Page 49 of The Taker

I don’t give a flying fuck if it is. I’ll go in guns blazing and kill every last person standing in my way. No one is going to hurt my lionheart.

How many times have I promised him he’d never escape me? That I’d find him no matter what it takes… That being mine isforever.

Well now it’s time to deliver.

I gather the men I’m with and give them a quick rundown. There’s no time to waste taking prisoners, so I instruct them to shoot Ronan’s men on sight. My main goals are to go into wherever he’s hiding Leo, get my toy and his sister, and take the Brass Bruisers down.

We all hop into black SUVs. Giuseppe drives me, because right now I’m too fucking angry to drive. Or think rationally. As I watch Leo’s location dot on the software tracker, I realize we’re already a solid twenty minutes behind them. That’s too much time for something horrible to happen.

“Max, can you do something to slow them down, or give me a way to catch up to them?”

“I can try, but they’re almost there I think. Ronan’s grandmother owns a townhome about a half mile from where they are now. It’s a small, corner house in a residential neighborhood. Luca has the floor plan and is already drawing up a plan of attack. I can hack into the traffic system and throw up some red lights. Possibly try to clear the roads for you so you have a clear path.”

That’ll have to be enough.

By the time we get there, I see the red car parked out front. I should wait for my cousin and follow his plan. This is his specialty…

But fuck it. I don’t know what they’re doing to Leo and Julia in that house. They could be dead by now.

“Follow my lead,” I say over the coms. All twenty men I have with me file in line behind me, guns at the ready, as I kick in the door, revealing a shabby, outdated sitting room.

It’s empty. My men scan the area, checking each room on the ground floor. They’re all empty. The top floor is too.

“There’s a basement. My men and I are stationed outside, and the lights are on down there. I can see through a window at least ten people, including Leo and his sister. They’re tied to chairs in the far corner, closest to the stairs,” Luca says over his coms.

“Fuck, they’ll pick us off one by one on the way down,” I grouse.

Ronan would love for me to run down, see Leo, and get shot on sight. Fucking prick.

“You trust me?” Luca asks.

Honestly, of all my cousins, I’m the least close to Luca. Outside the boxing ring, I don’t know him too well. He keeps parts of himself so guarded, none of us except Franco really know who he is. Regardless, he’s family, and I know he has my back. He’ll help me get them out in one piece.

“Yeah. Do what you have to do.”

Gunshots ring out from outside. Then I hear movement below us.

“Shot the window out and threw in gas grenades. You have about a minute of darkness, move!” he shouts.

After we storm down the stairs, I see what he meant by darkness. The gas is so opaque that it’s difficult to see around it. But I do see my lionheart and Julia. I untie them, and immediately turn to bring him upstairs.

“Rocco, go, it’s a trap!” he whispers-shouts. “You need to leave, right now.”

One of Ronan’s men’s bodies fall next to us, and Leo crouches down. I can’t tell what he’s doing, but we have no time for it. I throw him over my shoulder, and take his sister’s hand.

“Not without you two. We’ll talk when we’re at home.”

Someone put duct tape over Julia’s mouth, but she’s pointing to the stairs, shaking her head.

“Rocco, please leave us behind,” he begs me, pounding on my back. “You need to go!”

I ignore him, trudging up the stairs one by one. I know it’s a trap, but this is the only escape unless we try to blow a wall out, and that may level the whole house on top of us.

When I open the door at the top of the stairs and walk into the living room, I’m not surprised to see Ronan sitting on the couch with a gun pointed at us. The asshole is slippery and sneaky as fuck.

“We meet again, Rocco. Your men never checked the attic…” His voice is smarmy as fuck, and if my hands weren’t full, I’d knock his ass out. “Throw your coms to me, now. I don’t want your family helping you.”

I let go of Julia’s hand, and do as he says. He smashes it under his boot, rendering it ineffective.

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