I blink open my eyes and everything is a blur. I close my eyes and try to focus on my surroundings. I can feel the blood rushing straight to my head from my upside-down position in the totaled car. I hear a loud beeping like the passenger seat belt isn't buckled.

I open my eyes again and the world is less blurred. I look out of the side window which is completely shattered. My eyes blink back the growing darkness that I can feel getting ready to take over my body in an instance.

I try to move my hand to reach down and unbuckle the constraining seat belt, but a wave of pain comes crashing through me.

Pain shoots across my body from my head, neck, stomach, and hand. I cry out as I try to fight the pain shooting through my whole body. I reach for my seat buckle and struggle to press the stupid red button.

After what feels likes hours trying to unbuckle the seat belt I get it undone, and fall into the glass that used to be the windshield. I whimper as shards of glass scrape and punctures my skin as I sink into the windshield.

Crunching of glass on asphalt has me looking out the driver's window as a pair of boot-clad feet come into view. I quickly crawl towards the passenger window away from the man or woman standing next to my broken and bruised form.

I climb out of the passenger window and squat low to the ground as a wave of dizziness washes over me. I glance around at the barren street and see the two cars that were chasing after me parked blocking both directions of the road, but not the woods. I hear several people talking and I listen to what they're saying.

"Boss will be furious if he finds her dead Andrés," a familiar female voice hisses.

"Eva, it will be fine she is a tough bitch. If she can live through 3 gunshot wounds she can live through a minor car crash," another voice says that I also recognize.

"Fine, Andrés I will push my worries away until we see her dead body," Eva tells Andrés Declan's new second in command since his brother died. Andrés is a very dangerous and blood-thirsty man. He used to terrify me, but now he comes into my dreams to hunt me even after I have become almost just as bloodthirsty as him.

"Andrés, Eva, she's gone," yells a rough man's voice that makes my heart drop to the pit of my stomach. Javier Cortez Matteo's best friend and he used to be a close friend to Rosalie and me. He dated my best friend Sofia, but Declan killed her which killed a part of Javier that will probably never repair.

A screech of wheels on the road makes my head slowly swivel towards the direction of the car. Everyone on the other side of my totaled car stops talking and they become quiet as a mouse. As the shut of the car door is heard the road goes unnaturally quiet, and my heart stops beating as the last person I want to hear speaks.

"Where is my Estrella?" Declan asks in his rough Spanish accent.

I know as soon as he speaks I need to get the hell out of here. I stick my head back into the broken window of my newly beloved car and unlatch the secret compartment in the steering wheel. I grab the loaded gun and the ammo (that I placed in here just in case something like this happened) before I quickly put my back against my car and take deep breaths to still my rising panic at the man behind me.

Once my panic is put away to the back of my mind I look into the woods. I calculate how to get into the woods without being seen. If I run now I will be both seen and heard and they will come after me.

I need a distraction. I look around for any object that could be used as a distraction. My eyes fall onto my heels I sigh a deep sad sigh and take off my beloved heels so I am barefoot. It will hurt to run through the woods without and protection on my feet but I am just going to have to deal with it.

I zone back on the conversation as Declan get's closer to Eva, Andrés, and Javier. "Answer my question, now," Declan commands in his no bullshit, and pee your pants voice that makes you instantly know that he is not afraid of killing you.

"Boss, she may have run. I just checked her car and she was gone," Javier tells him and I can just picture Declan's jaw clenching in aggravation and fury.

"You mean she fucking escaped!" he grits out.

"Yes sir," Andrés responds. I can hear the slap as skin meets flesh and a pained groan.

"Bastardo, para qué fue eso?" Javier shouts out after another punch or slap was thrown. (Bastard, what was that for?)

"Eso fue por no llegar a ella antes de que despegara. ¿La viste correr hacia el bosque?" (That was for not getting to her sooner before she took off. Did you see her run into the woods?)

"No, we did not. We jumped out of our cars before running towards the car to check if she was inside. We told Javier to look into the car to see if Brooke was passed out, or not if she was we would grab her and wait for you, sir. Javier then came over here and told us that she was gone we assumed she ran into the woods in between us getting out of our cars and us going over to the car to check on whether she was okay or not," Eva reassured Declan like the good soldier she is.

"So you're telling me that she had time to run into the woods in the time that you three got out of your cars to check on whether she was okay or not?" he asks with a malicious tone to his voice like he knows something that they do not.

I take a shallow breath and wait for them to answer his question. "Javier jumped out of the car first since he was probably worried about his ex-friend," Eva comments with an evil edge to her words like she wants him to get in trouble with Declan for caring about someone that used to mean something to him.

"Eva you told me to get out of the car first since you were busy texting someone on your phone," Javier accuses.

"I was texting Declan since he wanted to know if we got Brooke yet," she defends herself.

"Stop bickering," Declan growls at the two. "Javier, did you see any blood marks that marked her way into the woods?"

"No, Eva and Andrés waved me over before I could move to the other side of the car to look for any blood marks," he responds in a neutral voice.

"So all three of you did not see her go into the woods so she could be around here watching us and hearing us talk about her?" he asks but no one answers his question.

My throat begins to constrict, but I close my eyes and focus on how to get into the woods before they decide to look for me.

I open my eyes slowly, and as quietly as possible move my body towards the woods readying myself to run like hell into the woods away from my old jailers.

"She could but don't you think we would have heard her by now like whimpering or something?" Eva questioned.

"Eva do not question me if I tell you to look for Brooke then you will fucking look for her," Declan snaps. The road goes eerily quiet and my pounding heart quicken as he says his next words. "Go fucking look for her."

In a smooth movement, I slide down the ditch on the side of the road and glance back and see several pairs of feet splitting up in opposite directions of where I am squat down in the mud.

I hold tight to my heels in my hands as I put the gun into the back of my pants with the safety on, and the ammo into a pocket of my jacket. I lean back against the dirt and rock wall in the ditch and take several deep breaths before I use the rest of my strength to roll across the ground until I hit a tree stump that stands as the border between road and forest.

I grab the heels of my shoes before standing up and running-more like stumbling into the forest as my head pulses with pain. I run and hear yelling from behind me, but I do not look back as I jump over rocks, and move around unmovable obstacles as I run away from the real-life monsters of my past.

I grab the closet thing to me which happens to be a large rock and I throw it with all my might in a random direction. It shatters the back of Brooklyn's red Lamborgini that does not fit my Estrella's style at all.

At least not the pure, sweet, angel I was obsessed with. Now she is the thing I need to survive. It has been too long since I have had her in my clutches. These past 2 years have been bloody and it has been the most hostile I have been since I was a boy.

I glare at Eva, Andrés, and Javier. "Joder, te dije que miraras por todas partes cuando la golpearas, ¿y adivina qué? Lo que le preocupaba sucedió y ahora Brooklyn ha huido al bosque, probablemente para encontrar el camino hacia el bastardo que está en su cama," I bellow in fury at the perras in front of me.

(I fucking told you to look everywhere when you hit her, and guess fucking what? What worried about happened and now Brooklyn has fled into the woods probably to find her way to the bastard her is in her bed.) (Bitches)

"I am so very sorry my love," Eva says in a seductive voice as she smiles seductively at me. She sways her hips as she walks towards me. Once she is in front of me she runs her long blood-red nails down my neck while licking my neck.

I grab her wrist in a pain-inducing hold after the finger makes its way down my chest. She does not even whimper at the pain instead she smiles in a wicked grin. I push her hand down by her side and glare at her with a warning in my eyes.

She smirks at me before going back to stand next to Andrés. "Since you lost her you will go into the woods to find her. You will not leave those fucking woods until she is found and is back in my house safe and sound," I spit at them.

Eva and Andrés smirk wickedly at each other before moving to the back of their cars to retrieve the weapons they will need to track down my Estrella, but Javier stands stock still starring at the woods with an emotion that looks like regret.

I walk up to him with my Italian leather shoes tossing debris across the road. I grab him by the back of the neck which seems to startle him out of his thoughts.

"Javier this is your 2nd and only warning. Brooklyn is my woman. She is to be treated with respect but if you can't get her to corporate then use force. You are welcome to hit her to make her stand in line. She is not your friend anymore Javier and remembers that because as much as used to hang out with her and care about her it is not like that anymore, Understood?" I reminded him. He nods his head briskly and I take that as him understanding what he has to do.

"Go and find my future bride," I order as I take a cigarette out of my suit pocket. I flick my lighter open and light the perra up as my three most trusted capos go into the woods to find the one who escaped and now will be found.

As I watch them weave between trees I take out my phone and dial-by memory Ricardo Russo's number. It rings three times before the phone is accepted and a gentle soul with a slight British accent answer's the phone.

"Hello, this is Celine Hudson-Russo," Brooke's mother greets with a happy voice echoing into my ears.

"Buenos tardes, madre," I greet with a smirk playing on the corner of my lips. (Good afternoon, mother)

A quick intake of breath on the other side of the phone makes a smirk appear on my face. "Declan," she breathes and I can hear the underlay of fear cloaking her voice.

I hear some muffled talking on the other side of the phone before a new voice is heard through the phone. I take a puff of my cigarette and grin cruelly at the upside-down car that Brooke was driving.

"I want you to guess what I am looking at Riccardo Russo," I say into the phone. "Wait no do not answer that I will tell you. I am starring at an upside-down polished to perfection red Lamborgini that looks recently new with the license plate number that looks like dates of someone's birthday-maybe a brother's birthday perhaps."

"Where is my daughter?" Ricardo asks but it sounds more like a growl through the phone.

"Right now she is probably running like hell," I tell him. I walk around to the driver's seat of the car. I bend down and look through the shattered window and I see a pool of blood with splatters across the windshield glass. I smirk at the thought of the blood pooling around Brooke and the way it may taste like sweet maple syrup on a spoon.

"I want to tell you that your daughter will not die from blood loss, but the blood in her tesla seems to make my last statement untrue," I deceive into the phone.

"What did you do?" Ricardo snarls through the phone in his natural protective fatherly voice that probably all great fathers have when their children are in dangerous situations.

"I just ran her off the road and into a tree, but you should be proud she fought well before she ran limping into the forest," I laugh darkly into the phone as I touch a blood drop on the steering wheel. I bring it up to my mouth and lick it right off my thumb. It tastes just as sweet as I remember from 2 years ago.

"You hurt my daughter this means a painful death," he threatens into the phone and I just grin because he may be used to throwing out threats that make sure men do what he says, but my threats always come true even if my men get what I say to be the truth.

"No, it means whoever finds the bitch gets the bitch," I respond standing back up.

"You want to race to find my daughter?" he probes.

"Yes, may the best hunter win," I verify before hanging up the phone and climbing in my car, and speeding off to get the rest of my loyal men ready for the chase of their lives.

***

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