Page 88 of The Heart of a Villain

He must read the disbelief on my face, as he elaborates, “Your face is in it. So if you manage to do it, we will be safe. Jade keeps the majority of his guards outside, so you’ll just have to handle him.”

“Will Rush be able to get in?”

“Yes.”

As great as this plan sounds, if my father is on his way here, then he will be in danger.

“Okay. I have to go.” I check my guns, my insides screaming at me that I have lost my mind with all this because God knows how many more people I’ll have to kill or injure.

The men in my life left me no choice, though!

“Jesse, you will stay with them.” I point under the table. “There is a first aid kit underneath there.” I shift my focus to Lavender, who seems terrified, and I know why. For whatever reason, basements scare her, and she doesn’t handle them well. “You can come with me.”

“What?” George exclaims. “She cannot, absolutely not.” He steps forward but then sways backward, Jesse catching him in time. “Loud sounds and everything else—”

“I’ll be fine,” Lavender snaps and then grabs another gun. “Let’s go.” While everyone is surprised, I’m not, and she shrugs. “I had to pretend to be crazy. Jade wanted to marry me once I turned eighteen.” A beat passes. “He thought we were in love and destined to be together because I was my mom’s spitting image.”

“Dear God,” William mutters, gulping for breath, but we have no time for this.

We have to act super-fast now.

“What’s the code?”

“Seventy-five, fifty-six.”

“The new code will be mirroring these numbers. You can inform whoever comes to the rescue.”

We quickly go up the stairs, and I peek through the door, noticing an empty hallway, although voices can be heard in the distance.

Motioning for Lavender to go out, I close the door and dial the code and then reprogram it, locking them in.

Once that’s done, we start to move in the direction of the office but then jump to the side when a guard goes to the living room, dragging a maid with him, who struggles in his hold. “Oh come on, sunshine. Give me a little kiss. Be a good girl.”

“Don’t touch me!” she screams while more laughter joins in, and Lavender visibly shakes, her hold on the gun tightening, and then she goes straight to the living room, firing at him.

“Damn it!” I hiss, seeing her shooting him right in the groin, and he yells out, covering his bleeding dick, while the maid tries to keep her dress on.

Footsteps can be heard in the distance, coming from where the office is. “Did you hear that?”

“As if someone fired a gun, right?”

“Check that fucking thing,” Jade snaps, and my stomach flips because he must have known about the mansion’s functions, so he’s occupying the office.

Considering I don’t know how he prepared for this takeover, we cannot risk going straight into the demon’s den.

Loud footsteps rock off the walls, and I whisper to Lavender, “Outside!” We have a better chance to hide somewhere out there until Rush arrives. He has to come at some point, right?

We run with all our might to the main door, guards hot on our heels, and I inhale the fresh air into my lungs, my sneakers slapping against the concrete, when Lavender screams, “To the greenhouse! There’s a secret passage!”

Thunder booms in the air, darkness almost settling over the island, while my lungs squeeze so hard, they beg me to stop and gulp for breath. Yet I push myself harder as bullets fly around us, the guards chasing us, our survival depending on how fast we can outrun them.

We are almost halfway there when Jade’s men start to come from every side, creating a circle around us and trapping us right in the middle.

I raise my gun at them, shooting at a few, but they evade the bullets, and then just an empty click follows, and one of them laughs. “Looks like you ran out of ammo.”

Lavender is breathing heavily next to me, fear piercing into me among them all, since now they can do whatever they want with us, and I won’t be able to fight them off.

The one who spoke up listens to something from the comm in his ear, and then he throws it away, excitement flashing in his eyes. “Jade said you need to be taught a lesson. Whoever wants to fuck you, they can.” He looks at Lavender then. “Someone take her to Jade. He has other plans for her.”

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