With a swift nod from Holden, I shove the chair with a boot before moving quickly back to his side. As surmised, both men carefully enter the dark warehouse. Without much fight, Holden tackles the first guy to the ground before he can react, a knee in his back and his gun pressed to the back of his head. My guy is able to reach his, but I’ve got him in a crippling chokehold that has him going limp in seconds. Neither of these men was trained for this line of work. Dropping the guy to the ground, we hear Ro chuckling as I relieve the man of his weapons and use the belt of his coat to hog-tie him.
“English, asshole.” Holden presses his gun deeper into his guy's skull. “Who are you?” The bastard's cursing a wild streak in what I think is Spanish.
I remain by the unconscious dude with a foot on his back, so I know when he wakes up. The dipshit under Holden’s control looks between the three of us and back to his buddy before realization dawns on him. They’re not getting out of this unscathed.
“It was a test,” he finally confesses.
“For what?” Ro calmly questions.
The man laughs as the one under my foot begins to stir. Putting more pressure at the base of his neck, he wisely remains still. “Vega wanted to know your moves. To see how you handle a threat. He doesn’t deal with amateurs.”
Holden leans in close to the man's ear. “He obviously has no idea who we are. What we’ll do to keep anything or anyone who belongs to us safe.”
Any humor he was feeling minutes ago fades, and in its place is a mixture of fear and confusion. “What are you going to do?” he finally asks.
Holden doesn’t answer before pulling a knife from his boot and slowly inserting it between the man's ribs. “Damn, H, you’re out for blood today.” My brother whistles as he walks around the pair.
The guy beneath me renews his struggles as the other howls in pain. Holden comes over to us and does the same to this piece of shit before nodding at me to let the man go. “Go back to Vega, let him know that if he contacts me again, the same will happen to him and anyone he holds dear, and we’ll toss every last one of them in a swamp filled with hungry gators.”
Pale and moaning, both men struggle to their feet before running out of the warehouse and down the block.
“Got something you need to get off your chest, H?” I look over at my best friend, and there’s a burning deadliness in his gaze that intensifies more and more each day.
“Nope. Just sick of assholes thinking they can run the fucking world by playing dirty games and fucking around with people they have no idea about.”
“Fair enough.” I glance around at the bloodstains covering the floor, wondering how many years of torture have happened in here. Theirs is only the brightest now, pooling on the ground.
“Don’t you two have a date with my sister?” Holden looks between us as we lock up.
“Yup.” Ro grins, and I can’t help but match his enthusiasm.
“Treat her right,” Holden calls as we part ways. We wouldn’t treat Aria any other way.
Climbing in behind the wheel, I want to go home and shower before picking her up. She doesn’t need to be around us when we smell like blood and cheap cologne.
“I’m having Hads bring her over in an hour. I’m thinking staying in is a far better option.” Ro’s adrenaline must be crashing the same as mine. All I want to do is hold our girl. At home seems like the best idea.
CHAPTER5
Aria
“Are you sure about this?”
Parked on the road just before the turn that leads to the twin's house, I fuss with the hem of my dress. I don’t know what happened today, but I know it couldn’t have been good because my dad was tense and irritable when we left the house.
It makes me worry that Seven and Severo won’t be in the mood for my company or anyone’s for that matter.
“Listen to me. Those two could be covered in blood, on no sleep for ten days, and hungrier than a hound, and they’d still want you between them,” Hadley reassures as she puts her car in drive and proceeds without my permission.
Less than sixty seconds later, she’s dragging me out the passenger side door, donning the skimpy red dress I let her talk me into and leaving me on the porch to either ring the doorbell or walk home in the four-inch heels I agreed to wear.
“Crap.” Pushing the button, it doesn’t take long for the door to open and Severo to greet me with a scowl, wearing nothing but a pair of loose shorts. The intensity in how he watches me—his eyes roving up and down my body in the daylight—makes me feel like I’m on fire. “Uhm, hi.” I don’t know what else to say.
His hand strikes out as quick as a copperhead and grips me around the back of my neck before dragging me into his body. Our mouths collide, and I’m lost in the feel of his hands on my body as my heart beats erratically.
Goosebumps rise on my flesh, and just when I think I’ve got a handle on him, he’s dragging me inside and slamming the door shut behind me. Picking me up, his fingers dig into my thighs as he continues to plunder my mouth, stealing every breath and barely leaving room for me to take another.
“Severo,” I gasp when he moves to suck along my neck, surely leaving a mark. “Severo...” His name comes out on a long moan this time as I feel his length between my legs. “What happened today?”