Page 87 of Auctioned Surrender

My feet move without thought, all my training taking over, and it takes me mere minutes to scramble quietly over the terrain and get the drop on him. “Gun on the ground. Do it now,” I say, holding mine to the back of his head.

He drops it, and I pull zip ties from my belt loop and restrain him. “If you move, you die,” I tell him, pushing him to a sitting position on a boulder while watching my sister and the scene below. Luisa’s still trying to decide what to do. Tommy may have taken a hit, but she knows if she gets a shot off at Dereck, it might give Tommy a chance to take her out.

Dereck is braced on the ground, ready to take a shot, to put an end to my sister’s life to save these women from a life of slavery, biding his time until he can do it without hurting the girl. My sister can’t take both him and Tommy at the same time, but he can’t shoot safely with the girl in the way.

My sister turns to Tommy. “Say your prayers. This is for Bernatelli,” Luisa says, deciding he’s the better chance since she’s still got the girl. As soon as she shifts to aim her gun at Tommy, it gives me all the clearance I need to take the shot. At the very same time my gun releases, shots ring out from behind and below me, delivering a second and third blow squarely to my sister’s chest.

Luisa collapses in a heap, dead, at least partly by my hand, while the girl she was holding hostage screams, slapping her blood-splattered face and clothing before getting pulled into the arms of another young woman standing next to her.

The pieces that never made sense about my cousin’s death and sister’s disappearance slowly start falling into place, one by one. Still, none of that makes seeing my sister lying on the ground without any hope of survival any easier to bear.

I pull the shooter to his feet by his cuffs, half-dragging him from behind the bush that was providing us cover, and begin to make the walk toward Tommy’s partner just below.

“Do something with this piece of shit!” I say, pushing him towards Marco, who punches the guy square in the mouth.

“That’s for Tommy, you lousy fucking traitor!” Marco yells, punching him again just as Trent joins us from behind, dragging another man across the ground.

“I’m afraid the pair of them were in on it together, Marco. I saw them come in with you and Tommy earlier, so the first shot off caught me by surprise. I came up to provide additional backup, and this one was just lining up a shot to take you out, too,” Trent says.

“Fucking traitors,” he says, spitting on the corpse and grabbing the other guy by the restraints I’ve placed him in, pushing him ahead of us as the three of us walk down the short trail and into the open.

“Thanks for the backup,” I tell Trent. “He could have taken me out next, and well, you know, for doing what had to be done with my sister.”

“Anytime, Layla. Taking that shot couldn’t have been easy for you. I was hoping to prevent you from having to do it at all, and I’m sure that was on Dereck’s mind, too.”

“I appreciate that more than both of you will ever know. We did what had to be done, and I know the Larussios will take care of the traitor issue,” I say as we reach the clearing of the shore.

“Of that, there is no doubt,” Trent says.

Tommy’s the first one I reach in the path of the downed bodies, and it's strange how professional training stays with you. I lean down to examine the bullet entrance. “Don’t move too much. The bullet is still lodged. It’ll need to be removed and may hurt like hell for a while. You’ll live, but next time you corner someone with this much on the line, you need to secure thefucker first or shoot to kill. These people have nothing to lose. They will kill you in a heartbeat if you give them an opportunity or don’t kill them first,” I say, winning me a wide smile from one of the toughest Larussio men on the payroll who undoubtedly has a physician on staff for the Family who will take care of his wound.

I glance once more at my sister. She lies on the ground in a pool of blood, her dark hair like a curtain, and the tears are impossible to prevent. I give myself and her a moment, folding her hands in place together over her stomach, and say a silent prayer for her soul, thankful that she doesn’t have children or parents who will need to learn of this day. I wipe the tears from my eyes, take a deep calming breath, and stand, going to Dereck’s side as he sends the girls to wait in the van while he gets things wrapped up.

Dereck pulls me close. “I’m so sorry we couldn’t save your sister, Princess.”

“I know, papi, so am I, but she didn’t give us a choice. I’m just sorry that I didn’t figure it out before now. I thought she was a victim, kidnapped, and was going to be killed just like my cousin, Layla. She was taking all of these women, papi. Just look at them,” I say, wiping my tears from all the sadness I see around me.

“We can’t just let a cop walk away after what went down, sweetheart,” Tommy says as Marco assists him into a sitting position.

Dereck moves me behind him and has his weapon drawn in one fluid movement. “I don’t see that you have a choice. She’s not going to say a word, Tommy. One of her bullets is lying in her sister’s chest, and another kept you alive.”

Marco is watching Dereck, and Tommy’s taking in the scene. “She and Trent saved my ass up on the hill, too,” Marco says.

“What my sister said about me being a cop wasn’t a lie, but she didn’t know that I turned in my badge. I did what I could to protect the people in our community for a while until I realized it just wasn’t enough. Believe this or not, I worked side by side with some of your people. The ones that didn’t take too kindly to the thugs who were abusing and taking our women. I wasn’t getting anywhere fast finding these networks working through the system. My cousin was killed, and then I thought traffickers kidnapped my sister, so I walked away. The traffickers and the organizations they work for just have too much information, so many eyes on the inside, and as a police officer, I kept running into red tape. It would have either ended with getting fired and charged or resigning, so I just walked away. I can assure you that I wouldn’t say a word.”

“I wish that were enough, sweetheart, but that’s not the way this works,” Tommy says.

Marco reaches for his weapon, but he’s no match for Dereck, who already has his gun aimed at Tommy, who never even had a chance to draw.

“Secure him, Layla,” Dereck instructs, gesturing to Marco while he walks toward Tommy, who’s looking up at him from his seated position on the ground.

“This is how it’s going to work from here on out. I’m not going to shoot you in the head, but Layla is going to walk out of here with me, and not you, not Marco, and none of your other friends are going to come after her once we do. I’m going to talk to my employers, who are personal friends with Mr. Larussio. They’re going to tell him the entire story about Layla and her sister. You know as well as I do that Carlos Larussio doesn’t condone trafficking girls, especially from men like Bernatelli, and that he’ll go to great lengths to protect the people working against them. There’s no reason to hurt Layla,” Dereck says.

“You’re asking for a lot. She and these women saw us murder people. That puts either of us in jail for the rest of our lives or ends it. You may have an in with Mr. Larussio, but the men and I have a code, a set of rules. Give us something to take back to the boss I gotta answer to that helps make this work before you go to the top,” Tommy says.

“I know what might work,” I say, my head wrapping around the idea that’s been slowly forming.

“What’s that, Princess,” Dereck says, never taking his eyes off of Tommy or moving the gun from his head.

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