Page 80 of Vicious Seduction

Gloria whimpered and launched into what sounded like a prayer in Spanish. I didn’t know how, but my little warrior stood perfectly still, nerves of fucking steel. I locked eyes with her, sending every reassurance I could. This situation was my fault, and I would fucking take care of it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lawrence.”

“Don’t play stupid with me,” he hissed. “You can turn on any goddamn channel right now and see my face tied to one scandal or another.”

I lifted my hands placatingly. “I get that, but I’m not sure why you think it’s my fault.”

He lashed out and slammed the butt of the gun against Lina’s head. She crumpled to the floor unconscious. It took all my self-control not to roar with fury. But while I might not have made a sound, my entire body quaked with the need. Murderous rage was written all over me, from my clenched fists to the daggers in my glare.

“You want to blame someone for your failures, but I’m not the one who let my son rape and torture women. I’m not the one evading taxes and working with traffickers. I could understand if investors wanted nothing to do with you, andthere’s only one person responsible for that situation.” I would have told the bastard anything he wanted to hear if it kept Lina safe, but the man had to know there was no getting the milk back in the jar once it was spilled.

I slowly eased myself farther into the room, drawing the two thugs with me as I moved closer to Wellington.

“Check him for weapons.” Wellington snapped at the men behind me, turning his gun on me.

I exhaled harshly as they began to pat me down, removing the handgun holstered under my jacket. The same gun Lina had held on me two days earlier, only now it was fully loaded. I’d hoped he was enough of an amateur not to think to check me for weapons.

He might have been shady as fuck, but he wasn’t the type to get his hands dirty. Pulling strings behind a desk was totally different from pulling a trigger. And if he hadn’t been properly motivated, I would have doubted his ability to follow through. Insanity was a highly effective source of motivation. No threat from Wellington was idle at this point.

“Tell me how I can help you,” I offered, trying to defuse the situation. As I spoke, I noted movement at Lawrence’s feet, but I refrained from looking down. I prayed Lawrence didn’t notice that Lina was waking up.

The muscles in his face quivered with rage as he snarled at me. “No, you’re right. The only thing you can do for me now is todie.”

“That’s not true, Lawrence—” I never got to finish.

Two gunshots erupted in the air around us, quickly followed by lancing pain.

CHAPTER 43

LINA

The pain streakingthrough my skull had me wincing before I’d even opened my eyes. Why the hell did my head hurt so bad? And was I on the floor?

Voices filtered in through my confusion. When I peeked above me and saw Lawrence Wellington holding a gun, everything came crashing back to me—Gloria’s call, the fake Amelie, a gun being pressed to my temple.

Terror engulfed me.

But before I could panic about what to do, an explosion of sound lanced through my head. The pain was so intense, I had no choice but to scrunch my eyes shut and clamp my hands tight over my ears.

Gunshots. Glassbreaking. Screams.

Wellington had been pointing his gun at Oran. Shots were fired.

Wellington shot Oran.

As my sluggish brain caught up, I pried open my eyes with a cry and searched the ground where I expected to find Oran bleeding on the floor, only he wasn’t there. I scanned the area frantically to find Wellington’s two bodyguards motionless on the wood floor. Above me, Oran now held Wellington’s gun, waving it as he ordered the older man away from me.

I had no idea how it had all happened until Conner and another blue-eyed man walked in from the entry. Oran’s family. They were here. They’d saved us.

“Stay put, baby. Just give me a sec.” Oran was talking to me. I hadn’t even realized I’d started to try to stand, still too dazed and overcome with emotions to think straight. “Conner, you take over here,” Oran called, his voice sounding like he was talking from another room despite being right next to me.

Then Oran was helping me up, his arm supporting my back. “We have to hurry, Lina. The neighbors will have reported those shots, and the cops will be here soon.”

I nodded and did my best to steady myself.

“What about these two?” the other blue-eyed man asked.

Oran and I looked at Charles and Eliza, who stood cowering next to one another.