Page 101 of Red Retaliation

What the hell am I doing? I can’t give up.

Swinging away from the wall, I pick up my rapid pace, scanning every shop, alleyway, doorway and as many windows as I can see, for the smallest hint. I’ll recognize the tiniest part of her because every millimeter of Arianna is chiseled into my brain.

I ignore the mobile buzzing in my jacket pocket like it has done since leaving the hotel. What is there to say? It will be Liam or Oscar telling me to get back to the event and leave the search. Perhaps even Del too.

Yeah, they’ll all be happy Arianna’s gone.

But I am not. And I’ll find her.

I continue down the street, sure I’ve been down here already. My fear of losing Arianna - because that’s what it is -fear- is taking over my sense of reason and logic about where I’m going and looking. I don’t bode well with fear. It’s not something I handle well. I don’t know how to deal withit as it’s an emotion I rarely experience.

But I’m experiencing it now, and it’s making me snowblind.

I rush past more darkened shops and alleyways. I’m on a losing streak. I’m...

Suddenly stopping, I pivot on my heels and double back, focusing on a small lump in a puddle outside a shop. Ice shoots through my veins.

Arianna’s bag!

One second is all it takes to recognize the marabou-feathered clutch she used tonight. It looks different with its sodden feathers, but it’s hers all right.

I spin around, my gaze sharp.

Instinct pulls me into the nearest alleyway, and a guttural roar spews from deep inside me. Covering several meters in an instant, I grab a man with both hands by the back of his neck.

His heavy, muscular body is featherweight faced with my white-hot fury.

Ripping his body away, I see Arianna underneath, her tear-streaked face numb with terror, her dress ripped open...

I can’t bear looking at her and spin the man in my grip around, putting him down on the alleyway floor in one deft maneuver. His skull hits the concrete with a sickening crack, and then I’m astride him, slamming his head down again and again and again...

I’ll kill the cunt.

This is Bristoni’s doing, and his man will die. He will dienow.

I smash the man’s head into the concrete once again. “Don’t think you can hide your fucking face!”

The man’s eyes are all I can see, and with an animalistic roar, I shove my thumbs into both of them. The yowling noise he makes aggravates me further.

This sick fuck thinks he can hide under a cap and neck scarf? “You sad, pathetic bastard!” I scream, ripping the baseball cap off to reveal his closely cropped fair hair now drenched in blood. I yank the necktie away, my senses dulling momentarily as I immediately recognize the face.

I know exactly who this is.

“You wanker!” I growl.

Stuffing the necktie into Steve’s brother’s mouth, Joe Farrow flails, his strength depleted by his grotesque head injuries. He can’t fight or stop me. He can’t win.No one can.

No one.

This cunt was about to rape Arianna.MyArianna.

Or he already has...

A growl escapes through my teeth as I lay into Joe, my fists pounding and smashing his face to a bloody pulp. I haven’t killed anyone with my fists for many years, but for this cunt it’s the only way. This is personal.

I keep on pounding his head and face. There’s little left of it, yet I won’t stop until this bastard is obliterated and every last cell of his stinking body is no longer.

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