Chained - Zara Novak Page 0,51

guards holding me, prompting them to bring me forward. They started moving and I looked over at Caspar, Monroe’s head of security. Something told me it wasn’t enough to just will a direction. I had to get in his head. I had to try and give him a thought that he would have.

What would a man like that think? He was head of security for a psychopathic mob boss. I imagine he had done some bad things himself, but I bet he was probably sick and tired of serving an asshole higher up the chain. I locked eyes with him for a second and tried to plant the thought.

Do something Casper, you asshole, I thought. This son of a bitch has finally lost his mind. He’s going to start another war and get us all killed. Everyone else is sick of his shit. Take him out and you’ll finally be boss.

The guards carried on dragging me, and Caspar, to my dismay, didn’t do anything. He didn’t move a muscle. His face didn’t surrender any inkling that my thoughts had just got through to him. I watched in horror as a sordid grin spread across Monroe’s face. Seconds separated me from horrific abuse.

“You know, you’re larger than I normally like,” Monroe said as he ran his fingers over my hair. He smelled aggressively of smoke. It was unpleasant. “It’s going to be real fun defiling you in front of Cartello here.”

“I swear to god,” Vincent hissed. “I will fucking kill you if you harm a—”

The rest of Vincent’s threat went unheard as Monroe’s head exploded. His body stumbled back and flung backwards over the couch, crashing onto the floor to rest with his dead slave. I looked over and saw Casper, his smoking gun still pointed in Monroe’s direction.

An audible gasp swept through the room.

“Casper!” a guard shouted. “What the fuck are you thinking?!”

“You all heard the man,” Casper said. He kept his gun pointed out, but I could hear the surprise in his own voice. My command had got through, whether Casper wanted it to or not. “He was going to start a war! He would kill us all! He’d finally lost it!”

“You’ve lost it yourself,” another guard growled, turning his gun on Casper. “Put the weapon down, you’re out of your fucking mind.”

Within seconds paranoia and fear spread throughout the room like a chain reaction. Guns pointed in every direction, guards instantly making silent affiliations with colleagues, or taking stance against others that they didn’t like. Half the room looked like they were in support of Casper, the other half didn’t. Everyone was pointing a gun at someone.

It was a Mexican stand-off of epic proportions, a perfect distraction. If only Vincent and I weren’t in the middle of it.

That’s Monroe taken care of, Vincent’s voice said in my head. Now we just need to get out of here.

I nodded at him and my eyes scanned the crowd. Casper and a few other prominent figures were shouting amongst themselves, quickly trying to deescalate a situation that was rapidly sliding towards widespread bloodshed. I found the guard I had tested my power on and singled him out.

Mike, take her gag off, I thought. Trying to make my voice sound like his thoughts. She’s the only one that can end this peacefully.

The lone guard broke his focus and looked at me. He very slowly lowered his weapon and came over to me. Were it not for the stand-off he wouldn’t have gone unnoticed, but he did.

“I don’t know why I’m doing this,” he whispered under his breath. “But I’m all out of other ideas.” The guard slung his gun over his shoulder and used his hands to unfasten the gag around my mouth. I took a huge breath and felt relief at being able to talk again.

“Thank you,” I said. “Uncuff me too please.”

He did.

Although my voice was the important thing in this situation, my hands were more important. Truth be told I was terrified that neither Vincent nor I were going to get out of here alive, even though I could now put my plan into place.

Monroe’s men were continuing to argue, the tension in the room rising while voices escalated, and nerves started to fray. I had to act fast before this became a full-on bloodbath. With no other option than to try my idea, I opened my mouth and shouted.

“Stop!” I screamed, lifting my voice high enough and letting the word ring out until all other sound in the