Page 149 of The Devil Can Be Kind

Until shouting erupted in the distance.

The sound ringing out someways behind us, the other side of the mansion. It felt like worlds away from where we were, hidden amongst the garden and topiary.

“That’s from the gate!” Sofia shouted.

The panic in her voice mirrored the panic in my chest and we immediately quickened our pace, running along the path as it trailed through the darkness.

Gunfire erupted not a moment later, decimating the night air. Adrenaline leaked into my bloodstream and had me pushing myself to move faster, kicking off my shoes as I ran harder across the stones. The sharp edges of rock nothing but a burning caress as I pulled up the skirts of my dress, lengthening my stride.

“How much longer Sofia?” I demanded, frustrated that her shortcut was starting to feel like the wrong way to the cars entirely.

Wait…

We rounded the corner of a low-lying wall, and I skidded to a stop, the stones tearing against the soles of my feet as I came to an abrupt halt.

Terror.

Sharp, violent, consumingterrorcrashed through my veins like an excruciating poison.

“Adalyn, my love. I’m so glad you could finally join us.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-NINE

MARCO

“Fucker’s not even here,” Jesse growled, shoving back over the lifeless body of one of the men.

Fifteen of Thrasher’s men were dead. It had been a blood bath. A massacre.

But the fucker knew it would be.

Only one of my men had been injured in the gunfire and even then, it had been a lucky shot. They were untrained, unskilled, and more importantly, outgunned.

Jesse’s observation only confirmed what I had already begun to suspect.

“It was a set-up,” I seethed.

Thrasher may well be a savage or a drug-fueled fool, but he wasn’t an optimist. He knew he and his men wouldn’t get out of this attack alive. He knew he would never get close to the reception. To Adalyn.

Yet he had sent his men here anyway.

It didn’t make any sense.

Then it hit me.

“It’s a distraction.” My voice was hollow even to my own ears.

Most of my men were with me by the gate, leaving only a few left back at the hall. I knew Thrasher didn’t have enough men to attack or get close enough to the guests inside—to Adalyn—but he was a man without anything to lose and they were the hardest to predict.

Alberto Mannino’s warning reverberated in my skull:‘He will stop at nothing to get what he wants.’

“Get to the hall. NOW!”

ADALYN

“Adalyn, my love. I’m so glad you could finally join us.”

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