Page 31 of Toxic Devotion
“You wild boy,” Ty said and hit him playfully in the arm.
Ty put his gun on the island counter and took off toward Rome and Marco, leaving Neil cursing under his breath before following.
“I’m Ty.”
Ty thrust his hand toward Marco who had a skeptical look in his eyes as he shook the man’s hand.
“Marco.”
“Does Marco have a last name?”
Marco cocked a brow at him and said, “Does Ty?”
“Touché.”
Neil ran a hand down his face. How had his life come to this?
“So, what’s the plan?” Marco asked.
Ty slung an arm over Marco’s shoulders and talked a mile a minute as he led him to the kitchen island where he showed him the photos before pointing at something on his computer screen.
“Is he gonna be a problem?”
Neil turned his head, gaze meeting Rome’s cautious eyes.
“No. He’s the only person I would ever trust with Marco.”
He and Ty had been through too much bullshit together for either of them to throw away that kind of loyalty. That kind of… friendship.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
The trap wasn’t complicated. It was actually quite simple. All he had to do was show the men following him that he’d spotted them. Then he needed to run. Right into the trap. They would follow because whoever had sent them clearly didn’t want to lose sight of him.
He’d left the apartment almost an hour ago. The others had left before him to put everything in place. It had taken almost ten minutes before he’d caught sight of the men following him. They were good, but he was better.
He stopped at a little coffee cart and bought a cappuccino. He took a sip and began walking again, waiting for the men to get a little closer. He waited until he was in front of a large window display and then he came to a halt, eyes on the reflection that clearly showed the men following across the street. He knew they’d be suspicious if he had too obvious a reaction so he started walking at the same tempo as before, dropping his still mostly full cup of coffee in the nearest trashcan, then slipped down a narrow alleyway he knew would lead them exactly where he wanted them.
He heard a shout behind him, probably someone the men had pushed out of the way because next came running footsteps. He started running too.
He caught sight of the door Ty had ensured was unlocked for him and he pushed through it, running down a hallway that led further into the building. He heard the door slamming against the wall behind him and threw a quick glance over his shoulder. The two men were average height, one with black hair while the other’s was brown. They were both dressed in dark clothes, which wasn’t exactly a surprise.
He ran through the door at the end of the hall and continued until he reached the middle of the room. There he came to a sharp halt and whirled around, Marco stepping up on one side of him, Ty on the other. All three of them had their weapons pulled and when the two men ran into the room, they didn’t have a choice but to either stop and stand down or try to get a shot off before they got riddled with bullets themselves.
Two against three might’ve made them choose the latter option just because they might stand a chance, but then the door shut behind them, Rome stepping in front of it with his gun in one hand and a brow raised.
“Fuck,” the one with brown hair muttered, throwing a glance at the other man.
The man with black hair seemed indecisive, gaze running across them all while his fingers squeezed the handle of the gun he was holding.
“Put them down,” Neil said.
He wasn’t surprised when the man jerked his gun toward him. He never got a shot off before their bullets tore through him.
The other man held his gun out and slowly crouched down to place it on the ground. He stood back up and kicked the gun toward Neil.
“I guess that makes him Dumber and you Dumb,” Ty said and smiled at the man. “Unless, of course, you wanna tell us your name?”
Dumb stared at Ty unblinkingly, his expression completely blank.