Bratva Boss’s Secret Triplets by Bella King
Chapter 32
Rebel
Ispeed through yet another seemingly endless series of streets through the neighborhood that the tracking device has led me to. These rich areas are obnoxiously similar, and it’s made it all the more difficult to pinpoint exactly which house we’re supposed to go into. I’d hate to smash down the front door into some old couple’s living room.
Eventually we come across the correct house, and I immediately recognize Dr. Ryan’s car in the driveway. Now that I’m certain, it’s time to fuck him up.
“You guys got everything?” I ask Luke and Eric, both of them looking more than ready to break some kneecaps.
I like that about them. They’re good to have around for business, sure, but they’re savage killers when they need to be. The perfect combination of intellect and brutality.
There’s no point in trying to be sneaky. Either Dr. Ryan will have been prepared for an ambush, in which case I’ve got two armed men to combat him, or he won’t be and we can wipe out his backup easily. I highly doubt someone as arrogant as Dr. Ryan would know how to prepare for a full-on fire fight.
When we approach the house, I can see that the front door has already been left open, which puts me immediately into defense mode. Why the fuck would his front door be open?
Before I have much more time to contemplate the hows and whys of Dr. Ryan’s security rationale, I’m attacked by two large but unprepared men who were guarding the inside of the door, out of my line of sight.
One of the men grasps at the muzzle of my pistol right away, somehow lacking the understanding that the gun is loaded and pointed right at him. I fire twice into his chest, and he falls back, slumped to the floor as blood runs down his shirt.
In a flash of rage, I attack him and jump right on his chest, beating him and punching him repeatedly in the face until he is indistinguishable from bovine afterbirth.
The second man is quicker and better suited for hand-to-hand combat, but he stands a better chance of surviving by begging for mercy than he does trying to fight us.
Luke fires at his head, but just narrowly misses. Eric attacks him from the side before he gets a chance to jump at me.
Dr. Ryan must have had these men study my face hard, because I’m the only person they’d been trying to kill. They must know I’m a threat, and this brings me a sick sense of satisfaction.
Eric slams the man into a nearby wall, crashing him partially into the drywall as he tosses him away from me. Within seconds, Eric has withdrawn his weapon and proceeds to shoot three rounds into the guy’s head.
Just like that, the room is quiet.
“Okay, just wait, there might be more,” I say with a low voice.
While I can’t anticipate Dr. Ryan having infinite muscle to keep his skinny ass out of harm’s way, I also can’t risk being so arrogant that I miss someone and end up getting killed. April’s life is on the line, and I don’t have a choice but to be cautious.
I motion for complete silence, and I even stop breathing temporarily to make sure I can hear perfectly clear. If I listen closely enough, I can hear what sounds like brutal, tormented screaming.
It’s April.
“You hear that?” I ask Eric and Luke, who both confirm that they’ve heard it as well. I immediately throw open every door in the vicinity, searching for the one that would lead to the basement where I hear the screaming coming from.
When I find the door, I nearly fall down the stairs as I race into the dark of the basement. The house is huge, and the basement is no exception. I can hear April screaming, but she sounds like she’s still a few rooms over.
The hallway is low-lit, and I have to be careful not to trip over my own feet. Eric and Luke remain upstairs to watch for more soldiers, both of them with their weapons drawn and ready as ever to kill.
April’s screams grow louder as we make our way down the hall into the light of the main room. When we finally get there, all I can see is April, zip-tied to a chair, eyes wide and panicked like I’ve never seen before.
But she’s alive.
And I’m so happy to see her.
“Rebel!” she screams, both from surprise and urgency. “Come cut my hands apart!” she says as I run toward her. Her wrists are bloody from all the tension and pulling as she undoubtedly fought to escape.
Just as I’m about to kneel down and evaluate her closer, I feel the full weight of a man slam into my back, two arms grappling for my neck from behind. The person on my back is clearly smaller than me, and I’m able to throw them from my back with a quick turn.
The person crashes to the floor, and as I look down, I recognize Dr. Ryan, except that he’s wrong somehow. He’s definitely on something, most likely his beloved research chemical, but I never thought he would inject himself with something so risky.
Without a second to breathe or gather myself, he shoots up from the floor like a cat and starts to strangle me. Even with our differing size and strength, he’s got the advantage of unmitigated human muscle without the restraint of the cerebral cortex.
He attempts to jam his fingers into my eyes, but I’m able to turn away swiftly enough that he only grazes the side of my head with his fingernails.
April is looking on in absolute horror at what she’s witnessing, completely helpless to assist even if she was capable.
I’m finally able to get a grip on my gun, and I press it firmly up into Dr. Ryan’s lungs before I fire the first shot, then a second as he falls to the floor. Immediately he tries to climb to his feet, but his lungs fill up with blood in seconds and all he can muster is a wet gurgling as blood pours from his mouth.
He turns his head and stares right through April, shooting daggers at her with his eyes as he clings hopelessly to life. He crawls toward her on his hands and knees, hoping to inflict some kind of damage with his last breaths, but before he’s able to lay a finger on her, I shoot him through the back of the head.
April screams, and her face runs completely pale as if she’s ready to pass out completely. I can’t say I blame her, but if she faints, the weight of her limp body might tip the chair over and injure her.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, just breathe for a second, okay?” I say to her in my most reassuring voice.
She stares straight into my eyes as I approach her, her face haunted and desperate for safety. When I lean down to cut the zip ties that have kept her prisoner, she practically falls out of the chair and attacks me with a hug, holding so tight that I’m shocked at the amount of strength in her little body.
“He shot himself up with something as soon as he heard gunshots,” she interjects, nearly breathless with relief. “I think he intended to inject it into me, and I don’t know why he changed his mind when he heard you,” she continues, visibly shaking.
All I can do is hold her close. I wrap my arms completely around her in a way I’ve never done to anybody before. If I could let her live there, I would. I couldn’t keep her safe so many times, but right now, I’d kill someone who even looked at her with ill intent.
“Hey, I need you to tell me what happened here. Why were you brought here? Why did you leave with Dr. Paul?” I ask, using my most nonthreatening voice possible despite the metric fuckton of adrenaline coursing through my body.
April looks up at me, and something in her expression concerns me. She almost looks guilty, as if she’s about to admit that she brought this all on herself intentionally. That would be ridiculous, but I can’t imagine April has had the freedom to do much else since she’s been staying at the headquarters.
“April, I need you to tell me,” I say, my tone growing less amicable despite my efforts to mitigate my impatience.
Instead of looking up at me, she turns away completely without a word.
“Can you tell me something about this, at least?” I ask, pulling the ring box from my pocket and opening it to her. She freezes, and her eyes begin to tear up. Now she might actually have something to say.
“April, I want to take care of you, okay? I never want you to worry about being attacked or kidnapped again, ever. But for me to do that, I need you to be honest with me. I can’t spend so much time chasing you around to make sure you’re not about to be killed,” I say as I give her the ring.
She takes it with both hands and studies it closely.
