Page 293 of Vicious Temptation

“Lower your weapons!” Aunt Leni shouts as she steps directly into their line of fire.

“Don’t you fucking dare point those guns at my daughter!” Mamá yells.

Officers shout for everyone to move back, but no one in my family listens. My father grabs my mom and pulls her away from the front of the vehicle, while Uncle Derek forces Matteo behind him.

The few seconds of chaos are all I need. I throw the BearCat into drive as Ryan slams his palm against the hood.

“Remi!”

I hit the accelerator, and the armored vehicle lurches forward as everyone scatters from its path. I aim for the gap between two cruisers, and a portable barricade disappears beneath the front tires with a violent crunch.

Officers race to clear the approach ahead of me, but I keep my foot down.

Across the property entrance, the security gate is already closing, but I’m moving too fast to stop, even if I wanted to. The BearCat plows through it, ripping metal from the tracks and sending a section skidding across the pavement.

As the building rushes toward me, I brace myself against the seat, aiming for the glass-and-metal frame entryway instead of the concrete around it.

Then I floor it.

The reinforced grille smashes through the glass, throwing me against the seat belt. Shards explode across the hood as the frame buckles beneath the vehicle’s weight, and we grind to a stop inside the building.

Seventy-Two

thiago

Pain erupts across the right side of my face, ripping me out of unconsciousness.

I suck in a breath and force my eyes open, but everything swims. My head pounds, my jaw throbs, and the taste of blood coats my tongue. When I try to straighten, pain rages through my abdomen, forcing me back against the chair.

Fuck.

Breathing through it, I wait for the room to stop spinning. The wound Remi gave me throbs beneath my shirt, and the wetness spreading across the bandage tells me I’ve torn the stitches to all hell.

I groan from the ache in my thighs and ribs every time I breathe. There isn’t a goddamn part of me that escaped whatever happened after the crash.

The crash.

Pieces begin coming back. The SUV in my mirror. Matteo’s voice through the speakers. Headlights coming from my left. Then metal slammed into the driver’s side, and everything went black. I don’t know how long I’ve been unconscious or where the fuck they brought me.

I blink until my vision clears enough to make out the space around me. A single lamp illuminates the far corner, leaving most of the room buried in shadow. Damp concrete walls trap the heat, and the air reeks of mildew, rust, and stagnant water.

Something warm slides down my forehead and drips from the tip of my nose. I try to wipe it away, but my hands won’t move. Steel cuffs rattle against the metal bars behind me instead.

“Fuck,” I groan as I pull against them. “Goddamn bastards.”

The last thing I remember is calling Matteo. I told him to get everyone out before Helios could reach them, but I have no idea if I got through to him before they found me.

I have to believe I did.

If Matteo listened, Remi and the rest of her family are already gone, somewhere Helios can’t reach them. Somewhere safe.

Please let her be safe.

The last time I saw her, she stood on that terrace, telling me she hated me as tears slid down her face. If I die in this place, that could be the last memory of us she’s left with. She’ll never know that I meant every word when I told her I loved her, or that I tried to protect her after I destroyed any reason she had to believe me.

The thought hurts more than anything they’ve done to my body.

A soft shuffle comes from somewhere to my right, and I turn toward the sound. The shadows are too thick to make out anything beyond the outline of a person, yet I’m no longer alone. Maybe I never was.