Page 40 of Wrathful King

Kian stopped to reload. “The women are kept in the barracks and the basement,” he instructed. “We should split up.” Dante and I nodded. “Darius can go with you, Amon. My guess is we’ll find Reina in the basement, since she’s the prize. Your brother and I will head to the barracks. We’re getting all the women out tonight.”

The four of us reloaded our magazines in silence, then split up.

Darius and I entered through the grand entrance. The quiet luxury inside was in stark contrast to the chaos happening outside. Darius tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the living room.

Bloodstained marble.

Our feet silent against the hard stone, we moved past it, heading down the long hallway with doors to the left and right.

“I don’t like this,” I mouthed, conscious of the fact that we’d yet to confront any guards. Judging by Darius’s expression, he didn’t like it either.

Reaching the opposite end of the house, a long window overlooking a waterfall and acres of jungle came into view. A muscle clenched under my stubbled jaw. This fucking bastard created a paradise for himself that would serve as hell for everyone else.

I shifted to the left when a choking sound had me turning my head. Some fucker had an arm wrapped around Darius’s neck.

“You’re here for her.” I recognized Perez Cortes. The fucker had a fresh gash on his face that looked to be from a fingernail and his shoulder looked fucked up. “You can’t have her. She’s mine.”

Darius saw an opening and took it, flipping him over his shoulder. Perez, the slimy ass, jumped to his feet with surprising agility. He pulled out a knife from the back of his pants, bending his knees into a fighting stance.

“Better say your final prayers, boys,” Perez spat, a sick gleam in his eyes. Darius and I shared a glance, then wordlessly fell into attack mode. He went left, I went right. We took turns, our strikes measured, but Perez was strong, fighting us off with ease. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and when his knife sliced my forearm, I barely felt it. “Angelo Leone’s bastard daughter will scream her prayer when I’m done with her.”

Fury shot through me and I raised my gun when Darius’s grunt stopped me from pulling the trigger. “You go on. Find her. I got this asshole.”

For a moment, my wish to make this fucker suffer battled with my need to find my wife.

“Bind him. We take him alive,” I hissed. “Death is too merciful for him.”

He nodded, and I left the men to battle it out, confident Darius would win. I followed along a stone hallway with more rooms.

Opening the first door, my stomach lurched. A dead woman was spread over the bed like a broken doll, her blonde hair matted and dirty. Scenes right out of my worst nightmare waited for me, door after door. Fear gripped my heart, but I pushed on.

There was no going back without her.

Reaching the end of the hallway, I found a wrought-iron staircase that led to the basement.

Just as I started my descent into hell, a voice came through my earpiece.

“Kian, I have your brother. What’s your position?” It didn’t surprise me. Kian had been nursing a grudge against Perez for longer than I’d even been alive, ever since he’d sold their baby sister to a whorehouse. It was clear by the crazed look in Perez Cortes’s eyes that he wasn’t all there.

“Don’t forget who the fucker belongs to,” I said, my breaths coming in shallow bursts as I descended into the depths of this hell-hole.

“Duly noted.”

“We found some girls in the barracks, they’re still alive.” Kian’s voice came through. “Not many.” My stomach churned. She couldn’t be dead. She just fuckingcouldn’t. I paused with my hand on the stone wall, not sure I was ready for any of this. “Did you find her?”

Her. Reina.

“No.” Silence. “I’m making my way into the basement now.”

“Our extraction ETA is ten minutes.”

“Got it.”

The scent of death was even stronger down here, I thought, as I descended the rest of the way.

The last door along the corridor called out to me.

My footsteps heavy, I made my way to it and placed my hand on the latch. For a moment, I stood frozen, terrified of what I might find.