Page 51 of Drowning in the Deep
“What’s that?” I asked her.
“My father’s office,” she reminded me. “You’re sure he’s not here?”
“I’m sure he’s at the wedding,” I told her, but I had an idea. Peeking inside, I saw a ton of bottles of alcohol sitting on a bureau across from his desk. The urge to rifle through his paperwork and find something of value was overwhelming, but there wasn’t any fucking time for that. Still, I had to assume that this was his base of operation, that everything he needed in order to run his local business was in this room. This was probably where he kept everything he needed to try to take my business down as well.
Without another thought, I stepped into the office, letting go of Elisa’s hand for a moment as I went about the task that came to mind.
“What the fuck are you doing, Daemon?” she asked me as I took a moment to shoot up most of the bottles of booze her father had carefully lined up in an accessible fashion. I didn’t shoot them all, though. Instead, I took a few and dumped them on his desk, making a trail around the room, being sure that all of it touched and connected in one way or another.
“It’s time to get a little bit of revenge on your fucking father,” I explained to her.
“But he probably has more soldiers coming for us,” she reminded me. “Shouldn’t we just get out of here instead of trashing his office?”
She had a good point. Elisa always was a lot more logical than me, especially in these types of situations where it was easy to let one’s emotions get in the way of what made sense. But I was committed now and wasn’t about to run out of the office without finishing my plan. I wanted to make sure that Alexander La Rosa got the message loud and clear—when he fucked with Elisa, he was fucking with me.
Spying exactly what I needed over by the unlit fireplace, I opened a container and pulled out a match, not hesitating at all to strike it against the brick fireplace and toss it across the room at Alexander’s desk. In the blink of an eye, the alcohol caught fire, and the flames spread quickly, dancing across his papers, down the side of his desk, across the carpet, and back toward the bureau where the majority of the alcohol was spilled, the broken bottles still dripping onto the floor.
I caught Elisa’s eyes as I crossed the room, stepping across the shallow flames that splintered across the carpet. To my surprise, she began to giggle, covering her swollen mouth with a bruised hand. “I can’t believe you fucking did that,” she said.
Shrugging, I reached out and took her hand in mine. “This is just the beginning. Your father is going to bleed for what he’s done to you and what he’s trying to do to me. This little home of his is about to become a funeral pyre. It’s too bad his fat ass isn’t in there.”
Before I even finished my statement, smoke alarms all over the house began to sound, and the thick gray sheet rolled out the doorway, wrapping us in its stranglehold.
There was no reason for us to continue to stand there. With my gun back in my hand, we headed down the hallway toward the front door. I had a feeling I’d have to shoot some more pricks, since anyone else in the house would be seeking the safety of the yard. I was ready, though. I’d killed seven of them already, eight if I counted the maid who was either dead from the blow to the head or would soon suffocate or burn to death, so I wouldn’t hesitate to take out a few more guys.
We rounded the corner moving into the foyer, and both of us froze in our steps. I’d been expecting to see a clear route to the front door, but a huge man in a black suit stood there with his arms folded. When he saw us, a grin broke out over his face, and he unfolded his arms to reveal he was holding a massive machine gun.
“Fuck,” I muttered, pulling Elisa back just as he opened fire.
With the fire behind us and the hulking brute in front of us, we had no choice but to pick a direction and go with it. My chances of killing the thug were a lot better than snuffing the fire, so I left Elisa and darted back around the corner, staying low so that the idiot sprayed his machine gun fire above my head. The smoke helped conceal me from his view, and I was able to shoot him in the groin before he even registered that he’d been shooting too high.
As he grimaced in pain, doubling over, I landed a bullet in his head and waited for him to keel over before I reached behind me and grabbed Elisa’s hand. “Let’s go,” I told her, running full speed for the door.
We kicked the last asshole out of the way and then made it outside, fresh air filling our lungs as we gulped it down.
Behind the other side of the house, I heard shouting and screaming. I didn’t slow as I headed for my car, opened the passenger side door, and practically shoved Elisa inside. Then I ran around the other side and ducked behind the steering wheel.
As I drove into the night, I glanced into the rearview mirror and saw giant flames shooting out the top of what used to be the La Rosa mansion. Chuckling under my breath, I reached for Elisa’s hand. “That’s what your bastard father gets for what he did to you.”
Now, it was time to take the old man down—once and for all.
CHAPTER35
ELISA
The scent of smoke still stung my nostrils as Daemon sped down the highway. My eyes were so swollen, it was hard to see where we were going, but it didn’t seem like we were headed to his house or my apartment. I didn’t care. At that moment, just the fact that I was with him, that I was away from my father and his goons, was all that mattered.
I tried to settle against the leather seat of his sports car, but every inch of my body hurt. Somehow, I’d managed to run out of the house with him, trying to stay low while Daemon kept us from getting shot. I wouldn’t have been of much use to him at a hundred percent, but I was even more of a liability blind and injured. Thankfully, we’d both made it out without a scratch—well, in my case, another scratch. I felt like I was covered in wounds from the tips of my toes to the top of my head.
“We’ll get you someplace safe, get you cleaned up, and then you can get some rest.” Daemon’s voice was as reassuring as I’d ever heard it before. I could tell he was really concerned about me, which made me want to feel all warm and gooey inside. Except the pain radiating through every fiber of my being made that nearly impossible. It was enough for me to keep my hand on his arm as my head lolled back, my eyes closed.
I dozed off. In my mind, a flurry of images fought to gain control of a dream that could’ve easily slipped into a nightmare. My father standing over me, the pain of the waterboarding, Daemon rushing in to save me, the house going up in smoke. When I felt the car come to a stop, my eyes flew open as far as they could, and I took a look around, reality slowly replacing the mishmash of memories that had been swirling around in my unconscious mind.
It was dark outside. I could see the form of a metal building in front of us, but the haze from the one industrial light above the building didn’t do much to illuminate our location, not with my shitty eyesight anyway. “We’re at one of my warehouses,” Daemon explained to me as he shut the car off. “You’ll be safe here.”
I wanted to believe him. I had no reason not to. Yet, the fear that my father was still out there somewhere, lurking, knowing not only what I had done but what Daemon had done in his efforts to get me out of the basement made my stomach twist and turn.
If he found me, he would kill me this time. There’d be no more mercy. My father wouldn’t make the same mistake of not killing me when he had the chance again.
