Page 40 of Wickedly Played (Checkmate #1)

Chapter Thirty-Six

MAX

They took her. They came into her house and fucking took her like she wasn’t a human. My anger has skyrocketed as I pace around the living room like a caged animal. I will get her back. I will get her back, and I will end this shit with Lorcan once and for all.

Franky had his phone pressed to his ear for the last twenty minutes as he moved the pieces of his chessboard around to make sense of what had happened. I’m scanning through the cameras to gather any information from them and have a better idea of how they entered the home. I secured it.

Adam and Lorcan are both going to die a horrible and traumatic death when I get my hands on them.

“Interesting,” Franky mumbles into the phone. “If this pans out, I will make it up to you,” he utters before hanging up.

“What?” I’m in front of him in seconds. “What did they find out?”

He chuffs. “The Vittorio Family got an alert that the McGuires have acquired a warehouse in Ferndale. It was used as an old trafficking spot, so the police used to patrol it.”

I squint. “Why did the McGuires pick it up if it was already hot?”

“That’s the thing. They knew the police would give up. Armando and Mario are going to meet us over there as a favor to us,” Franky throws out.

Nodding, I’m running out the door. I know what will happen if we don’t make it in time. Lorcan is fucking crazy, who wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice his daughter.

I would burn the whole world down if I didn’t get her back.

Armando and Mario are every bit the Italian mafiaosos I had thought they would be. They arrive wearing their Italian suits, Italian leather shoes, and luxurious Italian sports cars. I wonder if they fucking forgot we were here to make a point, and that was to get my girl back.

“Franky,” Armando greets, extending his hand. After a brief greeting is exchanged, I’m introduced.

“Thank you for coming out,” I reply. “This means a lot.”

The short Italian boss nods with a scowl. “Yeah, I bet. You know this is going to bring us into the war as well. However, Lorcan has been a thorn in my fucking side since he took over the ports on the Detroit River.”

Mario has a map pulled out on the hood of the car, pointing to different entrances throughout the warehouse.

“If she’s there, they would have her in here.

” He points to a room in the middle of the building that resembles a freezer.

“This was once used as a meat packing place back in the early ’90s, so the shit in there is outdated. ”

“What is the easiest way to get in?” I ask. I’m checking to ensure all my guns have enough magazines for whatever is about to happen. I’m not leaving that warehouse without Serena alive and in my arms.

He taps a window off to the side. “Probably right here.”

Armando clears his throat. “Max, you might want to hear this.”

I storm over to the other side of the car to grab the headphones he’s holding on top of Franky’s car. “Thanks,” I mutter.

“I managed to hack into one of their soldiers’ phones that he bought from one of my guys,” he explains.

I nod, as if this is the most normal thing in the world. “Okay.”

“We’re going to have company soon. We need to move.”

“What are we going to do with him?”

“Just leave him here. McDougals can deal with their disappointment.”

“Are you going to untie Serena or carry her out like that?”

“She will be fine carried out like that.”

“The shot will wear off in about two hours. We have to go now.”

“I have my house off of Dequindre that no one knows about. We can stash her there,” someone says.

“We have to move right now!” I demand.

I’m thankful that Franky paid off the cops, and we were able to break about thirty traffic laws to get to the warehouse on time. There are several Escalades still parked outside the warehouse, indicating those assholes are still there. I hope my girl is here, too.

We managed to get through one of the doors, and the five of us are stealthily creeping through the hallways.

My heart is hammering in my chest, my head is pounding with fear, and I have the urge to charge in there to kill Lorcan, then my brother, then everyone else before carrying my woman out of there.

“She’s right there,” Franky mouths to me. He’s pointing to the middle of the room.

Sure enough, I see my girl. A red film fills my vision as red-hot anger takes over. Serena’s head is lolled off to the side, her clothes are torn from her body, and she’s tied to the chair. From where I’m standing, I can see that she has several bruises, as well.

“I’m going to kill every single one of these rat mother fuckers,” I promise Franky.

“We have to be cool about this,” he instructs.

Connor walks toward Serena, a knife in hand, smiling at her. “I’m going to enjoy getting to know her again. She is a lot freakier now than she was when she was with me,” he taunts.

My body revolts at his confession. Joey’s hand is clamped on my shoulder to prevent me from running in there.

“You lied to me!” Adam shouts from the chair he’s tied to. “You promised me if I brought her here, she would be married to me by the end of the day. I did what I said I would do.”

Lorcan strolls over toward him to slap him in the face. “Don’t ever question me again, fucker.”

“My brother plans on killing you,” Adam continues. “He blames you for our dad’s death.”

Serena begins to stir in her chair. “What?”

My hands ache to grab her. “Sweetness,” I mutter.

“We’ll get her,” Joey swears. “You’ll get her back.”

“Love, Adam was just telling me all about how your bodyguard wants to kill me,” Lorcan tells his daughter. “Could you believe he wants to do that?”

“Dad, please let me go. I don’t want this life. Please,” she begs.

Serena’s pleas are brushed aside.

Franky holds out a grenade and points to the middle of the room.

I’m ready when he is. I can’t stand to watch my girl go through this shit any more than she already is.

My boss holds up a couple of fingers to let me know to wait for him before I charge into the room.

I wait until he holds up only one finger, and the grenade is thrown into the middle of the room.

The flash bang stuns everyone, giving me the ability to walk behind my dumbass brother, slit his throat, and drop his body into a pile of useless shit. I kick him over and then walk through the smoke from the bang to find Connor holding a gun at Serena’s head.

Lorcan is fighting with Franky, and I want to get in on that fight more than anything, but I need to make sure my girl is okay. My gun is aimed at Connor, and he’s grinning at me.

“You McDougals thought you could outsmart me? You little fuckers can’t outsmart a kindergartner at calculus,” he sneers.

“Let her go,” I demand.

“What are you going to do? Shoot me? By the time you squeeze the trigger, I will have shot her. Ask Serena how good my shot is. She will tell you all of the times she watched me fight. Tell them, princess.” He nudges her with the butt of the gun against her temple.

She whines, breaking my heart. Tears are pouring down her cheeks, and all I want to do is wrap her in my arms, take her someplace safe, and then burn this place to the ground. Fuck revenge right now. I will get it eventually. It doesn’t matter if Serena is hurting.

“How many times have you made Serena cry?” I ask. I can tell I’ve thrown him off as he staggers back. “C’mon. You’re a big man. I’m sure you jacked off your little mess of a dick thinking about the times you cheated on your loyal wife.”

“Loyal? Please! She’s practically a prostitute. She might as well be selling her pussy!”

Lorcan moves away from Franky for a second, and my boss comes to stand by me. His teeth have blood coating them, and his knuckles are covered in blood. He looks pissed, but it is the wild look in his eyes that makes me pause. “Give him a second.”

Lorcan punches Connor in the face, making his head fly off to the side. “You rat mother fucker. You’ve been stealing from me?”

“Armando let me know some things,” Franky murmured. “I figured Lorcan would want to know before he got burned to the ground.”

Serena still has the gun pressed to her head, and I charge at Connor to push him away from her.

He falls against the floor with a thud. My fist pummels against his face with satisfying crunches repeatedly.

Each time I bring my fist down, I’m letting go of another demon.

Blood pours out of the open cuts on his face, covering me as I split open his face.

“All right!” Franky yells, pulling me off him.

“Max!” Serena cries.

Looking down at her deceased ex-husband, and then back at my woman, I wish shame flowed through me. The only thing I felt was relief. If I could rid Serena of all her monsters, I would live a happy life.

Covered in that dip shit’s blood, I begin to untie my woman. Joey ambles in with Armando, Mario, and a couple of Lorcan’s men. Lorcan’s fate is still hanging in the breeze as I consider my options. I can’t have my woman watch me kill two people in one day.

Once she’s free, she collapses in my arms. She’s rigid at first, almost like a stiff doll. “Baby,” I mutter in her ear. “I’m so fucking sorry. I will make it up to you. I promise I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you for letting you down.”

She shakes for a couple of minutes, until her body becomes pliable. Serena curls around me and holds on tight. “You came for me,” she whispers. “How did you know?”

“Fuck, sweetness.”

Lorcan mutters under his breath and then points to another part of the warehouse. “If we’re going to have story time, move her over here. My daughter is strong, but this is too much for her.”

“Now you want to be a dad?” Serena snaps.

Chapter

Serena

As the smoke clears, the pain in my head intensifies. Connor’s gun jams harder into my temple. “You stupid fucking slut,” he hisses. “If you had just been a good fucking wife before, none of this would have happened. If you had just stayed here, I wouldn’t have to do this. Stupid fucking whore.”