Corden

With my pistol aimed, I step into the madness with a pit the size of the Grand Canyon in my stomach.

I've never had to choose between my men and a woman. It's precisely why we're told not to get close to anyone in this profession, and although I understood it, tonight is a terrifying reminder of just how true that statement is.

The men who work for me are loyal, hard-working people. My security guards are in here attempting to reach me, and as much as I want to shield Carmen in that red room and protect her with my life, I have an obligation to follow through. Countless lives are at stake. As much as I want to panic about her safety, I have to be level-headed about this and become the killer I've trained for years to master.

Screams echo around me, sending adrenaline to course through my veins. I aim and put a bullet straight through the skull of one of Rafino's goons who rounds the corner. I leave no room for mercy. No forgiveness. Anyone involved in this trafficking ring will be taken down by me tonight.

Smoke blurs my vision, and I trip over someone who is taking cover on the floor. Only then do I see Buck tapping his foot impatiently by the elevator, attempting to make a run for it.

He won't get away that easily.

I close the distance between us in three long strides, but not before a man with a skull print mask darts out in front of me. He wears a sadistic grin when he raises a knife to my throat, but my pistol meets his head a lot quicker. Blood spatters around us, causing Buck to jump ten feet in the air.

Judging by the screams from the other rooms, chaos is still happening, but I refuse to let Buck out of my sight. This ends here.

My nose wrinkles in disgust the second his body odor hits me. It's pungent and foul, and where I debated if his greasy hair was from too much product before, I don't now. The man needs a fucking bath.

"Corden." He starts, a row of cracked and yellow teeth greeting me. "A shame we found ourselves in this predicament." His eyes bounce around the room as if searching for someone to save him, but there's no one in this room with us. Right now, it's just him and I.

"I expected better from you," I admit. "Surely, an ambush for me would be better thought out. Allowing me to leave without so much as a scrape? A pity. Rafino should know well enough by now to plan something foul-proof."

Buck arches a brow. "Who said Rafino is behind this?"

He can try to save his ass all he wants, but we both know who's behind this. It's useless to try and convince me otherwise.

"Carmen's a beautiful woman," he continues. My heart freezes at the use of her real name. "Whether you want to realize it or not, Rafino isn't the only person after her. It's just a bonus that she matters to you as well. She matters to a lot of important people."

What the hell is he talking about?

I position my gun beneath his chin, his trembling lip the only sign that he's nervous. "What do you know?" I hiss. "Speak. Now." The elevator doors open, and I prepare to shoot until my security exits and stalks straight for the red room, where I texted them to go. My body relaxes when I focus my attention back on Buck, and a cunning smile coats my face. "Actually, don't waste your breath. Regardless of who wants her, you fail to realize she's with me. She falls under a protection your gang is incapable of penetrating."

Buck tilts his head to the side. "Are you sure about that?"

Yes, I'm positive. Carmen isn't a fool. She knows how to hide. She can protect herself. If someone were to attempt to take her, she'd fight her way out. I have to believe that.

"Sometimes, the worst scars aren't physical, Corden. I have a strong suspicion that when you find your precious whore has gone missing, your downfall will follow soon after." His grin grows wider. "All we have to do is wait."

A few seconds later, one of my security guards rounds the corner. Carmen isn't beside him, and my grasp on Buck tightens when he tries to thrash away from me. "We've scanned the building's floors and perimeter, sir. No sign of her."

In a heartbeat, everything comes to a brutal halt. I can't find the room to breathe at the thought of her missing. My lungs feel constricted, and my ribcage begins to cave in, and—

FUCK.

Get it together, Corden.

You prepared for this.

I shoot Buck with a seething stare. "Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

I don't have time for the hard way, and Buck knows it. He's dead either way. If he snitches, he'll be killed by Rafino, who will stop at nothing to track him down, and if he confides in me, I'll still kill him without any remorse.

Buck gulps, chuckling softly in the face of death. "I'll never tell you shit."

I pull the trigger, blood and brains splattering when his body falls to the floor with a loud thud. Police sirens wail in the distance just as Delano bursts through the elevator with wide eyes. He scans the mess of the littered bodies around us before his eyes meet mine. Words seem to pass between us without having to speak. "Fuck. They have her, don't they?"

I nod, my hands tremoring at my sides. I'm itching to kill. Itching to torture. But I don't have time for that when my girl isn't by my side.

My mind whirls as I try to decipher Buck's previous words about her being important to other people. Who else is she important to that would put her on someone's radar? It could still be Rafino, and Buck might have said that just to throw me off my game, but maybe he was onto something. I can't rule out potential possibilities. Not when it comes to her life.

I mentally file through her connections, pausing on the only one that makes sense.

"Delano," I bark. "Get me everything you know about Sienna Stone, including her sealed file." Because I did research despite my brother's protesting, and there's a lot to uncover about the self-proclaimed billionaire.

I instruct security to cause a distraction for the police, and then I do another pass through The Harbor to help any innocent bystanders escape. The ones hidden who are playing for Rafino? I kill them, too, knowing Delano will help clean up the mess we've found ourselves in.

"We'll find her," Delano says, typing away at his phone. "You made sure of that."

This isn't my first time completing missions like these, and with Carmen tagging along, I wasn't taking any chances. She doesn't know it, but the lingerie set she wore tonight? I slipped a tracker on it when I used the bills to pleasure her. I'm certain if I suggested this to Carmen beforehand, she would have bitten my dick off, but when I find her, I hope she'll understand it was for a good reason, especially with this hell of a situation we've fallen into.

But it's not the fact that we will find her. It's when. Wherever they took her, it would require a plan to breach the security they undoubtedly have in place. They expect me to act irrationally and break in with guns blazing, but although my feelings for Carmen are strong, I understand what's required from me to keep everyone safe in the long run.

As much as I want to burn every fucker to the ground who participated in this—and I will—a plan has to be made, and the terrifying part about all of this is I have no idea what horrors she's enduring as we speak. Are they touching her? Abusing her?

I inhale deeply at the thought when red lines the edges of my vision.

I'm going to kill them all.

Painfully.

Slowly.

I'll ensure they're begging for mercy when I'm done with them.

"Where are you going?" Delano calls out when I storm into the elevator.

I pull out my cell phone and dial a number I still have memorized by heart. "Gather what you can on Sienna. I need to make a call."

And because I have no clue who is involved in this, I decide to involve the one person I swore I never would. This could potentially work out in both of our favors if the two cases are connected, and since Sienna means so much to him, I won't pass him up on this opportunity.

Even if it means letting him in on my double life.

I call my brother.