Page 37 of Vicious Addictions

And that silence tells me everything.

The idiot is more afraid of whoever’s pulling his strings than he is of dying here, which means that his boss is someone worth worrying about.

Either way, he won’t make it out here alive.

With one captive too traumatized for coherent thought and the other with no self-preservation skills to attest to, Victor doesn’t press further. Instead, he shifts his attention to Remus.

“Were these the only ones you found?”

Remus nods.

Victor hums, considering his options.

“Take them to the factory. A few days as Rolo’s playthings should loosen their tongues.” Victor turns to the defiant one, his grin sharp as a blade. “After a few hours alone with my nephew, you’ll realize there are far worse things to fear than your employer.”

The hostage’s eyes go wide, his mouth parting just slightly as if the full weight of Victor’s threat is crashing down on him. But before he can utter a word, the warehouse suddenly erupts in gunfire, the sounds of bullets ricocheting all around. Instinct quickly kicks in, forcing me to drop low, gun already in hand, aimed high into the shadows above. One minute, shots seem to come from every direction from the darkened rafters of the warehouse, and then the next, it goes eerily quiet.

“Did you get them? Rolo, did you get whoever is up there?” Victor shouts behind a flipped table, Felix right at his side, both holding their guns.

Remus and Rolo don’t seek shelter, preferring to stare at the pitch-black shadows above, coaxing whoever is up there to make the first move.

Only I’m the one to track the first movement.

I don’t hesitate and take the shot.

A figure crumples from the ledge, flipping over the rail and crashing hard onto the cement floor. After a few minutes of silence, I rise to my feet and step forward, nudging the body over with my boot. However, the face that blankly stares at me isn’t who I expected—a woman.

A ringing sound fills my ears as I stare at the body in front of me.

The woman’s vacant eyes bore into mine, lips slightly parted as if frozen mid-breath. The blood pooling beneath her dark brown hair spreads like ink on the concrete, making me take a step back to prevent getting under the soles of my shoes.

It’s only when a hand grips my shoulder that I’m propelled to the here and now.

“Are you okay there, Romano?” Felix’s voice is steady, but there’s something else in it, too.

Something cautious.

I clear my throat, shaking the haze from my mind, and reply, “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Felix doesn’t look convinced, but he doesn’t push further.

Instead, he turns toward Victor, who frowns at the bodies—the ones we brought in and the new addition, riddled with bullets.

She wasn’t here to save them. She was here to silence them.

Victor exhales, flicking his cigar onto the floor.

“Clean this up. Then call the Yard. Let them deal with the rest.” He adjusts his coat and strides toward the exit.

“Oi, where the fuck areyougoing?” Rolo calls out, but his irritation isn’t aimed at Victor. His eyes are locked on Felix, who’s already ushering me toward the door.

“You two were the ones who didn’t sweep the damn place properly,” Felix throws back. “You clean this shit up.”

Rolo looks ready to lose his mind, but Remus, ever the calmer of the two, steps between them with a lazy smirk. “Let the ladies get their beauty sleep. We can handle this.”

Felix doesn’t wait for a reply. He pulls me out of the warehouse, and before I even register the world outside, we’re already in the car, the city lights blurring past the windows.

Everything feels sluggish. Distant.

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