“Kill order carried out. Come in. Over,” I tell Adam through the earpiece.
“Coming in. Over.” After a couple of minutes, Adam is inside the restaurant as well. He looks around, and as soon as his eyes land on Sara, relief washes over his face. He runs toward her and picks her up with one arm. He kisses her and sets her down again.
“You guys had a party.”
“And we had a blast. Now, where is our main guest?” Oliver asks as we all start splitting up to look for Lana. I walk over to a door with a padlock on it, and I ask Sara for her shotgun. She hands it over to me, and I shoot the lock. It luckily falls off, and I open the door—it’s the way to their basement.
“M! Help!” My ears perk up, and I run downstairs, holding my assault rifle. Once I reach the bottom of the stairs, I am met with an inhumane sight. Lana is tied to a chair while a man is dangling, face down, from the ceiling. His feet are wrapped around a cord, while the crown of his head is cut off. Making his blood seep onto Lana. She is enveloped in the guy’s blood.
I run over to her and untie her by using my machete. She jumps into my embrace, and I hold her tight to my chest. Right now, I realize how much I missed her. It hits me like a tidal wave—relief so sharp it almost hurts, stealing my breath. I finallyhave my arms around the love of my life. I look at her, and her eyes are filled with tears.
“I found her!” I scream so my team can hear me. I put my hand on her face and touch every part, because I finally have her. It’s wild how much fear I felt, even though I have only been away from her for a couple of hours.
“Little hummingbird, I’m here.”
“You are here. You are here. You are here,” Lana keeps on repeating, like she can’t believe that I’m really here for her. She grabs the sides of my face and kisses me deeply. Fuck, my desire for her lips has intensified even more than before.
“Lana!” Sara screams as she comes up to us and places a hand on my shoulder. Lana and I break apart, and she tries to stand up.
“Not a fucking chance,” I tell her. I scoop her up in my arms, and she nestles herself into my embrace like she can finally breathe freely. Ready to carry her out of his hellhole. But Josh stops me.
“M, look at the right wall.” I was so focused on Lana that I didn’t look at anything else in the room. I look where he points, and I freeze.
There are hands pinned to the wall, probably belonging to the hanging guy, in a praying manner.
Leon.
I look to Oliver, as he is the craziest one of us, to carry out what I have in mind.
“Once we are all out, burn the place down,” I order. Oliver pulls his bottom lip between his teeth, gleaming.
“Done and done, M.”
“Thank you, Oliver. Everybody, regroup at our villa. We have a downfall to plan.”
I get Lana into my car after I have cleaned her up as much as I can, and we drive off. While we are driving off, flames engulf us. The restaurant is burning down.
But soon so will Leon.
Mark my words.
54
M“She is sleeping upstairs,” I tell the team as I come downstairs onto the patio. Everybody is sitting in our comfortable chairs, looking uncomfortable. We need to get our heads together and come up with a plan to get Leon out of hiding. The fucker is escalating, and it’s not logical how he keeps evading us. It’s like he has somebody on the inside.
I look at my team, and I can confidently say that I don’t suspect any of them, except Lana. Her fear was palpable while she was in that chair. Her whole body was vibrating with panic—shoulders pulled up, muscles tight, and her wrists straining instinctively against the rope. Her breathing was quick and shallow, and her chest was rising and falling too fast. Every breath was a small gasp.
When I entered the room, her eyes were wide, unblinking, and glassy with panic. My little hummingbird was searching for an escape that wasn’t there until I came along. Her eyebrowswere drawn upward, and her expression was a mix of shock and helplessness. When I finally got her away from that chair, I felt like we could both breathe again.
Once we got home, I took her upstairs and washed her body thoroughly. I took time getting her cleaned up; the blood that was staining her body needed to be washed away. But I am not sure everything went away. When I put her in bed, it was like the smallest part of her was still trying to flee.
She is caught between trying to stay still and trying to disappear. I guessthatpart still hasn’t evaded her. My little hummingbird had to put up with a lot for the last couple of years, living alone in that shit-infested apartment, surviving on below minimum wage, and dealing with male customers and bosses who thought that they could take advantage of her.
Thinking about them makes me want to dig them back up and scatter their body parts across the whole of Sarajevo. The overwhelming urge to send the body parts to their respective families as a gift is something I have to let go of for now.
I’m cruel, and Leon is about to see just how ruthless I can be.
I sit down and light up a cigarette.
