Alana
I heardthe sounds above us, like the sound of something heavy being dropped to the floor and I looked across at Lucia. Her eyes met mine and we shared a look half fear and half hope. This was either someone coming to rescue us, or someone finally coming to kill us all.
I prayed to God that it was Alejandro.
Carlos heard it too because he walked over to me and pushed his face against mine. He started to laugh maniacally and I wondered if he had finally become completely unhinged.
‘Here’s your hero, puta!’ he spat in my face.
‘Let’s see just how much he’s willing to sacrifice for his little whore!’
Carlos had brought two more of his men into the basement with us a few hours earlier, no doubt sensing that Alejandro was getting closer to finding out who had betrayed him. The four other men in the room stood in the shadows, with their guns trained on the door. I wanted to scream to whoever was about to come through it that they were walking into a trap but Rafe had stuffed a rag in my mouth earlier and it muffled the sound.
Carlos walked behind me, pressing the blade of his knife against my throat. The blade was cold and I felt the biting scratch against my skin. My heartbeat thrummed against it, aware that a simple slip would have me spilling my lifeblood all over the floor.
Lucia let out a muffled scream and Carlos laughed again.
A few seconds later, the door to the basement opened.
‘I know you’re down there, Uncle,’ Alejandro called and my heart almost burst out of my chest at the sound of his voice. Dear God, please let him and Lucia get out of this. But please just let me tell me how much I love him first. I screamed again into the rag in my mouth and Carlos pressed the blade closer against my skin until I felt the sting of the blade and a trickle of blood running down my neck.
‘Alana!’ he called then. ‘I’m here, princess. I’m going to take you home.’
Then he stepped out of the shadows as he walked down the basement steps. I almost passed out at the sight of him. Through fear and panic and hope that there was a chance he could save us from his lunatic uncle.
Enzo, Rafe and the two newer men stood behind me, their guns raised and trained on my husband and my heart hammered so hard in my ears, I could barely hear anything else.
‘You came alone, Alejandro?’ Carlos asked in surprise.
‘Not quite,’ Jax said from behind him as he stepped out of the shadows too.
‘Ah, of course. Your loyal little puppy dog,’ he snarled.
‘I wanted to keep this between family, Uncle. That’s what we all are, aren’t we? Why don’t you send these men out and we can talk. Just me you and the girls? Just family?’
‘You found out my little secret then?’ Carlos snickered behind me.
I blinked in shock. What secret?
‘Sure did. But what I can’t figure out is what the hell any of this has to do with my fucking wife?’ Alejandro snarled, unable to keep a lid on his anger any longer.
Carlos reached down, pushing his hand beneath the collar of my t-shirt and squeezing my breast painfully, making me wince.
Alejandro took a step closer. ‘Take your fucking hands off her!’ he barked.
The four men with guns edged further into the room. ‘Careful, or they’ll take you out before you take another step, nephew,’ Carlos hissed as he righted himself again, keeping the blade at my throat.
Alejandro held up his hands in surrender. ‘Okay. I’m all yours. But please, uncle, let my wife go. Let your daughter go,’ he said as he looked across at Lucia.
Lucia blinked at me, her eyes wide in shock and I almost choked on the rag in my mouth. His daughter? What? Lucia was Carlos’s daughter?
‘Why would I do that, when they are the key to your downfall, Alejandro?’
I saw the expression on Alejandro’s face change to one of pain and anguish. ‘Why do you want my downfall, Uncle?’ he asked.
‘Why?’ Carlos half laughed, half snarled. ‘Thirty years I have worked for your father. Doing his bidding. Cleaning up his messes. Waiting for my time,’ he hissed. ‘Waiting for it to finally be about me. Even when I did find happiness, I had to let it go. I had to leave the woman I loved with that monster because I didn’t have the time to have a family. Always being the good worker bee. Always doing what your father asked of me. Even when she had my child, I couldn’t go to her.’
Alejandro took a step closer. ‘My father would never have stopped you having a family. He would have wanted that for you. Uncle Phillipe has Rachel and the girls. Why would he stop you from having that too?’