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Chapter Sixty-Six
Ava
Once I’ve melted through the zip tie connecting my feet, I explore the space I’m in, using the lighter to see. The room is dirty and messy, filled with boxes, file cabinets, and shelves. It must be a storage room.
One of the boxes has tools. I do my best to be quiet as I search through it, looking for a weapon. Not the drill. Not the level. The rubber mallet? Maybe.
A screwdriver.I know what it is the moment my hand closes around it. I pull it out of the box, attention focused on the sound of footsteps above me.
If anyone comes down here, I’m going to stab theshit out of them.
***
Alessandro
My muscles spasm as the current flows through me. All I can feel is blinding, incredible pain. When it stops, I’m panting for breath, my body aching. It feels like I just ran 10 miles.
I look down at the barbs stuck in my chest, the wires trailing from them. My eyes follow the wires to the taser, which is still clutched in Gio Lombardo’s hand.
He’s on the floor in front of me, the Bowie knife sticking out of his neck. Dark red blood is trickling onto the concrete, almost reaching my feet. He’s still twitching slightly, making a gurgling sound, and then he stops.
I’m in rough shape. Blood is flowing freely down my torso from the two cuts in my chest, and my whole body still feels fucked up from the taser. All I want to do is lie down, to sleep, but I can’t.
Sal has Ava. That’s all that matters. Until I have her back, there’s no such thing as rest. I pull the taser barbs from my chest and struggle to release the restraint around my waist, wishing I still had the knife to cut myself free.
Eventually, I’m able to shimmy the leather strap down to my feet. Then I go to work on my ankles as Gio’s body bleeds in front of me. The restraints are secured from the back, which makes getting them off hard work, but eventually, I’m able to tug one of my feet free, and then the other.
I step into the pool of blood and take the taser from Gio’s hand. It’s a two-shot model, which means there’s one cartridge left. Walking over him, I go to the weapon wall and pick out a clean knife, then exit the basement and creep up the steps.
I’m in Gio’s home. I recognize it. There’s the living room, complete with piranha tank. Creeping through the hallway, I see one of Gio’s henchmen at the exact same time that he sees me. He startles, eyes going wide. He reaches for his belt.
I shoot him with the taser and he drops. He convulses as I mount him, pinning his arms with my knees and putting the knife to his throat.
“Where is she?”
He groans, and it takes him several seconds to be able to form words. “Who?”
“Ava,” I growl, grabbing his hair and thumping the back of his head into the ground. “My fucking wife. I know Sal has her. Where did he take her?”
“T-to his house,” the man stutters softly, looking as woozy as I felt a moment ago.
I push the knife into his neck all the way to the handle, wipe it off on his shirt, and make my way through the house. To my relief, I don’t encounter any more of Gio’s men. I stop into a bathroom, and thankfully, the medicine cabinet has Vaseline and aspirin. I smear the Vaseline on my cuts to stem the bleeding, pop a couple pills, and head to the garage.
Once inside the garage, I grab Gio’s keys from a hook on the wall and unlock his car, a black, 2000’s-era Cadillac. There’s a shotgun leaning in the corner and I take that, too, along with a box of shells from the shelf next to it.
Sal’s house is also in Beauford Hills, not far from here. The drive should be about 10 minutes.
I’m going to make it in five.
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Ava
I stand at the top of the basement steps, my ear pressed to the door. The screwdriver is in my hand, fingers squeezing the rubberized handle as I listen to what’s going on in the house above me.
“Just got word from Gio’s crew. They have Alessandro. Gio is doing his thing with him now. Apparently, he wants to send you a hand or a foot or something as a trophy.”
I almost lose my footing, immediately sick.
