Depraved: A Dark Reverse Harem Romance (The Devil's Syndicate Book 5)

by Sarah Bailey

  Quinn seemed to take a minute to weigh up our options, then he slid his gun back into its holster on his side and pulled out a knife instead. He waved at Rory, who grinned. Eric and I looked at each other. There was no question what those two were about to do.

  Quinn and Rory silently crept out into the hallway. I took Quinn’s place, keeping a lookout as the other two approached the two armed men from behind.

  Idiots should be paying more attention.

  Except they were completely oblivious to the threat behind them. Quinn warned us it would be a bloodbath and the Russos were about to have their first casualties.

  Quinn and Rory worked in tandem, jumping the two men, holding their mouths and slitting their throats. The gurgling sounds echoing down the corridor made me flinch. They lowered the men to the floor, wiping their knives off on their clothing. Quinn waved at me. Eric and I approached them cautiously. Blood was beginning to pool on the floor so we all slipped past quickly so we wouldn’t get caught out in it.

  “Well, this is totally not fucked up,” Eric hissed in my ear.

  I gave him a grim smile. Working our way through this silently was our only choice. Right now, the building was in serious shit over us hacking their systems, but we didn’t want more men down here than there already likely were. Getting trapped down in this basement before we rescued Isabella would not bode well. We’d have to fight our way out and we only had so much ammunition.

  At the end of this corridor, it opened out into a larger space where there were shelving units. Ash told us beyond that would be the cages where Russo kept prisoners and a space where he conducted his interrogations. I say interrogations, it was more like a space for him to torture his unwilling victims. Something Ash had been witness to. I shuddered at the thought. Knowing she’d had to see all of that made me sick. No one should be forced to watch the man they thought was their father beat the shit out of another, let alone see him commit murder.

  From what we could see there were various men stationed around the room. Fuck knows how many people they were keeping down here, but Ash mentioned they had guards around the clock. They took shifts. With their security systems down, we’d hampered their visuals. We had to strike now.

  Quinn leant over to us, his expression harsh and unforgiving.

  “Xav and Eric take the left, Rory and I will go right. Find Isabella, kill anyone else,” he whispered. “No one is left alive, we cannot have anyone alerting upstairs, understood?”

  We all nodded. I dreaded to think what the death count would be. It didn’t fucking matter. We had one objective. Rescue Ash’s mother and get the fuck out of here. Me and Rory would take her back to the car as agreed and Eric and Quinn would backup Ash. Thinking about her right now wouldn’t help me. I was fucking worried about her safety. If she didn’t come out of this, I wouldn’t know what the fuck to do with myself. None of us would. Ash was our guiding fucking light. Our angel. We needed her as much as she needed us. That girl had to fucking stay alive.

  Quinn pulled out his gun again and Rory did the same after they’d stashed their knives.

  “I don’t care if you make a fucking racket. We shoot to kill.”

  “You got it, man,” I whispered back.

  The four of us crept out into the room, Eric and I split off to the left whilst Quinn and Rory went right. We moved along the shelving unit, coming to the end and spying two men almost lounging against an empty cage.

  “It’s fuckin’ chaos upstairs,” one of them said. “Ronnie keeps radioing down. Idiot thinks that’s going to fuckin’ help.”

  “Nah, dis shit’s long, fam.”

  I tried not to roll my eyes and glanced at Eric. Where the fuck did Russo find these fools? I was about to step forward when I heard the pop of a gun going off behind us. The two men perked up.

  “What the fuck was that?” said man number one.

  “A gun, you fool,” said wannabe gangster number two.

  Eric and I stepped out, not giving a shit about being quiet any longer.

  “Hello, boys,” I grinned before opening fire on both of them.

  Their eyes widened and they had no fucking chance. A single shot to the head each took them both out. Man number one slid down the cage whilst wannabe gangster collapsed on the floor in a heap.

  “This fucking kid clearly thought he was gangster,” I muttered to Eric, stepping over them.

  “You showed him who’s the number one OG here.”

  I looked over to find him grinning.

  “Oh, haha, so funny. Let’s go.”

  To be fair, it was funny, but Eric needed to quit being such a cheeky little shit. I stifled a smile as we continued along the shelving unit until we came to the end. The men guarding this cage were on high alert with guns at the ready. They must’ve heard us shooting. There was someone inside, but it wasn’t a female. They were huddled in a corner, their short hair matted with blood.

  I leant out and popped off one round but didn’t hit my target. The returning gunfire had me ducking behind the shelving again.

  “You good?” I called to Eric over the sound.

  “You take the one on the left, I’ll go right,” he replied, his expression turning dark. His green eyes held a fire in them I rarely saw. He was pissed as fuck and wanted to take it out on these fuckers.

  I gave him a nod. He slipped down the shelving and popped out the other end, firing off a shot whilst I stepped out and nailed the other guy. The one Eric had fired at stared down at his chest, watching the blood pooling on his white shirt before he dropped his weapon and tried to stem it. I stepped forward and kicked him down.

  “If you’re going to die, do it quietly, eh?” I told him whilst Eric walked along and looked at the man in the cage.

  “Xav, you got your bolt cutters?”

  Quinn might have told us to kill everyone on sight, but he never said anything about the people Russo was keeping as prisoners down here. I opened my kitbag whilst holding the dying man down with a foot to his chest. Locating the cutters, I tossed them at Eric who proceeded to cut open the padlock. The man huddled in the corner looked up and I almost froze in recognition.

  “Vincenzo?”

  What the fuck did Russo have him down here for? Didn’t he know it would piss the Italian mafia off? The man knew no bounds. No wonder we couldn’t get hold of him when we were trying to plan this rescue mission.

  “What are you doing here?” Eric asked.

  “Fucking Russo,” Vincenzo croaked out. “Leverage against my father.”

  “Well, shit,” I said. “Get him out of there.”

  I might not like the guy, but he didn’t deserve this shit. It reminded me he had a thing for Ash, which also pissed me off. He wasn’t getting his hands on our fucking girl.

  Eric stepped in and helped Vincenzo up, getting him out of the cage and setting him down on the chair outside. I decided to let the others know.

  “Quinn… you there?”

  There was nothing.

  “Quinn? We found Villetti in one of the cages.”

  Eric glanced at me, concern appearing on his features.

  “Rory? You there?”

  “Quinn ran off before I could stop him… I don’t know where he is,” he replied thirty seconds later.

  “Fuck. Okay… where are you?”

  “Still working my way through the cages on the right. Haven’t found captives yet.”

  Eric picked up one of the guns from the men and handed it to Vincenzo with a raised eyebrow.

  “Can you handle that?”

  Vincenzo nodded. If he opened fire on us, he was a dead fucking man, but somehow I knew he wouldn’t. He had as much of an axe to grind with Russo as we did.

  “Shit, okay. Keep going, Rory, we’ll search for Quinn too,” I said before rubbing the back of the neck and lifting my foot off the dead man below me.

  “Why d’you think Quinn ran off?” Eric asked.

  “Fu
ck knows. The fool is going to get himself killed if he’s not careful. He should be sticking to the fucking plan, but he’s not.”

  All I knew is we had to find him before it was too late. I had a seriously bad feeling about this and judging by Eric’s expression, he did too.

  “Can you walk?” Eric asked Vincenzo.

  “Yeah… What do you need me to do?”

  He stood, clutching the gun like he knew how to use it and giving us both a nod.

  “Help us find that fool of ours, then we’ll get you out of here.”

  If Quinn was going to be a reckless fuck, then we’d just have to save his arse. I hoped he hadn’t got himself into too much shit.

  Chapter 32

  Rory and I had worked our way down the right-hand side, dispatching a fair few men in the process. I was beginning to think we might not find Isabella down here. Ash had been sure this is where Russo would be keeping her. She’d not been seen in public since we received the video of her, so chances were Ash was right. It still made me nervous. We were working on assumptions and I didn’t like it. And I was seriously fucking worried about my little girl and how things were going upstairs. It made my anxiety spike to almost uncontrollable levels.

  “You okay?” Rory hissed as we approached another shelving unit.

  I shook my head. No point lying about it.

  “She’ll be fine, you know that.”

  I didn’t feel like Ash would be. She was taking on the worst part of this operation. Going after Russo alone was the biggest risk. It wouldn’t just be Frank she had to take down, but all the men between her and him. Russo would never leave himself unprotected.

  “We went on radio silence so it’s not like I expected to hear from her, but I’m still fucking worried,” I whispered.

  “Then check in with her.”

  I stiffened. It could jeopardise what she was doing.

  “Can’t, she needs to stay focused.”

  I knew she’d be worried about us getting to Isabella, but we’d made a promise. Fucking sworn on our lives we’d get her mother out safely. She trusted us and we couldn’t let her down.

  I flattened myself against the shelving unit and peered out. It spilt off in three directions. At the end of one stood a man half cast in shadows. As I met his eyes, I felt an icy chill run down my spine. It couldn’t be, could it? He looked very much like Frank fucking Russo. That wasn’t right. He should be up in his fucking office.

  He ducked away behind the shelving unit so I couldn’t be sure of it. I had to know. If that was the case, then we’d seriously fucked up and Ash was in even more danger than ever.

  “Fuck,” I grunted.

  Then I did something stupid, but I didn’t give a shit. I had to follow that man. I dashed out through the opening and heard the pop of gunfire behind me. A bullet narrowly missed me as I reached the other side and hurried off down past the shelves. I didn’t look behind me to see if Rory had followed. Further popping sounds of gunfire sounded behind me, but I focused on getting after the man I’d seen. Rory could handle those men.

  I got to the end and found another shelving unit to my left in the direction of where the man had disappeared to. I followed down there and when I got out into the opening, I found exactly where Russo conducted his interrogations. It was an open space with a metal chair bolted to the floor in the middle of it. I recognised it from the video he’d sent us. The chair had a sole occupant. Her blonde hair covered her face, which was hanging down on her chest. Her hands were tied together in front of her with rope and her legs cable tied to the chair.

  “Isabella?” I hissed, checking the area to see if anyone else was there.

  The woman raised her head slowly, her blue eyes wide. There was duct tape over her mouth, but it was her. Ash’s mother. She looked gaunt and had a purple bruise across her cheek, but she was fucking well alive. She let out a muffled noise when she spied me. Thank fuck I’d found her. Now it was time to get her out of here.

  I approached her slowly, checking my surroundings in case that man was lurking. Maybe this was a fucking trap. Probably, but I had no choice. Isabella was my primary aim. Keeping her alive and getting her to safety. I knelt at her feet, dropped my gun in her lap before I reached out and ripped the duct tape from her mouth.

  “Quinn,” she whispered.

  “I’m going to get you out of here.”

  Her eyes went wide the next moment. Then I felt the cold press of steel at the back of my head.

  “Hello, Mr Knox.”

  The voice wasn’t quite like Frank’s, more high-pitched. I raised my hands, not wanting to make any sudden movements or give him any cause to shoot me.

  “Gianni Russo.”

  He let out a hollow laugh. So Frank had sent his brother down here to take care of Isabella. I should’ve fucking known.

  “So you aren’t stupid. Pity you fell right into my hands now, didn’t you?”

  Gianni didn’t know the boys were down here too, or maybe he did. Either way, we’d get out of this somehow. I hoped.

  “Did I? Well, that’s unfortunate for me.”

  “You think you could come in here and take her back for that little bitch I call my niece, did you? Wrong move, fucker.”

  I stared at Isabella. She didn’t speak, just looked at Gianni with no small amount of hatred.

  “Yeah, I did. In fact, I just waltzed in here without a care in the world and decided I’d gun down all your men for the fun of it in the process.”

  “Shut up,” he hissed, digging the gun into my skull. “You’re going to tell me which one of you and your fucking friends killed my son.”

  Isabella gasped and glanced down at me.

  “You killed Carlo?”

  “Quiet, bitch,” Gianni ground out. “No one is fucking talking to you.”

  “I think you’ll find Carlo tried to kill Ash first at your behest. An eye for an eye, Gianni,” I said, shrugging a little.

  It wasn’t exactly why we’d done it, but he didn’t need to know that. I didn’t give a shit Rory had murdered him either. The man was a fucking waste of space and quite frankly, after he’d hurt Ash, I didn’t have any sympathy for the fool. But if Gianni thought I would tell him who’d done it, he was barking up the wrong tree.

  “You did what? Is Ash okay? Please tell me she is,” Isabella cried.

  “She’s fine, no thanks to Carlo trying to run her off the road.”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Gianni growled. “Answer the fucking question. Who killed him?”

  “You going to let me go if I tell you?”

  “Are you fucking stupid or what? You aren’t leaving here alive.”

  I looked at my gun in Isabella’s lap then back up at her, trying to send a message.

  Pick up the damn gun and aim it at his head.

  She could manage that even with her hands tied together if she tried. I couldn’t rely on the boys finding me in time. I had to get out of this situation somehow without getting shot in the head by Russo’s fucking brother.

  “Then why should I tell you? Seems a little pointless when you’re not giving me an incentive.”

  The gun pressed harder against me. I winced, keeping my hands raised. If I made one wrong move, that would be it.

  “You haven’t got a choice either way.”

  “Oh, I think I do. If you shoot me, then you’ll never know. You’ll go to grave wondering which one of us ended Carlo’s life. Wouldn’t that be tragic?”

  “Fuck you, cunt. Give me the damn name.”

  I scoffed. He was a fine one to talk calling me a cunt when he had a gun pointed at my head.

  “No.”

  I tried again with Isabella and the gun, but she wasn’t getting the damn message. Her fear wouldn’t let her see what I was trying to say.

  Fuck.

  How else would I get out of this fucking mess?

  “I think you’ll find it was me,” came a voice from behind u
s. One I recognised well.

  “What?” Gianni said as he lessened the pressure on my head.

  I glanced back in time to find him turning his head before he grunted, his back arching as something hit it. I acted quickly, ducking and slapping the gun out of his hand. Spinning around, I shoved him backwards. He fell down and the knife embedded in his back dug in deeper, causing him to let out a gurgling sound. I was pretty sure it’d punctured his lung.

  Rory walked over to us slowly, his hazel eyes dark with violence. He stood over Gianni and smiled.

  “I killed your son. Do you want to know how?”

  “You fucker!” Gianni choked out.

  “I suffocated him whilst he slept. He died so quickly it was almost too easy.”

  Rory’s voice was so casual as if it mattered not he was openly admitting he’d murdered Carlo. In all honesty, it was a little chilling, but we’d all killed today. What was one more man now? I stood up and grabbed my gun from Isabella’s lap. She stared at us, her face as white as a sheet.

  “Fuck you! I’m going to kill you. You fucking killed my boy! My boy! Fuck you, fucking scum—”

  Bang.

  The bullet left my gun and lodged itself in his skull, cutting off his diatribe against Rory and killing him instantly.

  “Jesus Christ, he needed to shut up already.”

  Isabella started screaming. Rory stared at her in disgust whilst I walked back to her and stuck my hand over her mouth.

  “Shut the fuck up.”

  She stared up at me, fear painting her features. Did she think we were about to gun her down too? Was she stupid? Ash would murder us.

  “I’m not going to kill you. We’re here to rescue you. Haven’t you seen someone die before?”

  She shook her head. Well, that was a fucking new one on me. Frank didn’t care about murdering people in front of Ash so why would he have never done it in front of Isabella? Who the fuck knew what went on in that cunt’s head.

  “Are you going to keep your mouth shut if I remove my hand?”

  Isabella nodded so I dropped my hand.

  “Where’s Ash? Where’s my daughter? Did you bring her here?”