Trembling with anger, my heart seems to cease beating when a tall man in a black ski mask drags Adeline into the gym. She struggles against the man, but his grip on her is ruthless.
It's not until my girl kicks his shin with all her might that he finally relinquishes his hold on her. She comes running into my arms, and I hold her so tightly I worry that she won't be able to breathe.
"I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry," I tell her over and over again, my voice breaking.
She looks up into my eyes, and I can see the sheer terror behind her tears. "I love you," she sobs.
A slow clap from behind us draws our attention. Giovanni glares at us with a crooked, evil smile. "SoLittle Red Riding Hoodfell for the Big Bad Wolf after all. Is that how the story goes?" He stops clapping and pulls his Glock out of his waistband. "I don't care for happy endings, though." His hazel eyes snap to Adeline, and he calls her like a dog, patting his thigh. "Come here. Come here, girl."
Adeline's grip around me tightens, and I hold her, not willing to let her go. I close my eyes for a moment and relish in the feeling of her in my arms one last time. I know what has to be done even though it goes against every fiber of my being right now.
"You're just making it worse on yourself, Adeline," Gio taunts.
She's trembling against me now, and I wish I could take all of her fear and sadness and absorb it so she didn't have to experience them anymore. "Go," I whisper to her, my voice hoarse.
She looks up at me with a horrified expression. "No," she hisses. "I'm not leaving you," she tells me. "I won't leave you," she cries.
"You have to," I tell her. There's nothing I can do to protect her now, and it fucking guts me. I don't have my gun. I don't have my computer. I don't have Jax or Wraith, and all of my guards are probably dead right now.
We're completely and utterly fucked, and there's not a goddamn thing I can do about that fact. The only thing I can do right now is make sure that she gets out of this alive.
If Giovanni was planning on killing Adeline, he would have done so by now. Clearly, Salvatore wants his daughter back alive. And knowing that she'll be safe makes my grip loosen when one of the men grabs her and pulls her from me.
"No!" she screams as she fights the man.
Ragged breaths exhale from my seizing lungs as I clench my hands to my sides and glare at Giovanni. He's still smiling; and I make a vow right there and then that if I make it out of this alive, I will personally slice that smug look off his fucking face.
I hate the fact that Wepner didn't bring down the empire quickly enough. He had the fucking paperwork, all the fucking evidence, all the fucking power to do so. But the government follows strict rules, unfortunately, to make sure they can try and convict these fuckers. He probably needed warrants and all that good shit.
But he, in turn, cost me so much by going by the book.
Giovanni grabs Adeline with his free hand, twists her in his grip and holds the gun to her temple. "Stop struggling, Adeline," he snaps at her, and it has me taking a menacing step towards them. His gaze locks on me, and he clicks his tongue in disapproval. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he warns.
Adeline covers her eyes with her hands, sobbing loudly. I watch her powerlessly…feeling weak and so fucking stupid that I didn't see this all coming. I should have listened to my gut and protected her. I failed her…again. I'll never be able to forgive myself.
Giovanni pulls her tighter against him and points his gun towards me. "Don't cover your eyes now, sweetheart. You're gonna wanna see this," he says through gritted teeth.
The moment her eyes meet mine, I have no time to react before the gun is going off. It echoes off the gym walls, sounding much louder. And then a searing pain travels through me as the bullet rips through the meat of my outer thigh.
"Fuck!" I roar, grabbing at the wound.
"Lucien!" Adeline screams, fighting against Gio, but he only holds her that much tighter.
Grinding my teeth together, I remain standing and glare at him defiantly. He's not going to knock me down that fucking easily. I will not fall to my knees for this asshole.
I stand tall, proud and keep my eyes trained on Adeline. I can feel the blood oozing from my wound, but I've had years of conditioning to learn to block out the bad things in my life. I can barely feel the pain. Hell, I've been through worse.
"So brave," Gio mocks. "We'll see how brave you are soon enough, Wolf." He pushes Adeline out of his grip towards two men, who put their greedy hands all over her as she kicks and screams.
My head pounds with a ferocious migraine as I squeeze my fists at my sides. If only I could get my hands on these fuckers. I would kill each and every one of them; tearing their limbs out with my bare fucking hands and making them suffer ten-fold.
Giovanni takes several steps towards me, motioning with his gun to make me step backwards over the jagged broken windows leading to the pool room. Once I'm near the edge of the pool, he asks me, "Can wolves swim?" He points his gun at my chest this time and smirks. "Let's find out."
My eyes instantly find Adeline's, and I begin to utter the words I wanted to tell her for so long but never could before. "Adeline, I -."
But I never get to finish.
I hear the gunshot and feel the pain ripping through my upper chest. And then I'm falling, falling backwards into the watery grave below me.
