Hans (Alliance #4)

“So… want help killing him?” Nero offers, catching me off guard.

My first instinct is to refuse, but refusing help from a group as powerful as these guys would be stupid.

“I need to be the one who kills him,” I say slowly.

“Oh, we’ll let you do the heavy lifting. But we can offer extra hands.”

I tip my head to the side. “Are you offering me The Alliance?”

“Nothing is free.”

“Exactly.”

Nero heaves out a breath. “Diamond Dom owes you a life debt, and he’d be happy to get that off his back. Which would cover part of what I’m offering.”

“Part,” I repeat. “And then what? I owe you a favor and we just keep trading?”

“Don’t knock it till you try it.” He says it like he’s no stranger to trading favors. “Plus we could always use another boogeyman at our disposal.”

“Boogeyman?”

Nero snorts. “What? You think your name makes people think of fucking sprinkles and ponies?”

“Sprinkles and ponies?” Cassandra snickers.

I shake my head, then direct my attention back to the phone. “What exactly is your plan?”

“What makes you think I have a plan?”

“You wouldn’t be offering me a spot on the A Team if you didn’t already have some sort of plan.”

“Yesterday, you sounded like you knew where I lived.”

“I do.” It’s not a big secret. Nero is a rich business owner, as well as one of the leaders of The Alliance. He has a big house in a rich neighborhood not far from Minneapolis.

“Come over.”

I squeeze Cassandra’s hand. “My girl is with me.”

Nero makes a sound of dismissal. “And my wife is here. You’re not fucking cool.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m not bragging. I’m trying to tell you that if you cross me and she gets hurt, I will end you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Death and destruction. I got it.”

I shake my head. “We gotta stop at my place first. Then we’ll head over.”

“Try not to get killed.” Nero ends the call.

CHAPTER82

Cassie

Hans has been verycalm since we left the hotel.

He casually drove us to an apartment building not far from where we live, and he had us get out of the pickup truck and into a Prius.

It’s the least likely car I could imagine Hans driving. But that’s probably the point since we’re driving back into our neighborhood, and no one who’s looking for either of us would look at this silver hybrid.