Page 162 of The Fractured

People were getting shot at or stabbed, and none of the three sides were planning on teaming up any time soon to take down the other. It had become a situation of every person for themselves.

Finally, there was a clear path to the stairs. I made a run for them under Vince’s cover, keeping low.

I had already said goodbye to my mother today. I wasn’t about to do the same with the woman I loved.

Chapter 56

Lily

Fight, flight, or freeze.

Without a weapon, fighting wasn’t an option. With a blade to my throat, neither was fleeing. I was stuck with the third option and did so involuntarily as the surviving Gimello sister shoved me through a deep purple, velvet curtain that blocked off a section of the basement’s mezzanine.

I had a cut on my shin from being dragged up the metal staircase, where I banged it. It should’ve hurt more, but I couldn’t feel anything beyond my fear.

“Keep quiet,” the woman hissed with a thick Italian accent and a dark glare. “Or I slit your pretty neck.”

I didn’t dare argue or scream, as she steered me to the middle of the room, scanning it for something. For a moment, she left me standing alone, and I contemplated running, but my body refused to move, and soon she was with me again.

Using a curtain sash, she bound my hands behind my back and tied another one across my mouth. She then pushed me onto one of the plush sofas.

I didn’t know if she was Lucia or Beatrice; Dean had only mentioned names, but whichever one she was, she was upset and desperate for an escape. So desperate she began using her sister’s knife to peel back sections of the mirrored perspex that lined the back wall, revealing a hidden window.

But I was also desperate to escape and had no intention of going with her.

Heart pounding, I shot off the sofa.

She saw and swiped her hand out in my direction, missing me by inches before I slipped through the velvet fabric again.

And slammed into someone coming the other way.

They gripped my upper arms, their fingertips digging into my skin, and forced me back through the curtain.

The push knocked me off my feet, but I couldn’t catch myself with my hands behind my back. I landed on the floor, gasping as the wind was momentarily knocked from my lungs and pain rippled through my hip and elbow. I didn’t have time to process if something was broken as Gabriele stepped through the curtain.

Fear lanced through my insides, and I dragged myself backward, helplessly trying to create distance between us.

“A ransom is looking lovely right now,” he smirked as he strode closer, looming over me. His eyes went to his sister. “Hurry up, Beatrice!”

“I’m fucking trying!” Beatrice pulled at the rest of the perspex with sheer frustration.

I shook my head as Gabriele got closer.

He nudged my legs apart with his shoes.

I kicked and kicked at him, connecting with his shin once before he grabbed my ankle and dragged me closer. I screamed against the sash in my mouth, ripping my throat raw.

He tutted, fighting to catch my other ankle as I aimed my foot at his crotch. “We’re going to have so much time getting to know one another.”

My foot slipped from his grasp, and I kicked harder than I had before. It landed where I wanted, right between his legs, and he dropped to his knees as he clutched his groin.

I swiveled on my lower back, using my legs to get up until he grabbed my arm and threw me back down.

I groaned, struggling to breathe in before he flipped me onto my back. His hand was already raised to strike my face as he placed the other on my throat and straddled my stomach.

“You little bi—”

I flinched as a loud bang rang through the room.