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I beg for Luca to rescue me. I beg for his help. When I’ve spent my entire life begging for freedom, I wish for nothing more than the comfort of his protection.
Him and Shaw.
SHAW
We stand beside Ravlek’s office door. Luca counts down on his fingers. When he reaches zero, a team of men will shatter the windows to his office and gain entry, allowing us to enter and retrieve Emi.
I watch with bated breath as his fingers move: five, four, three—my heart beats faster—two, one. On cue, the glass shatters and Luca kicks open the door. We move low, and I fire at the first man that steps in front of me.
A rope transcends through the window and into the room as planned. I scan the large office space that doubles as a library, only for my eyes to widen in shock at Lizzie standing with a gun aimed in my direction. I feel a sharp stab of hurt in my chest as her eyes seethe with abhorrent distaste. I swallow at her deception, emotion lodging in my throat.
Did she really despise Emi so deeply that she put her and the baby in danger? My gaze tracks down her body, and the clear absence of a baby bump makes me jolt with awareness at just how deep her betrayal runs.
The usual unhinged glimmer flickers in her eyes. “Drop the weapon, Shaw.” My eyes don’t leave hers as I release the gun, sending it to the floor.
My mind doesn’t register what’s happening quick enough, but she falters and drops her weapon, followed by a pool of blood seeping from a knife wound in her shoulder as she lets out a garbled shriek.
I dart my eyes around the room, taking in the man standing at the window, his piercing blue eyes drilling into my own. His lips tip up in a smirk, and he spits out a toothpick onto the floor. “Luca went down there.” He tilts his head toward a doorway, and I don’t hesitate in moving forward with my unknown accomplice on my heels as we descend the stone stairway.
A gut-wrenching scream stills my movement and sends a wave of nausea through my body. My accomplice retrieves a variety of knives from inside his jacket as I turn to face him. A maniacal expression coats his face in delight at what’s to come, whereas the thought sickens me.
He licks his lips. “I’ll go first, slice some fuckers up. You get your woman.”
I scan his body, hoping for a sign that he knows what he’s doing. I have none.
Another scream puts my feet in motion, pushing past the grumblings of the satanic knife guy and into the dark, cold cellar.
My mind takes a moment to comprehend what I see, and the image almost brings me to my knees. My girl is bleeding from between her legs on a makeshift hospital bed, where a man stands at the bottom, tying her feet to the metal bars.
Luca is tied to a chair, thrashing about, trying to loosen the restraints. When he notices me, Ravlek’s head darts up from beside Luca, followed by a sharp sting in my shoulder as I launch myself in his direction and ignore the repeated sounds of his gun firing at me.
I throw myself at Ravlek, catching him off guard with my determination to reach him. We fall to the floor, where I pummel his face time and time again, and I revel in the crunching of his bones. Each punch sends a searing agony up my arm and through my shoulder, but I ignore it and fight on until his body falls lax below me.
“Shaw,” Emi sobs, and her broken voice makes me stumble to my feet, ignoring the maniac slicing up the man who was tying my girl down. “Shaw, the baby.” My lips find hers as I untie her bound hands from the rail. “Please, the baby.” Her body tenses below me. “Can you see anything?” Her eyes implore mine, and I steel myself, moving between her bloodied thighs, and I lift the hem of her dress.
Shit.“There’s a head, Emi.” My eyes bug out at the sight.
“I’m scared.” Her whimper breaks my heart because I’m scared too.
I take her hand in mine. “Me too, Red. But we got this.” I stare into her eyes, knowing I have no choice; I have to do this. I should have done it a long time ago, and I’ll not allow another minute to go by without her knowing how I feel.
“I love you, Red. You and bump, you’re mine. Blood or no blood. You’re mine. You both are.” Her eyes shimmer with the endearment, and they seep the love I feel for her and our baby. And then her fingers graze over my hand, sending tingles over my body.
“They gave me an injection. I can’t feel the baby at all.” Her lip quivers on her words.
“Fuck, it was probably one of those epidural things. They numb your body so you can’t feel shit. She probably doesn’t even know when to push,” the knife guy asserts as he frees Luca.
“I’m scared, Shaw.”
“Shh, it’s okay, Red,” I soothe, trying to ease her anxiety and sound confident when I sure as hell don’t feel it.
“Get me a medical team in here, now!” Luca screams into his earpiece.
THIRTY-SEVEN
SHAW
The last thirty minutes have been the hardest of my entire life. I watched as an influx of men flooded the cellar and took Ravlek captive, followed by a medical team working tirelessly to regulate Emi’s body while figuring out what exactly the bastards have given her.
