Total pages in book: 767
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 732023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 3660(@200wpm)___ 2928(@250wpm)___ 2440(@300wpm)
“It’s your only choice.”
He got closer, his presence looming tall. “Open it for me.”
It wasn’t a request. Fortunately, my father had ensured that I knew the escape drill well, so entering the small space wasn’t foreign to me.
I squatted down to unlatch the trapdoor that led to the one passageway nobody else knew about. Cristiano closed and bolted the door behind himself, extinguishing everything but a sliver of the closet’s warm light.
I hoisted open the hatch and it fell with a hard thud against the ground. I concentrated on keeping my voice steady. “This also connects to the tunnels the mules use,” I explained. “But if you stay to the left, that’s a way nobody else knows about. It will take you south.”
“To where?”
I glanced back at him. “That’s all my parents told me.”
The dark turned him into a shadow as he stalked toward me. “I’ll have to take you with me.”
“What?”
“We’re going down there together.”
I backed away, but since he blocked the door, there wasn’t anywhere to go. “Why?”
He tucked the White Monarch into his waistband with his other gun, grabbed my arm, and yanked me toward the entrance of the tunnel. I flew forward, no match for his strength. My heart leapt into my throat as everything happened in a flash. He couldn’t take me. He wouldn’t. Nobody dared cross my father—but Cristiano already had, and now, he had nothing left to lose. If he got me into that tunnel, I’d never return. Never see Diego again. My father. I wouldn’t attend my mother’s funeral.
“I helped you,” I said as more sobs bubbled up into my throat. I looked down the ladder. Since we were on the second floor, one push would send me flying some five meters down into the pitch dark. “Why are you doing this?”
“To show you that you can’t trust anyone. Not me, not Diego, maybe not even your parents. Just because you help someone doesn’t mean they won’t betray you.” He turned toward the ladder. “And because I need a head start. Get on my back.”
Once he released me, I switched into high gear. Perhaps he was known for his ruthlessness, but I’d spent my short life sneaking into places I shouldn’t, surprising even the stealthiest of my father’s guards. I grasped the White Monarch from his pants and stumbled back, leveling the pistol on him with both hands.
With the light at my back, I saw a hint of amusement flash in his eyes. “You don’t know true fear, little girl. It puts you in danger.”
I did know fear. I was staring at my mother’s murderer. I couldn’t swallow. Couldn’t hear over the deafening pounding of my heart.
Wherever Cristiano surfaced, my father would kill him.
Or I could save Papá the trouble and do it myself.
For the first time since before I’d tripped over my mother’s dying body, calmness fell over me. Nobody had been able to stop Cristiano—not my mother or father, not Diego, and not security. I could, though. He deserved to die for his sins.
I urged myself to act, but something Cristiano had said stopped me. There is no justice. Was I sure, down to my very core, that he had done this? What if he hadn’t? I didn’t know him nearly as well as I did Diego. Cristiano was fourteen years older than me—a man. Despite his reputation as a killer, he had always treated me with kindness.
And my mother, too.
But as he’d said—you couldn’t trust anyone in this world. Not even your own blood.
“Do it,” he invited.
Based on what I’d seen, I was pretty sure in order to shoot, I first had to slide the top of the gun toward me. But the firearm itself was so heavy, I needed both hands to keep it steady. I glanced at the top part to determine the best way to do this.
“Never hesitate, Natalia.” Cristiano snatched the pistol from me and pressed the muzzle to my forehead. “See? Bang. You’re dead.”
My breath caught in my throat. I was dead. Defenseless. Shivering like the little girl I was.
“And never draw a weapon you can’t operate. When you aim, kill.” He flicked a switch on the side, stuck the gun back in his pants, and grabbed me.
“Stop,” I cried and pushed against him as he hugged me to his chest with his arm.
“Hold on.” One-handedly, he quickly descended the ladder.
I wrapped my arms around his neck. He was the furthest thing from a safe place, but in that moment, I was no longer concerned with being brave. I was trapped. I gave into my fear, submitting to the warmth of his body, sobbing into his neck as he descended into the dark.
“Is there another key to the secret door?” he asked.
I sniffled. “My father keeps it on him.”
“He’s probably already on his way,” Cristiano said, almost consolingly. “They’ll find you eventually, Natalia. This is the only way I’ll be able to put enough distance between them and me.”