Secrets Untold

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 32

**Akira's POV**

"𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐈𝐒 Julio?" Max asked me curiously. "What happened to the business?"

I stiffened. "I haven't talked to him recently. He took over your business after you disappeared."

"He's managing both?" Max blurted incredulously, before shaking his head, mumbling something under his breath.

A door slammed in the distance, and my head snapped up, looking for the source of the sound. Max fell silent as well, and I reached back, grabbing his hand in support. Footsteps echoed down the corridor, before the cell door was opened, revealing three figures dressed head to toe in black.

"Welcome to our humble abode," I blurted confidently, clamping my mouth shut when Max elbowed me.

One of the figures tilted his head towards Max subtly, as he addressed me, "That's cute. Could you direct us to the bedroom?"

"Get up," one of the men, pushed Max onto his knees, who grimaced.

Pushing myself to my feet, I began to make my way over to help him out, when a second man grabbed Max roughly. The man who had tilted his head at Max before, yanked me back fiercely, holding me in a chokehold, his knife jabbing me in the back as a warning.

"You have two options," he enunciated slowly, "1. I let you watch your little friend get beaten up, 2. We have some fun with you."

At his words, I flinched, whilst Max swore.

"Tick tock, time is running out," the man laughed. "What about we compromise and let you have both options."

With those words, I stomped on his foot as hard as I could, elbowing him in the gut, and picking up the dropped knife. "What about I lock you in here instead of Max and I?"

The man held his hands up, "Be careful with that knife sweetie. Wouldn't want you stabbing anyone now, would we?"

Irritated, I threw the knife at lightning speed, watching in satisfaction as it sunk into his gut, before I turned to help Max with the other two men.

Thank god my recent training with Alexis had paid off to some extent.

**Julio's POV**

"Are you sure this is the right building?" I asked skeptically, appraising the concrete building.

Ignoring me, Victor addressed the team, "Do all of you know the plan?"

When the crowd of heads nodded, Victor walked off, everyone else taking this as their sign to get into position. I followed behind Victor and Diego, as they pushed the doors of the warehouse open.

My finger trained over the trigger, I slipped in silently, peeling off to investigate down my corridor. We would only have a few minutes before the enemies would suspect something was wrong. I cursed the Romano brothers in my head as I approached an intersection. Why on earth did they not have the wit to acquire a floor plan of this building before we barged in?

The alarm went off, the lights turning red.

I took off at a run, hiding in a doorway as I heard footsteps travelling down the corridor. Peering around the corner, I shot two of the men coming my way swiftly, before taking off down another corridor, bumping right into her.

**Akira's POV**

I half dragged, half carried Max down a corridor, breathing heavily, the metal of the gun I had stolen from the guards pressed against my side uncomfortably. As footsteps pounded down the corridor, seemingly heading towards us, I yanked Max roughly behind a corner.