Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 102833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Is this payback from someone they pissed off? Are they going to leave me here to die?
Oh my God … is the cargo going to ship me somewhere?
I step inside since there are now four guys in black ski masks with huge guns surrounding me, leaving me no choice but to obey.
In the center of the area is a metal chair. I’m pushed onto it, and then my hands and ankles are tied to the chair tightly.
“Welcome,” someone says, stepping out of the darkness.
The voice sounds weird, almost robotic, and I don’t bother to try to speak since I still have a piece of material shoved inside my mouth. But I take in the way he walks, the way he holds himself, and it’s almost as if he’s … a she.
“You’re Matteo’s little girlfriend,” the person says, sauntering toward me.
She’s dressed in all black and lacks the curves most women have, but something about her is different—or similar. Maybe I’m crazy, but my woman’s intuition is telling me this person is trying to come across as a man, but is actually a woman.
“Never thought I’d see the day he’d get attached to a woman for longer than it takes for her to suck him off,” she says with a smirk.
My stomach is roiling. Not because she’s bringing up Matteo’s past, but because she seems to know it, which makes me wonder if she knows him.
“But it works in my favor.” She shrugs. “It’s time to send the Antonovs a message.”
She kneels in front of me, and our eyes meet. They’re dark, almost black, and something about them sends a shiver down my spine. Because there’s no life in them. Only evil.
“Let’s get started, shall we?”
I have no idea what she means by that, until she stands and then punches me directly in the face. And my last thought before I black out is that I hope she kills me quickly.
29
Matteo
“Remember, he’s fast, but you’re faster.” Lucian holds my face in his hands, giving me his final words of wisdom, like he always does before I go out there. “Keep your head in the game. Your girl is taken care of, and she won’t be happy if you fuck up your pretty face or get knocked out because you’re too busy worrying about—”
Lucian’s words are cut off by the sound of gunfire, and I immediately go to grab my gun, only I don’t have it because I’m about to fight.
I run over to where the guards are, and Scotty already has my gun for me.
“Boss, this isn’t good,” Maxim, another one of my men, yells out. “There are several gunmen shooting up the place. They took out security and ambushed their way in.”
My thoughts go to Dani, and with my gun in hand, I rush out of the locker room and into the chaos that has ensued. People are screaming and running every which way. Gunshots are being fired. It’s a fucking bloodbath.
“We need to get you out of here,” Scotty shouts over the pandemonium.
“I need to find Dani.”
“Ian will handle her. You’ll never find her in this mess. The police are already on their way. They must’ve been tipped off.”
“I can’t fucking leave her,” I yell back, my body trembling with fear.
“You’ll never make it out alive,” Lucian argues.
“He’s right,” Scotty agrees. “There’s an entire team of men working to take down the shooters. Let’s go out back. We’ll get you safely to the car, and then we can get in touch with Ian and your family.”
Fuck!
My family is here. Dominick, Peyton, Bri, and Lorenzo are all here to watch the fight … along with Dani. They could be anywhere, any of them hurt and needing medical attention. But Scotty is right. I’ll never be able to find them out there, and the chances of me surviving are slim.
We take the back exit and manage to make it to Scotty’s SUV without issue, the five of us piling in. The place is a fucking war zone. People are making a run for it, and cars are hightailing it out of there. Blue and red lights appear, and Scotty takes off before they can stop us.
Before I can call Ian, my phone rings with a call from him.
“Where are you?” I bark out.
“I lost her,” he hisses, his breathing heavy. “Shit went sideways so fucking quick. One minute, she was going into the bathroom, and then—fuck!—she was gone. I traced her phone, and I think someone has her.”
“How the fuck do you know that?” I ask, feeling like I’m living in a goddamn nightmare.
“She’s heading southeast. There’s no way she would’ve left on her own. And in what vehicle?”
“Maxim, get ahold of my brother.”
“Already did,” he says. “They’re all safe and on their way home.”
I sigh in relief, but it’s short-lived when he adds, “But Dani isn’t with them.”