“I barely know Beckham,” I say of the sudden new addition to this mission, if that’s what you want to call my life at present. “I’ve worked with him once before tonight. That’s not enough for me to say I trust him.”
“He tells me you saved his life overseas. He says he owes you. Let him pay you back tonight. And as for trust. You trust me. That’s not a question. I trust him. And you, asshole, you are not getting out of this van and ending up in a jail cell where Waters will have you murdered.”
I draw in a breath and lower my hand from the door. “If anything happens to her—”
“It won’t,” Blake states. “We won’t let her get hurt.”
I inhale and huddle behind Lucifer again, watching the feed on his screen as Logan walks through the restaurant and sits down across from Pri. I’m remotely aware of Blake squatting next to Lucifer, but I’m not focused on him. I’m focused on Pri. I’m not pleased with the view. I can’t make out her facial expressions. “Can you get closer?”
“No,” he says. “Camera placement is off.”
“That’s why we have a man at a table to her left and right,” Blake states.
Lucifer holds up a finger and listens a minute, before eyeing me and Blake. “She just told him to go fuck himself,” Lucifer says, lifting a hand in our direction and tapping his headphones. “Paraphrasing, of course,” he adds, “but that’s what she wanted to say. He sat down, told her he was there at her parents’ request and that they wanted her to drop the case. She said no.”
“And now she’s getting up,” I say, “She’s leaving.”
My relief is short-lived as Lucifer expands the view and homes in on a bald man near the entrance of the restaurant. The same man we’d seen visit Pri’s father via Blake hacking their security footage. A man we believe works for Waters. Adam steps between Pri and the bald man and closes in on the bald man. Pri smartly halts and turns on her heel, fleeing toward the bar area in the rear of the restaurant.
“The bathroom is to the side of the bar,” Lucifer says. “If we’re lucky, and she’s as smart as I think she is, she’s about to lock herself inside the bathroom and stay there until we come for her.”
“That’s exactly what she’ll do,” I say, confident Pri is indeed smart and better yet, she has common sense, but she needs backup. Adam’s now distracted. And distract and then attack is exactly how Waters operates. “Where the hell is Beckham?”
Lucifer shifts the view, and Beckham, who is at a table on the opposite side of the restaurant from Adam, is standing, about to make a move when a waiter holding a tray of food literally trips and falls into him. Distract and attack, I think. “That was no accident,” I say.
Blake must agree because he says, “I’m going in,” moving toward the door, but pointing at me. “Stay here or I swear I’ll kill you for them.” He exits the van and shuts me back inside with Lucifer.
It takes all the discipline I own not to follow him. But damn it to hell, he’s right about the risk of me being arrested. It’s not an accident that Logan is here and Logan is the one who helped trump up an arrest warrant against me for killing my brother. And he did so for one reason: to get me in jail and kill me before I can testify against Waters, the King Devil.
This could be a trap.
It most likely is a trap.
One Pri’s parents helped set, even if done so indirectly and unintentionally, or at least her father did. He’s the one who acts like yet another King Devil and treats Pri like a servant.
And I thought my brother was a bastard.
We’d already be on a plane out of this city and to someplace safer, but Pri was worried about her family. She’s here to convince her parents to go into hiding. And what does she get in exchange for her concern? This shit.
I force my gaze back to the camera and watch Pri disappear behind the bar into a hallway. All should be well except for one thing: Logan follows her.
“Fuck,” I curse, scrubbing a hand through my hair. “That’s it. I don’t trust that bastard. I’m going to get her.” I head for the door.
“You’re an idiot,” Lucifer snaps as I slide the door open. “At least use the rear exit door in the alley which protects you from the cameras, but that’s about all. This is a trap, Adrian. Someone is waiting on you back there.”
“Let’s hope it’s Deleon,” I say of Waters’ right-hand man, who also plays the role of assassin. “I deserve a second chance to wipe him off the face of the earth.”