Chapter 29 #2
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 the gun 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 retrieve it, 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.
I slid the knife out from between my breasts, grateful they hadn’t had the time to check me over thoroughly.
I slammed it into the guard who was still recovering, not wanting both of them to come at me at once.
I caught them both off guard as he was just getting to his feet.
His gaze shifted to the knife embedded in the middle of his throat before I twisted it and pulled it out.
His eyes rolled back in his head as he fell back, wheezes escaping his throat as blood bubbled from the wound and up through his lips.
“You fucking bitch,” the other guard roared, his black hair gleaming in the harsh lights as he ran at me.
I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows as I dodged him and brought my knee up into his side.
He bent over, gripping his side as he grabbed for the discarded gun.
He barely had his hand wrapped around the grip before I threw the knife at him.
His eyes widened as the tip embedded itself right between them.
Exactly where he’d threatened to shoot me.
Oh, now that really was karma biting him in the ass, wasn’t it?
I stalked over to him. “Sure, I’m the bitch. You can just call me Karma.” I gripped the handle of the knife and used my boot against his chest to get leverage as I tugged it free, sending blood spurting from the open wound. Nope, that’s a little too much for me.
Adrenaline coursed through my body as I turned back to the two Barones, father and son, grappling for control over the second gun.
I hadn’t noticed that when it landed, it had skidded closer to them.
Lorenzo was above his father, the gun pointed away from them and me, but as Lorenzo tried to wrench it from his father’s grip, Angelo used the opportunity to flip his son over, slamming his back onto the hard roof and disorienting him.
I couldn’t let this man get control of that weapon.
So I struck. As the two grappled for the gun, Lorenzo’s fingers barely holding on to the grip while keeping it pointed away from himself, I slammed the knife into the side of Angelo’s neck, twisting it before I tugged it out, tearing out half his throat.
“That was pretty sad, honestly. Your son put up more of a fight than you did.”
Just as Angelo’s body slumped forward, Lorenzo pressed the trigger, sending a bullet into the eldest Barone’s skull.
It was probably overkill at that point, but I got it.
Neither of us wanted to take any chance that this monster would miraculously pull through.
Angelo’s lifeless form collapsed onto Lorenzo’s chest and I couldn’t help the grin tilting up my lips.
I pulled in a deep breath and closed my eyes as the helicopter roared to life, the pilot obviously not wanting to stick around just in case I was going to stab him next. Smart man.
My hair was lifted in the wind as the blades of the helicopter whirred to life, the aircraft leaving a few moments later as though death via stab wound was a disease he might catch if he stayed any longer.
Lorenzo groaned as he worked to roll his father off him, the dead weight pinning him down. I was just about to attempt to help him when the roof hatch opened. I charged for my discarded gun and took aim just as a head of nearly white platinum hair popped up.
“Thank fuck,” he said as his wild eyes landed on me.
Bloodlust fogged their depths until he scanned my body, not finding any injuries.
Some of the feral gleam faded from them as he hopped up and raced for me.
“The helicopter taking off scared the shit out of us. We all thought that asshole turned on you.”