Page 38 of The Devils' Darling

“No weapons,” I reassure him.

Dom is right beside me now. I glance at the stairs and then back at him. We both slowly lower our guns and place them on the floor, off to one side.

“I’ll go with you,” Leon says. Then he addresses Diego, keeping his voice low. “Pick our best marksman and get him ready for when all hell breaks loose.”

Diego nods.

I edge to the top of the stairs, my heart in my mouth, bracing myself to receive a bullet. Fuck, if this goes wrong, we could get Mackenzie killed.

None comes, and I take the stairs carefully. They are not well lit. The light is behind us, meaning those at the bottom can see me clearly, but I can’t see into the room.

I don't want to get shot before I can help Mackenzie, so I make sure to hold my hands above my head as I walk. The last thing I want is for someone to put a bullet in my head in a moment of panic. As I hit the bottom stair and finally adjust to see the room in front of me, my heart drops into my stomach.

Dom bumps into me, and I realize I've stopped walking.

The scene in front of me is like something out of a horror movie.

Kirill is ashen and standing next to Mackenzie, who is wearing the most disgusting wedding dress I have ever seen. Her hair is damp and plastered to her head, and she's pale with bruises and a bandage on her arm.

In front of them is a priest, and behind them—oh, fuck me—behind them is a cage. I stare at the cage, at the dog bowls with filthy looking food and water in them, and then back at Kirill and Mackenzie.

The collar around her neck makes me want to vomit.

I take it all in and have to lock myself down, so I don’t lose my fucking mind.

It’s a wedding. We’ve interrupted a fucking wedding. Grigoriy got what he wanted all along. I wonder how far into the ceremony they’ve gotten.

Rage courses through me at nuclear levels. My gaze immediately flicks to Grigoriy. Did he put these marks on our doll?

How dare he hurt our Duchess?

I'm going to kill him with my bare hands if it's the last thing I do.

My arms are raised in the air, and so are Dom’s, and my hands twitch with the desire to throttle Grigoriy until his last breath wheezes from him.

Leon takes the last few steps to enter the room. His arms are also held above his head.

“Who’s this asshole?” Grigoriy asks.

“One of my men,” I reply. “Like I said, there are more upstairs.”

“How many more?”

“A couple of our men were hit,” Leon says, “but there are ten left, and they’re all armed. They’re not going to let you walk out of here either. If we die, you die. You’re as trapped as we are.”

He’s lied about the numbers, but it doesn’t really matter. We are trapped in this room, because Mackenzie has a gun pointed at her head, which means until we somehow disarm these men, no one is getting rescued.

Grigory laughs, aware he’s been lied to. “Yes, sure, of course that is the correct number of men, right?” He glances at Leon and then back at me and Dom. “I suppose I'm meant to be scared of this ragtag little band.”

Igor is standing to one side, the weapon in his hand trained right on me. He lets out a strangely high-pitched giggle. Are they on fucking drugs? Shit, it wouldn’t surprise me, and it makes them even less predictable.

I take stock of the room. There are two more men with guns. One of them has his weapon on Dom, but the other has his gun aimed right at the back of Mackenzie's head. I know it’s enough to keep Kirill in place. My throat runs dry as a wave of sickness washes over me.

“Finish the vows and get this done,” Grigoriy orders.

The priest is shaking so much that, when he begins to speak, his teeth chatter. It is clear he is not here of his own accord but is a pawn in Grigoriy’s sick game.

I dare not even glance at Dom, and I'm completely unsure how we can stop this before the ceremony is complete. Any move we make is going to get Mackenzie shot. I look at her again, trying to communicate with my gaze how sorry I am that things turned out this way. It seems we came here so well armed for nothing. Because he's hidden away in this basement like the cowardly, filthy rat that he is, Grigoriy has made it impossible for us to do anything to save Mackenzie without risking getting her killed.

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