29. Chapter 29
Rosalina
As soon as we were far enough away from the house not to be overheard, I turned on Cruz.
“What the actual fuck is this shit? You fucking maniac. Are you out of your goddamned mind? How do you know Nico? Why’d you put me in the trunk?
Where are you taking me?” Questions raced through my mind and straight out of my mouth.
There was no filter and no stopping until I realized I was standing in the moonlight in nothing but a torn, see-through slip of a dress.
I glanced down at myself and quickly wrapped my arms across my chest, blocking his view.
“Rosa, you need to get back in the car. You can’t be out here. It’s too dangerous.” Cruz’s eyes never wavered from my face.
“What? And being kidnapped by my own fucking bodyguard isn’t too dangerous, Cruz? If that even is your real name.”
It probably was; otherwise, he never would’ve passed my father’s background check, but honestly, how the fuck had he done that if he was just going to kidnap me?
“You can either get back in the car, or I will put you back in the car.” He took a step toward me.
“You have no idea how many people are in that house. You’re probably outnumbered and no doubt outmatched.
” I let my eyes trail down his body derisively, but the butterflies dancing happily in my stomach betrayed the lies on my tongue.
I shook the stray thought away. “You’re going to need all the guns you can get.
Let me help you save the omegas. Then I’ll get back in the car.
” I shifted my weight, ready to react if he tried to grab me.
Instead of tackling me as I’d expected, he handed me a gun.
“Don’t fucking shoot me,” he said and walked back up the drive.
This had to be a trick. The gun must not be loaded, or something. I pulled the slide back and caught the gleam of a bullet. Nope, it was definitely loaded.
Okay, then.
Cruz ignored me as he headed up the road, giving me the perfect opportunity to shoot him in the back. I was tempted, but it was true, we didn’t know how many people were in the house. Killing him now would likely get me just as dead, or worse.
Much worse.
Still paying his precarious position no mind, he grabbed his jacket from inside the open minivan and tossed it to me as we walked past. It would’ve been a lot easier to shoot him if he went back to trying to stuff me in the trunk, and stopped being so fucking nice.
When we strode back into the barn, Nico was hanging up his cell. His dark eyes shifted from me to Cruz, then back to me again. If looks could kill, this whole hemisphere would be a crater.
“She’s helping.” Cruz shrugged by way of explanation.
I could only imagine the conversation they’d be having once this was over. That wasn’t my problem, though. Saving these people was the only thing I was worried about right now. “Are we doing this or what?”
Nico pulled a hefty revolver from the small of his back and headed toward the front of the barn. “Backup is on its way. All we have to do is hold tight.”
Fuck that. That bitch drugged me and put me in a fucking cage. There was no hold tight. These people needed justice.
From down the hill, a shrill voice echoed up to us. “Billy? Johnny? Where you at? Did you see lights down by the gate?”
That fucking cunt. She dragged me into her van and shot me full of some kind of tranquilizer.
Which, I realized, might still be working to some extent.
Shouldn’t I be less calm than this? The logical thing would’ve been to shoot Cruz as soon as he handed me his gun and ran the fuck out of there, but I didn’t.
No idea what that said about my mental state.
First, stop that crazy bitch from hurting anyone else. Then deal with the hot alpha kidnappers.
Priorities, Rosa.
No sooner had that thought crossed my mind than the bitch in question came bobbing down the path to the house with the barrel of a shotgun resting on her shoulder.
She was looking back toward the gate, not paying attention to what was going on in the barn, not yet anyway.
But as soon as she came around the doorway, her jaw dropped open, and her shotgun dropped into place, aiming right at us.
Time slowed. Every movement was like wading through molasses, and the throb of my heart was deafening. The gun in my hand weighed ten-thousand pounds as I raised it from my side.
I breathed out.
The cold metal of the trigger gave under the pressure of my finger, sending a bullet hurtling from the barrel and straight through that woman’s gaping mouth in a spray of blood and brain matter.
She stood there for a second, as if she hadn’t fully registered that she was dead yet, and then her body crumpled with a sickening thud, and my stomach lurched.
I’d never killed anyone before. It was nothing like what I’d expected.
I’d practiced target shooting plenty, but this was different.
The sound of her flabby flesh hitting the ground caught me off guard.
I swallowed down the bile bubbling its way up my throat and lowered the gun to my side.
My ears rang, and my hands shook, but I hardly noticed as I stared at the growing puddle of slick, red liquid pooling around the bitch’s head and seeping into the dirt.
In my stunned stupor, Nico made his way to my side and plucked the gun from my trembling hand. “That’s probably enough for you tonight.” He stuck it into the waist of his pants and took off toward the house with Cruz trailing behind. “I guess we’re doing this.”
As Cruz passed, he grinned and said, “Nice shot, hellcat,” before disappearing down the steps leading to the house.
“I was aiming for her chest,” I muttered, still dizzy and reeling from the reality of what I’d done. I couldn’t believe I’d shot someone. Holy shit.
The caged omegas stared, wide-eyed, quiet, reverent, but I felt the weight of their judgment on my shoulders.
The hush of panicked breathing whispered in my ears. Murderer.
I was, and I felt numb to it. She had to die so that everyone else could live. Once the shock wore off, it might be crushing, but for now, I was still here, alive.
The gunshot would’ve alerted anyone on the property, and Nico had taken my pistol. I was vulnerable alone out in the open, so I hurried after the two alphas, careful to stay clear of the still twitching body lying by the doorway.
As I made my way down the crumbling brick steps, the night air came alive with shouting from inside.
Two massive alphas burst out of the rickety back door.
Their eyes locked on me up the hill, glowing like a beacon in the moonlight.
I couldn’t tell if they saw the dead woman lying in the dirt behind me, but that didn’t make the snarl that issued from their mouths any less terrifying.
I considered running, but they were alphas, there was zero chance I could outrun them, even if I tried. So instead, I held their stares, defiant, as if I didn’t even care that I’d just killed that crazy old bitch. Fuck her anyway for trying to traffic me, or whatever this was.
With the alphas’ attention locked on me, Nico and Cruz had no problem slinking out of the shadows and putting a bullet in each of the scowling alpha’s heads. They didn’t appear to be having the same issues with murder that I’d had and stepped fluidly over the corpses now blocking the door.
Who the hell were these assholes? I remembered not so very long ago when I’d worried about getting Nico involved in a world he wouldn’t survive.
Little did I know he was just like the men I grew up with.
And Cruz was anything but your average omega babysitter.
The idea of escaping this life with one of them was laughable now.
They were just as bad as all the others; they just smelled better.
They moved with the confidence of trained killers, striding systematically from one room to the next, checking behind doors and under beds. Each crack of a gunshot was followed by a sickening thud, and I tried not to think about what that meant.
Once the silence of the night returned, I picked my way around puddles of blood and mounds of what were once alphas, deeper into the house.
Pots were steaming on the kitchen stove, and the smell of cooking filled the air in a sickening miasma of food and the metallic tang of blood and viscera.
I passed through dark, wood-paneled halls to find Nico and Cruz in some sort of office, going through stacks of printed ledgers.
There was no one left alive in the house.
Nico approached me, green eyes flashing. “You’re lucky there weren’t more men here. I should spank your ass raw.”
His strong fingers wrapped around my arm and not-so-gently dragged me through the house, out the front door, and down the driveway.
“Should I have let her shoot us?” I gripped, tugging my arm, trying to pull it out of his iron grip. “We can’t just leave the omegas here.”
“We can, and we are,” Nico said in a quiet growl.
I dug my heels in. “They’re alone and scared. They need medical attention, food, water…”
“You can walk, or I will drag you.” He started back down the road.
I stumbled, tripping over my slippered feet, but Cruz steadied me as he caught up to us, carrying a computer and a stack of papers under one arm.
Nico watched me from the corner of his eye. “Not that you deserve an explanation, but the backup I called will be here in twenty minutes. I’m not inclined to take advantage of the helpless. There’s no challenge in that.”
“Not inclined to take advantage of the helpless,” I mocked. “No, not the helpless, just a defenseless, half-dressed omega desperate to escape an abusive fiancé. That sounds so very challenging.” I rolled my eyes, not that they could see it in the moonlight, but it made me feel better.
The shadow of the car rose from the gloom, and Nico popped the trunk. “Get in.”
“No, and I still haven’t peed yet.” I tugged away from Nico, and he let me go this time.
In the darkness, I could only imagine both of their eyes on me, but I felt it. It was like the velvet sandpaper of a cat’s tongue prickling over my skin. “I’m not going to pee with you looking at me.”
I didn’t wait for a reply before I scurried off the side of the driveway, batting bushes and weeds out of my way.
They didn’t move to stop me, but they were still watching.
Why were they so intent on keeping me? I’d already proven to be more than the average amount of trouble, and yet, here we were in some hillbilly, back road omega farm peeing behind a tree.
“Stay in sight, Rosa. Don’t do anything stupid.” Cruz said from beside the car.
I did my business as quickly as I could and glanced around at the foliage.
Normally I’d drip-dry, or use leaves, but I didn’t think those impatient pricks were likely to give me the time to attempt the first option.
In the dark, these leaves could be anything.
It wasn’t worth risking poison oak. I tore a bit from the hem of my dress to clean up with.
It was a lost cause anyway, and with all the other rips and tears, no one was going to miss a scrap of fabric from the tattered edge. That gave me an idea.
All cleaned up, I had a decision to make.
Did I run for it and hope to disappear into the shadows wearing a highly reflective white satin gown, or did I get back in the car and find out what this was all about?
There were questions I wanted answered, and running was probably futile, but if I got caught, I’d end up in the car, anyway. Might as well try to save myself first.
Fuck it.
YOLO.