Page 125 of The Last Promise You Made

I aimed the gun in his direction. “Take me to my daughter!”

From behind me, another voice spoke. “He doesn’t have her.”

I spun around to find Enrique—or what once had been Enrique—easing toward me. One arm hung useless at his side, blood trailing down it. His chest was bare, and large bloody circles covered his torso. His nose was crooked and swollen, the skin on his cheeks drooping as if the bones beneath them were no longer there to hold them up, and cuts over his entire being oozed blood. His eyes were hollowed and his brows bloodied from a gash on his forehead. He used the wall to prop himself up. In his hand was a stick that looked like it had been broken off from a broom or a mop, long and jagged.

“Keep the gun aimed at Julio,” Enrique groused, his voice barely recognizable.

I turned back to see the beast had closed the distance between us to mere steps. The giant’s eyes shined with a deadliness that promised no mercy. He would kill us. He would kill us in a way that was even more painful than whatever Enrique had already been through.

“How did you escape?” Julio’s voice was as dark as his look.

“Never leave someone else to do your cleanup work,” Enrique said.

Fuck this cozy little chat. “Take me to Addy, or I will pull this trigger.”

“He doesn’t have her,” Enrique insisted. “He only has things that look like hers.”

I didn’t know if I believed him. All my doubts about the man flooded through me.

“He lies,” the beast—Julio—said. “He brought us your daughter. Handed her over for nothing. For a few thousand dollars and a position in our organization. The only reason he tells you this now is because he realized we would never let a coward and traitor inside our doors.”

I put my back to the wall, gun swinging between the two men.

Julio eased a hand into his jacket pocket.

“Freeze, asshole,” I demanded.

“It is just my phone,” he answered. Calm. Cool. No fear. He pulled the device from his pocket, swiped a few screens, and then Enrique’s voice came from it.

“I’ll bring you the girl. I just want in. I want Vito’s old position and fifty grand to set me up.”

My insides coiled and seethed. Anger burned through me, making me want to use the bullets to end both these men. I barely stopped myself from pulling the trigger, and I only did it because I might need the ammunition for our escape.

“Someone take me to my daughter before I start aiming for heads,” I growled.

“He can’t take you to her. He doesn’t have her,” Enrique insisted. “I wouldn’t give her to them.”

“Come, I’ll show you.” Julio spun on large feet, heading back toward the staircase.

I waved my gun in Enrique’s direction. “You go first. Follow him.”

He did as I requested, using the wall and the broken stick to keep himself up. Every movement looked pained, but I had no sympathy for the man who’d brokered a deal with the devil for my daughter’s life.

“It was a play, Hatley,” he said quietly. “It backfired, but it was a play I had to make.”

“Giving them Addy!”

“No. I swear on my brother’s grave, they don’t have her. Call your brother. You’ll see.”

And if they didn’t have her—God, my heart burst with hope at even the thought—what would happen if I called? Would they triangulate my signal? Find my brother? Find Addy? Could I risk it?

Waiting for Enrique’s slow movements, I lost sight of Julio, as he’d reached the staircase well before us. I’d never been in this part of Jaime’s house. I didn’t know what was down below waiting for us. When Enrique and I hit the landing, the giant was at the bottom with another pistol in his hands, pointed up at us.

I barely had time to react, pushing Enrique to the ground. As I dove, Julio pulled the trigger, and a bullet scorched by my ear. I twisted, aiming my gun. I wasn’t a crack shot. I wasn’t trained to pull a trigger in these situations, but I’d done a fair share of shooting in my lifetime, so when I shot at Julio, it found home in his chest. As my body slid to a stop, I took better aim and followed the first shot with a second. Julio’s body jerked again, his hand went to the wound on his chest as if he could stop it from bleeding, and then he fell to his knees, crashing face-first to the cement floor.

I rushed to my feet, and the damn dress shoes I was wearing skidded out from beneath me on the cement. I found myself sliding down the stairs. Pain ricocheted through my elbow and hip. As my back hit the edge of the bottom step, my breath was knocked from my body. I lost my grip on the gun, and it went flying as I collided with the beast’s body.

My lungs screamed, attempting to breathe. I was frozen, struggling to regain the air I’d lost as Enrique’s bloody hand picked up the pistol Julio had dropped. Everything slowed as he whirled in my direction.

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