Page 87 of Uprising

“And what Rose?” He taunts. “I have your daughter remember? It would be an awful shame if little Lara were to get injured, were to break her leg or something worse.”

My fear multiplies then. “No. Darius please don’t, please don’t hurt her.”

He yanks me around, grabs my throat, and grins. “Then get on your knees and suck my cock.”

“Wwhat?”

He leans closer, and that smell of bourbon hits my face so hard. “You heard. Show everyone here what a good little slut you really are for me.”

I can feel my tears falling. I can feel my stomach churning because there’s no other way around this. No escape. The sounds of grunting, of moaning, is echoing behind me. I don’t want to look and see what the fuck is happening, what they’re doing to Sofia.

Darius widens his legs and I all but fall into the space between them. And then he’s pushing my face down, forcing me into position.

“Suck me Rose. Suck me good.”

I do it. I hate that I do it, but I’m reaching up, undoing his trousers, undoing the zip, reminding myself of every time I did this for Paris. Every time I was forced to and how it wasn’t that bad, that I survived and that right now, right behind me, Sofia is having it so much worse.

As he pushes himself into my mouth he groans. “Fuck.”

I look back up at him and all I can think is how exactly I’m going to kill him. All the ways I’ve going to inflict such pain on him, how I’m going to cut the skin from his bones, how I’m going to break his legs for threatening to do it to Lara. How I’m going to cut his dick off too. How I’m going to shove it so hard down his throat that he chokes on it.

He smirks like he can hear my thoughts.

Like he believes it’s not possible.

And then his eyes are drifting off, to whatever horror is happening behind me.

Roman

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from history then it’s if you want people to rise up, you have to make it personal. You have to make it their problem too. Bring the fight right to their very doorstep.

Tonight, that’s what we’re doing.

We’re going to make every wealthy residence of Verona believe they’re not safe in their homes, that any minute a viscous mob is going to scale their gates, steal away their gold, and butcher them in their beds.

It’s revolution 2.0. It’s reliving history. I want them to think the peasants are revolting. I want them to believe the masses are rising up.

They’ve all stood by, all allowed this city to grow fat on the glitz and glamour of it all.

I guess tonight they’ll learn that their dear Governor won’t save them. That all the power and protection he professes to have is nothing more than silkened words with no substance to back it up.

Ben is back at base. Once more he’s stayed helping from the side-lines.

Koen has his own group of soldiers, and he’s headed for the home of a media mogul. A man, he believes is responsible for the death of his sister.

I’ll admit I don’t envy the bastard when Koen gets his hands on him. We’ve already heard some of what he has planned.

Holden is taking out another family. And two more teams are also in the proximity of their targets.

This is our biggest night to date. Our riskiest too. We’ve got so many locations spread across the city it would be easy for one of us to get isolated, to get caught, and for the whole house of cards to collapse at our feet.

But I can’t think like that.

I won’t think like that.

Once we pull this off the very foundations of Verona will be fractured. When everyone wakes tomorrow they’ll know that their high walls and their expensive security is worth shit. That at any moment we can come for them.

I pull up beside the Capulet House. I may have Ignatio in my keeping but that’s not enough to sate my needs. I want the pair. I want the whole devious collection. The man and wife responsible for my pain. Responsible for Rose’s pain. Responsible for all of it.