Lincoln
With a deep sigh of frustration, Sienna steps back for him to push a crate to the side. There's a handle near the floorboard, and I almost drop to my damn knees as Jett pulls out a pistol from the waistband of his suit, cocking it back. "Take another few steps away for me," he instructs. "This could get messy, and I'd hate for your..." He scans the material of the tracksuit Sienna's wearing, arching a brow. "Chanel to get ruined."
"How does he—"
Before I can ask the same question, Jett rips open the trap door, aiming with lethal precision at whoever is on the other side. The gun sounds off, and everything happens so quickly that I'm unsure if the shots are from my brother's gun or whoever is beneath him.
I tackle Sienna to the ground, covering my body with hers, shielding her from whatever bullets are ricocheting off the walls. Gun powder and lead fill my nostrils, and the dust covering the crates rattle, lingering in the air like a fine mist.
"Dante," my brother muses, the shots instantly ceasing. "Why am I not surprised?"
A muffled sob echoes from the chamber below, and Sienna practically pushes me off her, scrambling to her knees. "Carmen," she gasps.
The sound seems to have rattled Jett, too. His carefree personality is gone, his spine rigid and knuckles curled white around the pistol, hovering above the trigger. "All of your men are dead," he says in a voice I've never heard before. It reminds me of a snake, venomous and ready to strike. "Hand her over, and if she says no one laid a finger on her the entirety of her time with you, then I might just grant you mercy by killing you swiftly."
"Y-You took everything from me," the man snarls. I still can't see him from where Sienna and I kneel in the corner.
"You took everything from yourself," Jett replies. "Trafficking is the one crime I won't let occur in my city, Dante. You knew this when you and your crew came in. You knew the consequences and still chose to partake in it. Freeing those women wasn't taking shit from you. It gave them their life back."
The strangest emotion is clogging my throat, one I've never felt towards my brother before until now. If what he's saying is true... If he stopped this man from trafficking women and helped free those girls?
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," he says tightly. "I either come down there and grab her myself, where you will face a slow and painful death, or you hand her over to me now, and I'll kill you swiftly. Up to you."
Another strangled, muffled cry from the room below, and the restraint my brother has seems to snap. "Delano," he calls roughly, and out of the shadows, a man emerges, his face stoic and filled with boredom. I didn't even see anyone around us. Where the hell did he come from?
The six-foot man shaped like a fucking building storms past Jett. With one hand, the man named Delano drags whoever was speaking to my brother out and flings him onto the floorboards across from us. He did it with one hand.
"P-Please," the man splutters. "I'll get her! I'll get her!"
"Too late," Jett replies with a cruel smile. With a jerk of his head, Delano tugs the man up from the floor, pinning his hands behind his back. Blood is seeping into the man's jeans from the bullet wounds my brother placed in both his knees. "Put him in the trunk with the...other ones."
Other ones?
Plural?
Oh, fuck. I'm going to be sick. I'm seeing my brother in a new light. Sienna had mentioned that he might be one of the dangerous people Carmen works for, but with Delano following his instructions and the man beneath the trap door pleading for his life, I think...
I think he might be the dangerous person. As in, head honcho of dangerous people.
When Delano disappears with the culprit in hand, we all hurry into the chamber. A lamp dimly lights it in the corner of the room, multiple crates piled high along the walls. The room is stuffy and cramped and...
And Carmen is in the one free corner of the room, shackled to the wall. Her wrists and ankles are bound, and her face is bloody and cut in multiple places. Whoever took her stripped her down to just her bra and underwear, so I quickly avert my gaze as Sienna grabs a tablecloth off of one of the crates, stifling a sob as she sinks beside her friend. "I'm here, Carm," she whispers, laying the cloth over her body. "I...I'm so sorry this happened to you, but I'm here, okay?"
My brother stands before Carmen with his fists balled into fists at his sides, his jaw clenched, and his eyes...glossy. I've only seen him cry once at my father's funeral, but seeing him like this gives me all the verification I need. Carmen was taken for ransom to get to Jett because she matters to him.
"We found her," I reassure him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Jett's eyes snap to my hand before he glances up at me. Right now, he doesn't look like the viscous killer I just witnessed. He's my older brother who needs me, and I'm not going anywhere. "She's safe, but we need to get her out of here."
Carmen opens her mouth to where a rag is shoved inside, and Sienna rips it out, earning a gasp from her friend. Her eyes are transfixed on Jett, filling with tears of her own, and that seems to be the push my brother needs to snap him out of whatever shock he's in.
He sinks to his knees beside her, opposite Sienna, and grabs her face in his hands. "You found me," she whispers.
"Of course I did," he replies. "I always will." Scanning over her face, he rubs his thumb beneath a cut on her bottom lip. "I'm going to take my time with him."
"We're going to take our time with him," she corrects.
A devilish smirk falls upon his face. "Vicious little thing, aren't you?"
Whatever spell they're in seems to snap when Sienna clears her throat. Carmen notices both of us now, tugging her knees to her chest, the shackles clanking. "I kind of wanted it to be Travis," she whispers.
Sienna's eyes practically bug out of her head. "What? Why would you say that?"
"Because you live in fear of this happening to you every single day. As much as my nightmares have just begun from today's events, you're still living with yours, and I want them to end for you. I wanted that fucker to be here so I could kill him myself." She eyes the shackles, blinking away tears. "Or at least try to."
"The last person you should be worried about is me right now." Sienna wipes away a tear that slips onto Carmen's cheek. "I'm going to be just fine. Besides, your—" She winces, unsure what to call Jett as she waves a hand over to him. "He's going to help find him."
Jett arches a brow at me. "I am?"
"If the offer still stands."
With a dip of chin, he says, "It does."
I'm about to tell him thank you until Delano pokes his head into the chamber, a key dangling from his fingers. "Thought you could use this, boss." Eyeing Carmen, a wave of fury seems to pass over him. "Glad you're okay, boss lady."
"I'm not your boss lady," she snaps.
His eyes twinkle with amusement. "Also glad you didn't lose that enticing attitude or sense of denial."
Jett takes the key and makes quick work of undoing the shackles. As soon as she's free, Carmen scurries into his lap with the tablecloth draped over her shoulders, throwing her arms around his neck.
It seems she's never done this before because my brother's body is coiled tightly with shock at first, but when she snuggles closer, he tentatively wraps his arm around her before pulling her in for a hug, clinging onto her for dear life. He buries his hand into her braids, holding her firmly against his chest, and a strangled sigh of relief leaves him as he settles onto the floor, seeming content by just...holding her.
Like I feel whenever I hold Sienna.
"Carm, do you want to stay with him?" Sienna asks quietly. "It's okay if you do."
Carmen doesn't lift her head from my brother's chest. She only gives a simple nod, her body shaking like a leaf.
"I'll check in on you later," Sienna promises, glancing tentatively at Jett.
"If she's unable to speak today, I'll update you."
I help Sienna rise from where she's on the floor, wrapping her hand with mine. We're both shaking at this point from the adrenaline coursing through our veins, but I'm too in shock to discuss what I witnessed with my brother any further.
I need time to replay what happened and all that was said. Besides, even if I were to ask him, he wouldn't give me the time of day to answer. Not when Carmen is his primary focus, as she should be.
"I'll be in touch," Jett says as I help lift Sienna out of the chamber. "We'll track that fucker down in no time, Lincoln."