Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30094 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
His eyes widen. “Shit. That kid’s your son?” he questions, blowing out his cheeks before sparing a wary glance down at Dill and Doe, certain he’s about to meet his maker. “Fuck. I didn’t think they were that fucking stupid to take your kid. Shit, that’s fucked up, but I don’t know. I don’t have that kind of clearance. Usually, they keep prisoners down in the cells. There’s an entrance through the butler’s pantry in the kitchen.”
A shiver sails down my spine, remembering the secret entrance the boys dug out of their prison castle. It went down through their kitchen pantry as well, but I put it to the back of my mind. Now isn’t the best time to be thinking about the hell that castle brought the boys.
There’s a strange hesitation in New Guy’s eyes, and Marcus is quick to pick it up. “Don’t fucking hold back. That’s not how you want to start with us.”
New Guy presses his lips into a hard line. “It’s just . . . These guys are seriously fucked in the head, but I don’t know if they’d go to the lengths of locking a kid in the cells or if they’d just stash him in one of the spare bedrooms.”
Shit. That’s going to make our search that much harder.
If our cover had been compromised, we could send Dill and Doe to track his scent, but it’s too risky to let them loose just yet. If anything, they’ll stick with us and hopefully just nudge us in the right direction. But we have to take our time, checking each room and making sure we’re not leaving enemies at our backs.
“Alright,” Roman says, glancing at us. “Same plan applies. Levi, down to the cells. Shayne and Marc, main house. And you,” he adds, glancing at the new guy. “Watch my back.”
He immediately falls in line as Roman steps into me, taking my chin and lifting it until my gaze locks on his. “Don’t fucking die,” he demands. “I’m not losing either of you, understand?”
“Same goes for you.”
He drops his lips to mine and kisses me deeply and quickly before reluctantly pulling away. He glances between his brothers, a silent understanding floating in the air between them. “Find my son,” he growls, and with that, he turns and slips away into the house with New Guy trailing right behind him, the two of them looking like shadows in the night.
Levi holds my gaze, silently telling me he loves me before glancing down at Dill. He nods once, and the big wolf stands before following Levi out of the room.
“Just you and me,” Marcus says as Doe stands and moves protectively in front of me. He holds my stare before pulling one of my many daggers from the sheath strapped to my thigh. He steps into me, his big body towering over mine, and those dark-as-night eyes bore into mine. His lips brush over mine before he presses the hilt of the dagger into my hand. “Don’t fucking miss.”
“Never.”
“Then let’s go find Sebastian.”
7
A deep growl rumbles through Doe’s chest as she trails at my side, a short warning that someone is coming, and like clockwork, two guards round the corner and into the formal dining room of the Dragonis' mansion.
They spot us almost immediately, but Doe’s warning already has Marcus in motion, and before they even get a chance to reach for their guns, Marcus lets off two shots, both of them hitting home directly between their eyes, the silencer keeping our arrival on the down low. The guards go down like heavy sacks of shit, and with too many voices coming this way, we can’t risk the extra few seconds we need to hide their bodies.
“Come on,” Marcus murmurs, taking my hand and pulling me along, keeping within the shadows of the room as we hurry through the mansion. “It won’t be long until this turns into a fucking bloodbath.”
Room by room, we search for my son, and we quickly clear the bottom level, taking out guard after guard, though I wasn’t expecting to find anything down here. It’s too easy. If they have my son in one of the upstairs rooms, he’s going to be heavily guarded, and getting through whatever their last line of defense will be isn’t going to be easy.
Moving up the stairs, we reach the second level, and my nerves begin flailing. I hear more activity up here, and from what I can tell, the Dragoni family is still unaware of our presence in their home. This property has four levels and roughly a billion separate rooms, and I have no idea what to expect behind each door, but we keep going, Doe and Marcus putting me at ease.
The hallways are wide and spacious, and for the most part, it’s an open living plan. Down on the ground floor, there were more places to keep hidden, but up here, that plan isn’t quite so simple. We clear a few bedrooms, and the farther we get, the more anxious I become. Every second I don’t have my son back in my arms feels like another second wasted.