Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
But when I get there, I stop dead. Because I’m unprepared for the sight that greets me. Even though I know the trap he’s made of her, even though I know she’s naked and bound and bait, I’m unprepared and it takes Jet’s grip on my arm to keep me from charging down the hill and toward the house. It takes Jet’s grip to keep me from running straight into Malek’s ambush.
Because she’s literally dangling from a wooden post, the highest point of what’s left of the house, exposed and freezing in this icy night. An easy target for any bullet. And beyond her, just within view, I see Enzo standing guard, looking for our approach with binoculars to his eyes. Turning a circle to look in all directions. He too is dressed for battle. He, too, is armed to the nines.
“She’s alive,” Jet says quietly. “She’s alive. And they don’t know we’re here. Don’t do anything stupid. We’ll get her. Don’t be fucking stupid.”
He’s right. I know that.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I check the display. It’s a text from one of my soldiers telling me they’ve come across Moretti soldiers walking to the lake house. That they’ve taken them out.
“We need to get closer,” I say. “I want her down from there before the war begins.”
Jet signals to the men and we fan out, a handful of sharpshooters remaining on higher ground, the rest of us beginning our descent. The sound of the lake is an absurd thing in this strange, heavy moment. A peace that does not belong. The terrain is mossy on the way down, the earth swallowing up our steps.
Someone whistles near me. A casual tune that has no business here.
We stop.
Leaves crunching underfoot, the man steps out of a cropping of trees buckling his belt. Jet snorts, alerting him to our presence. I lunge for him before he sees me coming, before he has time to sound the alarm. Before he has time to belt up his fucking pants after taking his last ever shit. Keeping hold of him, I drop to the ground with him. The unnatural sound of a neck snapping follows. A life ended. This is how quickly it can happen. How easy it is to kill a man.
A woman.
I let the weight of him drop, but when I do, something slips from his belt. His flashlight. The light bounces as it rolls and before I even straighten to stand, a familiar voice calls.
Enzo’s voice.
Enzo alerting Malek’s army to our presence.
Enzo, my blood, my friend, the traitor, taking the first shot as chaos erupts all around us.
37
ALLEGRA
“There!” Enzo shatters the silence and the night explodes in a deafening cacophony of machine gun fire.
I scream. I scream and twist and turn and fight the ropes that bind me like a target as bullets fly past me.
Malek takes cover as the ambush he set turns on him, the trap for Cassian becoming a trap for him.
“You tipped him off, you fucking bastard!” Malek accuses Enzo, taking aim and firing his weapon. When Malek’s bullet flies past Enzo’s head, Enzo raises his gun to Malek. He’s much more precise, more practiced. Enzo won’t miss.
“I didn’t tip them off you fucking asshole! Get the fuck out of sight!”
I think he’s going to kill Malek, but at the last second, he turns his weapon and aims at me. I scream when he fires and a moment later crash to the ground, landing heavily on my arm, the pain of it instant and excruciating.
Malek looks at me, then at Enzo who is crouched, calculating his next move.
“Kill him! Kill the fucking bastard and you get his territory!” Malek commands and calls to two other soldiers who cover him as he runs like the coward he is to hide inside the cabin.
I force myself to move, to push through the pain in my elbow, my arm, and take cover. I stay low and reach to undo the rope binding my ankles, but my right arm won’t cooperate, the pain too sharp. I must have broken it when I fell on it.
Enzo is at my side in the next moment.
“Get the fuck away from me!” I yell as he grips me by my good arm and drags me across the floor behind the sandbags. I see two of the snipers who were positioned at the front of the house are dead. Cassian came from behind. From the forest. He’s here. He’s here.
“Be fucking still. I just saved your fucking life!” Enzo commands, drawing the switchblade out of his back pocket, flipping it open. My blood is still on it as he slices the rope between my ankles free.
“You’re a traitor. If it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be here. He wouldn’t be here! Get away from me!”
I shove at him, but he’s impossible to move. Once my ankles are free, he grips my broken arm, and I cry out in agony.