Delgano: The Intro - Page 98

Hannah charged toward Novi.

Right before she would have made contact, she brandished a pistol. Novi, as if he’d trained her himself and knew her every move, disarmed her and emptied the bullets onto the ground.

“Guns are vulgar, my sweet,” he said, in that creepy, even-toned, emotional voice.

Hannah stretched the muscles in her neck. Not once did she look toward the safe room, but Sayeda knew Hannah was thinking about her as much as she was thinking about Hannah. Strangely, the person who wasn’t part of this confrontation but likely had something to do with it, was nowhere to be found. Mora knew these men. As far as she could tell, her mother had sent them.

“Waiting for someone, my sweet?” Novi asked. “Are you stalling? You don’t need help. You’ve never needed help.”

Hannah rolled her wrists. “Can’t believe you’d hurt me, Novi. After everything, this is what things have come to?”

Novi frowned. “I have to, my sweet.”

“And what about you?” Hannah looked at the other man. “I thought you wanted me to meet your grandmother.”

The unknown man’s head momentarily fell. “I did, Red. I really did. But…it’s the job.”

A third man emerged from the shadows.

“Paoli,” the third man called, and Novi’s number two turned his head. The man then rattled off in Spanish, to which the one called Paoli nodded. Then, the third man disappeared again.

“We have to move,” Sayeda whispered. “If we stay here, he’ll eventually find us.”

And if her mother was involved, she was beginning to realize that this was no longer a safe room. Instead, it had turned into a cage or, better yet, a mouse trap.

Spettro shook his head. “I…I can’t.”

“Oh my god. The fact that there are humans who need oxygen tanks while you continue to breathe freely is astonishing.”

She tried to stand, but he grabbed her arm. Annoyed, she stared him down, and the mask of his blubbering slipped, revealing a sneer.

This guy was a Grade-A coward.

But he wasn’t an idiot.

She jammed her forearm against his neck. “What did you do, you piece of shit? I swear, if anything happens to Hannah or Adrían, I’ll sanction your murder myself.”

The door opened.

The third man entered and grabbed her from behind, but she lashed out with nails and teeth, causing him to release his hold. Spettro reached for her again, but the man lifted her off the ground. When she noticed her foot was level with Spettro’s face, she kicked and prayed one of his eyeballs went flying.

Spettro, hissing, grabbed his eye.

The third man carried her down the corridor and down the stairs to the first floor, where Hannah had fallen to one knee, blood staining her shirt along her abdomen. Novi, not at all surprisingly, licked her blood from the blade, and Sayeda was convinced that this was the most unhinged creature she’d ever shared air with.

“You have me,” Sayeda called. “Take me and go.”

Novi turned, waved, and faced Hannah again. Paoli flicked her a lazy glance as if anything more would be too overwhelming. Hannah looked at her and parted her lips, but Sayeda shook her head. She knew they weren’t there for her. They were there to cross Hannah’s name off that list.

And damn it, she teared up.

She loved Hannah like a sister. Hannah had looked out for her like a sister, and her sister was about to be killed.

Something rolled into view.

Hannah brandished another gun and lodged a bullet into the object, a canister, sending smoke spewing everywhere. Sayeda snapped her head back, catching the man holding her in the nose, and wriggled out of his grasp. Before she could take off, an arm snaked around her waist, pulling her to the side. Then Adrían released her, grabbed the back of the man’s head, stuck the nozzle of a gun into the man’s mouth, and pulled the trigger five times.

Without hesitation.