61. Chapter 61
Nico
I’d just pulled my blazer on over the Kevlar when a knock sounded at the door. My pack and I shared a look.
Oliver tucked his gun against the small of his back and pulled the door open a crack. “Listen, I don’t know what’s taking them so long. It must be a big clog,” he said before registering who was beyond the door. After a moment, he replied to the muffled words outside. “What? Oh. Sure.”
The new arrival was indecipherable from where I stood, but Ollie handled it. Once he’d pushed the door shut, he cocked his head at me, confused.
“Rocco said your dad wants to see you in his office. Alone.”
Cruz stuffed another gun into his suit. “I don’t like it. That’s a bad idea.”
“We could just kill them. There’s only three outside, and two near Francisco’s office,” Oliver suggested with an excited grin.
“Not counting any roaming patrols.” I paced across the room to the picture windows.
Flashes of black moved through the trees where my brothers skirted the barracks.
This was about to get ugly, and Rosa was in the worst possible place.
“If he hears gunfire, he won’t hesitate to kill her.
We need to be careful,” I said, rummaging through the bag my brothers left behind.
Two silencers were buried at the bottom. That would have to do. I tossed one each to Cruz and Oliver. “Kill the other two outside. I’ll knock out Rocco. By the time he wakes up, we’ll have won, or we’ll be dead.”
Adrenaline roared through my veins as my hand landed on the door handle. I gave my pack a nod and pulled it wide.
Rocco was slow to react when I launched myself at him, taking him to the ground.
The butt of my revolver cracked across his skull as the whistle of two silenced gunshots swept past my face.
The remaining guards wobbled before toppling to the ground.
Red stains painted the walls where their blood and brains splattered.
Rocco was the lucky one. He might get a chance to repent for the sins of my father. As long as Rosa lived.
“Toss me the last set of cuffs,” I called to Oliver, who was already moving to get the backpack.
“There are two guards left outside the office, plus your father,” Cruz said as he tucked the silenced pistol into his pants.
“We don’t have much time.” I took the cuffs from Ollie and secured Rocco’s wrists around a pillar in the hall. “That won’t hold him for long once he wakes up.”
Oliver pointed his silenced gun at Rocco’s head. “Why don’t we kill him now and save ourselves the trouble?”
“Because, once we take over, we’ll need soldiers like him,” I said, and headed down the corridor.
Unlike most of the trash guards at the villa, Rocco was well-trained and knew when not to overstep. That was the only thing saving him from my bloodthirsty omega today.
“We’re taking over? Right now?” Oliver hurried to catch up.
Cruz trailed silently at my heels. Once my brothers were involved, there was no other outcome.
They’d planned to follow me when I took the throne.
It was just happening a little sooner and under different circumstances than we’d expected.
There would be no peaceful retirement for my tyrant of a father, not anymore.
I led the way through the twisting halls, slowing as I rounded the last corner before my father’s study. I motioned the others to stay behind me. The two guards outside the door tensed as if they expected trouble. They were right.
Cruz and Oliver walked into view with their guns drawn, and I held my finger to my lips.
The guards shared nervous looks but didn’t move.
Something felt off. They complied too easily.
Not even a dirty look. I slowed and drew my gun, my eyes darting down the hall.
A shadow moved across the wall, right before six more well-armed, masked soldiers poured out from the room at the end.
Well, fuck.
Now it was eight to three. And with Rosa a hostage a few feet away, even I didn’t like those odds.
Reluctantly, my hands went up in surrender.
“Toss your guns.” The gruff voice of one of the masked guards carried down the corridor.
Were we really going to fucking do this? I thought about Rosa, trapped in the office with my father and dropped my gun. The two thuds from behind me told me that Cruz and Oliver had done the same. Frustration simmered in my blood. Whatever happened, I had to get to her.
The soldiers inched their way down the hall as if expecting us to retaliate. If Rosa’s safety wasn’t in question, they would’ve been right.
Rosalina
The scent of cinnamon-soaked alcohol and charred ashes burned my nose. Everything blurred together before I shook my aching head to clear it.
Francisco’s forearm flexed across my neck. “I thought I’d lost you there for a second. I can get a little overzealous on occasion. Good that you’re resilient. You’ll need it if you want to survive.”
He chuckled, sending a wave of that bitter, burning cinnamon smell wafting over me. Finding my arms free, I grabbed at him, trying to push myself away, but he only laughed harder.
“Let me go!” I clawed at his arm, but it was no use.
“Don’t you want to see the show?” He tightened the pressure on my throat until spots were blooming on the ceiling again. “Nico will be here any minute. I’d hate to accidentally kill you before then.”
If only I could get my chin under his arm, I could bite him. His suit looked thick and unappetizing, but I was willing to try anything at this point.
Before I had a chance to attempt anything, the door shuddered on its hinges and peeled open.
The grinding scrape of the solid wood across the floor was jarring in the previously quiet space.
As soon as there was room, Nico stumbled in.
A guard in a mask holding a gun to his head.
They were followed by the rest of my pack, equally motivated to behave, along with a handful of soldiers.
“Tell me you didn’t kill Rocco,” Francisco's long-suffering sigh rumbled against my back.
Nico ignored the question and admirably made no comment about the decapitated head staring his way like a hollow-eyed desk ornament. “You sent for me?”
“It’s quite unfortunate that you are so very, very bad at following instructions.
Perhaps with the proper motivation, you will follow this one.
” Francisco pressed the cold muzzle of his gun to my throat.
“Break the bond you initiated with Rosa here, and we can discuss your position in the organization.”
I tried to tell him with my eyes that he should do it. It was a small price to pay for his lifelong ambition. I’d suffer the backlash of the bond snapping, but we’d both be alive. That was all that mattered.
Nico paused as if thinking it over. “And why would I do that?”
“You’d take Marcel’s place and be formally recognized as my successor. If not…” He jostled me on his lap. “I’ll have to kill you and simply make more heirs.”
My stomach twisted with disgust. The muscles bunched in Cruz’s cheeks, and I could almost hear his teeth grinding in frustration.
“How about instead, you give me my mate, and we let you live,” Nico suggested, and assumed a bored stance despite the gun barrel pointed at his head.
I’d seen that deceptively composed look enough times. He was anything but bored. He was murderous.
A handful of soldiers shuffled uneasily in the splintered doorway. The three with guns trained on my guys were rock solid, though. We were badly outnumbered, and they were likely to do something stupid. I had to stop them. This was suicide.
“It’s okay, Nico, do it.” I blinked at the sudden sting of tears and pushed past the growing lump in my throat. “You’ve worked so hard. This is your whole life. I’m not worth losing this over.”
His dark brows drew together in a frown. Oliver’s eyes widened, as if shocked that I’d give them up so easily.
“Is that really what you want, bella?” he asked, staring straight into my soul.
Of course, it wasn’t what I wanted. But sometimes you can’t have what you want. Sometimes, you make sacrifices for those that you love. My eyes shifted slowly to the gun pressing into the flesh at my neck. I didn’t want anyone to die, but I would take the pain if it meant they could live.
Nodding, I dropped my eyes to my lap. I couldn’t let him see the tears that pooled, waiting to fall, or the soul-deep wound I’d just ripped in my own chest.
Nico’s voice was steady. “You’ll have to reject the bond, then. I’ll never break what we have.”
I choked back a sob, the whole room blurring through my watery gaze as I lifted my chin to look at him. If I rejected him, I’d lose them all forever. “I… can’t…”
Francisco’s grip on me tightened, anticipating my redoubled struggle. “This is all very touching, but I have work to do. Let’s make this easy on everyone, shall we? Kill them,” he ordered the guards.
The masked soldier next to Nico turned his gun toward Oliver and pulled the trigger. My scream shattered the room just as surely as the explosion of gunfire did.
Oliver’s guard swung around, shooting one of the alphas who’d been standing at the door in the head and startling the rest into action.
Bullets went flying. Cruz and Ollie suddenly had guns in their hands and were firing on Francisco’s goons as they backed into the hall.
Nico dropped to one knee, grabbing a gun from his ankle holster, and raised it, aiming straight at me.
I shrieked, finally tearing out of Francisco’s grip and tumbling to the floor.
Francisco wasn’t going to let me go that easily, nor was he about to wait to get shot.
He ducked behind the desk just in time to avoid the bullet with his name on it, and grabbed for me.
His meaty palm speared through my hair, yanking me toward him and dragging me across the floor.
I flailed, trying to get away. In the commotion, my eyes landed on the gun I’d dropped earlier.
I strained for it, my scalp screaming in protest as I inched my hand under the desk.
Just a tiny bit further. Then my fingers landed on the cold steel.
I ignored the pain as strands of hair ripped from my head, but I got it and pulled it closer to me.
At the same time, Francisco hauled me back along the rug.
My fingers wrapped around the grip, and I rolled.
Francisco’s hand tangled in my hair, unable to get free, and when he saw the barrel of that pistol aimed at his face, he had nowhere to go.
I changed my aim at the last second and caught him in the shoulder. He bellowed, floundering at the pain in his arm. I pulled my hair free and scrambled away from where he thrashed behind his desk.
Nico was over me in an instant with his gun trained on his father. “Don’t fucking move. You don’t deserve a quick death, but I swear on my mother’s grave if you touch her again it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”
Francisco stilled, an air of shocked surprise shone from his wide, unblinking eyes.
One of the three last standing masked guards tossed Nico a set of handcuffs and pulled down his balaclava. Based on what I recalled of the Moreno family, this had to be the youngest brother Luca smiling back at me. “You okay, Rosa?”
Nico grabbed his father by his injured shoulder and tossed him onto his stomach, jerking his arms behind his back and securing them with the cuffs.
Francisco shrieked in pain and called out to Luca. “You’re not even my real son. I disown you.”
Nico cracked him over the head with the butt of his revolver, and he went limp.
Ignoring the rude interruption, I pushed myself to my shaking feet, and waved away the offered hand to stand. “Uh, yeah. I think so.”
In my frantic bid to escape Francisco, I’d missed most of the fight, but the aftermath littered the marble floor.
Five guards lay dead by the door. Oliver sat, pale-faced, against the wall with Cruz hovering over him as two identical-looking men studied Ollie’s bleeding leg.
I wobbled my way over to him and slumped to the floor, utterly wrung out. “What happened? Are you okay?”
A tiny grin tugged at the corner of his lips before he winced as one of the twins put pressure on his wound. “Much better now that you’re here.”
“Don’t be stupid.” I battled the smile his words brought out in me. “What happened?”
Oliver grunted and grit his teeth at something the twins were doing.
One of the doppelgangers turned to me with a cheeky smile.
“I’m Roman, and that’s my asshole brother Dom.
And Luca, the nice one, is over there. When my—” he stopped himself.
“I mean, Francisco raised the alarm, all the guards on the property ran to the house, so we just sort of tagged along. Everyone else is either dead or detained. No need to worry about that.”
Oliver groaned beside me, and my attention whipped back to him, worry creasing my brow.
He pressed a gentle hand to my cheek, cupping my jaw. “Don’t worry, babe. It’s just a flesh wound.” He coughed out a laugh, wincing.
I turned an accusatory look on Dom, who was disinfecting a hole in Oliver’s thigh. “I have to get the bullet out. Get him on the desk.”
Cruz shouldered past the brothers, scooping Ollie up and carrying him to the table.
Roman cleared the random papers off with a swipe of his arm, but paused at the head. “Uh, friend of yours?”
I nudged it with the barrel of my gun until it tumbled to the floor. “No.”
Francisco roused as a stack of papers fell on him, and he yelped from the ground. “Those are important documents.”
His grumbled tirade stopped short when Nico kicked him in the ribs.
Once the surface was clear, Cruz laid Oliver down.
Dom dug through his backpack, pulled out a set of forceps, and doused it with a bottle of alcohol. “Hold him down. This is going to hurt.”
Nico, Cruz, and Roman surrounded Ollie, each holding a limb.
Just as Dom was about to dig into Oliver’s thigh, a clatter of footsteps drummed down the hallway, and a female voice rang out. “Hello?”