56. Chapter 56
Rosalina
Ithrew the shirt on over my bloody and bruised body. “Fuck, Diego,” I cursed, and he turned his attention to me. “How many alphas are in Lorenzo’s pack?” I didn’t wait for him to answer as I ran back to the array of weapons and grabbed the taser.
He looked from me to the bodies on the floor to the machete in my hand, still dripping with blood. “Five, including him. Rosa, what did you do?”
“I did what had to be done.” I tossed him the pistol—he was a better shot than I was anyway—and hurried over to the cells. “Is there anyone in here?” I raised my voice so that it would carry down the hall.
“It’s just me and your father left. They killed Javier two days after you went missing when Maria tried to smuggle a key into our breakfast.” Diego’s voice faltered, but he covered it with a cough.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes as he checked the magazine and grabbed a couple of other things off the wall of torture devices.
The slight catch in his voice was the only indication of how he felt about losing one of the last remaining members of his pack to this coup.
If I wasn’t hyped up on adrenaline, my heart would have bled for him. That would have to wait, though. I unlocked the cell next to Diego’s and threw the door open. My father was curled on the cold concrete floor in the tattered remains of a suit.
“Daddy?” I choked on the word before kneeling at his side. “Dad?” I shook his shoulder, and he groaned.
Purple and green bruises littered his battered face, but when his coal-dark eyes opened, he smiled through bloody teeth. “Rosa, my girl.” He choked on a cough. “I’m so sorry for everything.”
“There’s no time for that right now. There’s half a pack of pissed-off alphas that are going to be here any second. You have to get up,” I said, pulling him up into a sitting position.
He heaved himself to his feet, grimacing and staggering for balance. “You were the only thing that made getting out of bed worth it after they all died. I only stayed for you.”
My heart squeezed in my chest. Why couldn’t he have told me this literally any other day? These were the words I’d always wanted to hear. And now, when we were cornered in a cellar, about to be set upon by grief-stricken, frenzied alphas, he chose to tell me this now?
Insanity.
First, we had to deal with the enraged alphas about to charge through the door. Then we deal with the emotional train wreck of my life.
I hurried out of the cell, leaving my dad leaning against the wall. Once he got his bearings, he might be able to help. He knew this dungeon better than anyone. He’d back us up when he could.
The door buckled and shook in its frame as I came back into the main room. Diego had the gun pointed at the door, but there was no way of knowing who was behind it. We only had one gun with limited bullets. The door shook again, and an anguished scream followed.
That gave me an idea. I flipped the light switch off, plunging the room into darkness.
Our eyes only had a moment to adjust, but once the door flew open, the alphas were framed by light and stunned into stillness, unable to see into the dark where we stood.
Diego got off two shots, and the lead alpha fell, toppling into the room and blocking the battered door.
The second alpha stumbled over the body and rushed forward.
I squeezed the trigger on the taser, nailing number two in the neck.
His body seized, collapsing to his knees and then onto his face with a shriek.
The third roared in agony and grief as the last of his pack mates fell in front of him.
Diego had no empathy, though, after having lost Javier to these animals, and he unloaded the rest of the clip into the last member of Lorenzo’s pack.
Number two continued to scream, convulsing on the floor surrounded by his dead pack, pain and fury etched onto his face.
Some fucking way, Lorenzo was also still wheezing and gurgling with red froth oozing out of his wormy lips, clearly not dead enough yet.
The rest had holes in their heads with brain matter plastered all over the walls, floor, and stairs.
I considered ripping the probes from the sobbing alpha, but figured it would be easier to shock him again if I left them in. “Diego, quick, get this one strapped down.”
Diego hurried over, looped his arms around the squealing alpha, and chucked him onto the table.
While we’d been cleaning up what was left of the Vasco pack, my dad had made his way into the room.
He grabbed one of the flailing wrists of the last Vasco alpha and secured it to the metal table, making sure to lock the buckle.
The tail end of my adrenaline was wearing thin, and Lorenzo’s corpse was dragging himself inch by inch across the floor toward us.
“Why won’t you just die?” I grumbled, picking up the machete and thwacking him in the back of the neck. With a sickening crunch, the blade bit through the pulverized bone, and his head rolled free from his body.
Fucking finally.
The look on my dad’s face was one of confusion, surprise, and dare I hope, pride.
He was unsteady on his feet, but there was a tender smile creeping across his face. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”
I dropped the machete near the pile of bodies and rushed to my father. He scooped me up in a tight but unsteady hug, silent sobs shuddering through us both.
The pitter-patter of hurried steps on the stairs had me spinning around and putting myself between the door and my dad.
Maria poked her head in and looked around, distaste written all over her face.
“Well, I guess there’ll be some extra cleaning today.
I’m making French toast. Does anyone want any? ”