I Thee Take: To Have and To Hold Duet Book Two by Knight, Natasha (ready to read books .txt) 📗

“Better,” the woman says.

The girl remains silent, but I catch how her eyes shift to mine momentarily. She must be afraid to get caught. They’ve trained her.

Felix looks at me. He gives me a grin. “Get comfortable. We’ve got a long ride.” He turns back in his seat and switches on the radio to a station playing Spanish music.

33

Cristiano

The private jet lands in Rotterdam a few hours later. The flight was tense, to say the least, my brother quiet. He knows he did wrong. But I can’t forgive him. Not yet.

Two cars wait for us at the airfield. Antonio, Dante and I climb into one, Dante sitting in the passenger seat.

“House is in the city. About thirty kilometers from here.”

“You’ve got eyes on it?”

Antonio nods. “Only for the last couple of hours though. There are definitely two men inside and a woman.”

“Scarlett?”

“Not sure yet.”

I shift my gaze out the window.

“We’ll find her, Cristiano,” he says.

I watch passing cars as we merge into traffic.

She got Noah out. I’m glad she got him out. But she should have gone with him. Why didn’t she? Was she waiting for me to return?

“Does she think I’m dead?” I ask. Antonio knows I’m talking to my brother.

There’s a long silence. “I told her you were because I thought you were,” he pauses, turns in his seat. I see him in my periphery. “She was upset to hear it.”

I don’t let myself feel anything at that. I can’t. I need to focus now. The stakes are too high for emotion. For weakness.

“And my uncle?” I ask, only turning back to Antonio when I’ve schooled my features.

He’s typing something into his phone. Antonio has contacts everywhere. And throughout this, I’ve learned that I can trust and rely on him.

“I’m just following up on a lead. He was at the house too, we know that.”

“We need to get Scarlett back first. I’ll deal with him after.”

The rest of the drive is silent, and I watch the busy streets of the city as the driver weaves his way through dense traffic to a seedier looking part of town.

“There are three possible entry and exit points. Front door, side and back door. Downstairs windows are boarded up. The side door leads into an alley. The street itself is fairly busy so we’ll have to keep a low profile. No busting in doors and no gunfire if we can help it. Not on street level at least. We’ve got half a dozen men in place. Your uncle used the side door to go in and out. We’ll use that one too.”

“I’ll go in first,” Dante says as the driver parks the car a block away and we climb out. He checks his weapon before tucking it out of sight.

“You’ll stay with me,” I tell him.

“This is my fault. I owe—”

“You’ll stay with me or you’ll stay in the car.”

“You know I’m not a kid anymore.”

“With me or in the car. Decide.”

“Fine.”

We walk down the street weaving into the crowds. When Antonio points out the house, I look up at it, at the dimly lit rooms upstairs, at the attic window. Rain drizzles overhead, steady and cold. Someone moves behind one of the windows, a shadow crossing the room.

I nod to Antonio and we move. I catch sight of our men as we near the alley where someone stands taking a piss against the dumpster. He’s humming and when he sees us, he looks up. His smile vanishes instantly. Even stinking of alcohol, he must sense danger. He hurries to put his dick back in his pants and stumbles away.

Once he’s gone, we head in. I take my pistol in hand and make my way to the side door. Maybe being a little less careful than I should but feeling anxious.

If Scarlett’s in this place, I need to get to her. Get her out.

The door is locked, as expected. Antonio touches my arm as he twists a silencer onto his weapon before he shoots out the lock. It’s not as silent as I’d like but given the noise in the street, I’m hoping we’ll still have the element of surprise.

I step in first followed by Antonio and Dante. The house must have been split into apartments at some point because the door we just broke in through opens up to a staircase and some storage areas. It’s unused though, cobwebs and junk piled in every corner.

No welcome party. That’s good. Unless they’re waiting to ambush us upstairs.

I take the lead up the old wooden stairs which creak beneath our boots and hear the sound of a television coming from behind the closed door. The volume’s turned pretty high. This could be good for us or bad for us, but we won’t know until it’s too late.

Here too, junk and forgotten furniture take up parts of the hallway. Antonio slips around me and walks to the second door which stands open. He gives the signal that it’s clear.

I turn to my brother who moves into position on the opposite side of the door. “Ready?” I mouth.

He nods.

Without another moment’s hesitation, I kick the door in, the wood splintering as it crashes against the far wall.

A woman screams and men curse, the tv still going in the background as a table is knocked over and weapons are drawn, the men clearly surprised.

I know in that moment Scarlett isn’t here. Maybe she was at one point, but she’s gone.

I know it as a gun battle breaks out. So much for no gunfire. I know it as the tv is shot out, as the woman dives to the kitchen floor, as the men take bullets that knock them back and down.

I know it when all the sound that’s left in the place is that of our breathing, of the TV short-circuiting, of the woman whimpering on the kitchen floor.

“We’ll need to move fast,” Antonio says as I make my way down the hallway to check the