AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It’s the brachial plexus—I later learned what it was and how to tear into it with a blade. I’ve never practiced disabling a man by targeting that nerve center with my bare hands but I don’t exactly have anything to lose at the moment.
I balance myself as best as I can on my tiptoes and focus my eyes on that critical point between Romano’s neck and shoulder, doing my damnedest to see through the black spots. I bring my hands up again, wrapping them around his hand like I’m trying to pry him off me. But really, I’m just trying to get my hands as close to his neck as possible.
Then I pounce, fast as lightning.
Except it isn’t fast. My hands respond sluggishly to my brain’s command, crossing the distance between us too slowly, thanks to the hand cutting off my oxygen supply.
His lips curl up in a twisted sneer as he squeezes my neck tighter. And I close my eyes and pray.
For Nico.
For Cade.
For air into my burning lungs.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nico
I park at the end of Sophie’s driveway and step out of my car thirty minutes after driving away.
Thirty minutes, and already it feels like a year ago because of the drastic change that has happened since I was last here. The air is charged with tension now. Something’s off. The usual suburban calm feels disrupted, like a storm gathering in the distance.
I glance around the street, eyes narrowing at the unfamiliar pair of SUVs parked in the driveway across the street. A sense of foreboding ghosts down my spine, raising the hairs at the back of my neck. I know without a doubt Romano is here.
I should have stayed with her. I should have fucking stayed.
Images play behind my eyes like a morbid movie reel, all the horrific ways Romano has left his victims. But they’re not strangers in this reel; every one of them is Sophie, her face contorted in agony, her body mutilated.
My stomach roils as I abandon any semblance of stealth and cover the distance up her front walk in long strides. At the door, I pause, listening. The silence is like an unsettling whisper. Every instinct screams that something's not right.
I try the door and find it’s locked. The urge to kick down the door and charge in is potent, but this isn’t the movies. Doors and deadbolts don’t smash open from a determined kick.
I reach into the breast of my jacket for my ever-present folding metal lockpick kit, then crouch down in front of the door. With a flick of my wrist, the tumblers yield, and the lock gives way without a sound. I close my eyes for a moment, anchoring myself as I reach for my Glock from its holster.
Unease tightens in my chest as I push on the door with my free hand. It swings open soundlessly, not even with its signature squeak this time.
“Screw… you… Romano,” I hear her rasp right before I see her.
Sophie is on the living room floor, one arm stretched out to the side, trying to reach for something. The glint of her dagger is just a hair’s breadth from her fingertips, but she can’t reach it.
Romano is standing over her, his hands noticeably empty—no gun. But his foot is on Sophie’s chest, pinning her to the fucking floor.
I see red; it’s a haze that settles over everything, and it seeps inside me, turning me feral, making me thirst for violence and bloodshed like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.
I want to sink my teeth into Romano’s neck; I want to tear him apart with my bare hands until he’s nothing but sinew and bones.
I’ve taken in the scene in the blink of an eye, but it’s enough time for Romano to turn to face me. There’s a fleeting moment of shock in his eyes, but it passes quickly, settling into a satisfied expression.
He didn’t expect me to appear without warning. Which means—
“Behind…” Sophie croaks at the same time I hear them. I spin around, gun ready.
There are two men on Sophie’s front step, creeping up soundlessly, guns in their hands. I fire without hesitation, putting a bullet into each of their foreheads before either of them can get a shot off.
They collapse to the ground, but they’ve cost me time because by the time I spin back to face Romano, he’s got his gun out now, aimed where it will do the most damage, straight at Sophie’s heart.
Oh, fuck.
