Page 34 of Deadly Intentions

“Now you know who is in control. And if you get out of here alive, you’ll remember that.”

twenty

DONNY

Javier was an amateur.That was the first thing I noticed when we pulled up to the abandoned warehouse. If this had been one of our operations, we’d have had men stationed everywhere. But that wasn’t the case. There were two guys standing guard and Javier was on his phone, pacing outside.

“This guy is either really stupid or arrogant.” Alex grunted as he cut the engine. “The doc must be inside.”

“No worries. We’ve dealt with worse.” Massimo climbed out and slid his weapon from the holster at his back. “You coming?”

We joined Massimo at the front of the SUV and watched the men at the entrance. I couldn’t help but smirk as Vincenzo removed his trusty blade out of the sheath he kept strapped to his calf. For years, Vincenzo tried to bury the part of him that dealt with the family problems until he nearly lost Riley. Now he embraced that part of himself.

“One of us needs to check the inside for numbers. We need to know how many men he has in there before we storm the place.” Alex pulled his sidearm out and moved toward the building. “I’ll go.”

“Hang on.” Vincenzo hurried to catch up with him. “I’ll go with you.”

I watched as Alex and Vin made their way around the side of the metal structure, expecting them to get a look inside and let us know. But what happened had Massimo and I darting toward them. Vincenzo roared into the night air and launched himself at one of two guards. Alex was hollering something at him, but quickly drew his gun and pressed it to the remaining man’s head.

“What the fuck, Vin?” Massimo kneeled down and jerked him to his feet.

Vin glanced up from the guard, his knife dripping with a red hue of hate. “No more waiting. Catarina needs us now.”

Massimo spun to look back at the building. “What did you see?”

He shook his head, glancing my way. “Donny shouldn’t go in.”

“Fuck that.” I pushed past them and rounded the side of the warehouse.

“Wait.” Alex grabbed my shoulder. “Donny, you need to prepare yourself. It’s bad and she’s gonna need you levelheaded when you get inside. Maybe Vin is right. You should wait until we get in there and bring her out.”

My heart stuttered at his plea. His words were filled with pain and fear, making my stomach roll with unease. I bumped my shoulder against his and pressed against the window. My eyes couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. The doctor and Javier were arguing about something, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the woman lying on the table. Her shirt hung tattered on her body—her breasts exposed. Her humiliation didn’t stop there. They’d apparently secured her legs to the table and stripped off her pants. If it hadn’t been for the ink covering her skin, I wouldn’t have known it was my Catarina. They’d done a number on her face, but it was her body I worried the most about. Being beaten was something you could heal from. But it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know she’d been sexually assaulted. I turned my head and heaved into the grass. I’d failed at protecting her.

“Hey.” Alex’s hand rested on my back. “Pull yourself together. She needs you to be strong.”

I turned and looked him in the face. He hadn’t known Catarina long, but I could see this was hard for him too. He was supposed to protect and serve the people. Right now, he was probably feeling as low as me. He too had failed a woman he knew.

“Where’s my brother?”

“At the entrance.” Alex started toward the front. “Come on. We gotta move fast before Javier comes out and finds his men dead.”

“Men?” I shook my head in confusion.

“Yeah. Your friend has some serious rage issues.”

Alex’s chuckle made me pause. “Fuck.” That meant Vincenzo had inflicted his blade on the second guard. Which also meant two bodies were bleeding out at the entrance. “Let’s go.”

As I suspected, the mutilated remains of both guards had been dragged off to the side. The blood-stained ground was still visible, even in the darkness of night. Massimo glared at me, his eyes asking me silent questions I wasn’t ready to answer. A simple nod of my head had his hands balling into tight fists.

“I’m going to kill this motherfucker.” Massimo started toward the door, but Alex halted him.

“Easy.” He turned his head back to Vin and me. “We need to do this smart. As soon as you breach the inner door, everything changes.”

“As much as I want to end Javier’s life, my focus needs to be on Catarina.” I fought back the wetness pooling behind my eyes. Catarina needed me to be strong—I could fall apart later.

“Let’s go. Alex.” Massimo turned to his friend. “If you go in with us, you will certainly be ending your career. I understand if you don’t want to do this. But if you do.” He paused. “You will have a place working for me.”

Alex nodded in understanding. Massimo was giving him an out. Because once we breached the door, the two men inside would not be coming out. There would be no way for Alex to explain his way out of this. Even if the false accusation was proven just that—false. This would end his career.

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