Page 74 of Bastard Prince
The second I took my eyes off of her, Anderson struck, swinging the gun out and whipping it across my face, the force of her hit causing pain to explode across my cheek. Gasping, I tumbled backward, my left shoulder and upper arm slamming into the wall with a painful crash.
It felt like I had dislocated my left shoulder, the immediate numbness of the entire arm a fairly good indication I was going to be in some serious pain tomorrow.
As long as this lunatic didn’t blow my brains out, that was.
Shaking off the blow, I stared up at Anderson as she loomed over me, the barrel of her gun pressed against my temple, and I considered how much it pissed me off that her face was the last thing I was ever going to see.
What a goddamn waste.
The fire of rage in Anderson’s eyes grew even higher, and I took a breath, hoping that Enzo had managed to kill Dino. It would be nice if at least one of us could survive this mess.
“We’ll see how much they want you when your brains are splattered all over the wall, hey,princess?”
Not wanting to let her see my fear, I lifted my chin and smiled. “Still more than they could ever want you, you absolute psychopath.”
Anderson snarled and opened her mouth, but before she could even utter a word, something flew out of nowhere, slammed into the side of her head, and she dropped to the floor like a stone.
Looking up from her crumpled form, my heart lifted as I saw Enzo, his bruised face smirking down at me as he hefted the steel pipe in his hand, leaning it casually over one shoulder like a baseball bat.
“Hey, baby. You miss me?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Enzo
“Francesca!”
I strained uselessly against my cuffs, my vision swimming in and out of focus as I wriggled like a worm on a hook.
“Fuck!”
Fuckin’ Dino had really rung my goddamn bell, the ham-fisted son of a bitch.
Struggling to right myself, sweat running into my eyes as the temperature of the airless room reached something resembling a bake oven, I clambered to my knees, shaking my head as I looked around. Boxes of useless shit littered the room, but nothing I could see that would be helpful in my current situation.
Clenching my fists behind my back, I started to get to my feet, hefting my body up on to one knee with a groan, when there was a crunching sound under my foot. Looking down, my gaze suddenly caught sight of something small and shiny flashing in the hazy afternoon sunlight.
Holy shit.
She’d done it. I hadn’t thought Francesca had been successful when she’d attempted to access my belt buckle, but I was looking at the evidence that she had.
Because right there in front of me was the one item in my buckle’s list of tools that I had never actually had to use before.
A handcuff key.
Lying back down and onto my side, I inched around, dragging my fingers along the floor blindly until I finally felt it, the metal cool against my heated skin. Pinching it between two fingers, I rolled onto my knees with my treasure clutched tightly in my fist.
Now, I just had to figure out how the fuck to get it to work.
Taking a deep breath, I stretched the fingers of my one hand toward the wrist of the other, feeling carefully for the keyhole. I located it, just beneath my thumb, and tried to twist my hand around to get it inside. The key had a small protrusion on one side, meaning that it had to fit into the hole exactly right before it would actually work.
I took the key from my one hand and held it between the thumb and forefinger of the other, trying to insert it while also not breaking my own wrist. The first time, I twisted so hard, I actually got a cramp in the muscle under my thumb, the pain sharp and fast, and it resulted in me dropping the fucking thing.
“Goddamn it,” I cursed, feeling around on the ground to recover the key and start again. I was on my third attempt when the stomping of footsteps again sounded in the next room. Frantic, I stabbed randomly, desperate to get out of these cuffs, but I was shaking so much with anger that it felt impossible.
Finally, just as the door burst open, I felt the key slide home, my battered wrist and cramping fingers screaming in agony. Holding my breath, not wanting to move too much in case I knocked the key loose, I curled my lip when Dino re-entered the room, his face looking like he was ready for a fight.
Well, good. Because so was I.
