Talon looks back at me. “If only your word could be trusted,” he says. “Let me be very clear. She will die here tonight. My men won’t stop until she’s been slaughtered like a fucking pig, and they will rejoice in it because every fucking wound on her body is breaking you beyond repair. You took six men from us, and we won’t stop until she has paid your debt completely. She’ll give her life tonight, but it won’t just end once. She’ll endure enough of this shit until she’s died six fucking deaths. And only then will you follow her bitch-ass to a shallow grave.”
Pure rage boils through my body, my heart threatening to boom right out of my fucking chest.
There’s no fucking way I’m about to let that happen.
Gripping onto the bars, I shake them with everything I’ve got, the concrete holding them in place starting to crack, but Talon just laughs, having no fucking idea what I’m truly capable of.
They keep hurting her, keep hitting and punching, groping her body, and spitting in her face. Every second of her torture is ruining me, but I don’t stop pushing myself to my limits as I try to break through the cell.
Nothing will keep me from getting to her.
Collaroy pauses, stepping back as Nico and the other asshole take over. He turns around, grinning at me, as if to make sure I’m not missing a second of their performance. “And to think. If Ash were still here, he would have been the one leading the fucking party. He would have slaughtered her. Slit her fucking throat and watched her bleed out.” He laughs and raises his brow before pulling a switchblade from his pocket and taunting me with it. “Actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”
Collaroy laughs, testing the weight of the blade in his palm, and as he goes to turn back to Aria, he takes the crowbar and slams it against the metal bars of my cell in an attempt to fuck with me. My hand snaps out, catching the end of the crowbar and yanking him hard into me.
The crowbar flies out of his hands as his head smashes against the metal bars, but I don’t waste my chance. Reaching through the bars, I grab hold of his head and twist, snapping his neck in an instant.
He drops heavily to the ground, and Talon doesn’t even notice until I’ve scooped up the crowbar and am using it to get leverage on the bars, snapping the fucker straight out of the concrete.
“FUCK!” he roars, springing toward my cell, Aria all but forgotten as they realize their one threat in the room has been unleashed. I push past the broken bar, my ribs screaming in protest, but I ignore the pain, needing to get to Aria.
Talon pulls a gun, immediately shooting without aiming, and just like in the warehouse, I move too fast, and every shot he takes flies straight past me. He grunts in frustration, his eyes widening, realizing just how fucked he is, and as he attempts to backtrack, I reach out, grip his elbow, and twist his arm back around so hard that I hear the joints in both his shoulder and elbow snap. He roars in agony, and the sound is like music to my ears, but it doesn’t last long. I turn his gun against him, pressingit just below his chin, and with his own fucking hand still curled around the trigger, I blow his fucking brains out.
Talon’s body drops like a sack of shit, blood and brains spurting across the cells, but I don’t have a moment to enjoy my kill. I turn to face the other two fuckers, needing them to pay for what they’ve done to my girl. Only Nico is already halfway through the cells, running away just like he did that night. But he won’t get away with it twice. Not if I have anything to do with it.
The third guy comes at me, a blade in his hand.
He’s shitting himself, and while I desperately wish that I could have dragged this moment out, I need to get it done so I can get Aria out of those fucking chains and far away from this hellhole.
He lunges, his blade flashing toward me, but I catch his arm and haul him in, twisting until his back slams against my chest. Then, in one smooth motion, I clamp my hand over his, forcing the knife down as I overpower him and drive the blade deep into his abdomen.
His body violently jerks, a breath tearing from his throat, but it’s too easy. Too quick. Too survivable. And with a powerful rip, I tear the blade across, taking it from hip to hip and gutting him like a fish.
Organs spill onto the ground, and as I tear the blade free and focus my attention on Nico’s retreating form, I can’t help but wonder how Doc would feel about these intestines at my feet.
Shaking the thought free, I adjust the blade in my grip and step over the fallen body. With everything I’ve got, I rear back and throw the blade clear across the basement, watching as it hits home, sinking deep into the center of Nico’s spine, bringing him straight to his knees.
Is he dead? I have no fucking idea, but he’s down, and that’s all that counts right now.
Turning back, I fly toward Aria, my feet quickly eating up the space between us as she silently sobs. “I’m here, Menace,” I tellher, wrapping my arms around her and taking her weight as I reach up and unhook her ankles from the meat hook.
She grasps onto me, her arms locked around my neck, and squeezes tight as though terrified I might let go, but that’s never gonna happen. “It’s over, baby,” I soothe her, crouching down as I try to get the heavy chains off her feet. “Tell me you’re okay.”
She just cries, and the moment the chains are gone, I take her face, needing her to focus. There will be time to fall apart, but now is not it. “Come on, Menace. I need you in the game,” I tell her. “Are you with me?”
She swallows hard but finally nods. “Yeah,” she says, swiping the tears off her face. “I’m with you.”
“Good. Now tell me what you know.”
She breathes hard, her gaze shifting to the body of the man I’d gutted beside us, his organs spilled across the dirty ground, but it’s got nothing on the blood that accompanies it. I take her chin and gently bring her gaze back to mine. “It’s okay, Aria. They’re not going to hurt you anymore. But there’s bound to be more of them, and I need to get you out of here before someone comes looking.”
She nods.
“Keep focused on me, and tell me what you know.”
“There, umm . . . There were more of them upstairs,” she starts, her body trembling as she tries to breathe through the pain. “A whole bunch. Maybe twenty.”
Fuck. It was one thing taking on all those prisoners in that conference room. I had the upper hand and could put myself in the corner, forcing them to only come at me one at a time. But I don’t know what’s waiting for me up there, and I can’t afford to leave Aria vulnerable while I try to fight off twenty gang members.
