Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
She clicked the screens back to the house, and we saw outside of the basement to the kitchen where we had been. The men picked up the ice cream, and we even got sound.
“They were here,” he said.
I didn’t recognize the voice.
“We need her back alive. Serra said.”
I looked toward Dana. “Are they talking about me?” I asked.
“It has to be.”
“If they want me, that means Odin’s alive, right?” I felt a wave of hope flood me, and then it vanished. “Odin won’t know to come here, will he?”
“He will,” Dana said, but from the look in her eye, I had a feeling she wasn’t hopeful.
“This is bad?”
“We don’t know what it is.”
Odin was alive, but the Serra men now had control of this safe house, and there were a lot of girls and women whose lives were at stake.
“We’ve got time,” Dana said. “We’ve got time for him to make it.”
Only, we held our breath as they walked into the basement. I couldn’t hear them, but I could see them, and I knew they were in the room right next to us. Dana and I held perfectly still. And that was when we heard the banging on the door.
“Come out, Alba Marini. Your presence is wanted,” a man said.
Well, if I had any doubt, I didn’t anymore.
“Can they hear us?” I whispered and walked closer to Dana.
“No,” Dana said. Although, she didn’t seem convinced.
The only reason we could hear them was because of the security cameras. We both still attempted to duck as they started to fire their guns, but they didn’t break through the panic room. I held onto Dana and she held onto me. We had no way of knowing what was going to happen. I felt real fear and was sick to my stomach.
“It’s going to be all right. Odin will come,” Dana said.
We stayed knelt on the floor, and she went through all the security cameras to check on the other women. So far, the panic rooms were holding.
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.
“We wait and hope they don’t figure out to burn the house down,” Dana said.
“What?”
“Well, we can stay in the panic rooms as long as possible, but they still have weaknesses. Fire is one of them. I think.” Dana frowned.
“Why do they want me?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” Dana said. “Perhaps they are going to use you as leverage?”
“I wish there was some way we could contact Odin.” I leaned my head against the wall.
Neither of us spoke for a long time. Dana would occasionally look at the security video. The two men that were outside our basement panic room were looking around. All the men were snooping. From time to time, they would talk about ways to open the panic room. They didn’t know what to do until we heard the one suggestion we had been dreading.
“We could set fire to the top floor and let it burn the house. They will have no choice but to burn or come out,” one of the men said.
I looked toward Dana. She was as panicked as me. We couldn’t speak, as I watched the men clearly weighing their options, and I wanted to scream.
I went to the door. “Open it and shut it immediately.”
“No,” Dana said, grabbing me. “First of all, there is no way I’m going to let you do that. Odin would … it would destroy him. Second, do you think they’re going to allow us to live? You go out there, they are going to kill me and set fire to this house anyway. They’re clutching at straws.”
“What do we do?”
Neither of us had the answer. Killing my sister was one thing, but allowing women that I had helped to save was another entirely.
****
Odin
All of Serra’s Capos were dead.
It was easy to do. My men, who had been trained for this, were happy to see the removal of the Serra Mafia. I didn’t know when it occurred to me, but I suddenly realized, in removing the Serra Mafia, all it would do was allow another to rise up in their place. The world was full of bad men and women. The Serra wasn’t the only problem in the world. There was so much bad, and good men and women got beaten down every day of the week.
Taking out the problem wasn’t going to solve it. The problem was still going to be there. There were always going to be people that trafficked people. Drugs were going to be on the streets, people doing bad shit.
The man I was, the man I wanted to get back to, was long gone. There was no sign of him ever returning. It was the illusion. I lost him many years ago, the moment my sister was taken, my first kill, and a deep-seated need for revenge.