Page 66 of Unhinged

This is what we need. Chaos.

I head down to the entrance, where Damien will enter. When I get there, his men are already there. To my surprise, so is he. My brow furrows. “I didn’t expect you to be part of the fight,” I say as I greet him.

He smirks. “And miss watching Ileana lose everything?” He shakes his head. “I wouldn’t miss that for anything.”

My respect for him increases. Ileana would never take the risk and be in the mix of a rebellion. “Fair enough. Let’s do this.”

He grabs my wrists and pulls them behind me. “You’ve got the knife, right?” he asks.

I nod.

“Good. Make it fucking hurt.”

“I intend to.” Visions of Ileana bleeding and begging for her life could my mind. The plan is that Ileana and I’ll be thrown into a cell together. And then, I’ll kill her. But I intend to take my time and collect her blood.

We return to the main auction room where the clamor of the unsettled crowd hits us like a wave. I glance around, posing as Damien’s captured prisoner. My eyes find Ileana almost instantly. The sight that greets me is unexpected and unpleasant.

She’s holding Alice with a knife pressed tight against her throat. My heart sink, but I force myself to stay calm. I can’t afford to lose it now. I meet Ileana’s eyes. There’s a triumph in her gaze and a cruel smirk on her face. She thinks she’s won. But this game isn’t over yet.

The smirk drops when she sees Damien Vasquez holding me captive. And then her gaze moves briefly toward Pedro Lopez, one man who supposedly went over to our side. Thiago felt someone would betray us, so we were the only two who knew of Damien’s involvement.

“Vasquez,” she growls, glaring at him. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Staging a coup. You’re reign on this part of Mexico is over.”

She laughs. “And how exactly are you going to take me down?”

“I’ve got your pet,” Damien says, referring to me. “And if you want him to live, you’ll surrender.”

I see the cogs whirring behind her eyes. She’s considering her options. The question is, does she feel attached enough to me to back down? I hate her, but she’s always had this sick love for me I’ll never understand. “My men outnumber you, too,” he bluffs as more of her men are here.

Instead of backing down, Ileana pushes Alice forward and pulls out her gun, shooting it toward Damien.

He drops with me, both of us taking cover as chaos ensues. Machine guns going off everywhere.

“Shit,” I say.

Alice fell to the floor, and when I glance back, she remains there. Sit tight, little bird. I can’t get to her yet, as I must go after Ileana. It tears me up, but Thiago knows to keep the girls safe. All of them. If anything happens to Alice on his watch, I’ll murder him.

“Shit is right,” Damien replies, eyes narrowing. “She doesn’t hold enough importance to your life to surrender.”

“Clearly,” I reply, although I expected that. Ileana doesn’t care about anyone as much as herself and the throne she clings to.

As the bullets fly and shouts echo around us, Damien and I find cover behind a grand statue. The marble image of a forgotten deity does little to calm the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I glance over at Damien, his eyes focused and calculating. He’s assessing the situation, trying to find an opening, a chance for us to escape this madness.

“Just adapt the plan,” Damien whispers, not taking his eyes off me. “You need to get her alone and kill her. That’s the only objective.”

I nod, swallowing hard. “It’s going to be tough getting close to her. She suspects me because some bastard betrayed me.”

“Work around it,” he demands. I know my failure may mean the death of all of us. Failure isn’t an option.

Gritting my teeth, I release a breath and make my move. Pushing off the statue, I plunge into the chaos, narrowly dodging the hail of bullets. My destination is the back rooms because I saw Ileana head that way. There are tunnels to escape, which is what she’ll be attempting. My stomach drops when I enter the room where the tunnel entrance is. There’s no sign of Ileana. A man I’ve never seen stands by the opening with a gun, guarding it. When he sees me, he smirks.

“There you are, Taren.”

My brow furrows. “Who are you?”

“Santiago Castillo.”

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