Page 103 of LA Reign

I feel Jax shifting in his seat beside me. He looked at me like I’d grown an extra head when I told him my suspicions. He said I’m loco, especially when I informed him that it was just me and him who were going to end this. I don’t trust anyone else with the information. I can’t afford for anyone else to know; it could cost Alana her life if I did. And possibly Lucia’s, too.

I trust Jacob; he’s been my driver since I was a little kid, but he is little more than a chauffeur these days. He hasn’t been in the thick of the action for over a decade. Besides, I need him outside for Alana and Lucia, ready to drive them to safety in case Jax and I don’t make it. He’s our last defense.

“I appreciate you doing this with me,” I say to Jax.

He turns to me and grins. “Where else would I be but by your side, amigo? Until the end. Remember?” He holds out his fist and I touch it with mine.

“Until the end.”

Half an hour later, the car rolls to a stop a few hundred yards from the house where I pray Alana and Lucia are being held. Jacob switched off the headlights a quarter of a mile up the road so they wouldn’t see us coming.

Jax and I slip out of the car, sticking close to the tree line for cover as we make our way toward the building. “Remember the plan?” I whisper.

He nods. “Kill anyone who moves who isn’t one of us,” he says grimly, taking one of his guns from his holster and connecting the silencer to the end.

I look toward the house. There are two men patrolling the perimeter. Jogging closer to them, we each take one out with a clean shot to the neck.

I indicate my head to the back of the house, and Jax nods his understanding as he edges past me. If I am going into this house, then I’ll walk in like I have so many times before. Like I always have. Through the front door. Not like a thief in the night.

Walking to the front porch, I peer through the window but can’t see anyone inside. I take a breath to calm my racing heart. Could I be wrong about this? Part of me hopes I am, but then I’d be no closer to finding Alana and Lucia, and that’s all that matters. I pull open the screen door and, just as I knew it would, it creaks, alerting the guard who is in the hallway. He runs to the door, but he doesn’t even have a chance to draw his weapon before I shoot him between the eyes. I look down at his body. He’s worked for my family for twenty years.

Traitor.

I walk further into the house, the familiar sights and smells surrounding me. I have been in this place so many times. Never did I think I would be here with a gun, bringing death. Another man walks out of the kitchen. He looks up at me and blinks as I shoot him in the face.

I hear the sound of two more muffled gunshots near the back of the house before Jax walks into the hallway to meet me. He simply nods at me, and I point toward the basement.

I was right, but something about this feels far too easy.

Chapter

Fifty-One

ALANA

Ihear the noise above us, the sound of something heavy being dropped to the floor. I look across at Lucia. Her eyes meet mine, and we share a look of half-fear and half-hope. This is either someone coming to rescue us, or someone finally coming to kill us.

I pray to God that it’s Alejandro.

Alejandro’s Uncle Carlos hears it too, glancing upwards at the ceiling and nodding. He doesn’t seem at all surprised. In fact, he seems pleased. He walks over to me and pushes his face against mine. He starts to laugh maniacally, and I wonder if he has finally become completely unhinged.

“Here’s your hero, puta!” He spits in my face. “Let’s see just how much he’s willing to sacrifice for his little whore, shall we?”

Carlos brought two more of his men into the basement with us a few hours ago, no doubt guessing that Alejandro was getting closer to finding out who betrayed him. He’s part of the inner circle, so he will have been kept up to date on everything.

The four other men in the room stand in the shadows with their guns trained on the door. I want to scream to whoever is about to come through it that they are walking into a trap, but Rafe stuffed a rag in my mouth earlier and it muffles the sound.

Carlos walks behind me, pressing the blade of his knife against my throat. The steel is cold, and I feel the biting scratch against my skin. My heartbeat thrums against it, aware that a simple slip would have me spilling my lifeblood all over the floor. This could all end right here, right now.

More noise, someone coming down the stairs. Someone who’s going to be facing four armed men.

Lucia lets out her own muffled scream and Carlos laughs again. He’s actually enjoying this, the crazy bastard.

A few seconds later, the door to the basement starts to open.

“I know you’re down there, Uncle,” Alejandro calls. My heart almost bursts out of my chest at the sound of his voice. Dear God, please let him and Lucia get out of this. If I don’t make it, then so be it—but please just let me tell me how much I love him first. I scream again into the rag in my mouth, and Carlos presses the blade closer against my skin. I feel the warmth of a trickle of blood running down my neck.

“Alana,” he calls then. “I’m here, princesa. I’m going to take you and Lucia home.”