I push through the throng of people separating us, uncaring of who I shove to get by. I’ve always said I’m not a killer, that I’m just a man who wants to do some good for his community. That’s null and void right now. The pure hatred shredding through my veins could take down an army. Not even a bullet could slow me down.
“No!” I bang my fist against the glass when the Rottweiler’s teeth sinking into the back of Justine’s leg causes her knees to buckle out from underneath her. She lands on the blood-splattered floor with a pained gurgle. Her face is wet with tears, and her dress is already soaked through with blood.
The smallest snippet of relief hits me when Justine’s survival instincts kick in. She kicks out her leg, dislodging the dog from her ribs before rolling into a ball so she can protect her face and skull with her arms.
As the terrified screams of my baby sister shred my eardrums, I circle the dome, seeking an entrance. She got in there somehow, but from this viewpoint, there’s no visible entry point.
Seconds feel like minutes when I scan the crowd, desperate enough to follow through with Dimitri’s suggestion. My sister is being torn apart by a vicious animal. Begging is very much on the agenda.
Some of the crowds’ focus shifts from watching Justine’s attack to me when I spot Col on a podium at the back of the space. He has a prime view of the proceedings, and his smug grin tethers the last bit of my soul. A woman is being murdered with a viciousness eviler than Satan himself, yet he’s smiling like he’s at an award show, being honored with the highest gong.
If I could get Justine out of this aliveandslit Col’s throat, I’d give it everything I have. Regrettably, the blood in your veins doesn’t need to be drained for you to die. The cries of your baby sister on the brink of death are enough to stop any man’s heart.
It takes me breaking one of Col’s goon’s noses and another’s ribs to get close enough to Col to fall to my knees, but when I do, the self-righteous grin he was wearing catapults to full-blown arrogance. He’s craved this moment for years. I guarantee it.
“Please,” I beg from his feet with wet eyes and a gun butted against my head. “She isn’t a part of this. She should haveneverbeen a part of this.” My comment is for both Demi and Justine. “I’ll do anything you want. Name your price.”
Col looks down his nose at me. “It’s too late for that.”
“No, it’s not. I’m still useful to you. I can help you.” I thrust my hand in the direction Justine’s cries are whimpering from. “This will benefit no one. What will her death possibly achieve?”
It dawns on me that Demi is right, Justine is enduring our punishment when Col shouts, “Fear, respect, and integrity! All the things I lost when you failed to keep your mouth shut!”
He glances over my shoulder, smiling when the image of a bloody and almost unconscious Justine reflecting in his massively dilated pupils causes me to gag. She has protected her face and neck well from the Rottweiler, but she’s in too much pain to remain lucid. Her willpower is wilting. She’s minutes from death.
I’m not the only one noticing this.
Col is just as aware.
“The light in her eyes is almost all gone.”
Desperate, I beg more. “I’ll give you anything. My life for Justine’s. My soul. My entire fucking existence. I’ll give you anything you want.”
“Her?” He doesn’t need to mention Demi’s name for me to know who he’s referencing. I can see it in the psychopathic blackness in his eyes. He wanted me on my knees, but his desires have nothing to do with my sister and everything to do with the woman I love.
When Col spots my headshake, the growls of a dog in the midst of a horrifying attack ramp up. Like the scene could possibly get any more violent, the Rottweiler tosses Justine around the blood-soaked space like she’s a rag doll. The flop of her limbs as she endures bite after bite after bite severs my last nerve. I’m dead—wholly and without limitation.
“Okay.”
Col holds a single finger in the air, momentarily stopping the proceeding before lowering his eyes to mine. “What did you say?”
I swallow the massive lump in my throat before muttering in a dull, unrecognizable tone, “I said okay. I’ll give you anything you want.Anythingat all.”
“Very well.” With the grin of a man who was just granted his greatest wish, Col clicks his fingers together two times. A second later, wood panels on his right pop open, exposing a small hidden stairwell that leads to the entrance of the glass dome Justine is being mauled in.
“Do be careful,” Col mutters with a smirk when I stand to my feet and race toward the hidden entrance. “Menace is known to bite when he feels threatened.”
19
Demi
Max’s head pops up at the same time as mine when the shrill of my cell phone echoes in the eerie quietness. I’ve been hiding out in the office at Petretti’s for the past six hours, panicked out of my mind. Delayed satisfaction isn’t something Maddox ever participates in. He is as impatient as he is sexy. He’d never leave me in the dark as long as he has unless it was imperative, so I’m not just on the verge of a breakdown, I am seriously considering doing something stupid. I’m contemplating reaching out to my uncle. He isn’t a man I should seek help from in a crisis but considering almost all the knot in my stomach centers around him, I don’t have much choice but to act recklessly.
He’s able to restart my heart just as easily as he can destroy it.
I suck in my first full breath in hours when the screen of my phone flashes up a familiar face. “It’s him. It is Maddox,” I say to Max like he can understand me.
Through shuddering hands and an extremely heavy heart, I slide my finger across the screen of my phone before squashing it to my ear. “You scared the shit out of me. Is Justine okay? Are you okay? Did you see my uncle—”
