Page 250 of Inferno

He slams the gas, and the Bugatti lurches forward like it’s hungry for blood. The gates splinter, exploding into jagged shrapnel. My head snaps back against the seat. The barn looms ahead.

“Hold on,” he says.

No warning. No mercy.

We hit the doors full force.

Two guards don’t even get a chance to turn around.

We barrel through like vengeance on wheels. Just how it was meant to be.

Because I’m not walking in for a rescue.

I’m walking in for a reckoning.

Chapter 97

CHARLOTTE

The wooden beam above me groans like it’s about to give, and I barely get a second to brace before a shockwave slams through the space behind me. The floor shakes. Dust rains from the rafters.

Holy shit.

He’s here. I don’t need to see him to know it. I feel him in my lungs, in my ribs, in the way my blood suddenly knows how to run faster. Declan.

“Drago!” I shout. “Wake the hell up!”

Nothing. He’s still out, blood slicking his side like a slow leak. His skin is too pale. Too still.

I swallow down the panic clawing up my throat.

Another gunshot cracks through the walls, and I flinch.

I need to be out there.

With him. In it. Fighting back.

I suck in a deep breath. I can’t fall apart now. Not when we’re this close to ending it.

Chapter 98

DECLAN

Iduck behind the Bugatti’s door as a bullet slams into the metal with a deafening thunk. It misses my head by inches.

Conan’s behind me, wrestling a guard like he’s done it a thousand times, but my focus is locked on the bastard across the room. Vlad. My finger twitches on the trigger.

I lean forward and fire twice, missing him by a hair.

“Fuck it,” I hiss. Some twisted stroke of divine luck put Vlad right here as we crashed through the fucking doors. We damn near turned him into a hood ornament, but Conan pulled the brakes just in time.

Doesn’t matter. He’s not mine to kill. He belongs to her.

We just need to tear through him to get to the barn. To Charlotte.

"Why don’t you come out here and fight me like a real man?" Vlad’s voice slithers across the room.

I reach down into the floorboard and pull out the brass dusters and slide them on.

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