Page 129 of Deadfall

He looked like he was trying to decide how he felt about Octavius being dead, which was curious.

My brow furrowed. “What are you doing here?”

“I tracked you. We need to move—Mahoney will have this place in lockdown with that flashing,” Angel gestured to the tablet. “We have about two minutes before movement is nearly impossible.”

“Do you trust him?” Emersyn muttered.

I grunted in response. He’d helped us out in the maze and hadn’t batted an eye when Marcello had been killed. He’d proven he was on our side up until this point—but after finding out we’d had a mole in my crew for going on three years, most of my trust was gone. Not to mention, Angel had been suspiciously absent for the last twenty-four hours.

Angel pressed his lips together when he observed our still skeptical looks.

“I’ll explain—after we leave this room,” he said impatiently. “She just killed one of the brothers. That’s going to draw unwanted attention.”

I exchanged looks with Seven. He shrugged and held up the tablet.

“Either way, Rune’s ready to chat.”

“Alright, let’s go,” I said.

“No,” Emersyn said.

I turned back to her. “No?”

“I need to kill Mahoney,” she stated.

“Yes, but not right now,” I said.

“This is the best chance I have,” Emersyn insisted.

I stepped closer to her. “We do not have the manpower for this—”

She flashed me a cocky smirk. “Yeah, you’re right, you don’t have the manpower.” She mocked the word with heavy sarcasm and an irritated look.

“That’s not what I meant—”

She waved away my words. “Let me find him and dispatch him real quick, and then we can leave.”

“We can’t risk it.” I took a deep breath in an attempt at patience.

“Well, I don’t really care,” she scoffed. “I’m going to do it, just tell me where to meet you.”

“That’s not how this works,” I growled.

She smiled again, obviously enjoying my irritation. “It’s not how you work, you mean. Tough—I want Mahoney dead.”

“And I said no. Don’t make me drag you out of here—”

“Oh, I’d love to see that,” Emersyn scoffed. “Mr. I-Won’t-Touch-You—”

“Can we argue about this maybe somewhere a little more ideal?” Angel protested.

Seven came over and gestured to her dress. “Not that I wouldn’t love to see you kill someone in that, gorgeous—” He bit his lip like he was thinking about it. “But, we are vastly outnumbered, have very little firepower and probably only have a small window for exfil. Besides, don’t you want to savor Mahoney’s death? Really make it matter? Especially because he’s been fucking with your dad for awhile.” Seven shook his head. “I’m just saying, North will definitely want a piece of him too.”

Emersyn frowned, but I could see Seven’s words had sunk in.

She sighed and strode past us. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Seven gave me an exasperated look like that’s how you do it, and I scowled at him. Angel led the way into the hallway and we hurried through the estate. At the end of the wing, Angel herded us into a utility room.