I leaned in. “I will burn this fucking place down with you inside if you don’t show me where Leda is.” I solidified my request by tightening my hold, and she winced.
“Down the hall,” she finally forced out. “To the right.”
I let her go, her body crumpling to the floor as I started to move up the hallway. If Adrian was still in that room, he was going to be a dead man.
A hoarse cry went up behind us, and Rocco stopped. “I’ll handle this. Buy you some time,” he said urgently. “Go!”
“Start the car,” I answered in a near growl. “We will be leaving as soon as I get Leda.”
Rocco nodded and took off in the opposite direction of the hallway, leaving me to move forward. The sounds behind the doors as I passed them only sickened me further. I was going to burn this place down one way or the other.
I took a right at the end of the hallway and drew up short when a bouncer crossed my path.
“Out of the fucking way,” I told him.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” He grinned and I returned that grin with one of my own.
So be it.
With a roar, I was on him before he even realized I could move that quickly. Using the narrow corridor as leverage, I pivoted around him, pulling him down to the ground in a chokehold. As his body went limp, I gave his neck a hard twist. There was a sickening crunch, and it was all over. Without a second look back, I was already on my feet.
I hoped I wasn’t too late. Fucking Adrian. He had planned this all along to get his hands on Leda, on the Mafia, and God knows what else.
He knew that I would give her up for the sake of the Mafia. He knew exactly which buttons to press. He knew I would fight for the title above all else.
What a fucking fool I had been.
A scream echoed in the air, and every hair on my body stood at attention.
Leda.
“No,” I breathed as I followed the source, reaching the door that held her within. Wasting no time, I planted my boot into the wood and kicked hard, feeling the locks give way under the force of my kick.
I saw him first, standing over a kneeling, naked Leda with his hands wrapped around her neck. He was killing her.
I had put her in this fucking position, and I would spend a lifetime making it up to her.
Well, however long we had left.
“Get the fuck away from her,” I snarled, catching Adrian’s attention.
Adrian chuckled and let Leda go, causing her to slump to the floor. I saw the barest flash of metal in his hand and realized that he pulled out a knife, somehow smuggled into a place that was supposed to be weapons-free.
It didn’t matter. I didn’t need a knife to defend myself.
“Well, well,” he said. “You made it, Lucas. I was wondering if you would be able to walk away.”
“You fucking played me,” I seethed as I removed my coat, throwing it in the general direction of Leda so she could put it on. “No more.”
“You’re so right,” he replied, his eyes gleaming. “Because after tonight, I will be Don, you will be lying in a pool of your own blood, and I will fuck your bitch in front of your corpse.”
I smirked, beckoning him forward. “Let’s test that prediction then, shall we?”
Adrian’s expression darkened and he charged at me, the knife extended. I moved quickly to avoid being slashed, kicking at his right leg so that I could get him on the ground. Grappling was where I was best at in hand-to-hand combat.
Adrian regained his footing nearly immediately and we clashed again, his knife slicing my upper bicep. I grimaced but caught him under his chin with the heel of my hand. His head snapped back as we both stumbled away from each other.
“Well played,” Adrian laughed, looking at the tip of his knife. “Looks like I drew first blood.”