“I KNOW YOU THINK I’M cruel, nieta.” Sofia’s grandfather slid a bowl of sancocho in front of her. The steam from the soup made her mouth water. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a warm meal, and it made her eye the bowl, wondering if this was a trap. She wanted to inhale the contents, but she didn’t trust her grandfather not to drug her again and take her back down into her cage.

“¡A comer! It’s not poison. Look,” her grandfather took a spoonful and brought it to his mouth with ease.

When Sofia saw her grandfather stayed up right, she practically face planted into the sancocho, inhaling it. It wasn’t as good as her mom’s, but it made do, and it not only warmed her body but also filled her with memories she wished she could forget. All her time here had made her miss home. She understood she’d never go back, but that didn’t stop the yearning she had for a dirty water dog, the sounds of the hustle and bustle, her father’s booming voice, and her mom’s loud laughter. All her good memories were back in America—in New York—and her time here in Colombia almost erased all of them.

“You’ve done well for yourself, Sofia.” Her grandfather took a seat next to her. “Your true training begins now. I want you to remember when I’m eventually gone and this empire is yours, everything you’ve faced before this moment will prepare you for the road ahead. You think I’m cruel, but I am nothing compared to the person who truly wants to break you to destroy you. You’ll survive from your time here, nieta. You can count on that. Termina and I’ll show you the books.”

 

Sofia leaned her head against the concrete wall. She’d been blessedly left alone since Zhao showed her the video of Bruno getting captured. They had run out of her cell like their world was on fire, and they were desperate to put it out. It filled her with an immense amount of joy to see them falter in their great plan, though she knew not to get excited. Her time in this cell wasn’t coming to an end just yet, and she needed to mentally prepare for whatever was coming, though she was getting tired.

“Keep your head, Sofia,” she whispered into the cell. She’d been in rougher situations—her grandfather had made sure of it. He’d stripped her down to her bare bones and made what Boris did to her seem like warm up, though she had to wonder if her strength in Colombia came from the knowledge that her grandfather would never kill her.

Her grandfather was cruel in his treatment of her, but he’d whisper to his guards and eventually to her that his empire would be hers one day. She knew no matter how heavy his hand was, she’d always see the sun. Boris was out for her head, and while she didn’t fear death, she hated the idea of leaving and not saying goodbye to Dom—if he was even still alive.

He is, don’t borrow trouble.

Commotion sounded outside of Sofia’s cell that had her sitting up higher. The guards were shouting. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she heard the urgency in their tone. A chuckle slipped past her lips that turned into a full-blown laugh at the idea that whispered in her mind; the building was on fire, and they were going to leave her down here to burn to death.

Out of all the ways she imagined she would die, being locked in a cage and chained up while she caught fire was not high on her list.

The sound of footsteps pounding in her direction made her tense. It sounded like it was only one person, and she almost felt sorry for the sad sap who had been charged to come and get her. It would have been easier to leave her down here to die.

Sofia slowly got to her feet, her body cracking and aching with every move she made. Her breathing was labored by the time she was standing on her feet, and she wondered how she was going to make it out of here on her own.

Boris’s body came into view, and she knew something was wrong the moment she took him in. He’d never come down here less than put together. Now he was barefoot and wearing jeans and white shirt that looked like it had blood on it. Sofia was partially kidding when she thought the building had caught fire, but now she was kind of worried that she’d been right.

“You fucking bitch,” Boris spat, his eyes were crazed, and he was practically foaming at the mouth. He had a knife in his hand as he pointed it at her. “You caused this!” he growled.

Sofia shrugged, wondering what she was getting blamed for this time when the entire building shook, knocking her off her feet. She hit the ground hard and groaned, curling in on herself. It hurt to breathe, and there was an annoying ringing in her ears. She had to get up. She knew it in her soul that if she stayed down, this would be it for her, but still she couldn’t move.

Get up, Saffi. Come back to me.

“Dom?” Sofia called out, sure he was in the room with her, but the lights had gone out and she was plunged into darkness.

Boris’ compound had been easy enough to find and even easier to penetrate, thanks to Bruno singing like a canary. It amazed Smoke how quick Bruno had been to deliver information—even financial information they didn’t ask for—so long as Gia didn’t cut his dick off. Smoke scoffed as he made his way through Boris’s home. Typical of a man to worry about his penis even when death loomed over him.

Zhao, according to the tracker Ethan had on him, had thankfully fled and only a handful of his men had stayed behind—they had been caught up with Boris’ men. They’d have to deal with Zhao’s betrayal later, right now they all were focused on getting Sofia and putting as many men as they could in the ground.

Smoke flanked Gia while Otto stood on her other side. The three of them moved as a unit while they made their way through the mayhem. Smoke was extremely proud of himself not only for not stopping Gia from partaking in this rescue mission but also for not hovering. He knew she knew her way around a gun and could handle herself, so his need to keep her locked away hadn’t overpowered him like it had at the start of this.

“Bruno said the stairs should be just outside the sitting room.” Gia nodded in front of her as a secondary team covered their backs, dropping bodies left and right. “Do we have a team getting the women out?” Gia’s voice remained steady and focused. It made Smoke want to kiss her till she was breathless and melted into his body.

He truly was in awe of her quiet strength. They were in here about to grab Sofia and rescue countless women who’d been held under Boris’ harsh rule because of Gia. She had been able to get information out of Bruno, something they all—Smoke included—failed to accomplish with their brute force.

“Havoc and Miguel’s team are moving the women out,” Simone spoke into the earpiece. Everyone was connected through a mic and camera like at the meeting in Bocca Felice, but they were better prepared for any hiccups this time. Simone made the necessary adjustments to the tech in case Zhao had left behind any presents with Boris. “But keep it moving, I don’t want to run over the time I predicted you’d be done by.”

Smoke chuckled into his mask at Simone’s curtness. She’d been a part of the planning process in the extraction of Sofia. She made it abundantly clear they had a time limit, for no other reason than how simple the plan was because they had the numbers and the element of surprise.

“Smoke, duck,” Gia barked out, pushing Smoke out of the way of some bulldozer charging him and swinging an axe at his head.

Why the hell does Boris have an axe in his home? Smoke cursed under his breath as he narrowly missed getting scalped. He turned around to see the bulldozer was on his face a second later. Otto going for a kill shot.

“Pay attention, Smoke,” Otto chastised as they made their way outside the sitting room.

“Why, you’d miss me if I was gone?” Smoke blew a kiss at Otto and heard the faint sounds of Gia’s laughter.

“I swear to God, someone needs to shoot you and put us all out of our misery. Why are you always so annoying?” Otto grumbled.

They hit the entrance way for the staircase, surprised there wasn’t someone standing guard and there wasn’t an army waiting for them. Boris had to know the attack on his home would be for no other reason than to grab Sofia. Either he really was a bitch, tucked tail and ran—him living to see another day more important than keeping Sofia prisoner—or they were walking into a trap.

“There’s no sign that Sofia was taken out of here, right?” Smoke slowly pushed the door open, trying and failing to see how steep the stairs were. It was pitch black, and he couldn’t hear much of anything over the gunshots and shouting.

“Negative,” Simone confirmed. “By all accounts, she’s still in that basement.”

Smoke went first, holding his fist up to make sure Gia and Otto didn’t blindly follow him down. “Let me go down first. Keep your eyes open. I’ll whistle when I make it downstairs.”

There was a reluctant collective affirmative from both Otto and Gia as Smoke made his way through the darkness. It was hard to tell where the sounds of screaming were coming from with the door open. The air was stale down there. He could smell piss and the stench of death as he crept farther down the stairs.

“Has Boris been found yet?” Smoke kept his voice low, thankful there was no echo down there.

“No. He hasn’t turned up yet, but I don’t think he left his compound either.” Simone’s voice was calm and steady. “I’m trying to tap into all his security cameras, and so far I can’t tell where he was at last. The footage is slow in loading.”

Smoke cursed as he got to the bottom step. It was marginally brighter at the bottom of the steps than his trek down here. He could see a couple of cells down here, and once he got his pulse to steady and his heartbeat to quiet, he focused on the sounds. He heard a soft groan that sounded feminine in nature, followed by a rough grunt, and Smoke’s blood went cold.

“Get down here now and bring everyone you can spare.”