“Good thing I know my way around a rope.” Renzo turns, yanks me forward until his face is inches from mine, my left arm locked painfully between us. “I’m not going to risk the merchandise.”
I stare into my father’s face and repress every instinct I have to scream. He sees me as a piece of property, something to be sold to the highest bidder. We don’t have a relationship. There’s nothing but distance and cruelty between us. But knowing that doesn’t make any of this hurt less. I’m not as stone cold as Renzo. I can’t keep the pain from seeping into my voice. “The tattoo on my chest—did you do that?”
“Save the indignation for someone who cares,Principessa. It’s standard. All the high value girls have them.”
“I don’t remember—” I swallow back angry tears. Grip my concealed weapon tighter. Slide my finger around the trigger. “When did you do it?”
“You can thank your mother for that one. She took care of it. In Rocco’s basement, not long after he locked you up. While you were still eating the food—and the drugs in it.”
“That’s so fucked up.”
“Welcome to the real world,Principessa.” He turns forward, using his grip on my left wrist to haul me closer to the balcony’s edge as his attention shifts to our escape route. “Fucked up is just the start of it.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” If my comment doesn’t catch Renzo off-guard, my gun in his back does. He freezes and for one insane moment, I think I might pull this off. I just need to pull the trigger and push, then he’ll be over the balcony and gone. But in my rush to shoot Renzo, I’ve forgotten that he’s still gripping my other arm. Leverage that he uses to push me off balance as he whips around to face me.
I keep my aim steady but can’t stop from stumbling back.
He points his muzzle at my head.
There’s no time to catch my breath. I scream, he curses. We both try to escape at the same time we both pull the triggers. The room explodes in gunfire.
29
ALIK
Icrash into Sera’s room just as Renzo shoots at her. I run at him, weapon drawn, but I don’t have a clear shot. I can’t get my brain to catch up to what’s happening, but I can see that she’s still standing. He hasn’t killed her. Not yet.
Dimitri is hard on my heels. Renzo is cursing, bleeding, his eyes wild as he stares at his daughter.
Sera’s not making any noise. She’s just swaying on her feet, gun still leveled at her father.
Fear, real fear, scours my chest as I launch myself across the room. Dimitri charges Renzo, crouching low. I can see blood spreading across the Italian’s dress shirt, staining his side red.
“La puttana!You fucking bitch! You deserve everything Shkodra is going to do to you!”
Sera answers by pulling the trigger again. The gunshot echoes around us as the door behind Renzo spews out splinters and shards of glass. He ducks, diving out of the way just as Dimitri crash-lands on the spot he’d been standing a half second before.
I grab Sera at the same time, hauling her away from herfather as she screams at him. She thrashes against me, fighting to get closer to Renzo even as I try to move her to safety. “Let me go! Let me go!”
“Sera.Stoy!Stop. He’ll shoot you?—”
“I don’t care!” she screams. “I need to kill him, Alik. Let me kill him.” Screams turn to sobs as Sera sags against my arm. I can feel the adrenaline desert her as Dimitri and Renzo fight violently a few feet away.
Renzo’s neck snaps back and his head cracks against the ground as Dimitri lands a satisfying punch. Primed to shoot, I watch my man pummel di Salvo. Dimitri’s enraged, possessed even, his expression capturing every ounce of hatred we all feel toward the man bleeding all over the white carpet.
I pull Sera’s back tight against my chest, my arm banded around her stomach. She grips her nails into my forearm and I relish the pain, the proof that she’s alive and breathing.
I’m so focused on her that I don’t see Renzo’s move in time to warn Dimitri. The Italian slams the butt of his gun into Dimitri’s head. My man grunts, thrown to his side and Renzo thrashes beneath him, worming out from under the giant’s weight.
His eyes are bloodshot and swollen as he twists, seeking and finding Sera. He’s still on the floor as he aims up at her.
Dimitri and I move at the same time. I turn, my back between Renzo’s gun and his daughter, and fling us to the side and onto the floor as Dimitri dives to cover us. I hear him grunt. See him hit the ground from the corner of my eye. He’s still, blood spreading out from beneath him.
Sera sees it too, her screams ear-splitting as she tries to get out from under me and over to him. I have to use all my strength to keep her pinned down as her father pushes himself to his feet. From where I’m covering Sera, my aim is shit, but I fire anyway. Lucky fucker that he is, Renzo manages to escapemy bullets and doesn’t look back before throwing himself over the balcony railing.
“Dimitri!” Sera crawls out from under me, rushing to him as I race to look over the edge. I stare at the patio below, searching for the body that should be there. But Renzo is gone. There are blood stains, a rope, and a few footsteps outlined in red, but otherwise no sign of di Salvo.
The men not dealing with the fire are storming the grounds. They’ll find him. He can’t have gone far.