DANTE'S POV
Adeline cries into my arms and I let her. I hold her close to me, softly and gently and with care because right now, I can see the fragility in her actions. I can see how hurt she is and it breaks me. I let my own tears fall from my eyes as I hold her close to me. I have her now. I have her safe with me now and I am never letting her go ever again. Even if that means I have to be her personal body guard from a distance. I will always be by her side now. I lost her once and I will be damned if ever lose her again.
"Do you know what they did to me?" She cries, her voice coming out in painful sobs that my heart cannot seem to bear.
"Shhh. It's okay. You're safe now. I'm here now." I try to comfort her with my words even though I know they will do nothing to ease the pain in her chest.
"I'm so tired Dante. I want to go home. Please take me home." She says as she pulls away from me, looking up at me with teary eyes and then she suddenly furrows her brows.
"Where's Liam? Naomi. Where are they? And Silver and Della and all the other girls. Are they okay? Where are they?" She asks me as she trembles.
I hold her shoulders to ease her trembling. I look into her eyes and she's high as hell. What kind of fucked up drugs did Veronica give these girls. All the other girls look just loke Adeline. As if they're slipping in and out of reality every second. The other girls have been put in vehicles already and we're about to drive them the hell away from here so they can get proper help.
When everything was done, we couldn't find Adeline. I thought she was dead given all the bullets that were flying around. She's bloody and she looks like she might pass out any second now.
"They're fine Adeline. Everyone is fine. I need you to listen to me okay? I'm going to carry you. Is that okay?" I ask her and she nods he had rapidly. I know a lot of things have been done to her in this place without her consent. I know she probably doesn't want to be touched right now, so I have to be careful the way I interact with her, the way I touch her.
No matter how sad I am about all what is happening to her, I need to be strong for her right now. She tries to look away from me and to the dead body beside her. Even I have never killed anyone this way before. I grab her chin and make her look at me instead.
"Eyes on me Adeline. I need you to try and focus okay?" My voice is low and soft. I don't want to startle her with any strange noises.
"I am not dreaming, am I Dante? This is all real? I'm finally free?" She asks me as she hugs her bloody body with her bloody hands. Okay, she really needs to get cleaned up.
"It's real Adeline. You're okay." I tell her.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She suddenly asks and although I am confused for a moment, I finally realize exactly what she is talking about. She's asking me why I didn't tell her about Adrian. Why I didn't warn her. I don't have an answer. I have no excuse. I was trying to keep her away from that part of my life because of how dark it was. I was scared that the more she found out about me, the more curious she would have gotten and eventually she would have gotten herself in danger.
I know now that it was my biggest mistake.
"I'm so tired…" She says weakly and before I can respond to her, she passes out in my arms and I pick her up bridal style. Colton rushes towards me with worry etched onto his face. He walks with me as I walk with Adeline towards my car. I place her gently in the back seat and slam the door shut and then I rush over to Kent and the other men.
"I need to get her out of here." I say as soon as I am next to him.
"Do it." He states. "I'll handle the other girls. I'll get them somewhere safe so they can be treated, but I know you don't trust anyone with Adeline right now. I trust you'll take good care of her." Kent says.
"We did it boss." Headshot says with a wide smile on his face. "We fucking won." I smile at him.
"Yeah. We did. We really did."
I pull Kent away from the crowd so I can talk to him in private. I glance behind him, glaring at Colton as he talks to the other guys.
"What are you going to do about Colton." I ask Kent.
"There's not much to do about him. The guy wants to die. He has a suicide wish and there's no changing his mind. He said he wants to see Adeline one time and apologize to her before he does it." Kent says with understanding. Colton has had a dead and empty look in his eyes from the moment I saw him today. I have no idea what Veronica did to his sister but I know it must have been nothing short of evil.
I want to hate him, but how can I? His sister was sixteen years old. Nothing justifies his actions but everything he did, he did for her and I can understand that more than anything in the world.
"What about Adrian and Veronica?" I ask him with rage in my eyes as I stare at the black van where Veroncia, Adrian and the men who were going to buy the girls are locked up. When I finally had my hands on Adrian and Veronica, I was ready to show them hell but Kent stopped me. I don't know what his deal is but I want to be the one to kill them.
"I know I was going to kill them. I wanted them dead too but they are important suspects and I need to question them." He explains.
"A cell is not going to hold them." I state.
"I didn't say anything about questioning them in the FBI unit. They're going to be offered the death sentence anyways. I was thinking maybe we do it at your place. We get the necessary intel we need from them and then you can do to them as you please. They deserve it and I won't stop you. I just need to know if there are more people like them out there." Kent explains and I nod my head in understanding.
"Okay. Okay good." I nod my head as I pace back and forth, trying to contain the rage I feel inside me right now
"We were successful today Dante and you got your girl back. Take her home. Take care of her. Put your anger aside for a while. She needs you now more than ever." Kent places his hand on my shoulders and offers me a light smile.
"Fine." I say with a tilt of my head and an evil smile on my face." Just let me know when it's time to get rid of those two. Let me know when it's time to torture the hell out of them. I'm not going to be nice about it Kent. Once I have them in my hold, I won't hold back so make sure you get everything out of them before handing them to me."
I tell him and then I turn round and head towards my car. Liam must be worried sick so I send him a text telling him Adeline is okay.
We did it. I can't believe we did it. Everything felt like a dream since Adeline was taken away and brought to this place n with every failure that we had, I honestly thought there was a chance that we would never fins her again. I thought there was a chance that I would fuck something up and lose her forever, but I didn't. We didn't fuck anything up and although we sadly lost some FBI agents, we didn't lose any of my men.
I look to the back seat and I feel a warmness in my heart that I have probably never felt before. It's happiness like nothing I have ever experienced and it's not because have her back. I'm so happy because Adeline gets another chance to be whatever she wants to be. She has a chance to live her life again away from this place. She has a chance to have a future whether or not that future concerns me.
Adeline is safe now but she is far from okay. She will not be okay for a long time. She was tortured in there, violated and degraded in probably the worst forms possible and I will never be able to understand he rpain because I have not experienced what she has.
She killed a man in the most brutal way I have ever seen. She cannot be okay. You don't do something like that and walk away from uit like it is nothing. What she did will haunt her and probably wont stop haunting her until she heals completely. I want to help her and I can only hope and pray that she lets me.
I sigh and turn my car keys as the engine comes to life. I drive away from erotica without looking back as Kent activates the drones. The place comes to life with fire and everything in it burns. I wish I could watch it burn to the ground but I have to get Adeline somewhere safe. I have to get her home.