Page 98 of Twisted Games of Revenge

A tear slips down my cheek, but I swipe it away. I won’t cry over my brother anymore. His greediness is what got us all twisted up in this war in the first place.

Ricky strokes my arm tenderly. “By the time we got off the chopper, Enzo was waiting for us, and Marco had already snuck you out of there. Down some underground tunnel none of us even knew existed until yesterday when Alex and Geovani went and searched the estate.”

Maddox’s haunted eyes lock with mine, his grip on my hand tightening. Like he’s afraid to let me go ever again. “It must have been then he realized you had a tracker on you, because we couldn’t get a signal again. The boys found your necklace in the tunnel.”

I stare back at them, the unspoken silence reflecting the fear they must have felt knowing they had lost me. Geovani would have been losing his shit. And Alex, I don’t even want to imagine. “What did you do?” I whisper.

Ricky picks up the story. “We got a call from our security guards at the club. We thought he had taken you to the Flamingo Hotel. It was early hours of the morning, not long after the club had closed when we received a call to say the place was alight. We split up, two of us went down there, the other two kept searching for you. Everyone was involved. Sloane had all the Iron Strykers out on the streets as well, searching every possible location we could think of.”

“The Flamingo Hotel was too far gone. The fire crew tried to save it, but it’s a burnt-out shell now,” Maddox adds, and my heart sinks for them.

“I’m sorry. I know you boys loved that place.”

“It’s just a club, baby doll, we can rebuild. It was you we were desperate to find.”

“Sometime mid-morning,” Maddox says, “one of them girls from The Raven’s Nest messaged Sloane with a notification about the charity auction that was taking place at midday. We all knew that’s where you would be. But we couldn’t get into the place. It was so tightly manned with all the rogue cops working for Enzo.”

“Then Dani came running out the side of the building, from one of the fire escapes. She was bawling her eyes out, completely distraught because you were still inside, and she said Valentina had you. Said you helped her escape. She was also our ticket back into the place. With her and Malachi’s computer expertise, the two of them worked together and short circuited the security system, getting us access through the back entry just in time to see Enzo trying to sell you in that auction.”

“By helping Dani escape, you saved yourself,” Maddox adds, his eyes meeting mine.

My head drops. “I couldn’t save our baby.”

“Enzo knew, baby doll.” Ricky pulls me into him. “Enzo knew about the baby, he hurt you with the intention of making surethe baby didn’t survive. There was nothing you could have done.”

He hugs me close, his arms strong and warm around me. And I let him, needing his strength to pull me through. I can’t slip back into the horrible thought patterns I have been having since I found out my baby was gone. After some time, I pull away with a heavy sigh. “Where is Dani? Is she okay?”

Maddox looks to Ricky. “She’s staying at Geovani’s apartment. He’s over there checking on her now. But from what he said yesterday, I don’t think she is.”

I sit up a little straighter, down my now cold coffee quickly, then stand. “I should have been to check on her already,” I say, feeling guilty. I’ve been stuck in my own personal hell, and I forgot about all the other people affected by this. I move to my dresser and pull out a pair of jeans and a sweater, tugging them on. “Sloane?” I ask.

“Sloane’s fine. But she has been demanding to see you as soon as you’re ready.” Ricky’s smile, a slow, knowing curve of his lips, tells me everything – she’s been pestering him relentlessly.

I turn back to them, and they both look shocked to see I’m out of bed. “Okay. First, we go see Sloane, then I want you to take me down to the club with you for the clean-up.”

Ricky stands and comes in close. “Baby doll, you have been through a lot. Maybe you should be resting.”

I glance over his shoulder to Maddox who smirks at me. “I have been in bed for three days. I’m done resting. I need to help you guys.”

After the boys made me eat some toast for breakfast, we dropped in to see Sloane and she said she would meet us at the boys’ club. But as we pull up, I’m not sure that was a good idea. I’m in shock. Nothing could have prepared me to see the utter destruction. There is practically nothing left. “Please tell me no one was inside when this happened,” I gasp.

Maddox looks over his shoulder to me. “Not many, our quick-thinking security guards got them out in time.”

“Thank God.” Relief washed over me as I placed a hand over my chest, feeling my heart slow its frantic beat. We get out of Ricky’s Jeep and move closer to the rubble as Sloane and Onyx pull up and move toward the building as well.

“I’m so sorry, boys, what a waste,” she says, coming to join me at my side.

The four of us gaze out at the destruction in silence. I’m not sure where you even begin to tackle such a chaotic and overwhelming mess. Charred brick walls, some still standing, showed gaping, black window frames where glass once was. The back of the building, the part behind the club where I was with Maddox only last week, is the worst damaged. It’s completely demolished, the brick fallen to nothing but a pile of rubble. So much history gone.

“The fire started in the hotel at the back,” Alex says as his arm snakes around me. I glance over to him. I didn’t know he would be here, but I’m so glad he is. He’s unshaven and in casual clothes, just jeans and a T-shirt. He looks so much younger than normal, a vulnerability in his eyes I have never seen before. He’s lost so much this week. Not just his baby but his parents as well. And even though they were awful humans, there must be part of him that is mourning them.

“We started this club to protect the women who used to work for Enzo. And even down to his ultimate destruction, this was Enzo’s way of trying to prove he still had all the control. Destroying their safe place to work. Destroying something that meant so much to us because we defied him.” His voice is hoarse and strained, and I can see he’s not mourning them. He hates them every bit as much as I do.

I slip into his body, feeling the warmth of his skin as I hug him tight. He’d been worried he would turn out like Enzo, butthat could never be possible. He strokes my hair, the four of us looking out over their old club in silence. What else is there to say?

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up this morning. I had a media conference to run,” he explains.

I offer him a soft smile, not even sure why he’s apologizing to me. “That’s okay.”

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