The noise reverberates through the room, freezing everyone in place. My entire body goes tense, and out of the corner of my eye, I notice the thug holding me at gunpoint stiffen, his posture going rigid.
I don’t need to look to know what’s coming. Or rather, who’s coming.
Augustus Luna. The leader of the Los Diablos Syndicate. The mastermind behind every horrific event that’s twisted my life into a nightmare. The man who haunts my every waking moment.
My enemy.
My father.
“Hello, boys,” Gus says, his voice confident despite obvious exhaustion. He walks with his usual arrogance and a smirk, but I notice his limp, weakness, and dark circles under his eyes. He looks sick, paler than ever, yet still just as dangerous.
He stops in the middle of the room, his gaze shifting from the box to us. My heart pounds harder, fear for Stone overwhelming me.
Where is he? Why isn't he here? Is he okay? The questions come fast, each more desperate than the last.
Stone has to be okay. He has to be.
“I realized that torturing you individually is not the way to get answers after my trip to your cage, hijo,” Gus says, pointing a meaty finger at me. The sneer on his face deepens, his eyesnarrowing with contempt. “I should have known. Your weakness has always been each other.”
The words hit me like a punch to the gut, the truth of them searing into my mind. Gus knows. He’s always known. And now, he’s going to use that knowledge against us in the worst possible way.
My breath catches in my throat, my gaze darting back to the sheet-covered box in the middle of the room. Dread claws at my insides, tearing through me with a force that leaves me trembling.
I want to scream, to demand that Gus tell me where Stone is, what he’s done to him. But the fear, the choking, all-consuming fear, keeps me silent.
My eyes slide from the box to my brothers. They both share similar, horrified expressions.
Is it Stone? Hunter? I swallow hard.
Ella?
My gaze snaps back to the box as nausea swirls through me. No. Fuck. No.
Nyx shifts beside me, the movement drawing my attention. I meet his gaze, see the same terror reflected in his eyes, and it only makes the panic inside me swell. The thought, the possibility, just hit him too.
Gus takes a step closer to the box, his eyes gleaming with sadistic pleasure. “You see, boys,” he continues, his voice dripping with venom, “the key to breaking you was never in how much pain I could inflict on you as individuals. No, the key was always here.” He taps his temple with one finger, his smirk widening. “In your heads. In your hearts.”
My heart races faster, the sound of it thundering in my ears. I want to look away, to shut my eyes and block out the horror of what’s to come, but I can’t. I’m frozen, trapped in the nightmare that Gus has created for us.
He reaches out, his hand hovering over the sheet, and my breath catches in my throat. The anticipation, the dread, is suffocating. Every muscle in my body tenses, ready to snap, to fight, to do something—anything—to stop what’s about to happen.
“Are you ready for the big reveal, hijo?” he asks, his voice soft, almost tender, like a father speaking to his child. The mockery in it cuts me to the bone.
Before I can respond, before I can even think, Gus rips the sheet away with a flourish, revealing what’s underneath. The sight of it makes my blood run cold, my heart stuttering in my chest.
“No,” I whisper, the word slipping out in a broken gasp. The world tilts, everything spinning out of control as I stare at the figure curled up inside the small, metal box.
No—not a metal box.
Cage.
He’s in a dog cage.
The world slows to a crawl, every sound around me fading into the background as my eyes lock onto the cage in the center of the room. My heart pounds violently against my ribs, the blood draining from my face as the figure inside is revealed.
Stone.
My brother. He’s battered, bruised, and covered in blood, his body crumpled in on itself, barely recognizable. For a moment, I can’t move. I can’t even breathe. All I can do is stare at the horrifying image before me, my mind struggling to process what I’m seeing. Stone, the strongest person I know, reduced to this. It feels impossible, like some twisted nightmare I can’t wake up from.
