The Six | A Reverse Harem Novel | ✔️

Forty Six

“Don’t let her watch.”

Four words, and my life changed again far too fast. Four words, and I lost another one of my best friends, my lovers, my rocks. Four words, and I hated everything I’d ever created.

The results of the image retrieval were worse than I thought, but I was right. I’d seen the man hovering over the Astrom Bridge in the helicopter before. However, it was in the most unlikely of places.

While Charlie, Chris, Hayden, Michael and I stood around a counter in the Hawthorne Laboratory reviewing the results, Iris brought us more unnerving data. His name was William Lacour. Despite never seeing his face in person, I knew his work and his trademark. He was a brilliant strategist. A dangerously perfect combination of cunning and ruthlessness needed to help a run an underworld empire.

He did so next to Jasper Hendrix. Charlie’s face reddened immediately as his temper flared through the roof. I’d hardly made it over to him before he tried to launch himself up the stairs and out of the lab. Bristled with anger, his cerulean eyes and the rage brimming beneath the surface seared my brain to the quick.

Hayden called us back, saying he had something urgent to show us. Charlie and I, still fighting against one another, stopped and simply followed him. Together, we stood in the center of the room, waiting for the fresh news from Iris. Her soft, calm voice floated over our heads as the bright logo for KARX Channel 8 News flashed across the screen.

Immediately, the nightly news anchor launched into a series of stories. I couldn’t understand why Iris brought it to our attention. Yet she insisted it was important to our ventures. Michael convinced us to stay and watch, and though I’m glad we headed to the do the right thing, I hate myself for it now.

For the last several weeks, Lacour had been killing his way across the United States. He’d been caught on surveillance cameras, cellphone videos and identified by witnesses and the police couldn’t catch him. At first, I didn’t realize the link. Iris brought up photos of his victims.

Each one I’d seen before. Each one was someone I’d come in contact with while away from The Six. He was carving his way through anyone he thought would have information on me. Judging by his progress, the last people on the list included Renee and her quirky family. They were in action before I even had to ask.

“Just a little longer.” I coaxed Charlie, clutching his forearm in a death grip between both of my hands. “Hold on, Charlie. I’ve got you.”

He nodded at me, smirking darkly. “What else do you expect me to do?”

“Ass,” I hiss. He was dangling over an abyss and still he teased me. “Maybe if you spent more time trying to figure out how to get yourself up here, you’d be safe by now.”

“Safe.” His voiced laughed off, echoing off the naked walls of the gorge. “We don’t do safe. Do we, beautiful?”

He was right. We’d never be safe, had never been safe. But I wanted to focus on the good in this situation, not the danger of him falling—dying.

Wind whistled upward, shooting through the narrow corridor like the wings of a mighty eagle, chilling me to the bone. Stretched over a gaping hole in the middle of the plane, I stood holding Charlie. My grip was the only thing standing between him and certain death.