Page 114 of Tragic Empire

“Don’t forget Father Dante,” Colton remarks with a flirty smirk. “He might be in his fifties, but the man can brawl.”

“Fuck,” Armani grunts, puffing out a breath. “I definitely wouldn’t want to get in the ring with him. I watched Uncle Cesar train with him when I was younger and they were brutal.”

“All right, so we’ll plan something not so dangerous once it’s safe. But right now? I need a bloody shower.”

The boys agree, and we go our separate ways.

It’s been a good day,I think to myself, heading up to my room.

So good that I don’t notice the feeling of being watched.

ChapterThirty-Six

Ana

“Sirius, shhh,” I mumble, trying to bury my head further into my pillow.God, I’m so tired. It can not be early enough for Sirius to want to get up.

A soft whine and the touch of his wet nose against my elbow make me frown.Where are Armani and Colton when you need them?

Forcing myself to wake up, I rub my eyes and blink rapidly to clear my vision. The bedroom is mostly shadows, hardly any light seeping in from the stars outside. When I find my dog, he isn’t trying to wake me anymore. He’s lying on the floor, disturbingly still.

My heart races as an eerie awareness creeps up the back of my neck.

That’s when I see the flair of red sticking out from his side. A puffy unidentified bit of material, like the tail end of a tranquilizer dart.

“Oh God,”I gasp.

I thought Sirius was bothering me in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, but he was trying to bark to alert me, but whatever drug he’s been stuck with drained him too quickly. He could only whine and try to nudge me before succumbing to the sedative.

Something is very,verywrong.

Reaching behind me in a blind panic, I try to nudge Cassio awake, only to find his side of the bed empty.

Sitting up in alarm, I flinch at the sound of a click, low lamp light flooding the room. A scream catches in my throat as I find an intruder, gun in hand. Cassio is being held on his knees, the barrel of a pistol against his temple.

“Miss me?” the bald man asks, a monstrous smile playing on his lips.

Cassio growls. “If you touch her?—”

“Shut it, or I’ll stop playing so nice.”

My stomach churns.How could this happen?

We had a completely normal evening last night. There were no unsolicited messages, nothing out of the ordinary. We didn’t even have sex since I was so tired from working out hours before.

And nowthis?

Please, please, let this be a nightmare.

But it can’t be. It feels too real. Too terrifying.

My blood runs cold. “Let him go.”

“Where would be the fun in that? We’re just getting started.”

My eyes dart to my side table, wishing the gun inside my drawer was already in my hands.

“Ah, ah,” Baldy tsks. “Don’t do anything stupid, or these walls will get a fresh coat of brain matter. I don’t have time for the dramatics. I already had to hold you at gunpoint to get this one out of bed and into position quietly. You are both terrible at cooperating andhe’sstill waiting for us.”