RAYMOND POV Noah has managed to catch him, giving me a nod, so I take the lead while Oscar collapses onto a sofa, drinking directly from a bottle of vodka without caring about his blood-stained hands. Philip and the other men place the man on his knees in front of me; despite his attempts to squirm, he's unable to escape. He looks angry, like a mad dog, and shows me his teeth. I lose a couple of punches for mere satisfaction, punching his face while the woman cries, who I now know is his mother, telling me to stop.I take Emilio's hair, as Philip informs me that's his name, and make him look me in the eyes. "The options are simple, Emilio," I say."Make things easy for us. You're just wasting time." "Of course, I'll kill you," he growls, standing up, "Your body will only leave here in a damn bag.""The difference is that if you talk, your mother won't accompany you in the bag like a damn corpse." The woman cries again while Emilio begins to stir. "You choose, you die alone or
PENNY POV "My body aches, my breathing hurts, and even moving hurts.My back hurts badly, and my skin twitches with every movement. If I move too much, my wounds start bleeding again. It's been a day since my father and his men brutalized me.I haven't slept because every time my body starts to relax, I hear the sound of whips cracking against my skin and feel the burning spread throughout my body. I hear Michael's cries, begging them to stop hurting me. Michael carried me in his arms, bleeding himself, but only caring about my safety.I lie face down on the dirty floor of this makeshift cell, my back uncovered. Michael tried to make a bed for me with the miserable blankets they gave us, but it was useless. I'm on the ground, and the pain from the terrible rest confirms it. Michael comes to me with a cloth soaked in water and gently places it on my back. His brow furrows in concentration as he tries not to hurt me while changing the bandage and applying ointment to the cuts.'You
PENNY POV"Wow, I'm impressed Michael, Aleksandr mocked. I'd like to try some of your determination." "Fuck you Aleksandr!" Michael exclaims. At the same moment, the door to the deadly cage opens, and Aleksandr's men form a corridor connecting the cage to the glass cage where I am. They leave a box in front of him with a wooden leg, making it the same height as his arms. The box is completely sealed, except for a small hole in the lid.My brother's face hardens as he realizes it's one of Aleksandr's mind games. He begins to analyze everything around him, searching for what could hurt me."We'll play against time; it's quite funny," Aleksandr says, making his way among his men, who keep aiming at Michael. There are several keys, but only one opens the padlock to her cage, Aleksandr said."Good luck, my children."As soon as Aleksandr finishes speaking, a watering can pour water over me, making me scream in pain. The water falls into my mouth, and It tastes like salt. The water
OSCAR POV "Oscar, come see this!" Oliver exclaimed.I hurried to where Noah and Raymond were, and Noah was standing in front of a small computer. "A message has arrived, but I haven't been able to trace its sender despite our best hackers' efforts. The message is encrypted," Noah explained. "It seems to be a video, but it doesn't contain anything else.""Play it," I said. As soon as I saw the content of the video, I felt bile crawling up my throat. It was Penny. It was our blond girl being brutally beaten by two men in a mortal cage. At first, she tried to fight back and dodge their blows, but soon her body began to tire, and the men took advantage of her weakness. Raymond's face turned white as he watched.But that was only the beginning. I watched in horror as they threw her to the ground, ripped off her clothes, and exposed her breasts. Michael was on the other side of the cell, begging to be released, unfazed by the shot he had been given. He screamed and begged for her
PENNY POV"It's been five days since I arrived in this putrid place, three days since they tortured Michael, and two days since they whipped me, injuring my back. My wounds still hurt, especially when I move or exert myself, even though they seem to be healing. I'm worried about Michael's injuries, particularly the cuts on his hand, which aren't healing properly. The skin around them is darkening, and the wounds are festering.The last time I changed his bandage, I noticed a yellowish discharge coming from his wounds. His fever hasn't gone down, and his pain hasn't subsided. I don't know whether to light a fire to signal for help and risk being rescued or to avoid drawing attention and being killed."I've tried to reduce my food portions and give them to Michael without him knowing, as he's the weaker one. We haven't been fed enough and they have cut off the water supply, making showering impossible. We're filthy, both physically and mentally. Moreover, the lack of water makes i
PENNY POV "I scream, squirm, and feel my blood covering my back again, but the girl doesn't stop. My vision became cloudy with pain, and I groped my side until I found the handle of the knife. Without thinking, I turn my body with force and plunge the blade into her side.The knife digs in, and as I move, it comes out of her body, causing blood to gush out of her side and onto me. The girl lets out a howl of pain as she squirms and her body shakes painfully. I've pierced her lung, I'm sure of it.She tries to remove her mask, coughing up blood that accumulates in her mouth, but the gag doesn't let her. 'Come on, take off her mask,' my father mocks smiling. With the bloody knife in my hand, I cut the rope ties and removed the mask, revealing the face of the victim. No!!! Oh no!!! No, no, no, no!!! 'Lia, the Whispering Tremors,' leaves my lips as I lock eyes with hers.A cold sweat runs down my face, and my hands shake as I focus on Lia's blood covering them. What have I done?
NOAH POVI unload the gun in my hands, and we're finally face to face with the motherfucker who works for the Corelia's.They have refused to provide us with information, but we're so close to finding our doll. The Corelia's have run out of business, within and outside their territory.They're finished. My men are searching every damn place in Cordoba and invading every damn warehouse; we're running out of options."Sir, you have to see this!" one of my men called. I walk inside where we are at this moment. We're in Cordoba, and we're close, very close. Upon entering, I see Raymond walking like a caged lion, pulling his hair hard. Oscar keeps his eyes fixed on one bag on the coffee tables, stained with blood and draining across it."They left this on the outskirts of one of our clubs here in Cordoba," Philip reports. A chill runs down my body because I know what I'll find in the bag. The stench confirms it - it's a body part.The question is, whose? Michael or Penny? I don't
NOAH POV The last video is only a few minutes long and shows Penny screaming in pain as she desperately tries to clean the blood from her hands, scratching them in the process. Michael tries to stop her, but she pushes him away. "Let me go, Michael! I need to get this off me!" she cries, her eyes wild with distress. Michael tries to calm her down, "Penny, stop, you're hurting yourself. We'll get through this together." But she doesn't listen, consumed by her anguish. They broke her. They broke my doll," I say, recalling how Oscar and Raymond exploded in anger, giving orders. "You have 24 hours to find my wife, or they'll pay with their life," Raymond demands.I take Lia's head and put it in the bag, then hand it over to Philip. "Get the rest of the body and bury them," I order.Under the basement stairs, I remember asking my men to bring what I needed, as I couldn't leave Cordoba. The thin, tied man at the table is the first thing I see. Oscar stands next to him while Raymond
I'm searching the entire internet and databases for a compatible person, I'm not interested in having to go and draw the damn blood myself, — Noah growls.The second bag of blood is removed from Michael and he can barely stay seated in the chair.Enough — I make the nurses leave, Michael tries to protest, but he is so weak, there is not much he can do.As the hours continued to pass, I made my way to Yulia's room to thank her for everything she did to try to protect Penny."How's Penny?" she asks as soon as I enter. She has two stitches in her temple and a bandage covering the wound on her arm, as well as a few bruises on her face.Critical, they must be applying for blood donations right now — I said.Hasn't he come to see you?He did; Noah helped him get here a little while ago; he was literally crawling from blood loss — she smiled a little.He was stumbling a little, but he is good.I'm sorry he couldn't come early, the first thing he did was run to his sister.Bah, nonsense — sh
The doll's blood remains dry on my hands and clothes from when I held her, and that only makes my chest feel tighter.I finally let myself be checked after taking a quick shower in one of the hospital rooms, which removes Penny's blood from my body. They disinfect and stitch my wound when they notice the bullet has indeed come out of my leg. Noah and Oscar also take a shower, the latter feeling bad about the burns on his arms, which they quickly bandage.Noah's wound doesn't seem serious either; they remove the bullet, stitch the wound, and bandage it immediately.The three of us should be in bed, but none of us will rest until we know the blondy is out of danger.I was then informed that Philip was transferred to the intensive care unit and was in a coma, as his injuries were fatal. He received a gunshot wound on the shoulder that nearly compromised his mobility and two shots to the nearly fatal torso. He lost too much blood, and the surgery was complicated, all that remains is t
RAYMOND POVSomething inside me tightens as I watch Oscar approach us with Penny in his arms, completely unconscious, pale, and her body dripping with blood.An ambulance! Oscar growls.I want a fucking ambulance!He comes over to where I am and leaves Penny in my arms, her body feels cold and light in my arms, the blood running from her body quickly soaks my clothes and I freeze when I see that her eyes didn't opened, I pray for the characteristic blue of her eyes to make contact with the brown of mine, but it doesn't happen, her body doesn't stick to mine as usual, instead her limbs fall languidly, I ignore the pain in my leg as I watch as Oscar returns to the rooftop and minutes later drags an unconscious Aleksandr back, without any kind of care.He throws him at the feet of one of our squads.Heal him, do whatever it takes, I want him completely healthy for everything that awaits him — he orders as I go down the stairs after ignoring the pain in my leg from the bullet wound, nothi
When the guy aiming at me moves slightly towards Aleksandr, my finger pulls the trigger of the gun, which shoots him in the forehead with perfect aim, placing the bullet between his eyebrows. Everything happens in slow motion, the impact of my gun resounds loudly, the man's head is thrown back by the impact of the bullet while blood splatters my hands and Philip throws himself at Aleksandr, knocking him down before he can shoot me, the gun is fired and the bullet barely hits the wall behind me when Yulia pulls my body and moves me away from the line of fire. Aleksandr struggles with Philip on the ground, and the gun is fired twice more before reacting and aiming at one of Aleksandr's legs, finally knocking him away from Philip. Fucking son of a bitch! — I growl as I run towards him and kick his face, throwing him to the ground. Yulia runs towards Philip while pressing her hands on his chest, which begins to bleed, and the brunette doesn't open his eyes anymore. Philip, come on,
PENNY POV My father's men keep firing in our direction; it's getting harder and harder to counter their fire, and we're almost out of ammunition. I only have three bullets, Yulia laments. I only have two — I huff, frustrated. The floor at my feet rumbles loudly as I'm thrown to the ground, a ringing sounds in my ears as I try to find my hearing, my eyes fail to fully focus, and a hand wraps around my neck, lifting me forcefully off the ground. There has been an explosion. Aleksandr's face begins to become clearer in my vision and his screams begin to echo in my ears. He shakes me hard, cutting off my air with his hand wrapped around my neck. You ruined everything, you took everything from me! he complains in Russian. I didn't do anything! I have nothing anymore because of you — he growls, furious; out of the corner of my eye, I see two of his men standing in front of the stairs, just as Yulia begins to slowly sit up, trying not to alert anyone — I should have killed you as
We need to get to Penny now! Raymond growls, changing the clip on his gun. I only have two clips left, I only have, Noah complains. I only have two chargers, damn it. If we cut the power, we could benefit from it. We know the building perfectly when we studied it as an option for the wedding, Raymond thinks. But nothing assures us that they didn't study the building before planning the attack, Noah refutes. It's unlikely; no one knew Penny would be here until this morning; this attack wasn't thoroughly planned — Raymond refutes. But we wouldn't just be leaving them in the dark; we don't know where Penny or Yulia is; we'd be leaving them in the dark too, and that's a double-edged sword — I refute. We don't know where Philip is, if he's not with Penny, we'd be leaving her totally exposed without power. The barrage of bullets gets closer and closer, and more of my men fall. "We don't have much time!" Raymond complains, returning the bullets. "Cut the power, it's the best op
WOLVES POV Anger bubbles in my stomach when the call comes into my phone about the current situation—they're attacking the venue Penny went to visit this morning, a hall she's still in at this moment. I give orders on my phone, just like my brothers, while I accelerate the car to get to the blondy as quickly as possible. I didn't even take my bulletproof vest, I only grabbed the nearest weapons and magazines, my mind completely focused on the purpose of getting the blondy out of there, having her safe in my arms. Fuck, I curse. Noah argues with Michael on the phone, Saying Russia is on the other side of Spain, closing an important negotiation. Helplessness seeps into his voice, given that he can't come on time; it would take a couple of hours by plane, and it's not possible. His tone is pure anger when he knows his girlfriend and sister are being attacked right now, but Noah promises to get the blondy out of that room safe and sound, along with Yulia. The car's tires squeal
You look divine! Aunty Kristen wastes no time getting up from her seat and wrapping me in her arms — Oh my God, my kids are going to die when they see you, you look incredible, Penny. Tears blur my eyes when I look in the mirror; I do look amazing; this is the dress, it is. You look beautiful, Penny, Scarlet approaches, letting me hold little Cameron while she wraps me in her arms. Yulia also wraps her arms around me, smiling at how spectacular my dress is, and Vittoria raises her wine glass in my direction while smiling at me in approval. I want you to try on your dress, everything has to be perfect. Yulia nods at my words as she heads into the fitting room to try on her dress. After all, she'll be my bridesmaid, and her dress will match the decor of the room. A little nostalgia settles in my body, I wish Lia were here. I never imagined getting married, however, if one day I did, I always imagined Lia by my side. Thanks to the money and power my fiances wields in Spain, ever
PENNY POV I was walking through one of the rooms the wedding planner was showing me while I was looking at the venue, but I wasn't quite convinced. She was a fussy bride, I'd discovered. Most weddings were in light tones, and that was fine, but it wasn't what I wanted for myself, this hall full of light colors wasn't meeting my expectations. Yulia walked beside me with a mocking smile on her face; she knew I wasn't liking the hall at all. Yulia had become a good friend in recent weeks, It had been three weeks since Arabella's death. These last three weeks, I have gone out with the Russians on several occasions. When her brothers met with mine and my fiance's, she was the one I ended up hanging out with. She had become my friend, as well as my sister-in-law, and her relationship with Michael seemed to be going spectacularly. My brother was truly infatuated with the youngest of the Ivanovs, and she seemed to be on the same wavelength. Finally, the Pakhan and the