Sweeping his hand across the table, he sends silverware and glasses crashing to the ground. “I’m going to fuck what’s yours right here in front of you. Then every man will stick his dick inside your wife while you watch.” He cups my breast through my dress. “I’m going to keep her for a while, until I’ve broken you down. Then you either recommit to The Sainthood and me or you can fucking die with your whore.”
CHAPTER 46
SINNER GRABS MY neck, thrusting me forward over the table as he hikes my dress up to my ass. Mom screams, thrashing about in her chair, while Alisha stares absently into space. I’m not sure how much she heard or if she’s with us at all.
“Time to party, dudes,” Sinner roars. “Go forth and mingle.”
Terrified screams rip through the air as the underground section of the ballroom is uncovered, and men grab petrified young girls, dragging them up the stairs.
“Get the fuck off me!” Mom screams when Baldy straddles her chair, tearing at her dress while grazing his teeth along her neck.
It’s now or never.
Sliding my hand around my front, I unclip the metallic belt on my dress, removing the two daggers stowed there. I wait for the telltale sound of Sinner lowering his zipper before I swing into action, thrusting my arm back, embedding my dagger firmly in his thigh.
Sinner roars, stumbling back, and I spin around, yanking my dagger from his thigh, blood immediately spurting from the wound. Sinner doubles over, pressing his fingers to the wound to stem the blood flow. Baldy hollers, moving to climb off Mom, and I react on instinct, tugging his neck back and dragging my knife across his throat.
Mom screams as he falls forward on top of her, blood spilling everywhere. Shots ring out behind me, mingling with girlish screams and cries as the room descends into chaos.
Windows shatter, in perfect uniformity, raining glass on the ballroom as commotion outside in the hall confirms the cavalry has finally arrived.
“You fucking bitch,” Sinner yells, lunging at me.
A shot whizzes past his ear, narrowly missing him, and he dives under the table as I sidestep him.
“Fuck.” Alisha’s hands shake as she holds Sinner’s gun, pointing it wildly around the room. She must have stolen it from him when he was bent over, distracted by his injury. “Aagh.” She cries out as her ankle is yanked from under the table, and she goes down hard. The gun flies across the room, but there’s no time to go after it, because Sinner has Alisha in his grasp, and that spells nothing good.
Lowering to my knees, I crawl under the table in time to see Sinner pull a knife from his calf. He drives it into Alisha’s chest, and I scream for help, moving toward Sinner as Saint and Galen drop to their knees on the other side of the table. “Alisha needs help,” I shout as Sinner scrambles off to one side, making his escape. Shots pepper the air, mixed with screaming and crying. “Help her,” Saint yells, pushing Galen under the table, while he climbs to his feet, going after his father.
I want to stay with Galen, but I don’t know if Theo, Caz, and Bry have managed to free themselves, and Mom is still tied to her chair. Gunfire echoes around us, chilling my bones. Innocents are going to get caught in the crossfire if this continues.
“Keep your head down,” Galen roars as I scoot back on my heels, crawling out the way I came.
Cautiously, I poke my head out from under the table. Mom is where I left her, but her head is down, chin lying on her chest. Baldy is slumped at her feet, his glazed eyes vacant and his throat a bloody mess. I flick my attention back to Mom, anxiety ratcheting up a level when I notice blood pouring from a bullet wound in her shoulder. Fuck. That shot Alisha fired must have hit Mom. Panic bubbles up my throat, but I force myself to remain calm as I crawl around the back of her chair, dodging the bullets whizzing back and forth across the room.
Casting a furtive look around the space, I hurry to cut the bindings on Mom’s legs and arms. I don’t see Theo or Caz, but Bry has Scraggly Beard in a headlock as they fight for possession of the gun in the bastard’s hand. I cut through the rope securing Mom’s ankles while I watch Bry, fear creeping up my spine. Until Scraggly Beard visibly weakens, his eyes shuttering, body slouching, and Bry pries the gun from his loosening fingers. Without hesitation, Bry pumps two bullets in his chest before joining the general melee.
Diesel’s crew is fighting The Sainthood as scared young girls huddle under tables and along the side of the room, trying to stay out of the line of fire.
A couple of women wearing FBI vests are handing girls to people outside through the broken window frames. A few men with DEA stamped across their backs are trading punches with some of the Saints over by the hidden section of the room, stopping them from gaining access to the guns stored there.
I don’t spot Howie among them, and I’m wondering where the fuck he and Diesel are.
Other men, wearing plain black military garb, are eliminating members of The Sainthood in a shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality.
“Lo!” Theo comes racing across the room as the rope breaks on Mom’s feet.
“Is Caz okay?” I ask as Theo slides around the table on his knees.
“He’s gone after Saint. He chased Sinner out into the hall.”
Fuck. I want to go after them, because I don’t trust Sinner, but I can’t leave Mom.
Theo instantly senses my dilemma. “Go. I’ll look after your mom.”
“She’s been shot.” My voice wobbles.
“Harlow.” Mom lifts her chin, blinking her eyes open. “I’m okay. Go do what you need to.”
I grip Theo’s arm. “Check on Galen. He’s under the table with Alisha. Sinner stabbed her.”
Grabbing Sinner’s gun off the floor where it landed, I crouch down, flattening myself to the wall as I make my way out of the ballroom and along the dark hallway.
A couple of guys in leather cuts lie motionless on the floor, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. I step over their corpses, inching forward carefully. Gunfire dies out behind me as the authorities gain the upper hand, and a thin layer of stress leaves my shoulders, but it’s marginal, because two of my guys are out here with the devil incarnate and Mom and Alisha are injured back in the ballroom.
I pass through the lobby, glancing out the open entrance door at the trucks and vans parked haphazardly across the front lawn. A few men wander around, talking into mouthpieces, but for the most part, everyone is inside.
Carefully, I pick my way along the far hallway, checking each room in turn, growing more and more anxious as I encounter empty spaces. This monstrosity is huge, and I’m despairing of ever locating them when a gunshot goes off on my left, from the direction of the rear gardens, and I take off running for the back door.
All is quiet when I step out onto the stained gray stones, creeping around the house, in the direction of the maze, with my back flat to the wall.
“Fucking fuckity fuck!”
My heart stops beating. “Caz,” I hiss, sneaking around the bend with my gun raised, unsure of what I’ll find.
“Lo. Thank God.” Caz runs toward me.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I scan his face under the faint glow of the outside lamps.
“I’m fine. It’s Saint. He’s in the maze somewhere with Sinner, and I can’t find them.”