Gemma's POV:

The door remained shut for what felt like hours, but could've just been minutes. I didn't have enough patience to count the seconds, then the minutes solely to keep up with how long I'd been stuck here. Honestly, what was the point? I didn't know when I'd been taken from the party (though I knew it was night), didn't know when exactly I woke up, and hadn't kept track of the time I'd spent awake since then.

The door creaked open and at mousy man walked in, hands shaking nervously until he stuffed them in his pockets to hide his fear. He wiggled his nose to push his glasses back up his nose.

"Victoria sent me. She said you needed to be brought to the courtyard. Daniel wants to speak with you." He squeaked, practically jumping away from me when I got off the bed.

I snorted. Of course Daniel would make the show of sending another to do his bidding. He still wanted to look like he was in power.

"Are you going to show me where that is or will I have to find it myself?" I asked, arching an eyebrow and staring at him like he was an idiot.

The knife was tucked safely up my sleeve, although it was taking a whole heck of a lot of concentration to keep it there. The movies always make it so much easier, but reality was quite different. I knew I could easily take this guy hostage, with as timid as he was, but if Daniel was sending him my way, that meant the guy wasn't important enough to waste the energy on.

After Victoria's slip up, my mother and Daniel were probably made aware of how good I was at getting information out of people. As dumb as they were, they weren't dumb enough to make that kind of mistake twice in a row.

Or, at least, I hoped not. Because if they were, I was going to be seriously disappointed. Stupid people were no fun to win against. There was no challenge when you were up against someone without a brain.

The man opened the door, stumbling out behind me. I rolled my eyes. They couldn't send someone competent to escort me, could they? Of course they couldn't. As much as I proved myself, they were still underestimating me and waiting for me to crumble into the ever basic damsel in distress.

As if.

The courtyard was underwhelming. It was a tiny little green area in the middle of their house. My mother and Daniel were waiting there hand-in-hand, a camera on a tripod in front of them and guards stationed around them in the room. My one steak knife wouldn't be much good against eleven, twelve, thirteen giant guys with AR-15's.

"Gemma, we're so glad you came." My mother said with a small smile, as if she was hoping I'd changed my mind about her horrible parenting and even worse choice in life partners in the time I'd been locked up in my room. I rolled my eyes once more.

"Wasn't like I had a choice." I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest. I watched as Daniel took a deep breath in, obviously irritated beyond belief at both my attitude and my ability to make his own men laugh at him.

Yeah, I saw you Mr. Bad Guy in the corner.

"True. We need your help." Daniel snapped, stopping my mother from continuing on with her pointless, teary tirade on how she was just trying to be a good mother.

Like hell she was trying to be a good mother. More like trying to ditch her old life for something new.

"Did you hear anything I said in your office? Helping you isn't exactly what I'm best at, dude. Thought I proved that when I screwed you out of ten million dollars, or don't you remember? I'd love to give you a refresher, but I doubt you have ten million left in the bank." I snarked with an exaggerated look around at the house that paled in comparison to Tobias's.

Daniel took a rather aggressive step forward, lips curled in a snarl, but my mother stepped in between us, pinning her husband with a meaningful look. She was telling him to wait until they didn't need me to hurt me. Wonderful parenting, mother, just wonderful.

"Listen here, little girl, you're going to do what I tell you to do or you're going to regret it." Daniel spat, spittle nearly hitting me in the face. I moved out of the way, but still, ew.

I looked him up and down, frowning in disgust. I mean, seriously? That's what the oh so feared mafioso comes up? What a let down of a threat.

"Another friendly reminder here, little boy, I spent my entire childhood learning to take a beating. You're going to have to try harder if you actually want to threaten me." I smiled at him sweetly, baring my teeth in a way I knew to be off putting. Daniel tried to take another step towards me, no doubt ready to smack me upside the head for my disrespect.

My mother touched his chest, calming him once more. He looked up with a slimy kind of grin that made the hair on the nape of my neck stand on end.

"Who said anything about giving you a beating?" He tilted his head to the side. I cocked my head, before his words started to make sense.

I glanced at my mother, at the mousy man that led me into the room who was slowly turning green, glanced at Victoria, who had turned away from what she was seeing. No one would help me, not with the threat of their boss's wrath hanging over their heads.

Wimps.

"Daniel, this wasn't part of the plan." My mother gasped, holding a hand over her mouth. Some part of me wanted her reaction to be genuine, for her to have not known this was the plan when I entered the room, but I doubted it. She'd already proven she was willing to practically kill her children in an effort to get ahead. I certainly wouldn't put this past her.

"Shut up!" He snapped, shoving past her. "Gonzales." He ordered and a large man from a shadowy corner of the room stepped forward, a smirk pulling his lips into an expression that was about as attractive as Freddy Kruger's.

He chuckled, rubbing his meaty hands together as he stomped towards me. I refused to move, refused to back down to this threat. The man licked his lips, readying himself. He stopped only inches away from me, his hands moving up and down my arms slowly.

"Get your hands off me, you oversized cabbage patch kid!" I sneered up at him, attempting to yank myself away from him. His grip was too strong, though, and I was left defenseless.

The glint in his eyes was all too familiar.

This was a man with specific tastes. He liked it young and he liked it to hurt. Of course, he was never the one in pain, just the one delivering it.

I'd met monsters like him before. I was alive, they weren't.

"Shut up and stay still. Maybe it'll hurt less that way." He cackled, moving to unbuckle his belt. In the process, he exposed his neck to me. It was a terrible position to be in when someone was trying to intimate.

"I warned you once. That's all you'll get." I said softly. I didn't want to use my only weapon like this, but I was tired of being taken advantage of, in every sense of the word. I wasn't going to allow it happen again, not when I had a way to stop it.

The man didn't even look up from where he was struggling to undo his belt, his fingers shaking with excitement.

"She's cute, Mrs. Garcia."

That was all he had time to say. The steak knife was embedded in his neck, the blade cutting through all his flesh and muscle with a sickening sort of ease. He made a sort of puffing noise, like he was exhaling air in shock, and then gurgled a little, but then fell to the ground dead.

I looked up at the people staring at me in horror. My mother was pale, her hands clamped over her mouth and tears dripping down her face. Daniel was wide-eyed, staring down at his dead soldier with shock and a little bit of fear. Victoria turned away and the mousy guy behind me was puking his guts up in a random potted plant.

I reached down and pulled the knife from his neck, dismissing the squelching noise.

"I live with a bunch of murderous psychos, did you expect anything else?" I asked with an arched eyebrow, trying to dismiss my own nausea.

I'd never killed anyone before. While I didn't regret what I did in the slightest, didn't regret his life had been taken and that he was burning in Hell, I hated that the moment would haunt me for the rest of my life. I never wanted to have to take someone's life, but with brother's like mine, it probably wouldn't be the last body I dropped.

Gunfire broke us all from the tension filled silence. Daniel and his soldiers all whirled to look at the part of the house the sounds of gunfire were coming from. I smiled, taking a step towards my confused mother.

"What's going on?" She asked, looking between the dead body and Daniel, waiting for someone to explain the obvious. No one paid her any attention, letting her remain confused.

"How'd they find this place?" Daniel barked, staring at Victoria venomously. If he thought she had anything to do with their finding me, he was wrong. She was probably the most loyal person in the house.

"Calvary's here, ladies and gents. Let the party begin." I smirked, seeing my mother collapse to her knees. I laughed at her.

Watch the monsters you created destroy everything you gained by throwing them away.