Page 23 of Sweet Revenge

Under the porch, I located the first access point. From the outside, it looked exactly like the rest of the concrete foundation, but even that concrete wasn’t completely solid since I had a tunnel system running through it. I found the right portion of wall and gave it a little nudge. The block loosened, and I was able to move it out of the way so that I could slide into the narrow opening.

With my bow on my back, it was a little more difficult than I’d hoped, but I managed. Wiggling up through the concrete tunnel, I chose the path I thought would serve me best, all the while listening to the sounds of boots on the floor above me, as well as muffled voices.

“You’d better hope that jackass shows himself really soon,” a woman’s voice said. Deep and full of rage, I had to assume it was Raven La Rosa. If Elisa answered her, I couldn’t hear her. Either she knew there was no point in arguing with crazy or her sweet voice was too soft to reach my ears.

Not that Elisa was the pushover I’d once mistaken her for. No, if I’d learned one thing from all of this, it was that woman was a badass. Raven would be wise not to discount her. She could take her out and all of those armed professionals with the guns before I even made it out of this tunnel, given the right circumstances.

Crawling uphill was difficult, but I managed to make it to a more even track and slid the floor panel aside, peering out. I was exactly where I expected to be, under the bed in the guest bedroom.

The door was closed all but a crack, and no one was in the room. As silently as possible, I moved the panel aside and slipped out of the tunnel. Then, once I was under the bed, I made sure the bow would clear the metal bedframe before carefully gliding out from under the furniture.

I was in.

Voices hit my ear from the hallway. Two males. I’d have to take them both out quietly with the knife. Fluidly, I moved through the door, jabbing my knife into the back of the first guy’s neck deep enough for it to come out the other side. The other guard’s eyes were saucers, no time for a scream to leave his lips before I’d yanked my knife out and slit his throat. I helped them both to the floor before moving on. Two more guards to go, from what I’d seen.

They were hanging out near the kitchen. Seeing another knife on the counter, I used it to my advantage, slicing through the throat of one man with my hunting knife while tossing the other knife cleanly through the neck of the other. Vin taught me that trick with the Savages.

Now, it appeared that the house was clear except for that bitch Raven La Rosa.

She was next.

CHAPTER15

ELISA

Pepper spray. Why didn’t I carry pepper spray?

It made absolute sense that I would have something on me at all times that could potentially prevent this little recurring problem I had from interfering with my life every few days. Really, how many times did one person generally get kidnapped or taken hostage in their lifetime?

While there were those true crime television shows that had made me think that it was probably going to happen at some point in my life, when I was younger, I didn’t really ever prepare for such an occurrence. Even growing up the daughter of a mafia crime lord, I’d thought my chances were pretty slim. In fact, all of the extra security probably made me feel safer than most people my age.

Now, I sat on the couch in Daemon’s cabin staring down the barrel of a gun wondering why it hadn’t occurred to me before that perhaps an ounce of prevention might’ve gone a long way toward keeping me from finding myself in this situation—again.

“You know you’re already dead, right?” Raven asked me, her eyes narrowed. “It’s your fault my brother was murdered in cold blood.”

“My fault? Your brother kidnapped me from my apartment and took me to my father’s house in an effort to get me killed. Whatever happened to him after that was all part of being involved in the family business.” I shook my head slightly, unable to grasp how she thought I had anything to do with Ragno’s death, but then I realized I should probably do less to anger the woman pointing the gun at my head.

“You went against your father, choosing a damn Petrov instead of the La Rosa family.” Raven’s words dripped with hate. “You’ll die for what you’ve done.”

A thousand arguments against what she had to say to me, including the fact that my own father had just married the matriarch of the Petrov family, came to mind, but I said nothing. Instead, I took a deep breath and tried not to react to what I saw behind Raven’s shoulder.

The sight was enough to make me want to rejoice, scream, and gag all at the same time. Daemon slid from the shadows of the hallway, covered in blood up to his elbows, with splatter across his chest and face. He looked like some sort of demon who’d just crossed into the realm through a portal from hell.

I needed to distract Raven for a second but do it without getting shot. Without letting the idea fully form, I acted, hoping it worked.

Turning my attention to the large picture window beside me, I gasped in alarm. “What’s that?”

“What?” Raven asked, turning toward the window and moving the gun just slightly away from me.

Daemon took advantage of my assistance and flung himself at her, grabbing the gun with one hand as he rocketed his body against Raven’s, giving her a full shove toward the window. The gun went flying across the room, and my cousin sailed through the window, shards of glass ripping through the air as the wood cross panels snapped and splintered.

I covered my face with my arm for a second, but I had to see what was happening. The fall to the ground below was about ten feet because of the slope of the yard here. I doubted she’d be dead, but with the amount of force Daemon had used, she’d be hurt.

Getting up, I took a few steps toward what was left of the window as Daemon cleared a few larger pieces of glass from the frame with his shoe and then leaped through the opening, landing so that his legs straddled my crumpled cousin.

Raven’s body was twisted, with one arm behind her back jutting out at an odd angle. Her legs were bleeding, one of them clearly broken. I wondered if she was even conscious. Could she move?

“How the fuck did you find me?” Daemon glowered over her, grabbing hold of her long ebony locks and giving her a shake.