Page 161 of Knights Game

That panic. The fear.

The What ifs.

I’m missing something.

Breathe, Luca. I walk round the perimeter of the room, gun still in my hand.

Three old bookcases in the corner draw my attention and as soon as I’m within touching distance I can feel the change in air, the breeze that comes from behind it. The coldness tickles my skin as I reach out to touch.

I pull at the thick wood and it moves easily, revealing the hidden passageway behind it. The bookcase is there to hide, but not block.

The breeze becomes stronger along with that dampness as I walk slowly along the dimly lit corridor.

There is a whole maze of tunnels underneath the houses in this area, linking multiple buildings through the basements by the looks of the crude walls and smell of earth.

I hear murmurs in the distance, muffled voices. My signal to keep going.

As I silently move forward, the talking gets louder. Along with the laughter. They think they won.

I make my way to a door, which is ajar. Moving quickly, I dart to the other side, and as I do so look inside.

Four men and a woman.

My woman, my sunshine, my world.

On the floor.

She isn’t moving and is that blood? I will her to move, to give me a sign that she isn’t dead. Come on, sunshine. Give me a signal.

She’s strapped to the chair, her hair covering her face, and I prey to every fucking god that she’s breathing. I don’t breathe, I don’t move, I just watch and will her to fucking move.

Her fingers twitch, and it’s enough.

Motherfuckers.

I burst through the door, and the surprise on their faces is priceless. I shoot Terry first, not giving him a chance to fully process what he’s seeing.

My bullet goes straight into his heart, along with another in his forehead for good measure. He’s a cockroach, which means two is better than one. People like Terry always find a way to survive, like some cruel joke from the universe.

Terry hits the dirty floor and I turn on Asher, shooting the bastard in his kneecap. He screams out, but the fucker goes to reach for a gun, so I fire another shot in his chest.

He deserves a slow, painful death, but John will have to feed my blood lust.

Now that I’ve killed two of the four, I turn my gun, to the person who has positioned themselves over Layla. Hovering over her broken body.

“Move the fuck away from her and do it really slowly.” I tsk John. “Nuh Uh. Don’t you fucking move either.”

The fucker just grins and holds up his hands like he doesn’t have a care in the world. The man leaning over Layla’s hands go up, and he slowly stands, then turns round.

Everything slows down, hell, it just about stops as my eyes land in slow motion, but my brain takes a minute to process who I’m seeing. “Roman?”

Confusion and the bitter taste of betrayal has my eyes widening and my mind reeling. I take a step back as though he’s physically hit me, my legs feel weak, as I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes.

“It’s not what you think.” He stutters.

“It is.” John says grinning. “It’s exactly what you think.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Roman shouts, anger masking his features.

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