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“No,” I replied, steeling myself.
“Fine,” said Leonardo. “Just know, from wherever you end up, that I’ll make sure everyone gets your regards as I slit their throats.”
I watched as he began walking towards the fridge. Vasquez called out to him. “Leonardo! Not so hasty, my friend. You wanted him to suffer a little bit, didn’t you?”
“Hmm… Or would it be better the other way around?” Leonardo asked, smiling.
“Or, even more poetic, at the same time? We slit both their throats and let them bleed out next to each other.”
“Now that, I can get on board with,” Leonardo replied.
I realized that it was my chance to move. If I managed to injure Vasquez even a bit, it would be a big enough blow to satisfy me. I bent low, raising my collar to my tied-up hands and pulled the small blade I had concealed earlier out of the secret pocket, hiding it in my palms. When I was sure that everyone was too distracted to notice, I began slicing through the ropes slowly as Leonardo opened the refrigerator and dragged Maria out of it. She fell to the ground, and I could see the ice that had begun forming on her hair. She had been locked in for a long time and had started turning pale.
“Try not to scream. I’ll make it quick and painless… Then again, I don’t know if this is painless. I have never had my throat slit.” Leonardo laughed.
The sound of a gunshot going through the building filled my ears and I ducked instantly, along with everyone else in the building. Vasquez hit the deck behind me, and I turned to see Leonardo holding his bleeding arm next to Maria. I could not turn around to see the source of the shot, but I knew it had come from behind me. I began working faster with the blade, slicing through the ropes just as the second shot rang out. It hit the floor right in front of Vasquez, causing him to back off.
His men began firing behind me, trying to hit whatever target they had spotted. I heard the bullets whizz past me and I ignored them, focusing on loosening my bonds. Vasquez realized what I was up to, and he quickly reached for me to stop me. But, as he did, the ropes became loose enough for me to shake my hands free, and I swung the blade at him, slicing across his forearm. Vasquez yelped and fell backward, screaming at his men to shoot at me.
Most of them didn’t seem to hear him through the gunfire, but the one man who did turned his weapon on me. Just before he could fire, his head exploded, spraying Vasquez behind him with blood and brain matter. “Fuck!Fuck!”
I turned my attention to my other arm and quickly cut through it. Then I freed my legs and, afterward, I jumped out of the seat, grabbed a gun from a body on the floor, and shot the three men closest to me, killing them instantly. I realized that Vasquez had backed away, but there were more men coming in, and I didn’t have anywhere to go. I jumped back at the conveyors that moved the meat along the plant.
I ran alongside it, looking over to see Leonardo grab Maria and run out of the building. I reached the place where the shots had come from and looked down the other side of the hall to see a man with a sniper rifle, crouched in the corner. He looked at me, nodded and threw a handgun at me. I watched in awe at the grim expression on his face, not expecting help from him. But there he was, when I needed him the most, like always.
“Thank you, Benny.”
“It’s not over yet!” Benny replied. “Give me some cover!”
I nodded and fired blindly into the corridor, not bothering with hitting anyone. I just needed to give him an opening to take a shot. Benny put the sniper over the corner of the wall, aimed for a man who was trying to flank us on the side, and fired. The shot went through the man and hit another behind him, dropping both men to the ground. The sound of something metal bouncing off the floor reached our ears and we realized that it was a grenade.
“Down!”
The explosion shook the building, and at this point, I was certain that people outside would have heard the commotion, and the police would be on the way to the scene -- unless, of course, Vasquez had paid to get them to stay away from the scene until he gave the word. I looked back and spotted Vasquez heading further into the building, and I knew that the main entrance was behind me. They were heading further into the building and looking to bunker down. If we went after them, there was a chance we would die.
“They have Maria. We have to go!”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
Maria
I felt worse than I had ever felt. I felt like I had been run through a snowstorm. I could not stop myself from shaking, and the fact that I was still stuck in the freezer made breathing a lot harder. After I had been brought into the building, they had taken me to the freezer and locked me in, turning off the power at first. I couldn’t hear what they had discussed, but Leonardo and Vasquez had certainly sent the video to Angelo, and if he came down here, he would be killed.
Regardless of everything I said, they would not listen, and they had locked me in the freezer. It was already freezing cold, with large chunks of beef and pork hanging inside of it, frozen solid. I made sure not to touch anything, and I huddled into a ball in the corner of the room, keeping away from the freezing walls. I knew that the air was a lot deadlier than the cold walls, but I had no protection from either. I had a short dress on, and one of the men had thrown in a windbreaker for me, just for laughs.
I wrapped my fingers in the windbreaker and used it to stop the cold air from going directly into my nostrils. Then, the freezer came on. I knew I could have survived there for a day with just the cold, but once the freezer came on, I knew I had just hours before I would succumb to hypothermia and die. I banged against the glass, trying to get their attention, letting them know that the freezer was on, but Vasquez smiled at me, before ordering one of the men to ensure that it was locked properly.
“Please!” I yelled, but between the thickness of the door and the insulation of the walls, I was certain they could not hear me properly. I noticed the door behind them open, and three men walked in as I screamed. One of them… was Angelo. He didn’t notice me at first, heading over to the rest of the men. He was tied to the same chair I had been brought in on, and then Leonardo began beating him. I watched in horror as Angelo tried talking to him, with no answer than his friend’s fists to his face.
“Stop it! God,stopit!”
Angelo turned to the side for a moment, but it was enough for him to notice me in the freezer, and in that second, I saw the fear in his eyes double. He turned away and began begging,pleadingwith his captors as he tried to urge them to release me. It was no use. After a few more minutes of talking, I watched as Leonardo began walking towards me. I was shivering terribly, and I knew that my skin was probably a ghastly white color. Leonardo opened the doors of the freezer and grabbed me, pulling me out. I stumbled, barely able to walk.
I felt as though my muscles had been frozen solid and were unable to move. I dropped to the ground, almost frozen solid and heard something whip over my head. Immediately after that, the sound of a gunshot reached my ears, and I arched my body as it had come from right behind me. Leonardo yelled and clutched his shoulder before pulling me up with one arm and dragging me away. The entire warehouse descended into madness as gunfire broke out from all of the men in the building.
“Angelo!” I yelled, but my voice was drowned out by the gunfire.
Vasquez was rushing behind me, along with a few other men as we began heading down into the heart of the building. It seemed to be some sort of underground basement used for storage. It was one of the largest I had ever seen, with two long corridors on either side and several rooms. Vasquez was bleeding from his arm and Leonardo had been shot in the shoulder. He pushed me towards one of the men who had come down with us as they rushed into one of the rooms.
