“Thirty-five,” a guy in the front says, raising his auction paddle with the number 165 on it.
“Forty,” I hear from a female behind me.
“Fifty,” I hear another female say further to the left of us.
The bids keep coming from every direction. The price is rising and rising. We are sitting at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
“Alex, Fucking do something!” I exclaim. I am starting to panic. The bids getting this high were not a part of the plan.
“One million dollars,” Alex yells over the crowd, holding up his auction paddle with the number 210 on it. My jaw dropped. One million fucking dollars? Does Alex even have that kind of money? I mean, his grandfather is the Drug Lord of the cartel, so I guess they do have money, but still, one million?
“SOLD! For One Million Dollars to the gentleman in the back!” Grandpappy yells into the microphone with too much excitement in his voice.
Tony starts to drag Olivia off the stage, and I start to freak out.
I grab Alex’s hand and start to walk toward the stage. “They can't take her, Alex. We need to get to her! What if they realize it's you and take her?” I am babbling all of my concerns out right now, and Alex is calm, cool, and collected.
“She comes with me!” Alex yells, and Tony stops dead in his tracks and turns with fire in his eyes.
When Olivia finally realizes it’s us running up to the stage, her eyes go big with hurt and longing, but then it turns straight to rage. I don't know why she is mad, but I can figure that out later.
Chapter two
Alex
BeforeIcanevenprocess anything in my brain, I am running towards the stage. The only coherent thought in my mind is that I need to get to Olivia as fast as possible. Rachel is right behind me, not missing a step. We are both trying to get our girl out of the slimy grip of Tony and my Grandfather.
When we finally get to the stage, I see the guy behind Tony. A bullet tore through his temple, and for a second, he just stood there, eyes wide with shock, before his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. The guy behind my grandfather drops next—a bullet to the chest, blood pooling under his lifeless body.
Damn! Oliver is a good shot.
I pull out my gun and turn, pointing it at my grandfather at the same time as Rachel has her knives out, spinning them in her hands like a show-off. She prefers to stab or slice someone, but she also has a good aim with throwing. I'm just grateful I got the target at home to start throwing at to practice.
As soon as everyone finally takes notice that the people lying on the ground are actually dead, blood-curdling screams start to erupt, and everyone starts to run in panic for the doors.
A smile forms on my face when I see my grandfather’s jaw tighten and his nostrils flare. His narrow eyes turn towards me, screaming that he is losing his patience. Tony – my grandfather's puppet – is looking around for the source of the bullet that has claimed residency in his two men, who are now staining the pristine floor.
If everything goes according to plan, Oliver will already be hiding somewhere on the second floor. I gave him a quick rundown of the floor plans before we got here, so he knew the best hiding places. I was a kid raised here by Satan himself. If anyone knows the best hiding spots, it would be me. But I do have to give my grandfather the benefit of the doubt; of all the places to hold my girl hostage, had his wicked ways with her, and bid her off, the home I grew up in was not one of my top choices. This place is full of the ghosts of my past that I never wanted to face again, but here I am, facing every single one of them, while I still need to keep my composure for both of these women who need me.
He outsmarted me, hiding her in plain sight. God, I can't get over that. Why didn’t I think of it… This will eat at me for the rest of my life. I could have saved Olivia from a world of pain, torture, and trauma. I was thinking of every other place he might take her to, and I found out that Oliver's men were on the right track the whole time.
“Give me Olivia, now!” I shouted. He gives Olivia a slight tilt of his head and then slowly extends his hand, palm up, towards the ceiling, flicking his fingers towards me to encourage Olivia to come to me, but she doesn't move. She stands slightly behind Tony, almost as if she were cowering behind him. The look in her eyes, wide, wary, like I am now a stranger to her, cut me deeper than any other wound I have had.
I am on the stage within three steps, grabbing Olivia from Tony’s reach. Her look now morphed into pure terror when she noticed my hand on her arm. Her eyes are now impossibly wide, whites showing all around her irises. Her mouth is slightly open, like she wants to scream. Her lips were trembling as if no words were able to come out, and only panic remained in her body.
What the fuck did my grandfather tell her?
Why is she so afraid of me?
I take off my leather jacket and drape it around her to cover her still-naked body, only for her to shrug it off and rip her arm out of my hand. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me!” She yells at me. My grandfather’s laughter booms through the room. He is enjoying this show.
“What? She doesn’t want you now. Poor Alejandro. Always the hero who came to the rescue too late.” I turn towards him, shooting him a look that could burn a damn hole through steel. I swear to fucking god I will kill him, regardless of us sharing the same blood.
“What did you tell her?” I run up to him, grabbing him by the collar of his button-up white shirt, my gun pressed up tight against his temple, ready to shoot his brains out with one wrong move.
“I didn’t tell her anything but the truth, my dear grandson.” The slimy smile on his face makes my stomach turn; I know he said something to fuck with Olivia’s head.
Rachel is physically shaking with anger next to me. Her hands are wrapped around her knives so tightly that her knuckles are turning red, and her eyes are zoned in on Tony. I know she is analyzing every slice and stab that will be inflicted on his body by her hands.
