Chapter 189 Chapter 190

Chapter 189 Chapter 190
ANGELO
The message came in at eleven forty-seven, offering nothing but a single address to a warehouse on the west side.

I was moving before the text even finished loading, grabbing my jacket and checking my gun while Shane headed straight for the door.

He had been watching my face since the phone rang, reading the shift in my eyes and knowing we were leaving even before I opened my mouth.

Two cars pulled out into the dark. I was going with just six men, they'll stay hidden when I get there and will only show up if necessary, Bryant has said I should come with no men and I don't want to risk Adore's life.

I drove like a madman, staring at the empty city streets flying past the glass as Shane sat in silence beside me. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tight my knuckles turned white, I kept thinking of Adore, she must be so scared, this kind of life where she'll have to face danger everyday was not something I wanted for her, that's why I didn't want the world to know she was my wife but still, Bryant has sniffed it out because he has always known about my feelings for Adore even when I was still working with his father.

Every single second that had ticked by since Don Luca’s call felt like a heavy weight crushing down on my chest, knowing that even being kidnapped, she must be feeling betrayed by me.

I slammed my foot down on the gas, pushing the engine until the frame shook.

"Four guys inside," Shane said quietly, his thumb scrolling through his phone. "Bryant and three others. One exit on the north side, two on the ground floor."

"I heard," I rasped out, my throat bone-dry.

"Boss, we should go with you, we can't let you go in there..."

"No, we'll go in as planned."

Shane didn't say another word.

We parked two streets over to keep them from hearing us coming, slipping through the pitch-black night like ghosts as six of us spread out across the approach. It was a rhythm we’d practiced a hundred times in other cities on other bad nights, but as I moved, the old version of myself took over completely. Cold, empty, and lethal, Gelo settled into my chest because I needed to be ice tonight, I don't need to be emotional so as not to ruin the chance of saving the one woman that I love.

The warm, soft version of me wasn't going to get Adore out of that building alive.

We kicked through the back entrance and flooded the ground floor, where the air smelled thick with rust, dust, and old concrete.

Moving with my gun raised, my eyes checked every dark corner until we cleared the first floor in four minutes flat. I took the stairs two at a time, leaving the other guys behind as I reached the top hallway and froze to listen.

Bryant’s voice bled through the wood, low, mean, and furious.

Then came another sound, a broken cry that reached right into my ribs and squeezed my heart until I couldn't breathe. It was Adore.
I stopped caring about stealth and broke into a full sprint down the hall.

Shane yelled behind me, but I didn't wait, throwing my entire body into the door at the end of the corridor until the frame snapped and the wood blew inward.



ADORE

Bryant dragged me backward across the floor, and I scratched frantically at the cold concrete as my fingernails cracked and tore against the stone.

Panic screamed inside my head while I stared up at the filthy ceiling, forced to face the brutal truth that no one was coming for me. To Angelo, I was just a business deal, a signed contract, and an empire transaction, which meant I had to choose right now between lying here to suffer or fighting with everything I had left.

I chose to fight, driving my knee up hard into his thigh until he roared with rage. He slammed his body weight down, grabbing my wrists and twisting them above my head while a raw, ugly scream ripped out of my throat. When he jammed his filthy hand over my mouth to quiet me, I bit down on his fingers with all my strength, making him shriek and yank his arm back just long enough for me to scream even louder.

"Shut your mouth!" he snarled, raising his heavy fist with wide, unhinged eyes.

He was done playing games, and that sudden, desperate shift scared me more than anything he had said all night. But just as his arm pulled back to hit me, the entire building shuddered from a heavy, thunderous crash on the floor below.

Bryant froze, his head snapping toward the entrance with his hand still stuck in the air. Heavy boots pounded up the stairs, and as the frantic footfalls grew louder, I watched panic hit his face before he reached down, yanked me off the floor, and hauled me back against his chest. He threw his thick arm tight around my neck to use me as a shield, cutting off my air until I had to stop pulling at his wrist just to keep from passing out.

"Make one sound when that door opens," Bryant whispered viciously into my ear, "and I'll snap your neck before he takes two steps."

I went completely still, believing every word as the running footsteps stopped right outside the room.
Two seconds of dead silence passed, and then the door blew off its hinges with a deafening bang.
Angelo burst into the room before the splintered wood even hit the floor, his gun raised as his eyes swept the dark corners in a single fraction of a second.

The moment his gaze locked onto me, seeing Bryant hiding behind my back with his arm wrapped tight around my throat, he froze dead in his tracks and his expression hardened.

"Let her go." He ordered coldly.

"Put the gun down, Gelo or I'll snap her neck before you could even think about taking me down," Bryant sneered, his voice trembling just a little bit. "Put it down right now, or she stops breathing." His hand tightened some more on my neck to back up his threat and I couldn't hold back the whimper that escaped my mouth.

My eyes widened as I stared at Angelo, wondering what he was going to do next.

Angelo looked at Bryant, and for a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of terror in his eyes but before I could be sure, the expression vanished, replaced by something pitch-black, dark, and terrifying. It was the look of a man who didn't care if he lived or died as long as he destroyed the person standing in front of him, and Bryant felt it too, his arm shaking against my neck as he pulled me back a fraction tighter out of pure fear.

"Let her go," Angelo said, his voice dropping into a whisper so quiet it became the scariest sound in the room. "This has always been between you and me, Bryant. Let her go, and we finish it."

Bryant tried to laugh, but the sound came out weak and thin. "Gun on the floor. Now!"

Angelo slowly shifted his gaze back to me, looking straight into my eyes to tell me everything he had never been able to say out loud. He looked at me the way he had at the ice rink, in the dim corridor, and in the kitchen while making breakfast and kissing my hair in the dark.
The tears poured down my face, but I held his gaze, loving him so much it hurt even with the sting of his betrayal at one part of my mind.

But this is Gelo standing in front of me and not my Angelo, he looks as formidable as I have always heard about him, standing there with his face set and a gun in his hand ready to kill.

Now wasn't time to think about all of that, now was when I figure out how to get out of the hand of this mad man.

No matter how hurt I was by Angelo, I still didn't want him dead so I stared hard at him and I silently mouthed one single word: Go.

Angelo gave the tiniest shake of his head, refusing to leave as his fingers held the gun completely steady and his jaw set like stone.

He stood so still he didn't even seem to be breathing, holding the entire room in a breathless silence right before the world exploded.