AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Both of my brothers spared me a glance through the rearview mirror. Sergey frowned, a deep scowl on his lips and his brows knitted together. “Is that supposed to make sense? What or who the fuck is thisChristy? A fucking place? An amusement park? Vlad, time is running the fuck out and we...”
“She’s a friend of Mariana’s, Sergey.Christ.” I rubbed my temple and directed him to the house. Sergey was the best at hiding his emotions. He mastered self-control well and wore a cold, emotionless expression every time. But when he was pissed, the entire fucking room would know.
We got there and the brief moment of low pressure was gone.
My body tensed and I saw my brothers’ eyes grow hard at the sight of my car roughly parked on the lawn and the door of the house left ajar. We went inside and the whole place was an eyesore. There was the scent of smoke, like charred meat, and most of the furniture was destroyed. We walked into the living room and my blood ran cold at the sight of blood on the carpet.
Nikolai appeared beside Sergey and me, with a snoot. “The house is empty.”
He’d made checking rounds to be certain we were alone. “And I found this on the step outside.”
I perused the shade of ruby red that glinted under the streak of moonlight pouring in through the windows. It swung gently in the air, hanging from a black string in Nikolai’’s grip, and I recognized it. It was one of the mosaic art earrings I’d given her.
I put my hand out and he gave it to me. “Your woman was here.”
I looked back at the blood on the carpet and the earring in my hand, and rage burned inside me like an unquenchable flame.
Sergey glanced at the silver watch on his wrist and he glanced at me. “Alexei. Thought we told him to be here in twenty minutes. Where is he?”
“Here!”
My best friend appeared at the doorway and stepped in with a mini army of my brothers' men behind him, crowding the small apartment. The broken glasses and cracked flower pots crunched under their heavy boot soles as they set their equipment and weapons on the table and began setting up.
We joined them at the table and I pulled Alexei aside. “I put a tracker in the necklace and got her phone linked too. Luckily, she still has the necklace.”
He gawked at me like I was crazy. “You can do that?”
“I did,” I mumbled and handed my phone to him. “Check it out.”
When I considered getting her a gift, I didn’t intend to bug it. But then, I’d made a stop at one of the warehouses and had one of the men there introduce me to the upgraded tracker and convinced me to try out the technology; linking the trackerfrom any personal item to the owner’s phone. He’d used it to catch his wife cheating. It made sense to test it.
“Smart,” Nikolai commented.
Alexei huddled over the system with two other men and set to work. A few minutes later, he brought his head up with a grimace. “Russos.”
I rushed to the screen. Alexei wasn’t bluffing. On the green map a red blip hovered over a pinned location in the Camorra’s territory. I slammed my fist on the table and jerked my head up, staring at my brothers.
“If it’s war they want, it’s war they’ll get.”
Chapter 27 - Mariana
Loud twitters rang out in echoes and I opened my eyelids groggily.
The last thing I remembered...Screams. More screams. A slap across my cheek. Hazy vision. Then, everything went black. I blinked, but my sight was blurry. I could only make out colors of motion across the floor and, I tilted my head backward; above, there was a sharp bust of white light.
Where was I?
I blinked again.Everything smelled and felt different. My nose twitched, picking the scent of blood, chemical, and iron. My head jerked forward, a gag reflex coming in. I heard sounds of grating laughter, male cackles, and the cocking of guns reverberating. “She’d make a good fuck. So, fucking pretty.” Laughter.
“I swear, if I had this one, I’d squeeze those tits until they run dry.” More laughter.
“Those fucking Russians don’t mess around with their women, I’m telling you. I have to give it to them, they’ve got taste.”
Gradually, my vision got clearer and I tried to move but my body wouldn’t budge.
Iron scraped against the concrete and a few pairs of eyes glanced towards my direction, but they grinned and ignored me. I squinted and looked around. I could recognize a container when I saw one. It was large and spacious, almost like an average warehouse.
Worse, men, much like the ones that kidnapped me, swamped the place. They were everywhere and much more than I could count.
