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“Mia, what have you done?” Finn lets out a shaky breath.
Straightening my shoulders and walking with my head held high, I move towards Diego. Not bothering to look back to ensure Mateo, Raegan and Finn are following me with Tom and our guys. It’s done now, I have made a deal with a venomous snake, and there is no turning back.
My only relief and satisfaction is that I will have Vincent Saint-Lambert’s head at the end of this and that Stella won’t be able to marry me off to a man of her choosing after all. Oh shit, wait till my grandmother realizes what I have done. I feel fucking sorry for Manuel Cabano when she sets her wrath on him.
Chapter 4
Carter
"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide, what kind of difference you want to make" Jane Goodall
Painradiatesthroughmyskull as darkness starts to give over to light. There’s a sharp pain coming from my shoulder, and by the way it’s hanging limply, I can tell it’s dislocated. Those fuckers pulled my arm so hard when I was fighting back against their restraining grasp that they managed to dislodge it.
A groan leaves my mouth as the rest of my body wakes up and reminds me that I have been beaten to a pulp. I’m lying on a hard concrete floor in one of the alcoves just off the main room. I vaguely remember being thrown in here after I fought back against the sheriff’s disgusting hold on my body. Shaking my head, I try to clear the fogginess and my darkened, blurry vision.
There’s just one amber sconce in the room; the smell of sweat and stagnant air is all around me. I’m lying on the floor, but there’s a bed a few feet away, pushed up against the rough stone wall. Looking around quickly, I try to focus my eyes to see if there is anything in the room I can use to help get me out of here. I don’t want to be at these fucker’s mercies when they return. There’s nothing else in the room besides the bed, mattress, and fitted sheet. FUCK.
Voices echo off the stone walls outside of the room in the near distance but don’t come any closer. I have to find Theo; he was barely breathing when I last saw him. Fuck I hope he’s still alive. I force my battered body to cooperate and pull myself into a sitting position, fighting the harsh groan that wants to leave my mouth. I give my shaking vision and spinning head time to adjust; then I’m pushing to my knees painfully and trying to force my body into standing.
Painful groans leave my mouth, and I bite down on the inside of my cheek hard to try to silence them. Pain shoots through my mouth at the reminder that my front tooth is now snapped, thanks to Vincent shoving that gun in my mouth. I spit out a mouthful of blood, fuck my mouth tastes like shit right now.
Trying once again to push myself to my feet, I manage to stand but sway on my feet. My legs protest hard, my knee and ankle wanting to buckle from the beating Vincent’s lackeys gave me. Leaning my body against the stone wall, I breathe through the nausea that brings bile to my mouth. Sweat and blood are trickling down my face and back. Every part of me hurts right now.Get it together, shithead; we have to get out of here.
Moving away from the wall on unsteady feet, I stumble towards the alcove opening and shift my body so I can see out of it. There doesn’t appear to be anyone directly in front of me. I creep out of the space and look in the alcove to the right; the sight that greets me has my heart stopping momentarily and my breath trapped in my throat. Theo is lying face and chest down on the hard concrete floor, motionless. I can’t tell from this distance if he’s even breathing, and there’s a small puddle of blood underneath him.
Looking back into the main room to check if anyone is watching me, I creep into the alcove Theo is in, dragging my battered body closer to him. I bend down, holding one hand against the rough wall, so I don’t collapse on top of him. Using my other hand, I try to locate the pulse in his throat. Please be fucking alive, please. I let out a small whimper when I finally feel the slight thumping against my abused and bloody fingers. He’s alive, but barely.
“Thank fuck, bro, I have to get you out of here,” I whisper to an out cold Theo. Fuck how am I going to lift him to get him out of here? There’s no way my shoulder will be able to take his weight, or my legs are going to be able to carry us both. Making my way back to the front of the alcove, I take a look at the direction we need to head in. It’s at least two or three hundred feet to the door leading into the woods. There is no way I’m making that in my current state, carrying Theo’s heavy body.
Fuck we are going to die here. Stumbling back to Theo, I slide down the wall next to him, using my one good arm to try to see where all the blood is coming from. He’s got so many bruises and lacerations all over him that it’s hard to tell. Shit, it looks like his hand and fingers are definitely broken, and the purple swelling around his ribs for sure means his ribs are broken. Blood and dirt cake his back and legs. Fuck I hope he doesn’t have internal bleeding. He’s a damn painful mess right now. Rage fills my vision, the desire to fucking end anyone who touched and abused him making its way through my body.
“It’s ok, bro; it’s going to be ok. I’m gonna try to figure a way out of here for us; hang on, bro, please.” I run my hand across his head, trying to comfort him as much as myself. His hair is matted with blood and sweat. I push it away from his features and look at the cut on his forehead. Using the side of my ripped shirt, I try to clean some of the blood out of his swollen eye socket.
Shit, how long was I out? I don’t know what happened after Vincent made that recording and sent it off to Mia. I don’t know if she saw it or if she and the rest managed to make their way to Manhattan to the safety of the Stratfords compound. Fuck I hope she made it to Manhattan and stays there safe behind her grandmother’s formidable gates, where Vincent can’t get to her.
The image of my father clutching his chest and lying on the ground begging Vincent to call an ambulance enters my mind and brings a smile to my painful face. Well, at least I managed to kill my father… most likely. A sense of morbid achievement races through me at the thought. Bet the fucker didn’t see that coming, constantly underestimating me. “Bro, one down, one to go” I whisper to Theo.
Right then, a low whimper sounds in the air. So low that I convince myself that it must be a fabrication of my mind. I let my head fall forward to my chest in despair, we are going to die here and the only thing of worth that I have ever done was kill my own father. Another small sound resonates through the air, and I lean forward over Theo’s damaged body. The small sounds are escaping Theo, so low that I struggle to make them out. I swear I’ve never been so happy to hear anything in my life. “Bro, it’s gonna be ok. We are going to get out of here. I just have to figure out how.”
“Mia.” The low whisper leaves Theo’s lips followed by a pained whimper. I almost think I imagine the word coming from him until he repeats it.
“She got out, bro. She was on a plane to Manhattan with Finn and Mateo when I came for you. She’s safe, bro. She’s going to be safe behind Stella’s gates.”
“Good.” Theo lets out a painful groan and then passes out again.
Well, shit, at least I know where his mind is at. I’m hoping he’s not going to give up now that I’ve told him that she’s on a plane to safety and her grandmother. We still need to get the hell out of here.
Footsteps echo quickly through the main area and hallway; someone is running towards the main room from the direction of the wooded passageway. “Boss! Boss, there’s a bunch of men entering the property with weapons.” The voice shouts.
“What? Whose men?” I hear Vincent reply; disgust slithers up my spine at the sound of the psycho’s voice.
“Don’t know, boss, but they have weapons, lots of weapons. There’s got to be at least thirty of them out there. They shot Stew, Grazen, and Frank already; those fuckers are dead. We need to get out of here, boss!”
“Are they just in the wooded area, or have they breached the house?”
Before the other fucker can answer, we hear a large boom above us that shakes the stone walls around us. It sounds like someone is setting off bombs above us in the house, the sound so loud it’s reaching us here underground. The lights flicker and threaten to go out in all of the alcoves.
“FUCK! That cunt Stella has sent in her army to save these two wretched fuckers!” Vincent yells, and I hear his footsteps rapidly approaching where Theo and I are on the ground.
