Page 260 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

“Fuck!” someone yelled, the sound echoing through the dark tunnels.

My eyes widened, and I shut off the flashlight, glancing toward the noise. “Maybe more like a minute,” I whispered.

Karrie inched closer to me and pulled out her gun as I began to hear people talking.

“Chiara is fucking coming,” Dad said.

Closer. We walked closer, careful not to stumble over anything in the dark.

Glancing beyond the edge of the tunnel, I could see into Dad’s personal torture chambers. Chained up by the wrists, Alessandro hung with his head low. It was almost as if he didn’t have the strength to hold himself upright. My heart ached for him as I saw the pool of blood beneath his feet.

He didn’t deserve this. He’d only wanted to help.

I scanned the room. There were at least twenty men down here alone. I couldn’t imagine how many were upstairs, in the house, guarding the perimeter. We were screwed, but this was our only option.

“Twenty,” I whispered. “At least.”

What the fuck were we going to do? We couldn’t go in there with that many men. That was a suicide mission, a death wish—exactly what Dad would want.

I eyed the tunnel across the way. It connected to the tunnel we were in and was even darker than this one. I nodded to it, and we snuck over quietly as I instructed Karrie to make the call.

“All right,” I whispered. “We lure them out, run to the end of this tunnel, and kill them when they turn the corners. They’ll come five at a time. We kill as many as we can that way, and then we go in there.”

Karrie nodded, and I aimed my gun to the ground and shot a bullet into the dirt. As soon as the gun went off, Karrie and I made a run for it. As expected, five of Dad’s guards jogged into the tunnel with their guns pointed at the end of it.

They walked so slowly toward the end, and when they were in range, we killed all five of them within a few seconds. The tunnels went silent again.

“Did you kill them?” Dad said to someone.

I’d kill to see if he was shitting himself right now.

When nobody answered, we heard more footsteps. Five men appeared, slowly walking down toward us, and received the same fate as the others. I grabbed their guns and threw them aside, so even if one was alive still, they wouldn’t be able to kill us.

“Is the job done?” Dad asked again to someone who must’ve been in the family.

This time, his voice was a tad bit fearful.

One pair of footsteps this time, and Dad appeared. He took his gun and shot ahead into the darkness, not caring who the fuck he hit. My heart raced fast, and all I wanted to do was shoot back at him, so that was what I did.

Aiming my gun around the corner, I shot a bullet, hoping it hit his foot. He cursed out loud when something made contact, and I knew it was now or never. So, I nodded to Karrie, and we ran as quickly as we could. Ready to die to save Alessandro and eliminate this madness.

Like the coward he was, Dad sprinted into the chambers, yelling something in Italian. From above, I heard the muffled sound of police sirens, and Dad yelled again about people going back upstairs to see what it was all about.

With guns blazing, people blindly fired bullets around the room as they ran in all directions. When we entered the chambers, it was pure chaos. Absolute chaos. I knew exactly where Alessandro was and I shot out the lights and ran over to him to unchain him.

“Chiara,” he whispered, eyes barely open enough to see me. “Chiara, you shouldn’t be here.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I said, thrusting a gun into his hand and hurrying to kill some more guards.

All I wanted to do was find Dad and kill that asshole for hurting me and Mom and all those kids.

But Dad was gone. I couldn’t find him anywhere. Not a dead body. Not with a guard with a gun. Nowhere. I sprinted up the stairs and through the house to find it completely empty. From the window, I watched a car peel out of the driveway and race down the road.

Sprinting back down the stairs, I tried to find a set of keys, but couldn’t find any. So, I let him go. As much as it fucking hurt me, I let the bastard go so I could help Alessandro and the others get out of this mess safely.

I ran back down into the cells to find Alessandro and the Sicilian Mafia boss. Alessandro held him by the collar and was raining punch after punch down on his face. My eyes widened slightly as I watched every muscle in his back flex as he beat the shit out of the guy until he was unconscious. And even then, he continued to hit him until the guy didn’t move.

All the other guards were dead, and we were one step closer to ending Dad’s reign.

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