Chapter 153

Willa

Sebastian’s house looks like it was plucked from Italy. It’s absolutely beautiful. Too bad it's being inhabited by a snake.

Maxim had been busy while we made our way here. He had about twenty highly qualified men ready to go along with a considerable amount of weapons. Enough for a small army, which is exactly what we need right now. We have a rough idea of how many men are surrounding the house, but the small amount of information Lan was able to get doesn’t include the men inside. Sebastian’s grandpa made sure the house was completely hidden from any sort of outside visual penetration. Sebastian said the security cameras were completely offline, so it would be impossible for them to be manipulated unless you directly tampered with them.

Smart but not helpful when you’re trying to infiltrate a building to rescue someone. Not just someone, but my family. I would have appreciated not having to go in there blind.

Me, Maxim, Luke, and several of Maxim’s men are stationed on the east side of the property, with the others placed at various areas of entry points. Each of us is wearing earpieces that will allow us to communicate and enter simultaneously.

“Check in.” I hear Luke say next to me.

A second later, several people begin to speak in the earpiece.

“I see three men stationed on the east side, heavily armed.” I hear one of the men say.

On our side, I spot four. The others chime in with the number of men they see.

“Lan said there were at least fifty men. So, where are the rest? Wouldn’t Luca want to have more security outside?” I whisper to Luke.

“He’s cocky. He knows we’re coming. Besides, he wants us caught, not killed.” He checks the gun on either side of his chest holster. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Let’s.” He looks over at me and smirks.

He wraps a hand around my neck and slams our lips together. “Whatever happens in there, baby, you stay alive. You got me? I’m not losing you, and I know these other assholes feel the same. If you need to run, you run. We’ll get your family, but I won’t let you get hurt. Got it?”

I open my mouth to protest, but a hand wraps around my mouth from behind me.

“Listen to him wife. We aren’t losing you. Don’t make me tie you up and leave you in the car. Be a good girl and get out of there alive, but make sure to take out some of those bastards while you’re at it.” Maxim whispers in my ear.

My body deflates in defeat. Mom told me to pick my battles when you have a bunch of Alpha males as partners, and I’m learning she’s right. These guys are set in their ways, and I know when it comes to my safety, they would probably tie me up somewhere to keep me safe. I’ll agree, but I will be taking out several of Luca’s men.

Maxim releases me, and I scowl at Luke, to which he smirks again. “I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, but that doesn’t change anything. If things go south, you get out of there.” He gives me a Luke that says he’s serious.

“I’m not leaving you guys in there,” I say.

Okay, maybe I’m not ready to give in just yet.

“Willa. We don’t need your protection. We need you alive.” I hear Lan say through the earpiece.

“Exactly,” Sebastian adds in.

“And everyone else. You make sure she makes it out of here. Understood?” Maxim says into the microphone.

An echo of voices replies, and I drop my head back in a sigh. Not only do I have my guys trying to keep me safe, but twenty other men are ordered to protect me, too.

“Whatever. Can we just do this? I want to shoot someone.” I say getting a few chuckles.

“On my mark,” Luke says.

I pull out one of my guns and bounce on my heels. “Let’s do this shit.”

“Move in,” Luke says, and we run out of the tree line on silent feet with our guns drawn.

Luca’s men don’t even get a chance to get a shot off. We are all very good shots. Our three get taken out quickly. I hear yelling coming from somewhere on the other side of the building, but we don’t stop. We make it to the house and grab the weapons from the men we took out. Our group leans against the wall and wait for backup to come from inside the house. They come out a second later, and we take them out, but these guys get a couple of shots off first. One of the guys in our group grunts, but we keep moving. We’re all wearing bulletproof vests, and these guys are built like tanks.

“Move,” Luke says before leading us into the door the men had just come out of.

The room we end up in looks like a giant living room. And empty.

We keep our guns drawn, but no other guards appear. Footsteps have us turning our guns to the left of us, but when I see Sebastian and Lan, I lower my weapon.

“No one’s here,” I say.

“We took out five but haven’t seen anyone else,” Sebastian says.

He walks toward me and leaves a kiss on my head.

“Why would your dad lure us here then?” Luke asks.

“We need to search the rest of the buildings,” Sebastian says.

“Buildings?” I ask him.

He nods. “My grandfather had small homes made for some of his trusted men. He wanted them close by at all times. He also has a lake house for guests when he holds parties there. Then there’s his business buildings.”

“Business buildings?” I ask him.

He gives me a look. “Oh. Right. Well, I think we should start there.”

“Agreed. Let’s move.”

We follow Sebastian out of the side door I came through, with us close behind him. The men crowded around me with their guns drawn. The darkness is hiding us for now, but the large number of us will give us away as soon as we get close to wherever we’re going.

“Stop!” We all freeze.

A large crowd of men, guns drawn, surrounds us. “Drop your guns!”

Our guys don’t move to comply.

“Now!” They yell and take a step closer to us.

We’re outnumbered. We have plenty of weapons, but we’d all be dead before we could shoot all of them. So I rest my hand on Luke’s back.

“Do it,” I say loud enough for all the men to hear me.

They hesitate but listen. All at once, the guys bend down to set their guns on the floor. When they do, I pull mine out and hold it in front of me and shoot the guy direction in my line of sight. He drops, and I look around me. There are at least a dozen men with guns pointed at me, but there’s one thing I know. They won’t kill me. Their boss has plans for me. There is no way he would let them kill me before he gets a chance to taunt me. The men are all yelling, but not a single one of them shoots me. So I do the smart thing and shoot another one of them and then another one. Then my guys all stand up, surrounding me and taking out the rest of the men.

Silence falls around us, other than the deep breaths of the men around me. It doesn’t last long, though. A second later, the silence is broken by someone clapping loudly.

“Very impressive.” Then Luca steps into view.