Trent looked at Damien and smiled a smile so evil it made me shiver. "So I killed your bitch and your kid? Fuck me, talk about killing two birds with one stone, or one bullet as it was."
Damien roared again and tried to break out of the hold the arms had on him but he couldn't. Nobody held me or was paying me any attention though, so with anger and grief for Nala I charged Trent and dug my nails into his face and scratched with every bit of power in me. Trent screamed so loud and knocked me off him and to the ground, but it was too late. I had already raked his face with deep scratches and cuts that would scar no matter how many stitches he got.
I laughed, but then screamed when he let out a roar and gave me a kick in the stomach with such force it caused me to heave and throw up all over the floor.
"I'm going to make you scream, bitch. You will see how much of a vile creature I can fucking be," Trent growled down as he stood over me with blood running down his neck and under his shirt from the cuts I had caused.
He made a move to hit me again but stopped when Marco appeared over me and grabbed his raised arm, halting his movements.
"Enough! I need her alive. How many times do I have to fucking say that?" Marco snapped to Trent.
Trent lowered his hand when Marco let go of it and swallowed. "But uncle-"
"No buts, you can't have the other one. This one belongs to Nico, and I need him, and he needs her, so she is off limits. Do you understand that, boy?" Marco asked Trent, his gaze now a glare.
Trent nodded his head and swallowed again. "Yes, sir."
Marco sighed a little then waved his hand to two men who were standing guard over a whimpering Damien. They let him fall to the floor and walked off towards the hallway and down to the private rooms.
"If you keep it together for the rest of this meeting then you can have this one to play with."
I carefully pushed myself up into a sitting position wincing at the pain in my side so I could look past Marco and see who he was talking about. I felt like throwing up again when the unconscious body of a female was dragged into the room and dropped a few feet away from me.
"Alannah!" I whimpered when I seen her face. I then crawled over to her body and my fingers instantly went to her throat looking for a pulse, and when I found one I cried out in relief.
"Is she alive?" Damien shouted.
"Yes," I called back to him and gathered Alannah in my arms before I looked up to Marco, daring him with my eyes to try and let Trent take her from me.
Marco seemed to know what I was thinking because he laughed and shook his head at me. "I like you, kiddo. You have heart, but I'm not sure if that makes you brave or stupid."
I glared at him and said, "Probably both."
He pointed his finger at me. "Definitely like you."
"Yeah, well I fuckin' hate you!" I growled.
Marco snorted. "You wouldn't be the first or the last to hate me, kiddo."
I held tight to Alannah and looked at Damien as he crawled over to us. He could barely pull himself, but he managed to put himself in front of Alannah and me, which made me cry even more than I already was. I was shaking with Alannah in my arms, I had vomit and blood on me and felt like I was about to fall over at any second, but I forced myself to stay upright. I couldn't allow Trent to get her and drag her to one of the private rooms. I would die before I'd let that happen.
Trent was laughing at our little huddle but stopped when he heard the noise of gunshots come from the stairway entrance to Darkness; the doors were slightly open allowing us to hear them. I gripped onto Alannah and reached for Damien's arm and gave him a squeeze.
I looked at Marco and found him grinning as he said, "The Slater brothers are here."
Trent moved into the shadows to my left while Marco's men drew guns from inside their coats. Marco, too, took out a handgun. Twenty seconds passed before the doors to the entrance to the stairway were fully kicked open. I felt my heart leap when Dominic, Ryder, Alec, and Kane all walked in with guns in their hands. They didn't raise and point them at anyone though, and I was pretty sure it was because Marco's men were stood over Damien, Alannah, and I with their guns pointed at us.
I looked to the brothers and made eye contact with Dominic who looked like he was having an internal battle with himself; I gave him a small smile and mouthed, "I love you," just incase it was my last chance to tell him.
His eyes swam with emotion before he switched them from me to Marco and his face morphed to one of anger. "Let my brother, my girl, and her friend go, and I won't make you suffer when I kill you."
Marco laughed as he sat down in the booth that I decided I wholeheartedly hated. "You haven't seen me in months and that is the greeting you give your uncle?"
"You're nothing to us!" Kane growled.
I widened my eyes, shocked at how different his voice sounded. He looked absolutely terrifying now that he wasn't smiling. He looked as if he had the chance, Marco and all his men would be dead. I looked at Marco when he chuckled and shook my head at him; he was only pissing them off more by laughing.
I got a bit lightheaded then and felt myself droop a bit but the leg behind me held me up. The man who was behind me whistled for Marco's attention, and when he got it he said, "She is going to go any minute."
"Put her up here then," Marco snapped.
Damien grabbed a hold of Alannah when the man who was behind me lifted me to my feet and held onto me as he moved me over to the booth where Marco was sat. I instantly slumped forward onto the table, and Dominic's roar barely registered with me.
"Give it a rest, bro. She took a knock to the head, but she is okay," Trent's voice sang merrily.
"Trent?" all the brothers said in unison. I couldn't see them, but I could hear the shock in their voices.
"Happy to see me?" Trent snickered.
"What the fuck is going on?" Alec shouted.
"I'll tell you," Damien growled from the floor. "Marco lied when he said I killed Trent. He just wanted an easy way to pull you four deep into the business, and saying that working for him would be protection for me was the perfect opportunity."
"We buried the little prick though," Ryder's voice snapped.
"No," Damien said, his voice hollow. "We buried Nala. Trent killed her when she found out he wasn't really dead."
The room filled with silence until Trent said, "And the slut was pregnant with his kid as well. Talk about shit luck for her."
"Pregnant?" the brothers spluttered.
"She told me the day mom and dad were killed," Damien said sadly.
"That was why you'd been distant? Not because of mom and dad but because of Nala?" Dominic asked.
"I thought she fucking left on purpose with my kid so yeah, I've been messed up about that, but now I know she is dead and so is my kid. Having this prick haunting me every night because I thought I had killed him wasn't fun either."
"Does that make me the man of your dreams, D?" Trent voice asked.
I forced my eyes open when Marco chuckled under his breath. He wasn't looking at me; he was looking down at Damien and Alannah. He had his gun on the table but it wasn't in his hand, it was next to him. Either he was cocky or just plain stupid because all the brothers had guns in their hands, and he was sat on the booth with his gun just casually lying on the table in front of him like they weren't a threat.
Either he thought I was out cold, or he didn't think I would make a play for his gun. He was wrong on both counts because as soon as he lifted his hand to reach for another cigarette inside his coat pocket, I shot my hand forward and grabbed the gun.