Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
And still, I shoot. The bullets pump out, too many to count, a volley of fierce, impenetrable metal that does damage in a fraction of a second. One car’s driver is gone. A second. A third spins wildly out and slumps over the seat.
“Wait! Jesus, we need someone alive to interrogate!” Romeo screams, but I’ve already pulled the trigger. I hit my target. Santo and the others quickly and efficiently round up the others.
“You should’ve saved one, brother,” Romeo says quietly. “I’d have let you have him.”
“Got one survivor!” Santo screams. He pulls the truck over and launches himself out of it.
“Santo, no!” I yell, but he’s already gone. Gunshots pepper the air around us, making the lone survivor an easy target. Santo ducks, darts, then throws himself into the car. He comes out a second later with someone bleeding from the head. He’s caught in a headlock.
“They’ve got your girl,” the guy yells at me. I recognize him from the wharf. “Don’t kill me and I’ll tell you where she is.”
“He’s lying!”
A woman’s voice.
A voice I know all too well.
I freeze. Santo holds tight, but the rest of us spin to look at the source of the voice.
Her hair is shorter, and she’s dressed from top to bottom in sleek black leather, but I’d know those eyes and that defiant little chin anywhere.
Vivia.
“I’m right here,” she says in a voice as clear as day. “They don’t have me. And you don’t need him to tell you who they are. I’ll tell you everything. I don’t care what you do to me but hear me out.”
Santo pushes him to his knees. No need to interrogate him. I give him a nod to pull the trigger.
She sees me. Her jaw drops. I watch as her eyes soften, then she runs to me, just as Sergio cocks his gun.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Vivia
He’s here. He’s here.
After all I’ve been through, after giving him up as lost forever, after everything, he’s here.
I knew they’d come to The Castle, but I had no time to warn anyone and didn’t think they’d listen to me if I did. I had no time to do anything but jump into my own car, a hijacked, stolen Yaris I swiped from a lot just south of here, and try to head them off.
Them being the group I targeted and have hunted for days.
But I don’t think of them. I don’t think of anything but Dario. He stares at me like I’ve come back from the dead, and when I turn to him, he does something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. He opens his arms.
So I run. My throat is tight, and my eyes burn, and even though I run as fast as I can, the ground between us swallowed up by my steps, it seems to take too long. When I reach him, I collapse against him. He catches me. He lifts me in his arms, his hands on my ass hiking me to his chest. My legs wrap around him, and I tuck my head into his shoulder. But the blissful reunion lasts only seconds before he pivots, spins, and falls to one knee.
I gasp in surprise as he lowers me to the ground behind one of the trucks and releases me. He lets me go. I blink, only to see him catapult himself forward. He crashes to the ground with Sergio beneath him, lifts his fist and slams it into my brother’s jaw. His head snaps back and blood splashes across his face. Again, Dario punches and again, I flinch at the brutal slam of his fist against Sergio’s jaw.
“How dare you pull a fucking gun on her,” Dario growls, angrier than I’ve ever seen him. “How fucking dare you.”
He lifts Sergio by the shoulders and slams him bodily on the concrete. I scream out loud and cover my face.
“Dario!” my cousin Romeo screams. “You’ll kill him, brother.”
Dario’s fist is raised as if to strike again. He’s vibrating with anger and brutality, fully unleashed. I’ve never seen my brother look so scared in his life. It’s unnerving.
Dario pulls away with reluctance. He gives Sergio a look that dares him to make another move, while he yanks him to his feet and tugs his hands behind his back.
“We talked about her, didn’t we?”
Sergio spits blood on the ground. “We did.”
“I told you she’s my future wife.”
Someone’s poured ice down my back. I stand, frozen in place.
His future wife?
Several things happen at once. Romeo unceremoniously grabs Sergio and jerks his chin at Santo. Together they lift, walk, and plunk Sergio into one of the huge, armored vehicles they were driving and lock the door. Romeo barks out orders for everyone but Dario to get rid of the bodies, then jerks his chin at Mario. “Any of these salvageable?”