Giorgio (Vigilance 1)

“I knew you were lying. I didn’t think you’d really had a change of heart, but that’s okay. You’re mine now. It doesn’t matter if this is how you wanted this evening to work out or not. I still get to use you just like I planned.”

I wanted to scream. I knew Niall and Leo were close by. Giorgio and X had been listening in too. They’d save me, wouldn’t they? They wouldn’t let him hurt me.

Giorgio had been right. I wasn’t trained for this. I’d been fooling myself to think I could handle it.

Alan put me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I tried to fight him, but I’d lost all sensation in my legs.

He pressed something on the side of a shelf and a section of the wall swung open. Was I hallucinating, or did this house have a fucking secret passage? Alan stepped into the darkness, and seconds later, I lost my battle to stay conscious.

29

Giorgio

“What the fuck?” Leo yelled. “They’re not here.”

“What do you mean?” Panic made my stomach knot.

“Where else does the room lead?”

Joe pulled up the house schematics that Emilio, the Marchesis’ go-to tech expert, had gotten for us. “There aren’t any other doors.”

“It’s on the second floor. Surely they didn’t go out a window.”

“What about a hidden servants’ entrance?” X suggested.

Joe shook his head. “The plans for the house don’t show anything like that.”

“Look around for an odd section of wall or a lever or knob,” X said.

There were several excruciating moments of silence, then I heard a creek. “Fuck me,” Leo said. “There was a hidden switch. We found a passage, but we don’t know where it leads.”

“Keep going. Follow them.”

For several moments, I heard nothing but their footsteps.

“We’ve been walking too long to still be in the house,” Niall said. “We must be underground.”

“The passage could have been for servants, but if it leads away from the house, it was most likely used by smugglers back in colonial times,” I said. “If that was the case, they would come out near the water.”

“Go,” X ordered. “Get to the water.”

“Yes, sir.” I slung my rifle over my shoulder, and Joe and I took off. We leapt the fence and ran toward the beach. I heard someone shout, but I didn’t have time to worry about who was chasing us. I had to get to Lane before Alan had a chance to get him off the property.

I heard shots and glanced back. Joe was shooting at the men who were chasing us.

“Go on,” he called. “I’ve got this.”

“Take out anyone you need to,” X said. “I’ll deal with the aftermath.”

That was what I’d needed—permission to kill. Alan was going to pay for daring to touch my man.

I ran up a hill. When I reached the crest, the property sloped down to the water. I used my scope to see that Alan was by the shore with Lane leaning against him. Two other men were there, and they had a boat. Fuck. They planned to take Lane on the boat and do God knows what to him. Leo and Niall weren’t there yet. I saw the entrance to a tunnel, but I couldn’t risk waiting for them.

Taking a shot from where I stood was risky as fuck, especially with Lane so close to Alan, but if I moved closer, they would see me. I couldn’t identify the other men, so I was going to assume they were minions, which meant Alan was in charge and needed to go first.

I positioned my rifle and sighted my shot. I had one chance. Lane was counting on me. The man I loved was counting on me.

Memories of Thomas flashed in my mind. Thomas alive and laughing. Thomas broken and bloody. I pushed those images from my mind. Lane wasn’t Thomas. This was a very different situation.

Focus, goddammit. You can make this shot.

I lined up the shot, took a slow breath, and then…

30

Lane

I came partially conscious again as I jolted against Alan’s back. He was running and we were in some kind of tunnel. My stomach roiled. If the movement didn’t stop soon, I was going to throw up. Fortunately Alan slowed a few moments later, and I heard another voice, one I didn’t recognize. Suddenly we came out from the tunnel. It was still dark, but I saw the moon and stars and a light up ahead. A flashlight? A headlight?

Alan set me on my feet. I wobbled, and he wrapped an arm around me.

“How much did you give him?” the other man asked. “I thought you just wanted to make him a little woozy to lower his inhibitions.”

I blinked, trying to wake myself up more. I had to figure out how to stay alive until Giorgio found me. Please, God, let him find me.

Alan snarled. “I gave him more because he’s working for someone. He was wearing a wire.”