Page 55 of Dangerous Promises

I clear my throat as I sling my gun over my shoulder.

"Two should take the back," Freddie says. "The others go through the front."

Sage shuffles nervously in the background, looking at her pistol like the weight of it hurts her hand. She freezes up when there's a gun in her hand. Something she didn't do before all this. It's a weakness I could one day exploit to play with her.

It's no fun otherwise, without a little game. Not when the prey is this weak.

"We should swap pairs. One Rushkoff, one DeMarco. So we know there's no double-cross planned," Sage says.

A laugh escapes my throat.

"Paranoid much?" I say, advancing on her until her pretty face is tilted up towards me in a way that looks like it hurts her neck. "I'm happy to pair up with you, princess."

She smirks back at me. And I realize this was her plan all along. Try to take me out while I'm distracted with Chet. Stupid. But hey, I won't pass up an opportunity.

"Absolutely not," Freddie says.

"Agreed," Isla says, sharing a knowing look with Fallon before she looks back at me. "Sage and I will go together. Alexei go with Freddie."

Damn.

The door of the shop lets out a jingle when we step through. It wasn't even hard to open, run down and abandoned like it is. I step through first, more aware of Fallon than I ever have been as he steps through behind me and broken glass crunches underneath our shoes.

Fallon isn't someone I know how to work with, or even really trust at all. A reminder to watch my back and my front when I'm working my way through this building.

With flashlights up and guns at the ready, we work our way through the shop. Fallon is instantly attracted to the shiny things, going to the back of the store to check out the shelves and empty vases.

I choose to go over the perimeter. There's a very clear path that is followed through this building and I see it when I round the counter to look through the back.

"Fallon," I say. He immediately drops the vase, leaving it to fall and crash against the floor with a ridiculous bang. I roll my eyes and point down at the floor. He nods when he sees it too, raising his gun. The front clearly hasn't been touched, but the back of the shop is clean, without dust, and a trail of worn flooring that leads towards a staircase.

We crowd together in the doorway.

"Up or down?" I ask.

Freddie shrugs. "Same odds either way. Let's go down."

I tap my shoe against the wood, stepping carefully, as each stair feels vulnerable underfoot and unkempt enough to break at any second. Fallon follows closely behind. It doesn't escape my notice that we are both well practiced enough to not make a single sound on descent.

He pushes open the first door to an empty room.

Shrugging, he gestures to me to open the door behind me. It's tight but I push it open with a bang, sending dust flying into the air.

This room is certainly not empty. While it's empty of people, it's still full of surprises. Ones I don't love that Fallon is seeing.

"Wow," Freddie says, lowering his gun as he pushes past me to look around. "This is a lot."

My teeth grind as I take in what I'm seeing. My temper wants to run free, but there's also the squeeze of panic clawing up my chest. Instinct tells me to smash this all down before anyone else can see it, but I'm frozen to the spot.

There's two couches set up across from each other. A coffee table holding remnants of the last people to meet here. Worst though, papers stocked with intel spatter around the room. Intel on me. Intel on my people. But also intel on Sage and the rest of the DeMarcos. I recognize the layout of their estate on the blueprints.

Freddie spots it too, picking it up and flicking through the papers that are with it. "I imagine this would've been helpful in attacking our estate," Freddie says, kicking the chair. "No wonder they could get to us so easily."

"Dammit, Vic," I mutter under my breath.

I feel my body cooling. Anger fading away from me as deep sadness takes its place.

Everything in this room screams my brother. There's vodka glasses that it looks like he didn't fully finish. Red couches that I swear I can still see him sitting in. If I take a deep breath, I can still smell his cologne in the air.