“It wasn’t consensual.” The words fell from her lips, unwashed. “Victor gave Ivy to the Russians as a payoff. She had been with them since. I couldn’t do anything about it, but when I heard that Anton Volkov had dropped her here and discarded her with the hopes that Skully wouldn’t know who he was killing, I needed to step in. I need to save her.”

“Well, that may be the case,” I said, dragging the tip of the machete down the cracks in the floors. “But I still need a body.”

“Take me…” she said, pointing to the girl. “Just kill me and it’ll buy her enough time to run.”

“She can’t run anywhere!” I pointed toward her. “She’s drugged up on a concoction of fucked-up shit.”

“Tori, the day that it happens. Where Victor collects you and brings you into our house, you have to protect Ruby. At all costs. He has been plotting her death since the day she was born.”

I walked toward the window, flicking off the latch. “Just get out.”

She grabbed the girl’s small and frail body, and it’s like seeing a complete replica of the girl I saw being carried in. “Hurry up.”

As soon as the window slammed closed, I counted to one hundred before popping the latch open and spreading it wide. Skully never had any kind of sanctions stationed anywhere because no one tried to run. It’s hard to run when you’re drugged.

Opening the door, I came face-to-face with him. His white eyes and withered skin. “Where is the girl?”

“Gone.” I blinked. “Came in and the window was open.” I stepped past him. “Maybe it’s time to invest in some security and tweak that drug recipe?”

I would keep my word.

I’d protect Ruby La Rosa any way I saw fit because I believed her. Hopefully she wasn’t difficult in order to do that.

“You what?” Ruby blinks up at me after I explained to Skully what had really happened that night. “You can’t give her to them, Wicked.”

“Shut up—” Skully’s hand flies through the air, connecting with Ruby’s cheek.

I launch forward, my hand around his throat, shoving him backward. Gunshots fire off in the distance and it’s not until I have Skully pressed up against the cross that I realize the rest of the Cosa Nostra are here for backup.

I squeeze his throat so hard I can feel bones crunch beneath the palm of my hand. “Oh, I’m not making this easy for you, or quick.” Tossing him to the ground, Khaos steps forward and yanks him up by his hair.

“Sorry, brother. We ran into an issue at the entry point.”