Chapter 45
Chapter Forty-Five
Dried blood cakes my face, sealing my eyelids closed.
It cracks as I peel them open and pieces of gore flutter across my face, drifting onto the floor.
Morning light pours from the windows, setting a scorching pain ablaze in my head.
Despite the agony blooming in my skull, I don’t blink. I don’t close my eyes.
You deserve this pain, the creature in my chest seethes, its claws dragging down the walls of my heart. You let them take what’s mine. You let them hurt her.
My lungs tighten painfully, each breath stabbing into the soft tissues inside of me.
It hurts because I know it’s true. She’d be safe if I had left her alone.
If I hadn’t walked by that goddamned coffee shop.
If I hadn’t seen the sadness swimming in her eyes.
If I hadn’t felt that desperate need to explore it. If I had been a good man.
The remnants of an old memory whisper through my mind.
My mother’s soft voice rings through it.
Someday, she says, you’ll find a girl who’s very special to you.
She’ll become your whole world and you’ll love her more than anything.
Your heart will beat just for her. When that happens, cherish her. Protect her and never let her go.
Her words seemed so insignificant at the time. After her death, they meant nothing. Her dreams for my life became an impossibility. Because monsters don't get happily ever afters. Liquid drips down my face and I reach my hand up to wipe it away. I must be bleeding again.
I hold my hand in front of my eyes, but I don't see blood. My tongue darts out, testing the fluid in the only way I can think to. Salt hits my tongue and a shiver creeps through my limbs. Tears. They're fucking tears. A sound jumps up my throat, a sob spilling from my mouth.
“I'm so sorry, Mom,” I whisper into the air. “I'm so sorry I didn't save you.” My hands clench, my resolve hardening every muscle in my body. “But I will save her.”
Wood clatters to the ground as I shove my shoulders upward.
Digging my fingers into the rubble, I crawl out from beneath the remnants of my house.
They don't matter, these broken objects around me.
They aren't my home, she is. Chunks of wood and metal slice into my palms as I drag my body across the floor.
I ignore the pain that explodes through my skin.
It doesn't matter. Any pain I feel now is nothing compared to the suffering I'll cause to the ones who took my little bird from me.
Anyone who has so much as looked at her will die at my hands.
I'll drag out their deaths, watching them writhe and cry in agony before I even consider ending their worthless lives. Until I get her back, no one in this city is safe. I’ll burn this fucking place to the ground to find her, and when I do, we'll fuck in the cinders.
A grin peels across my face as images flash through my mind. My woman, smiling in my arms, her face smudged with ash. She'll look so beautiful with firelight sparkling in her eyes. She'll dance for me, her full hips swaying in her dress made of smoke.
With a kind of clarity that borders on madness, I sprint to our bedroom.
Ignoring the screaming of my muscles, I shovel through the closet.
Clothes fly across the room, fabric fluttering to the dirtied floor until I find my stash of tactical gear.
I slip the bulletproof vest over my head, even as my body groans in protest at the movement.
My joints ache as I move hastily towards my office.
Once inside, I drop my body into my desk chair and switch on the monitors that connect to the security system.
The screens blink to life, bathing my face in bright, artificial light.
My vision becomes fuzzy and the room tilts around me.
My stomach churns and I drop my head beside the desk to vomit into a potted plant.
I swallow down the acrid taste of bile that lingers on my tongue and return my attention to the monitors.
I know this feeling, but I don't have time to deal with a concussion.
Not while she's in the hands of my enemies.
My fists clench, my fingernails digging into my palms. The bite of pain grounds me.
For Ava, I'll endure. I won't rest until she's safe in my arms.
Flipping through the security footage, sharp claws grip my heart, shredding the weak organ.
Ava's face fills the screen and I suppress the pitiful whine that tries to climb up my throat.
I watch my little bird, her teeth sinking into her pouty lip as she grinds her pussy against my hand.
My cock hardens as I watch her mouth drop open in pleasure.
Mustering up all of my willpower, I fast-forward through the video of my perfect little pet, sated and sleeping against my chest. I can't linger on those images. If I do, I'll lose myself in her visage. So, I skip forward to the moment the front door exploded open and my enemy invaded our home.
My fingers wrap around the edge of my desk, the wood groaning under my grip, as I watch the bastard who put his hands on my woman.
He grabbed her, his fingers dimpling her delicate flesh and bruising her milky skin.
I smash my fist into the keyboard, jacking up the volume just in time to hear him call her ‘cara’.
“Bianca.” Her name growls out of me, grating against my tongue like a cheese grater. White hot anger boils in my gut, burning away the last of the nausea. I'll make good on my promise to Mikhail. Bianca Rossi will die at my hands.
* * *
“Find out where the fuck they are!” My fists crash into Shawn's desk, sending empty cans of some God awful energy drink clattering to the floor.
“I'm working as fast as I can, man,” he says as his fingers pick up speed.
They clack against the keyboard as traffic camera footage flits across his computer screen.
“I tracked them from your place through the south side of the city.
I lost track of them somewhere around Belmont, but they were definitely moving north.
I suspect they were moving away from the city to wherever Bianca's compound is.” He huffs out a shaky breath.
“I'm sorry, man. I just can't find where that is.”
“Get me the location of every single one of her businesses. Warehouses, storage facilities, whorehouses, fucking jerk-off booths. I don't give a shit. Just find them and get me the addresses.”
His voice cracks with uncertainty. “Some of her men are still combing through the city. I've been watching their cars and they're searching. They're coming for you.”
I choke out a humorless laugh and Shawn inches back in his chair.
He looks up at me, concern swimming in his eyes. “W-what are you going to do?”
“I'm going to get my girl back.”