“Enough,” I state, trying not to shout. But the longer I’m in the room next door to Rosie, and listening to that sick bastard with her, the more I’m itching to bust through the door and kill the fucker. “We have to get her out of there,” I say pacing back and forth. “This is wrong. You’ve heard him talking. He’s going to rape her unless we do something. To hell with getting evidence. Get it some other way. You’re not using my girl anymore.” I walk toward the interconnecting door, not quite sure what the fuck I’m doing. I’ve no weapon and we know he has at least a knife and gun. All I know is that I can’t leave her with him any longer.
Hunter’s friend, Julian, had to hold me back when we walked in and I heard Simon talking about her lack of underwear.
For once Hunter looks undecided. Up until now he’s been all for getting Abatangelo, but now I can see from his eyes that he’s worried about Rosie. About what the bastard in there is capable of.
Clenching my fists to my side, I tell them what’s going to happen, “I’m going in there to get my girl. You can both sit here and pretend nothing is going down next door or you can help me. But there is no way I’m staying here any longer letting him put his hands on her.”
“We’ll help. I’ll cause a distraction by going in through the door to the room. After all he’s expecting me to come from that direction. What he won’t be expecting is for anyone to come through there.” He points to the interconnecting door. “Julian will go through. You and your brothers need to stay put and let us bring Simon down first. You’ll be no use to Rosie if you get yourself shot—or worse.”
Inhaling, I nod my head, not really liking his idea, but knowing he’s right, I drop down onto the bed and put my face in my hands.
“She’ll be fine,” Lucien says sitting down beside me. He reaches up and massages the back of my neck in a show of brotherly love and support.
“Julian, as soon as you hear my key in the lock, count five then join the party.”
“Got you.”
Lifting my head, I watch them both arm themselves to the teeth before Hunter starts to slip out through the door, but Julian stops him. “Let me check his position.”
He plugs in a wire to his laptop and taking the end he pushes it slightly through the keyhole and part of the room next door is showing on the monitor.
If he had this all along why the fuck wasn’t he using it?
“It wasn’t a good idea to use it before,” Julian says, clearly reading my thoughts. “You’d have crashed your way to her without any regard to your safety.”
Running my hand through my hair, I admit, “You’re right.”
“He’s sitting in the chair in the corner of the room with the bed against the wall. I can’t see Rosie.” He removes the feed. “But from listening to them I’m going to presume she’s on the bed. Maybe against the headboard. I’m not going to push the wire through further because he might see it.”
“Okay, I’m going in.” Hunter leaves the room.
“Trust him,” Julian says, taking hold of the doorknob with one hand and brandishing a gun with his other.
Lucien, Ramon and I stand near the entrance to the room so we’re out of the line of fire.
My stomach feels full of lead and my heart is in my mouth while I wait. I’m not even going to consider that Rosie won’t want me with her. I broke her heart earlier so my only hope is that she’ll listen to me explain and hopefully understand that no harm was supposed to come to her. That someone was watching the room. I’m not sure how Simon slipped inside with her, but I’m going to find out when this is over with.
I’m abruptly brought back to the present when all hell breaks loose.
Hunter and Julian have opened the doors and are in the room. I hear someone shout “he’s down” at the same time as I hear Rosie start to scream, which gets me moving.
Shoving into the room, a quick glance tells me Hunter and Julian have Simon under control. My head whips to the side and I see Rosie crouched up against the headboard with blood everywhere.
What the fuck!
“Rosie,” I whisper as I slowly crawl onto the bed toward her. I don’t want to spook her, but at the same time I need to hold her. I need to make sure she isn’t seriously injured. “Rosie, please look at me.”
She lifts her head slowly and within seconds of our eyes meeting she’s thrown herself into my arms, wrapping herself around me. But for Ramon behind me, I’d have fallen from the bed with the force of her body coming into contact with mine.
“I thought you hated me,” she sobs into my neck, trying to get onto my lap breaking my heart.
“Is she okay?” Hunter asks.
“She will be,” I reply to him before whispering to Rosie, “I could never hate you. Hang on baby.” Keeping her tight in my arms, I back off the bed and carry her into the other room and try to place her onto the bed, but she clings to me.
“No. Don’t leave me.” She starts to shiver with reaction to what’s been going on in the other room.
Lucien drapes a blanket from the closet around her shoulders.
“I’m not leaving you. I’m never leaving you again.” I sit in the chair and let her curl up in my lap. “But I need to make sure you’re not hurting anywhere. Please Rosie. Please let me check you out. There was a lot of blood on the pillowcase.”