I could not afford to black out right now.
“Giana, just the person I was hoping to see.” Angelo straightened his suit jacket as though he wasn’t just running scared like a coward. I bucked in the guard’s hold, trying in vain to get free, but he merely laughed at my attempts. “You think I give a fuck about any of them getting killed? I have thousands more who will give up everything just for the chance to get into my inner circle.”
Shouts erupted from the ballroom, stealing his attention for a moment before he sneered back down at me. “I should kill you for everything you’ve done, but that would be letting you off far too easy.” His eyes glittered with malice as he dragged them down my body. His lecherous look made the vest, leggings, and long-sleeved black shirt I was wearing feel like they’d disappeared, and he was leering at my bare skin. I hissed and thrashed in the guard’s hold, evoking his sinister laugh. “Oh, Ihave so many plans for you, plans you won’t escape, plans that will make whatever my son did to you look like child’s play.”
A shudder wracked my body, sending a chill straight up my spine. I blocked the images from my mind, keeping my senses on high alert as he motioned his guards up the stairs. The next thing I knew, I was pushed to the oak staircase, the cool press of a barrel against the back of my head forcing me to put one foot in front of the other.
I sucked in a breath, easing the frantic thrumming of my pulse against my eardrums. Tension radiated through my chest with each step I took. They urged me to pick up the pace as the ballroom door was opened, and we made it to the third floor before anyone even reached the staircase. Angelo fled to the end of the hallway, swinging a painting out of the way to reveal a steel door. One of the two remaining guards flung the door open, exposing a metal ladder to the roof.
The guard at my back pulled the door closed behind us, but before I could make a move, the gun was pressed against my temple. Angelo typed a code into the wall panel, sealing the door with an electronic click of a lock. The second guard ushered Angelo up the steel ladder before stripping all the weapons from me. My first gun was long forgotten on the hardwood floor outside the ballroom, but he took the second one secured to my hip, along with the two knives strapped to my legs.
Fuck.
I gritted my teeth as he flashed me a smug smile, spotlights illuminating the small enclosure as Angelo pried open the hatch. A helicopter was already waiting there, and I could only assume the pilot was expecting us.
I couldn’t let them force me in there.
The light gleamed off the guard’s auburn hair as he climbed the ladder next, while the one holding me at gunpoint shifted thegun to my back. He jabbed the cool metal into me, forcing me to catch myself on the steel handlebars.
“Don’t try anything.” He nodded up to his friend now on the roof, glaring down with my own pistol aimed at me. “If you do, we won’t hesitate to put a bullet between your eyes.”
I gritted my teeth, climbing the ladder one step at a time. This was a game to Angelo, and I was a mere amusement. He’d gladly let his men kill me as readily as he’d steal me away for his own enjoyment. Bile rose in my throat at that thought, but I swallowed it down, knowing that this wasn’t the end. The guard caught my wrist as I pulled myself up onto the roof, taking over for the other guard as he captured both of my wrists in one hand while pressing the gun to the back of my head.
The pilot was already seated in the cockpit, the door open and ready for us to clamber in. Angelo shot me a triumphant grin as he stood only a few feet away from the helipad. He pulled out his phone and took a picture of me as I squirmed in the guard’s hold.
“I’ll send this picture to those guys who are always fawning over you. I figured it would be a great memento since they’ll never see you again—alive anyway.”
The guard urged me forward, and I did my best to slow my steps, waiting for my opportunity.
“Were you just going to leave without me, father?”
Angelo whirled around as Lorenzo emerged from behind a cement wall containing the air conditioning units.
His eyes were wide with shock before a calculating grin stretched his lips. “Of course not, son, but I couldn’t very well search the entire house for you with these traitors trying to kill me, now could I?”
“Fair enough.” He shrugged, his mahogany orbs gleaming in the spotlights. They were so like Tommaso’s and so like their father’s that I almost forgot who was stalking toward us. “What are you doing with her?”
Angelo’s grin only grew as he directed his leer at me. “Death would be too easy for her, don’t you think? She killed your brother when all he ever did was love her. I think she should be subjected to her worst nightmare then. And since she enjoys being shared so much, I’ll even let you have her once I’m done with her.”
My stomach churned, and I bristled, fighting against the guard’s hold, but that only earned me a kick to the back of my knee. My leg buckled as pain singed along my nerve endings, but I gritted my teeth against it, not giving any of them the satisfaction.
“See how well she can handle pain. She would be perfect.” Angelo’s eyes glittered with greed as he scanned me once more, like he was mentally cataloging all the ways he was going to tear me apart, before shredding any sanity I had left with it.
Lorenzo shook his head, a sneer curling his lip that pulled his father up short. “Is that why you’ve always despised me? Because you formed Tommaso in your image, but I always refused to bend or break?”
“Lorenzo,” Angelo said in warning as the second guard closed in around us. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure, then how come you’re leaving in the middle of a gunfight without even looking for your son or wife?”
Angelo’s eyes narrowed on his son. “Are you coming or not? We don’t have time for this.” He went to climb to the helipad, but Lorenzo lunged for him.
Everyone froze for a moment, but as the guards jumped into action, the one holding me let go, assuming Lorenzo was the biggest threat. That was his first and last mistake.
I spun on the guard, my hands coming up to disarm him just as he pulled the trigger. The bullet embedded itself in the cement wall and tumbled from his hands. He frantically went to retrieveit, but my knee came up, the bone crunching as it made contact with his nose.
“Fuck,” he screamed as he clasped his face, blood spurting from between his fingers, but I didn’t have time to admire my handiwork.
I turned on the second guard as Angelo got the upper hand and fell onto Lorenzo. I had to trust him to take care of his father because the second guard was pulling his gun on me. I lashed out, kicking the gun from his grip and dodging out of the way. The shot slammed into the other guard’s chest, but judging by the way he crumpled over, a pained expression twisting his face as he clutched at his chest, he was wearing a vest.
