieces.

She didn’t blame Brodie. He had been trying to save lives, just like Art was, and they’d convinced her of that so thoroughly that she hadn’t considered backing Grant’s side. Now she could see how that devastating betrayal affected him more than she ever could have projected it would.

Brodie, Art, and her were a unit working against him and that had only pushed him closer to Sutcliffe. Whatever the cult’s ideology, Zara had a feeling it didn’t matter. Grant was broken. He wanted to lash out and punish those who had humiliated him. This wasn’t about getting revenge for Sutcliffe. This was about Grant getting his revenge.

Grant had set this up from the start and somehow convinced Sutcliffe to go along with it. There was no need to have such an elaborate plot for Sutcliffe to get revenge on her or to acquire Game Time. Grant wanted to turn her and Brodie against each other. He wanted to see her ousted by the man she’d fallen in love with after Grant convinced his brother that she was a double agent. Grant hadn’t considered the fact that Brodie returned that love, or that he would trust her, despite his brother’s assertions.

Grant had once told her of how Brodie was incapable of love, how he used people and cast them aside. Grant had believed his own words and concluded that it would be easy to eviscerate her and Brodie’s relationship.

As the puzzle came together, words slipped out of her. “You didn’t think he could love me,” she whispered and with one step, she began the journey toward her lover’s side. “You thought he’d cast me out. Maybe you thought he’d kill me. You didn’t for one second consider that he and I might talk to each other. That he might give me the benefit of the doubt… You didn’t think he could love me.”

“He can’t,” Grant spat, and his expression grew more hateful. “When he’s finished with you, he’ll turn his back on you.”

Sliding a hand up Brodie’s back, she received no acknowledgement from her love, but she didn’t need one. “He’s never turned his back on anyone. His loyalty is absolute. You said it yourself, when you tried to badmouth his father, he defended the man. You’ve turned your back on everyone. You chose not to honor your mother’s wishes, you chose Frank when she wanted you with Art. You disrespected Art by belittling and ignoring the lessons he could’ve taught you.

“When your younger brother didn’t bow and capitulate, you chose to ridicule and ostracize him. You know that Frank wouldn’t agree with the path you’ve chosen since his death, so you don’t even honor his memory… Then there’s me.” Exhaling, she inched closer against Brodie until his body supported her weight, but she kept her eyes on Grant, resting her cheek on Brodie’s upper arm.

“What about you?” Grant asked.

“I disagreed with you. I had the audacity to tell you that what you were doing was wrong. You ignored me. Tried to cajole me. And carried on anyway, even when I said no to you. It’s funny, now that I think about it… I love Raven because… he’s the exact opposite of everything you are. I used to admire you. But beyond the fancy suit and the shiny car, you’re more broken than all of us. You just refuse to admit it. You’re broken, Grant, and you’ve shunned anyone who might have the inclination to help you.”

“She did the right thing joining us,” Brodie said. “You were gonna hurt innocent people, Saint.”

“You shut up!” Grant screamed and his arm sagged an inch while he frowned at his brother. “You took everything from me, took Zara, made her lie to me, you took Art, and today, you took Sutcliffe and everything he built.”

Finding the bunker empty must have been another knock to his presumptive ego. He thought he was winning, going higher, then Brodie and his crew proved to be one step ahead. “We can talk about this,” she said, stepping away from Brodie and lifting her hands to try to calm Grant. “Please, you don’t have to—”

His anger strengthened his gun arm. “I won’t be made a fool of again,” Grant said, and regained some composure. “But I am reasonable.”

She didn’t trust the humor in his voice and glanced at Brodie, but he was watching his brother. “Reasonable?” she asked, willing to do almost anything at this point.

“I will allow one of you to live and I’ll let you decide which.”

That didn’t leave much room for negotiation and the burn of tears made it harder for her to breathe. Standing here, so close to the man she loved, caught in the web created by her boss, a man she’d once trusted, made her chest constrict. If he expected to cause more conflict between them and have them turn on each other, he wouldn’t be satisfied.

Groveling wasn’t beneath her. She’d do anything to save their lives. “Please,” she said, willing to beg for mercy. Art’s death had proved just how quickly one curl of a finger around a trigger could steal life. Panic fueled her desperation. “I’ll never see him again. I swear to you. We’ll walk out of here and I will never see him or talk to him. I won’t have any contact, I promise.”

She’d rather know that Brodie was alive without her than dead because he loved her too much to let her go. Giving her life for his would be an easy choice for her to make. But after witnessing the torment he suffered at losing Art, she couldn’t burden him with the loss of her life too. He’d have no one to bring him back from that.

Her pleas received no answer from the bully before them. Her love snubbed her appeal and took control. “Put a bullet in me,” Brodie said and she shrieked.

“No! No, please, Grant!”

“Don’t have much to live for if I don’t got my girl, do I?” Brodie said. He remained tense with his eyes trained on his brother and she wished he would turn and look at her because if he did, she might be able to get through to him. Losing his parents and Art, coupled with his previous assertions that he wasn’t good for her, Zara couldn’t exclude the possibility that Brodie would welcome death.

“Beau—“

“Quiet,” he said and didn’t flinch.

Caine was just inside the door and was watching the events like they were a theatre performance. He leaned back against the doorframe and a smile bent his lips. “This is fucking good entertainment.”

“Murder isn’t in his blood,” Tuck said and looked at her before turning to Grant. But his words weren’t reassuring when Grant was the only one holding a weapon. She searched the floor and saw that there were other guns scattered around, her hope was snatched when Tuck caught her looking. “They’re all empty. He’s the only one with a clip left. The coward hid and used everyone else as shields.”

Human shields. The man she’d worked alongside for five years was a monster. “Oh my God,” she breathed.

“If murder is in his blood then it’s in mine,” Grant snarled. Brodie’s form vibrated with taut fortitude. “Get over here or I’ll shoot him.” Grant swung his aim to Tuck. “Then I’ll shoot her.” He moved the gun past Brodie and onto her.

Tuck stepped up. “By the time the round hits me, Rave will have that weapon from your hand and if he won’t put a bullet between your eyes, I’ll do it,” he said.

Usually she would guess it wasn’t a good idea to tell the guy with the gun the plan. But Grant was enough of a coward that the warning might prevent him from shooting. She didn’t want Tuck to sacrifice himself either, she wanted them all to walk out of here alive, but that was looking decreasingly likely.

“Good thing I have backup,” Grant said. “Ben?”

Up until now, Benedict Leatt had stayed quiet in his position behind and to the right of Grant. Now he reached behind him and produced a gun, a reserve weapon that no one had known was there.

“Ben,” she pleaded as tears cascaded down her face. “Please, don’t do this. Why would you follow Grant? You barely know him!”

Grant scoffed. “Wasn’t so difficult to convince him your lover was the one who murdered Sutcliffe when he found out he killed Tim too.”

That was one truth they couldn’t refute, not when Sutcliffe would have pinned Tim’s murder on the enigmatic Raven too. Ben knew her friend had shot Tim, he hadn’t known that friend was also her lover.

“Come over here,” Grant said and Brodie took a step.

“No!” she cried out and grabbed Brodie’s arm. Grant could only want him closer to shoot point blank. Grant wouldn’t want to risk aiming wrong, he wanted to look in his brother’s eyes as he delivered the death shot.

Twisting toward her, Brodie turned his back to Grant to curl his hand around the back of her neck. “Close your eyes, baby. Let me go and turn your back. You don’t need to watch this.”

She shook her head fast and more tears coated her cheeks. “I won’t let you go. Without you I... I can’t breathe.”

“You follow orders, Swallow,” he said but his severity didn’t compel her to comply.

Digging her nails in deeper, she couldn’t release him. “I love you,” she said, drowning in his determination because this wasn’t a decision she could support.

“You’ll be taken care of,” he said and as he peeled her fingers from his flesh, he glanced to Tuck.

Putting her hand into Tuck’s, Brodie began to back off and Tuck took her shoulders to turn her away. She sobbed as she lost her view of Brodie. Tuck pulled her downward and she was happy to collapse into a crouch while he held her. Before she could drag in a breath, the distinctive bang of a gunshot made her scream.

A body hit the floor. She whirled up and around, rushing forward at the same time, and came up short against the solid barrier of Brodie’s back. He wasn’t dead. Relief lightened her body, but it didn’t slow her tears. Lifting his arm, Brodie curled it back to snag her body to haul it against his and it was then that she saw the body on the floor: Grant.

“Oh my God,” she gasped and hid her face against Brodie who was squeezing her tight.