So I bust open the doors one by one, shooting through the locks before knocking them down with my foot. Finally, in the last cell at the end of the row, do I find the man I’m looking for. But the relief I feel is only temporary.
“Claudio, get up, friend. We’re going to break out of here,” I say as I approach him and lift him up from the floor.
“Marcello? How did you get out?” Ricardo appears in the doorway and brings a smile to Claudio’s face. “I guess that explains it.”
“You didn’t think I’d leave you all hanging, did you?” Ricardo replies, and he comes to help me aid Claudio, unlocking his shackles. Claudio grumbles with aches and blinks slowly. He looks just as tired as I was when Ricardo found me, but when Ricardo shoves a gun into his hands, the fire sparks behind his eyes.
“Let’s kill these sons of bitches,” Claudio says.
I chuckle. “Now you’re talking, mi consigliere.”
I help him out of the cell.
“Free the prisoners. There’s a girl named Melanie in here who’s a friend of Harper’s,” I say, and Ricardo and Claudio nod. “Make sure she’s safe.”
“They’re keeping Harper up there,” Claudio says, pointing at a door that leads to a set of stairs. “I heard her cries all the way down here.”
My pupils dilate.
Her cries? Fuck. That can’t be good.
My heart is telling me to move even when I know it might be dangerous. I can’t stop these legs from immediately sprinting toward that door.
“Marcello, wait!” Ricardo calls out, but I can’t bear to stop.
Not while knowing my Kitten might be in danger.
Molly would do anything to hurt me … even hurt the one she used to call “daughter,” just out of spite.
So I race up the stairs, not giving a shit how many guards lie waiting for me there. They must’ve heard the gunshots, so they know I’m on the loose. But I don’t fucking care. And as I get to the top, I whip out my gun and shoot down any motherfucker who dares to try to stop me from getting to Harper.
BANG!
I shoot the guard in front of me, and he falls to the floor with ease, revealing the hallway. We’re in a giant warehouse with only a few rooms scattered throughout, but the one at the far end of the hall is brightly lit, and I can spot Molly standing over something … or someone.
Sitting in a chair, bound and gagged, is none other than Harper.
A guard films the ordeal while another guard has his dick out … and slaps it against her face.
Rage overcomes me as I storm toward the door, not giving a fuck about all the men guarding the other doors. When they spot me, most of them charge at me, and I jump to evade their grasp as they try to topple me.
“Marcello! Behind you!” Claudio’s voice makes me turn my head.
Too late.
One guard tackles me from behind.
OOF!
The sound leaves my throat before I realize I’m on the ground.
The guy is on top of me and knocks the air out of my lungs with his knees. I exert myself and roar as I lift my head and arm, aiming to shoot. But another guard quickly jumps me too and grabs my wrists, pinning me down to the floor to knock the gun from my hand.
“Get the fuck off me, you bastards!” I growl.
I can hear Claudio and Ricardo fighting more guards behind me as they now know we’ve been freed. There’s no way they can help me get rid of these assholes on top of me right now.
But all I can focus on is Harper, who is helpless in that chair right in front of me as the guy is purposely humiliating her and using her for his own pleasure, jerking himself off right in front of her while Molly watches with a gleeful smile on her face.
The smile doesn’t dissipate when she turns her head to look at me.
It only deepens more and more, like a wicked villain finally getting her way.
Marcello
“Enjoying the view?” Molly muses at me.
“I’ll kill you!” I roar, and then I direct my attention to the guard. “Get your hands off her!”
He ignores my every word and reaches for her outfit, his hand sliding up the dress like her skin doesn’t solely belong to me and me alone, and it makes my blood boil.
But I am fucking helpless against three fucking guards all on top of me, binding my wrists and legs like they’re trying to get me right back into that cell.
“You know what?” Molly approaches me step by step. “I think I’m going to let you enjoy this for a little while longer…”
“You’re a monster,” I spit.
She leans over to grab my chin and make me look at her. “You destroyed the love of my life. So let me destroy yours.” She throws me back on the ground harshly and snaps her fingers. “I’m going to get Frank.” She marches off behind me. “And take care of those rats downstairs. I don’t want the Polish to take all the credits for squashing a revolt.”