I heard the sounds above us, like the sound of something heavy being dropped to the floor and I looked across at Lucia. Her eyes met mine and we shared a look half fear and half hope. This was either someone coming to rescue us, or someone finally coming to kill us all.
I prayed to God that it was Alejandro.
Carlos heard it too because he walked over to me and pushed his face against mine. He started to laugh maniacally and I wondered if he had finally become completely unhinged.
‘Here’s your hero, puta!’ he spat in my face.
‘Let’s see just how much he’s willing to sacrifice for his little whore!’
Carlos had brought two more of his men into the basement with us a few hours earlier, no doubt sensing that Alejandro was getting closer to finding out who had betrayed him. The four other men in the room stood in the shadows, with their guns trained on the door. I wanted to scream to whoever was about to come through it that they were walking into a trap but Rafe had stuffed a rag in my mouth earlier and it muffled the sound.
Carlos walked behind me, pressing the blade of his knife against my throat. The blade was cold and I felt the biting scratch against my skin. My heartbeat thrummed against it, aware that a simple slip would have me spilling my lifeblood all over the floor.
Lucia let out a muffled scream and Carlos laughed again.
A few seconds later, the door to the basement opened.
‘I know you’re down there, Uncle,’ Alejandro called and my heart almost burst out of my chest at the sound of his voice. Dear God, please let him and Lucia get out of this. But please just let me tell me how much I love him first. I screamed again into the rag in my mouth and Carlos pressed the blade closer against my skin until I felt the sting of the blade and a trickle of blood running down my neck.
‘Alana!’ he called then. ‘I’m here, princess. I’m going to take you home.’
Then he stepped out of the shadows as he walked down the basement steps. I almost passed out at the sight of him. Through fear and panic and hope that there was a chance he could save us from his lunatic uncle.
Enzo, Rafe and the two newer men stood behind me, their guns raised and trained on my husband and my heart hammered so hard in my ears, I could barely hear anything else.
‘You came alone, Alejandro?’ Carlos asked in surprise.
‘Not quite,’ Jax said from behind him as he stepped out of the shadows too.
‘Ah, of course. Your loyal little puppy dog,’ he snarled.
‘I wanted to keep this between family, Uncle. That’s what we all are, aren’t we? Why don’t you send these men out and we can talk. Just me you and the girls? Just family?’
‘You found out my little secret then?’ Carlos snickered behind me.
I blinked in shock. What secret?
‘Sure did. But what I can’t figure out is what the hell any of this has to do with my fucking wife?’ Alejandro snarled, unable to keep a lid on his anger any longer.
Carlos reached down, pushing his hand beneath the collar of my t-shirt and squeezing my breast painfully, making me wince.
Alejandro took a step closer. ‘Take your fucking hands off her!’ he barked.
The four men with guns edged further into the room. ‘Careful, or they’ll take you out before you take another step, nephew,’ Carlos hissed as he righted himself again, keeping the blade at my throat.
Alejandro held up his hands in surrender. ‘Okay. I’m all yours. But please, uncle, let my wife go. Let your daughter go,’ he said as he looked across at Lucia.
Lucia blinked at me, her eyes wide in shock and I almost choked on the rag in my mouth. His daughter? What? Lucia was Carlos’s daughter?
‘Why would I do that, when they are the key to your downfall, Alejandro?’
I saw the expression on Alejandro’s face change to one of pain and anguish. ‘Why do you want my downfall, Uncle?’ he asked.
‘Why?’ Carlos half laughed, half snarled. ‘Thirty years I have worked for your father. Doing his bidding. Cleaning up his messes. Waiting for my time,’ he hissed. ‘Waiting for it to finally be about me. Even when I did find happiness, I had to let it go. I had to leave the woman I loved with that monster because I didn’t have the time to have a family. Always being the good worker bee. Always doing what your father asked of me. Even when she had my child, I couldn’t go to her.’
Alejandro took a step closer. ‘My father would never have stopped you having a family. He would have wanted that for you. Uncle Phillipe has Rachel and the girls. Why would he stop you from having that too?’
I felt Carlos’s grip loosen slightly. ‘It was different with me. He was different with me. Always watching me. Always wondering if I was going to have another breakdown. Did he ever tell you that I killed his dog?’ he scoffed.
‘No,’ Alejandro frowned.
‘I was eight. It was an accident. I only wanted to see if the dog was tough like us. We couldn’t get the blood out of the carpet. Mama had to throw it away and Papa was so mad. None of them ever looked at me the same way again! Especially Mateo. He thought I was broken.’
Alejandro continued to edge closer while his uncle raged.
‘And now, after all these years, after I gave up everything, he just hands it all over to you, and I am supposed to accept that? And not only do you have everything I’ve worked for, you want my daughter too? You are a greedy, selfish hijo de puta!’ he snarled. ‘Did you know that it was my idea to start this business in the first place?’
‘No,’ Alejandro shook his head.
‘It was. I was the one who was always prepared to do whatever it took. Did you know that I once killed a woman because she wouldn’t let me fuck her?’ he snarled as his grip tightened again and the blade dug in further. ‘I fucked her anyway and then I slit her throat. Your father got pretty mad about that too!’
‘No, I didn’t know that,’ Alejandro said softly as he looked at me for the briefest moment. He gave a subtle nod of his head as though to tell me this was all going to be okay.
‘Did you think that you could walk in here and just take her back?’ Carlos snarled. ‘Although I’m not sure you’d want her now. She screamed for more when my men fucked her like the puta that she is?’
I winced at Carlos’s lie, and watched as Alejandro’s fists clenched at his sides. Then he looked up at his uncle, his body vibrated with anger but his face remained calm. ‘Did you know that Jax is ambidextrous?’ he asked calmly.
‘What?’ Carlos snapped.
‘Ambidextrous,’ he repeated as bullets whizzed past my ears. ‘As skilled with his right hand as he is his left.’
In a matter of seconds the four armed men were on the floor with blood pooling from their heads.
‘You know he’s from Dallas, right?’ Alejandro said.
‘Quickest draw in the West,’ Jax smiled as he walked down the stairs of the basement. With everyone’s attention on Alejandro, nobody had noticed Jax slipping back into the shadows and drawing his weapons.
Alejandro looked between the knife at my throat and his uncle. ‘Please let her go, Carlos. You can have everything. I don’t want any of it without her.’
‘Fuck you, hijo de puta!’ he snarled. ‘I would die before I give her back to you.’
Alejandro took a deep breath before he spoke. ‘Ahora.’ Now.
I heard another whizz of a gunshot as Alejandro lunged forward, grabbing the blade of the knife before it sliced through my throat as Carlos dropped to the floor.
‘Jax, get Lucia,’ he shouted and Jax started jogging down the stairs and over to Lucia.
Alejandro dropped to his knees in front of me. He pulled the rag from my mouth with his bleeding hand and I gasped for air. Then he worked quickly, cutting the ties at my ankles before moving behind me and cutting my wrists free. My arms burned with the pain of a thousand needles as I pulled them towards my body. Then he was on his knees before me again. Brushing my hair from my face as the blood from the wound on his hand dripped down his arm.
‘Alana. Princess. I’m so sorry.’
I wrapped my arms around his neck, clinging to him as though I would never let him go as I sobbed against his shirt. He ran his hands over my hair and pressed his mouth to my ear. ‘I love you so much,’ he breathed. ‘I need you to know that I have never regretted marrying you. Not even for a single breath. I would give up everything I have ever known if it meant not losing you.’
My heart swelled in my chest and my sobs grew even more persistent. Then he was standing, lifting me into his arms. ‘I’ve got you, princess. You’re safe now,’ he soothed in my ear.
We both looked over at Lucia. She was in Jax’s arms and had her head buried against his chest. ‘You okay, kid?’ Alejandro asked.
She looked up at him. ‘Yes,’ she sniffed as the tears rolled down her face.
‘Come on. Let’s get home,’ he said as started to walk towards the stairs.
I nestled my head against his neck, breathing in his incredible scent and feeling the relief at being close to him again settling over me like a warm blanket. I already was home.
