Page 2 of He Is Ours (Lovers in Crossfire #2)

Chapter two

Alex

Before

I

can

even

process anything in my brain, I am running towards the stage. The only coherent thought in my mind is that I need to get to Olivia as fast as possible. Rachel is right behind me, not missing a step. We are both trying to get our girl out of the slimy grip of Tony and my Grandfather.

When we finally get to the stage, I see the guy behind Tony.

A bullet tore through his temple, and for a second, he just stood there, eyes wide with shock, before his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground.

The guy behind my grandfather drops next—a bullet to the chest, blood pooling under his lifeless body.

Damn! Oliver is a good shot.

I pull out my gun and turn, pointing it at my grandfather at the same time as Rachel has her knives out, spinning them in her hands like a show-off.

She prefers to stab or slice someone, but she also has a good aim with throwing.

I'm just grateful I got the target at home to start throwing at to practice.

As soon as everyone finally takes notice that the people lying on the ground are actually dead, blood-curdling screams start to erupt, and everyone starts to run in panic for the doors.

A smile forms on my face when I see my grandfather’s jaw tighten and his nostrils flare.

His narrow eyes turn towards me, screaming that he is losing his patience.

Tony – my grandfather's puppet – is looking around for the source of the bullet that has claimed residency in his two men, who are now staining the pristine floor.

If everything goes according to plan, Oliver will already be hiding somewhere on the second floor.

I gave him a quick rundown of the floor plans before we got here, so he knew the best hiding places.

I was a kid raised here by Satan himself.

If anyone knows the best hiding spots, it would be me.

But I do have to give my grandfather the benefit of the doubt; of all the places to hold my girl hostage, had his wicked ways with her, and bid her off, the home I grew up in was not one of my top choices.

This place is full of the ghosts of my past that I never wanted to face again, but here I am, facing every single one of them, while I still need to keep my composure for both of these women who need me.

He outsmarted me, hiding her in plain sight.

God, I can't get over that. Why didn’t I think of it…

This will eat at me for the rest of my life.

I could have saved Olivia from a world of pain, torture, and trauma.

I was thinking of every other place he might take her to, and I found out that Oliver's men were on the right track the whole time.

“Give me Olivia, now!” I shouted. He gives Olivia a slight tilt of his head and then slowly extends his hand, palm up, towards the ceiling, flicking his fingers towards me to encourage Olivia to come to me, but she doesn't move.

She stands slightly behind Tony, almost as if she were cowering behind him.

The look in her eyes, wide, wary, like I am now a stranger to her, cut me deeper than any other wound I have had.

I am on the stage within three steps, grabbing Olivia from Tony’s reach.

Her look now morphed into pure terror when she noticed my hand on her arm.

Her eyes are now impossibly wide, whites showing all around her irises.

Her mouth is slightly open, like she wants to scream.

Her lips were trembling as if no words were able to come out, and only panic remained in her body.

What the fuck did my grandfather tell her?

Why is she so afraid of me?

I take off my leather jacket and drape it around her to cover her still-naked body, only for her to shrug it off and rip her arm out of my hand. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me!” She yells at me. My grandfather’s laughter booms through the room. He is enjoying this show.

“What? She doesn’t want you now. Poor Alejandro. Always the hero who came to the rescue too late.” I turn towards him, shooting him a look that could burn a damn hole through steel. I swear to fucking god I will kill him, regardless of us sharing the same blood.

“What did you tell her?” I run up to him, grabbing him by the collar of his button-up white shirt, my gun pressed up tight against his temple, ready to shoot his brains out with one wrong move.

“I didn’t tell her anything but the truth, my dear grandson.” The slimy smile on his face makes my stomach turn; I know he said something to fuck with Olivia’s head.

Rachel is physically shaking with anger next to me. Her hands are wrapped around her knives so tightly that her knuckles are turning red, and her eyes are zoned in on Tony. I know she is analyzing every slice and stab that will be inflicted on his body by her hands.

I approach my grandfather, hand him the check that I wrote out for a million dollars for Olivia, and turn, not giving him a second glance. I walk up to Olivia and reach out my hand to take hers, and she flinches, the flash of betrayal written all over her face.

“I. SAID. DON’T. TOUCH. ME!” Every word she spat out had venom dripping off it. This is not my Olivia

.

She turns towards Tony and starts to walk towards the back of the stage.

Tony shoots a victorious look over his shoulder at me, and my blood boils.

He thinks he has won, but little does he know he has won a one-way ticket to hell.

By the end of the night, he will be six feet under at the hands of a crazy blonde who wants her woman back.

Eventually, I will meet him there and continue to make him pay for the disgusting and vile things he did to Olivia.

From the corner of my eye, I see Rachel start to stalk towards him.

When she gets close enough, she pulls up her dress, jumps on Tony’s back, and digs the heel of her red stilettos into his calf to climb higher on his back.

When she finally gets in the position she wants, she wraps her legs around his waist and swings her knife through the air, stabbing his right shoulder first, making sure to twist it and pull it to tear the muscles.

Tony roars out in pain as Olivia watches Rachel with a mix of horror and surprise in her eyes.

I forgot; she doesn’t know that Rachel killed Andrew or had an obsession with knives.

When Rachel pulls the knife out, she stabs Tony’s other shoulder, making sure to dig the blade in deep.

“Get off me bitch!” Tony tries to swing, turn, and buck Rachel off of him, but she is holding on tight, not letting anything get her off his back.

The thrill in her eyes is shining bright as she rides Tony like a bull at a rodeo.

I even think I heard her yeehaw at one point.

I just stand back and cross my arms, watching my woman with pride and love in my eyes.

Rachel jumps off of Tony’s back after the short bucking ride, ducking under his arm as he swings out to hit her.

She takes the opening and stabs him in the stomach next, and then turns her head towards his ear.

“I don’t fucking think so fucker! You took what was mine!

You hurt what was mine! You used what was mine! And now you will fucking pay!”

She stabs him in the stomach three more times and once in each eye before she jumps back and watches him crumble to the floor. Her pupils are blown wide with fury, and her stare is as sharp as the dagger in her hand that is dripping with Tony’s blood.

She steps back and finally turns towards Olivia, desperation, longing, love, and raw pain drowning out every other emotion in her bright blue eyes.

“Olivia, are you ok?” She whispers. The question was rhetorical, but I knew she needed to hear Olivia’s voice.

The adrenaline was still coursing through her veins as she tried to make a connection with Olivia and let her know that we were on her side, that we loved her, and that we needed her now more than ever.

The terror in Olivia’s eyes as she stared at Rachel for a long minute was so stark, so overwhelming, that it shattered my heart into a million jagged pieces.

“Olivia? Come here, baby… Please.” Rachel's voice is broken and needy as she walks up, arms wide, to Olivia. Olivia’s eyes widen, and she steps back, bumping into Tony’s lifeless body on the ground, blood pooling around him, unconscious from blood loss.

She looks down in horror at Tony, back up to Rachel, and then around the room for an escape.

“Olivia? What's going on, baby? Talk to me.” You can hear the desperation in Rachel’s voice. I see her heart breaking with every word that leaves her mouth; she just wants Olivia to say anything to her, to know our Olivia

is still in there.

Olivia stares at Rachel with a blank look.

Her once-blue-green eyes are now a grey color, almost as lifeless as the dead men behind her.

I don’t know what she went through or what is going on in her head, but I need to find out.

I need to handle this situation with care and get her home safely.

I need to heal the pieces my Grandfather broke.

Olivia looks at me, then back at Rachel.

You can see the wheels turning in her head as she figures out what to do next.

Her eyes look from us to the door in the back of the banquet hall several times, then she turns on her heels and runs down the stairs, heading straight toward the back door.

I saw her looking around for an exit before the auction happened, but she didn’t know the house well enough to know which door was the exit.

Rachel starts to run after her, and I grab her wrist to stop her.

Only one person can handle this, so I do the only thing that comes to mind. I pull out my phone and call Oliver.

I hear him answer the phone, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Your sister is heading your way. Go down the stairs, and she should run into you.

She is scared, and she doesn't trust me or Rachel. I think you are the only one she will trust right now.” I hang up the phone and hear fast, loud, heavy footsteps from above, and I know it's Oliver going after Olivia.

If there is one person she feels safe with, it will be her twin.

I turn and look at the podium to find my grandfather no longer standing there.

Of course, he ran; the man is a coward, never in the action, and never takes accountability for his actions.

But that's ok. I will hunt him down. I will go to every corner of the world to find him and kill him with my bare hands.

I turn to Rachel and see her looking at Tony, studying his now dead body, with tears streaming down her face. I hate when these girls cry; it breaks my fucking heart.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” I hold her face in my hands and wipe her tears off her cheeks with my thumbs.

“It breaks my fucking heart, Alex. They fucking took the light out of her. They took everything good out of her. She is now a shell of a person. Will we be able to get her back? She is fucking scared of us. What do we do? I don’t think I can live without her.”

“I did what we could. They got into her head. I don’t know what they said, but I will find out.

But right now, I have to trust that Oliver will be able to bring her back to us.

He has to help calm her down, and then maybe we can talk to her.

If she will open up to anyone, it’s him.

” She nods in response, and I wrap her in a hug, burying my nose into her hair, smelling her floral shampoo.

I have to give Oliver time, I remind myself. I know he knows what he is doing. I grab Rachel’s hand and intertwine my fingers with hers.

“Let’s go see our girl.” I bend down, kiss the top of Rachel’s head, and head towards the double doors in the back.