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I struggled, but he dipped his knife, running it along my lower ribs. It easily cut through my shirt before slicing into my skin. The scream that left me was feral and hoarse as I tried to pull my body away from the sharp bite of the knife. I failed, sobs wrecking me as I considered how this would end.
It could have been seconds or minutes—I couldn’t tell from the panic that seeped into my bones and held on. But the door crashed, splintering as someone rushed through it. I cried out as my kidnapper stood in an instant, dragging me up by my hair and holding me in front of him.
My eyes locked on a set of hard, unrelenting brown ones before drifting to three more men in the doorway. They all looked ready to kill. A relieved cry left my lips, and I whispered “You’re alive” before my words were cut short by a knife pressing firmly into my throat.
“We were expecting to see you.”
35
CARLO
We’d planned to take it slow—to enter the house through a side entrance, sneak around the interior, and be out before they knew we were here. We would pour gasoline around the entire exterior, light it aflame and watch it burn after we got Sierra and any innocents out. And when Virgil ran out, covered in smoke and debris, we’d kill him.
It was a half-assed plan, of course. We’d devised it during the short drive from our house to Virgil’s, but it was thought out enough. We didn’t have many options, but we had the manpower. We had a dozen teams stationed on all the streets in and out of this block, and if anyone saw Virgil, he’d be dead on sight. If Sierra was somehow smuggled out, she’d be in our hands in moments.
It was enough planning, but I hadn’t anticipated her scream. It was feral and terrified, and the entire plan flew through the window when I heard it. “Fuck,” Frankie said as I rushed to the door, kicking it in with all my strength. It splintered beneath my foot and I rushed inside, aiming my gun at where a man stood above Sierra. The only reason I hesitated and didn’t take the shot was the brief moment I needed to ensure she was alive, but it cost me as he rolled out of my aim and pulled her in front of him.
Sierra’s eyes met mine and softened as tears began streaming down her face. I eyed the line of blood that seeped from somewhere beneath her shirt and the budding bruise on her forehead, but she seemed otherwise alive and unharmed. I’d kill this man for touching her. For even considering hurting her. “You’re alive,” she whispered, and I wondered what these monsters had told her.
Frankie, Tommy, and Louis followed me into the room, separating at my flank and easing around the room for better angles to end this.
“We were expecting to see you,” the man said with a cocky grin. If he wasn’t using Sierra as a human shield…
“Where’s Virgil?” I asked, finger itching on the trigger.
The man chuckled, and Sierra winced as he dug the knife in deeper. “We knew you were coming. You think he’d stay here and risk his life for someone unimportant like you?”
“I think he wants us dead, but he’s too cowardly to do it,” I said. “So he sends his lackeys to take care of it and doesn’t flinch when they die.”
“I’d say I’m more than a lackey.” He smirked. “I’m the underboss of this borgata, and I want you taken care of just as badly as he does. You’re a threat, and we take care of threats accordingly.”
As if on cue, a handful of men swarmed the mezzanine, pointing their guns and firing. Frankie overturned an entry table and ducked behind it. Tommy and Louis managed to storm to the small alcoves beneath the staircase, and I stood in the open as the man holding Sierra shouted up at the men, “Don’t touch this one, he’s mine!”
I stiffened as gunfire continued booming around me, but I only narrowed my eyes, looking for any possible shot. “Let her go,” I demanded.
“I don’t think I will. She’s a pretty one, isn’t she?” he asked, using his free hand to stroke her cheek. She flinched away from it. “It’s a shame I gave her that scar. If it wasn’t there, she might have been attractive enough for me to keep her as my pet. That was the goal when I took her the first time.”
His words took a moment to process, but my mouth went dry when they did. I’d been scouring the whole damn city to find evidence of who did this to her, but I should’ve known he would be here all along. All thoughts of Virgil fled out the window as this man took the number one spot on my to-kill list. He’d hurt her. He’d scarred her. He’d added to her misery through fear and self-hatred. I’d end his life.
“Let her go and we can settle this.”
“Drop your gun,” he suggested. “As a show of good faith.”
Tommy and Louis were in the perfect position to shoot at this man, but as gunfire continued exploding, I realized that this battle had taken the backburner to the one they were facing. Their threat was immediate, and they needed their full attention to stay alive, so I didn’t flag them down or ask for help. I only nodded and held my gun up in a pacifying motion. Then, I crouched and placed it on the floor within easy reach, squatting and showing him both of my empty hands.
He narrowed his eyes, waiting for me to stand all the way. “Kick it away,” he said.
I considered what I could do if he decided to hurt Sierra. I couldn’t get to the gun, but I was a few paces away and I could rush him. I would throw myself between that blade and Sierra if it became necessary. I took a large step closer to him, kicking the gun in the direction of my brothers and out of his reach. When I stepped back in, I managed another half step. In three paces, I’d be on him, and I’d fucking kill him for what he did.
“I don’t need the bitch anyways,” he said, moving the knife and throwing Sierra away from him with a powerful push. Her feet left the ground for a moment before she crumpled there. I didn’t wait. I charged him, grabbing his wrist where he held the knife and slamming it over my leg. He released the blade immediately. It was over. It was so fucking over for the man who stood in front of me. As much as I yearned to bring him home with us and tie him beside Bella, I knew I didn’t have the time to ensure his death with gunfire ringing all around the house. I couldn’t focus on my brothers who fought for their lives or Sierra who had been thrown to the ground roughly. I could focus on those things later.
I didn’t notice the gun he held toward me until I threw my first punch and it clattered from his grasp, exploding from where he pulled the trigger before dropping it. He lifted his own hand to return a blow, but I saw red as I slammed my fist into his face over and over again. He fell and I crawled atop him, punching and digging my fingers into his eye sockets. When they went in and fluid covered my fingers, I smiled as he screamed. I grabbed his head and slammed it into the floor repeatedly until I heard a crack, and then I kept punching him. I kept envisioning him standing above my girl as she bled and cried. The images pounded into me as I obliterated him. I wasn’t even sure if he’d landed any blows on me as I lost myself to a rage that only faded when he lay in a mess of his blood, gaping and unmoving. I only stopped when I was sure he was dead.
I glanced up at the action around me. Frankie had his opponents ducking behind walls and unable to take a shot at the other brothers or me, and I realized it was likely the only reason I hadn’t caught a bullet by now. He ducked behind the table long enough to reload, and then Louis took over from there, scaring the men into an upper room. Two of them lay dead on the ground, but four more remained. My eyes veered to the ground where I found Sierra huddled into a ball a few feet from my brothers, trying to use the staircase as a cover as she held her arms over her head and trembled.
All it would take to kill her in that position was one well-aimed shot, and she’d be as dead as the man I had just beaten. I didn’t take the time to grab my gun. I didn’t even glance at it as I rushed toward her and flung my body over hers, listening to each gunshot and praying that none came our way. “No, you’re going to get shot,” she begged from beneath me, trying to push out from under my full-body cover.
“If I get shot protecting you, I’ll die the happiest man in the world.”
