Page 89 of Vendetta

The door buckled and shook in its frame as I came back into the main room. Diego had the gun pointed at the door, but there was no way of knowing who was behind it. We only had one gun with limited bullets. The door shook again, and an anguished scream followed.

That gave me an idea. I flipped the light switch off, plunging the room into darkness. Our eyes only had a moment to adjust, but once the door flew open, the alphas were framed by light and stunned into stillness, unable to see into the dark where we stood. Diego got off two shots, and the lead alpha fell, toppling into the room and blocking the battered door.

The second alpha stumbled over the body and rushed forward. I squeezed the trigger on the taser, nailing number two in the neck. His body seized, collapsing to his knees and then onto his face with a shriek. The third roared in agony and grief as the last of his pack mates fell in front of him. Diego had no empathy, though, after having lost Javier to these animals, and he unloaded the rest of the clip into the last member of Lorenzo’s pack.

Number two continued to scream, convulsing on the floor surrounded by his dead pack, pain and fury etched onto his face. Some fucking way, Lorenzo was also still wheezing and gurgling with red froth oozing out of his wormy lips, clearly not dead enough yet. The rest had holes in their heads with brain matter plastered all over the walls, floor, and stairs.

I considered ripping the probes from the sobbing alpha, but figured it would be easier to shock him again if I left them in. “Diego, quick, get this one strapped down.”

Diego hurried over, looped his arms around the squealing alpha, and chucked him onto the table. While we’d been cleaning up what was left of the Vasco pack, my dad had made his way into the room. He grabbed one of the flailing wrists of the last Vasco alpha and secured it to the metal table, making sure to lock the buckle. The tail end of my adrenaline was wearing thin, and Lorenzo’s corpse was dragging himself inch by inch across the floor toward us.

“Why won’t you just die?” I grumbled, picking up the machete and thwacking him in the back of the neck. With a sickening crunch, the blade bit through the pulverized bone, and his head rolled free from his body.

Fucking finally.

The look on my dad’s face was one of confusion, surprise, and dare I hope, pride.

He was unsteady on his feet, but there was a tender smile creeping across his face. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”

I dropped the machete near the pile of bodies and rushed to my father. He scooped me up in a tight but unsteady hug, silent sobs shuddering through us both.

The pitter-patter of hurried steps on the stairs had me spinning around and putting myself between the door and my dad. Maria poked her head in and looked around, distaste written all over her face. “Well, I guess there’ll be some extra cleaning today. I’m making French toast. Does anyone want any?”

Chapter 57

Nico

Islammed the heavy wooden door in the face of the guards who had been shadowing us as we moved through the villa. Cruz raised an eyebrow, silently asking the question I was asking myself. What the fuck was going on?

“Oliver, can you find out more? We need a better picture of what’s happening.” Instincts clawed at the inside of my skull, demanding that I find Rosa, and I paced the length of the sitting room attached to our suite like a caged lion.

He hurried into the hall that led to the bedrooms we used when we stayed and came back with a laptop. Without saying a word, he flopped onto the black leather couch and booted it up.

Cruz crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against the plaster wall. “What don’t I know?”

“Lorenzo took over the Reyes compound and has…” I pulled out my phone and opened the camera app, remembering the situation earlier. “Had Rosa prisoner. Looks like she killed his whole pack.” I chuckled darkly. Pools of black blood littered the cellar floor, and unmoving bodies lay sprawled in it.

“Why are we just standing here, then?” Cruz asked, unamused.

Every bone in my body was screaming the same questions and urging me to get out of this place and go to her. The best thing I could do right now was to trust that she could handle herself. As much as I wanted to solve any and all problems she might have, she was too far away for that right now. By the time we took out my father’s guards and drove back to the island, we’d be hours too late.

“She has it under control. They’re strapping down the last guy, and her dad is with her now. She’ll be fine.” She fucking better be. I couldn’t hide my cynical amusement. She’d come so far. Every day she proved to me how perfect she was, but the more I knew about her, the more confident I was in my decision. She was mine. Even if she refused to admit it.

Cruz pushed off the wall and stalked toward me. “That’s not an answer.”

“My father is up to something. He’s hiding shit. Rosa is over an hour away and is taking care of it. There’s nothing we can do to help her from here, but we can try to find out what Francisco’s doing.” I sat down next to Oliver on the couch, kicking my feet up on the coffee table, and keeping an eye on the cameras at the Reyes compound.

“I don’t like standing around doing nothing,” Cruz said and started pacing the same path I had across the marble floor.

“Have a little faith in our girl.” I held out my phone so he could see her moving around the house as if she was on a mission. “Plus, we have our own issues. Ollie, can you sort out what’s going on with Lorenzo and my father?”

Oliver’s fingers were already flying over the keyboard. What he was doing, I had no fucking idea, but the furrow between his brows assured me he was on to something.

While we waited to find out what Oliver came up with—it was a long shot, considering her phone had been left at the resort—but I tapped out a quick text to Rosa’s cell anyway. Just in case.

Nico: Lena, baby. Are you okay?

I didn’t expect an answer, and none came, but I felt better once I’d tried.