DEFEAT

COLTON'S POV

Dante hasn't gotten back to me yet and I am losing my mind. He was supposed to have gotten there by now and gotten my sister out. I left erotica today and I've been waiting somewhere, ready to leave when Dante gives me the sign, but he hasn't and I'm freaking out. If he doesn't call me, then I'll take it as a sign that things didn't work out and I'll have to go back to erotica.

Either something has gone really wrong or Dante just hasn't gotten there yet. But wouldn't he have informed me if he was going to be late? Wouldn't he have let me know if doing it today wouldn't have been possible anymore? We need to accelerate with all our plans and get Adeline out of this place, because with every passing second that she spends at erotica, she breaks even more and I have no idea how much more Adeline can handle.

She has already been prepared to get sold on auction day to someone that is hell bent on buying her no matter what and now, the very person who made me being her here is all up in her face and rubbing it in about how much she has lost. My heart breaks for her and I want to help her in any way that I can, but I also have a responsibility to my sister. She's too young for all this so I need to make sure she's safe first.

As I scoff and turn on my engine, I suddenly get the call that I have been waiting for all day and I almost let out a breath of relief as hope fills every single part of my body. I answer the call in a second but the silence and the heavy breathing I hear on the other side of the phone is noy very reassuring to me.

"Were you successful?" I ask without hesitation, knowing that I am talking with Dante. He grunts and lets out an exasperated breath.

"I'm sorry Colton. But I don't think you can leave erotica just yet. Your sister. I believe Veronica has known all along as she has her. She was once again once step ahead of us. All what we have now is auction day. I know you were counting on us. I'm sorry." He says and I can hear the sincerity and break in his voice. I can tell that he really wanted to help me. I can tell that helping my sister and I means something to him and I can tell how defeated he sounds.

I want to scream into the empty space in front of me and I want to pour my eyes out. Veronica has my sister and with the way Dante was talking I can tell he is a hundred percent sure about that information.

"You still have the location I gave you?" I ask him. "You're still coming on auction day?" I ask him with a new found anger in my voice. Veronica has taken everything away from us. She has shown us hell and she has made us suffer in the worst way possible. I want Dante to kill her. I want Dante to burn erotica to the ground.

"Yes." He answers simply.

"Good." I say bowing my head in defeat. "I'm probably a dead man right now. Veronica will never spare me for betraying her. She's going to kill me, Dante." I say as I think about my sister. I put all my faith in this alliance with Dante but I was stupid. Veronica has had a hold on me for this long for a reason. Because she is good at what she does and I was stupid to think I could double cross her. Now she's going to kill my sister and she's probably going to kill me too.

"Adeline. She's not going to be able to hold on for much longer." I hear Dante take in a sharp breath at my sentence. "She's at her breaking point and she needs you, Dante. You need to get her out of here. If you're going to succeed at anything then please, let it be that. If you don't get her out of here by auction day, she'll give up completely, and then you'll really lose her forever."

I hang up and don't give him time to respond and then in a swift motion, I use all the anger and hurt and pain pouring out of me to break my phone. It breaks with a snap and I toss it out the window as I start driving towards erotica. I'm prepared for what will happen. But before I die, I'll make sure that I kill as many people as possible. I take out my gun and ready it as I speed towards erotica.

I don't even know how long I drive for but once I arrive, I immediately know that Veronica has already decided my fate because all the guards are pointing their guns at me and yelling at me to get out of the car. I grab my wheel and press down on it as I look up at them.

"Get out of the car right now or we will be forced by our orders to shoot and kill you on the spot!" One of the guards says but I scoff and smirk as I raise my head. I've been through a lot of training. I know how to shoot someone and kill them with just one bullet. I know where to aim to cause damage that will hurt and I know where to aim to cause someone a swift death.

I know how to use my hands and right now, none of the guards here stand a chance against me. It's one of the reasons why Veronica has kept me around for as long as she has. I don't only bring girls to her. I'm also sort of her hit man. I get the job done just the way she wants and she confirms every time that I am one of the best hit man she has ever hired. I may be a liability to her right now but I am also an asset.

"Not if I kill you first." I smirk and as I get out of my car, I start shooting bullets at every guard I see, not even giving them a chance to pull their triggers as I shoot them down. I know I am greatly outnumbered but that doesn't mean I can't make them suffer before I go. That doesn't mean that I can't kill as many of Veronica's men as I can.

I wonder where my sister is right now. I wonder what Veronica will do to her and I blame myself and the guilt is eating me up from inside because I couldn't keep her safe. She's here because of me and she will die because of me and there is nothing I can do about it.

Veronica always made it very clear to me what will happen to my sister and I if I ever crossed her. I should have kept to her warnings and I was ready to but them Adeline came into my life and she made me see things in a way I had been refusing to for a very long time. Adeline gave me a fighting chance and I do not hate her for it.

This is no one's fault but mine. My sister doesn't deserve what is coming to her but no matter what happens, I have no choice but to take responsibility for it. No matter how hard it is.

As I shoot down guards and take cover behind my car, my mind drifts to Adeline. I have no doubt she has never considered am a friend but to me she did become a friend and so much more. I fell in love with her. I care about her and now that I am going to die, who is going to protect her? Who is going to look after her? The only guards this place has are perverts. I wanted to be there for her till the very end.

I wanted to help Dante rescue her. I wanted to be one of the people who got her and her friend out of this place but at the end of the day, I turned out to be useless. I shoot and evade as many bullets as I can.

"Give it up Colton! You're outnumbered! You know you cannot win!" One of the guards shouts, but I don't give up. I let out a loud groan and shoot down three more guards in five seconds.

"Your guards are falling like dead leaves from a tree! I think I'm doing just fine!" I shout back, a cockiness in my voice that will disappear once I get caught.

As I continue defending myself, I suddenly feel a bullet graze my thigh and that's when everything goes downhill. I wince and stumble forwards, losing my balance and that's when another bullet hits my shoulder and I fall down in pain. Tens of guards surround me and point their guns at me. One of them is about to shoot when they're stopped by a voice.

"Wait! I want him alive. Don't kill me yet." A man says. My vision is blurry from the pain I feel on my thigh and in my shoulders. The man who towers over me is the same man I saw in Adeline's room earlier. Adrian Wellington. The reason Adeline is in this place. I want to kill him. I want to make him suffer. I suddenly feel a rush of Adrenaline take over me and as much pain as I am in right now, I ignore it and quickly twist my body upright and when I get the chance, I wrap my hands around his neck and I press down with all the energy I have until I feel a sharp pain at the back of my neck and all I see is black.

All I feel is pain but I am still conscious. I fall to the ground with a thud and wince in pain and I roll around in the ground. Adrian Wellington smirks down at me and kicks down at the back of my head and I see stars. Pain shoots me at every part of my body and I want to pass out. I want to pass out so bad but the throbbing pain from the bullet in my arm keeps me awake.

I have to feel all this pain as they carry me inside erotica. I'm tired. I'm so tired and I just want it to end. I just want to die already.