Broken Beginnings (The Moretti Crime Family 3)

I don’t think twice about my next move. I can only hope they left Claire here before disappearing. I jog to the basement and descend the stairs as fast as I can.

I just want her to be in her room. I want her to be safe, but the closer I get, the more my heart sinks, and when I come around the corner, I see the open door of her cell. There’s a tightness that develops in my chest that spreads outward like a slow-moving cancer.

Fuck. They took her.

Shoving my gun into my holster, I fish my phone out of my pocket and dial Felix’ number.

“I told you they would move,” Felix says as soon as he answers, knowing what my question was before I could even speak.

Anger and fear rush through me, fucking with my head. Focus. Time is everything in this situation if I want to save Claire.

“Tell me you know where they took her.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got the location. Sending everything to your phone.”

I sigh, literally fucking sigh. “Thank you.”

“Thank me by not contacting me again. Julian already hates me. I don’t need him to add another reason to kill me.” The line goes dead, and I make my way back to the car.

My phone buzzes again. Felix delivered a location. Now it’s time to go on a killing spree.

13

Claire

They’re going to kill me and send my body in pieces back to Lucca. When the guards came into my cell and dragged me outside, I didn’t know what to think. I hoped they were releasing me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I pretend my hands aren’t bound, and I’m not in the trunk of a car, being driven god knows where.

Dread trickles in as the time passes. I’ve been trying my best to be brave, but after yesterday, and now, I’m not sure being brave is going to cut it. Lucca never came back like he said, and now it’s over. I’m going to die. I can feel it with every beat of my heart. It clings to my skin, and by the day’s end, that will be my fate.

The car slows, and I slide forward, crashing into the wall of the trunk. Before I can gather my bearings, the driver hooks a right, and I roll the other way, my head slamming into the sidewall of the car. I feel like a basketball being tossed around. The car finally stops, and all I can hear is my heavy breathing and the thundering of my heart.

Doors open and then slam, and I tense, preparing myself for a fight that I know I won’t win. The trunk opens, and the light hits my eyes, temporarily blinding me. I’m grabbed by the arm and dragged out of the trunk. My feet barely touch the ground, and we’re moving. I glance around, trying to put together what is going on and where I am.

“Please, let me go,” I plead, wondering if using my words might make the man dragging me away break down. It does nothing, as he doesn’t even react to what I’ve said.

All hell breaks loose when we reach the steps of the house, and shots ring out through the street. Everything becomes mass hysteria. The guard releases me and reaches for his gun. I drop to the ground and cover my head, too afraid to see what’s going to happen next. The guard fires back and bullets rain down onto the pavement.

Bile rises in my throat, and I breathe through the need to vomit. I don’t know who the person firing back is, and I don’t want to find out. Slowly, I crawl backward, trying to put enough distance between the guard and me so that I can get up and run.

The shooting continues, and then there is silence. The silence terrifies me more than the shooting, and when I peek through my long red strands and toward the guard that was a few feet away, I find him on the ground, blood splattered against the concrete, and a bullet hole in his forehead. Oh god. This time I can’t stop myself.

I look away, and all the contents in my stomach empty. My entire body shudders with the after-effects of vomiting. Will my life ever be the same again?

Footsteps approach quickly, and I shove up onto my knees, getting ready to make a run for it. If Lucca isn’t going to save me, then I’ll save myself.

“Fuck, Claire.” Lucca’s voice penetrates my thoughts, and I pause, turning just in time to see him rushing toward me with fear in his eyes. “Are you okay?”

I nod because, at this moment, I’m afraid to speak. I look away from Lucca and down to the ground where the guard is lying, dead. Blood, there is so much blood. That’s all my life has amounted to, death and chaos, and all because of him.