Page 190 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

Chances were, I did.

“Laila,” Sage sobbed from the corner of the room.

“No,” I cried. “No!”

This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t fucking be happening.

When my vision finally cleared enough, Sage and Poppy came into my sight. I cried harder, chest heaving up and down, shoulders bucking back and forth. They were going to torture her the way they had with me all night.

They couldn’t!

“Tie them down,” the dickhead growled at the new man. “Then, get the fuck out of here.”

“Let me out!” I screamed, wanting their attention on me and not on Sage. “Now!”

But the man tied Sage and Poppy up anyway.

The good cop crouched by my side. “We don’t have to hurt them. Just give us information, Laila.”

I spit right in his face again. “Let me out. Now! Or I will kill you myself.”

The second cop grabbed my wet rag, yanked Sage’s head back by her hair, and draped it over her face.

“Laila,” she whimpered, voice trembling. “What’s going on?” She sniffled. “P-please, don’t hurt me. I-I’m s-scar—”

Before she could finish her sentence, they poured a gallon of water over her face. Her body convulsed as she desperately tried to breathe, but she must’ve been swallowing water by the mouthful.

“Stop!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, snapping my shoulders back and forth. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

They couldn’t hurt her. Not her. She was so vulnerable, especially after what had happened with Bethany. She hadn’t been in this family for more than a few weeks, and she wouldn’t be able to handle it.

“Please, torture me!”

“Tell us, Laila,” the good cop hummed, “and we won’t hurt her.”

My eyes burned. I didn’t want to tell them shit. I wouldn’t get my husband thrown in prison. But, fuck, I didn’t want them to hurt her. I couldn’t watch or listen to her scream out in agony, sobbing and begging for them to stop.

“She’s pregnant. Please,” I whispered, hoping that they’d have some sympathy.

If begging for her life wasn’t going to do it, then maybe a baby would. But when those words left my mouth, I knew that Sage would have a hard time believing that I cared about her. Constantino had brought it up last night, so Sage must’ve at least been thinking about it.

I stared at Sage as tears flowed down my cheeks, hoping she’d understand that everything I had said was to protect her. I loved her, no matter what. I wanted her forever—and not just because she could give us a family. If I had wanted that from the beginning, we would’ve gone the surrogate or adoption route instead of picking up a random woman at our bar.

“Please, don’t hurt her or the baby,” I begged.

“If only we could do that,” the shithead cop said, walking over to me.

He hurled his fist right at my face and knocked me out cold.

70

constantino

My bullet whizzed through a guard’s head, and the corpse smacked hard onto the ground with a thud. I stepped over him and ripped open the door to an abandoned building, rage pumping through my veins.

They weren’t fucking cops. They were monsters for taking women.

I slammed my fist into another fucker’s jaw, sending him to the ground. Hurling my foot into his head over and over and over, I didn’t stop until he wasn’t moving. Pietro, Riccardo, and a couple of other guards took care of the other men around me.

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