Page 27 of Our Darling Isabelle

“What the Hell happened?” Isabelle cries out. Tears have made their mark down her cheeks, digging trails through the dirt that now clings to her skin.

“Somebody blew the fucking house up.” Markus calls out. As the dust slowly thins out in the wind, I can see how right he is. Even in the dark, it’s obvious that some type of explosive was used inside our home. The windows all blew outwards, and debris littered the entire side yard. Some chunks of the outer wall landed in the pool because of the explosion. I can hear shouting from within the house and yank Isabelle by the arm, pulling her towards Miranda’s home.

“You two go in there. Get Mimi to the bunker, I’ll cover you.” I shout, turning my back to them and watching what’s left of the back door. Markus barks a laugh and drops into a stance beside me.

“Not a chance, big brother. We go together.” He says, nodding to me. I don’t have time to argue when five men run through the back of the house, weapons raised and shouting for us to drop the guns. They hesitate when one of them shouts “The girl, nobody hurt her.”. That comment makes my blood turn cold, knowing that this attack is meant to take her from us. Not again. Markus and I ready our guns, backing Isabelle up closer to Miranda’s home.

“Isabelle, get out of here!” Markus yells, but she only clings tighter to us. More men pour around the building, and for a moment, I wonder how we are going to get out of this. Until Mimi busts through her door with a small pistol leveled past us at the intruders.

“You bastards are making a mess of my garden!” She screams, stomping up to us in her silk robe and hair twisted into rollers. Somehow everything gets worse when cannisters fly around us, spitting smoke out of them and dread unfurls its wings in my stomach.

“Run!” I try to grab Isabelle, but it’s too late. The gas hits me like a ton of bricks all at once, knocking me to my knees as I waver. Even as my vision blurs and my limbs feel like hot rubber, I fight. My fingers dig into the hard dirt as I claw towards her, but she’s already unconscious on the ground and everything goes dark.

A groan breaks through my sleep haze and I fight to peel my eyes open. I feel like my head is filled with lead balls and it’s been shaken a time or two, causing my entire body to ache with it. Markus is on his hands and knees a few feet away from me, throwing up and hissing a breath between his teeth. For a moment, I think the same thing will happen to me as I struggle to sit up, my legs still shaking and uncooperative.

“What the fuck happened?” Markus slurs, swiping his sleeve over his mouth as we look around. There are bodies littering the yard, and I notice Mimi’s bright yellow robe shining in the sunlight. Panic wraps its ice-cold fingers around my throat as memories flood behind my eyes. Markus jerks onto unsteady legs, stumbling to Mimi’s side and checks her pulse. I finally get my legs under me in time to see Mimi’s hand shoot out and swat Markus’ away from her throat.

“I’m not dead yet, boy. Can’t you let an old lady rest after getting gassed? Goodness.” She groans, sitting up and standing with no help while Markus and I resemble baby deer staggering around. My eyes search the yard, but there is no sign of her shiny black hair. Not a flash of those honey brown eyes glaring at me while she hides her smirk by biting her plump lips.

Isabelle. Markus wears his agony on his sleeve, shaking his head as his lip curls in rage. Heavy weight sits on my chest, but a cool calmness has taken over just as it did when I was young. Years of being the young man who protected his family gave me no choice but to keep a level head. Even when all I want to do is find whoever stole her and rip their beating heart from their chest.

“Bastards!” Markus bellows, kicking rubble around the porch as he storms towards the house. Jared staggers through the broken doors, clutching his right shoulder, and looks around the yard in a panic.

“Alec?” He asks me.

“They got her.” I say, my voice cold and distant. I can’t allow myself to feel or else it’ll pull me under. When our sister died, I closed myself off. That’s how I protected and took care of the family my father tried to destroy. It’s how I ran things after our parents died. Markus was my polar opposite, and we all watched as he unraveled. He needed to feel everything, even if just for a moment. When I lose control down the line, he will be the weight to balance our family. Blood is seeping between Jared’s fingers and blood is dried to his cheek, matted into his hair with dust.

“Come and find a spot to sit. I’ll patch you until Dede gets here.” Miranda says, shooing him towards the house.

“How many?” I ask solemnly. Jared takes a deep breath, glancing through the house towards the front lawn.

“They gassed most of us. Seven dead. David was one of them.” Jared says before walking back into the house. He was Isabelle’s favorite guard. David treated her just as I would have treated Cassidy if she were still alive. I make a mental note to set his pregnant fiancé up with enough to ensure she and their baby never want for anything. When this is over, I’ll mourn the man who protected us time and time again. Right now, we needed to gather the injured and call in for reinforcements.

“I’ll fucking kill him.” Markus snarls, snatching something off the ground. I walk up and peer into his open hand. A crumpled, bright green pack of menthol cigarettes. With a few still inside of it, the tobacco falling into Markus’ hand.

“Steffen left his fucking mark on purpose. He’s expecting us to come after him so he can barter her life for our territory.” My hands are aching, shaking as violence grows in me and I clench them tighter.

“Oh, we are going after him.” Markus’ laugh carries a dark threat of violence within it.

“I want him on his fucking knees in front of our darling Isabelle, begging her for forgiveness.” I say, storming into our broken home.

Three hours later we were loading into black SUV’s and armed with any weapon we could get our hands on. Any loyal man within the city who owed us a debt or worked for us was with us, and I was itching to get Isabelle back. Nearly two dozen men strapped head to toe were climbing in wherever a seat was available. The only one staying behind was Eric to protect Miranda and help her clean up, even after we argued we would just hire somebody to do it.

“This is taking too long.” Markus groaned, again. I shared the sentiment, but one of us had to stay calm and collected, I remind myself. Judging from the grenades he had strapped to his chest; he was going into this anything but calm.

“Simmer down. It takes time to gather and arm this many people.” I say in a soft tone. That’s when I see him fidgeting with something in the seat beside me and give him a questioning look. He grins and holds up a bright red pair of Isabelle’s panties with a shrug.

“I miss her. What can I say?” He pockets them while I fight the urge to bounce his head off the window for dragging my thoughts to where they shouldn’t be. We are coming, darling. Just hang in there.

Chapter 21—Isabelle

It hurts so bad. My head feels like it burst and was glued back together. My neck and shoulders are burning and stuck in place. What is happening? I can’t move my body and at first, I wonder if Alec left me tied up for too long, but he wouldn’t do that. I groan as I tilt my head to the side, feeling a piece of fabric covering my eyes, but my hands are bound behind me in the chair I’m stuck in.

“There’s a sleepy kitten.” My body tenses, not recognizing the voice. Bile rises to the back of my throat, but I swallow it down, trying to keep calm as I listen to the sound of shoes scraping lazily over the ground as somebody walks up to me. I flinch and jerk my head to the side as they rip the covering off and the sudden lights blind me.

“Poor little thing, sorry we didn’t wake ya sooner.” A man spits the words at me, making me shrink back as my eyes struggle to focus. He has a twisted grin on his pale face, his blue eyes dim as if the light can’t reach them. His light blonde hair is half shaved. The long side hangs over his thin face as he leans forward and licks his lips as he slowly slides his gaze over my body.

“Markus and Alec will kill you for this.” I try to hold my head high, but he leans so close his stale breath fans my face, reeking of cigarettes. Where Alec smells of aftershave and whiskey, Markus smells of smoke and spice, this guy is sour and stale.

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