Seven.Fingers sliding over the familiar curve of metal.My gun.
Eight.A voice crackled through the speakers, clear, crisp, and perfectly grating. “The bidding will begin at five hundred million.” I finally slipped into that narrow space, thatquiet, lethal calm settling over me. The cost was child’s play, andmy womanwas fucking priceless. Not. For. Sale.
Nine.I spoke. “Now it’smyturn to make one thing clear, if she doesn’t walk out of this room with me—no one does.” I slid the barrel of my gun against the throat of the man responsible for my mother’s death. “You’re not the first man I’ve killed, and tonight—you certainly won’t be the last.”
Ten.Time to burn it all down.I pulled the trigger.
CHAPTER 52
Highest Bidder
SARAFINA
I was upside down as I screamed, hearing gunfire explode from somewhere in the building, sounding all too close. The guard who had me over his shoulder dropped me the second his radio crackled to life, and I cried out as I hit the unforgiving marble floor,hard.
I had to get up, had to move—this might be my only chance to get away, because the wordssold to Taggart Caldwellstill rang in my ears like a nightmare, and I wasn’t entirely sure this wasn’t another one of them.
The gunfire and screaming continued, but my heels refused to find purchase on the shiny marble floors spanning the wide corridor. With trembling hands, I quickly wrenched each too-tall stiletto off, not wasting a second, to enjoy the relief as I reached for a nearby door handle. I dragged myself upright, horrible things appearing and disappearing in front of my eyes every single time I blinked. I rattled the door, panic clawing at me when I realized it was locked.
The dark, ominous hallway seemed to get bigger and smaller as I stared down the long row of doors, and I could hardly make myself move. This was exactly like my nightmares—I was trapped.
My eyes blew wide as one of those doors burst open, thegunfire inside growing louder as people fled, screaming, covered in splatters of blood. Whatever this place was, I had to get out.Right now.
I frantically stumbled to the next door, covering my head when more shots rang out and glass exploded somewhere nearby.Locked.Each door was spread apart by far too much distance,each of them locked.
There was nobody around me, and I screamed in surprise when someone appeared, seemingly out of thin air and grabbed me. I dizzily looked down, finding a delicate hand, adorned with sharp, red-tipped nails. “Come with me.” Her sultry voice demanded.
I gasped, “Who are you?” She was the most beautiful human I’d ever seen in my life, and she was perfectly terrifying.
“I’m the one who is going to get you out of here.” She yanked me along irreverently.
“WHERE IS SHE?” A voice bellowed, and I froze, but my heart sank, realizing I must be dreaming, probably another hallucination. Carter had no idea where I was, and he wouldn’t come for me anyway. He said he was done with me. For good.
An explosion of gunfire rang out, and then everything stopped all at once. The woman holding me quickened her pace as she all but dragged me down the hallway while I tripped over my long, tight gown, only staying upright because of her grip.
“Seven.” Someone growled. “Get back here with my merchandise.”
“Run.” She let go of me and produced two glimmering gold knives out of thin air—she cast a glance at me from over her shoulder. “Right now!”
But I froze—there he was, at the end of the hallway,Taggart Caldwell.
The room was spinning, and armed guards were closing in from all directions—there was nowheretogo, but she was already moving through the hallway like a shadow. I blinked, realizing one guard was already keeled over, another went down a second later,and long dark hair slid over the smooth marble behind her as she slid between the next one’s legs, slashing as she went. She headed straight for Taggart, who was backing away with wide eyes, when several shots rang out and she went down. The sound of her scream echoed off the walls as she clutched her thigh, a pool of red leaking from her hand.
A beefy guard lumbered over, and whatever he was saying didn’t register to me as I watched him lift his gun to her face with a smile.Oh my God, he was going to kill her point-blank.Whoever she was.
Time seemed to slow, a gift, as I stumbled towards a fallen guard, pulled the gun away wide-eyed as he groaned. I slid my finger over the trigger, lifting the heavy thing into the air, just staring at it for more time than the beautiful shadow could afford, wondering, could I even do it?
Her dark eyes slid to mine, and she nodded just once, in permission, no,pleading. There was no time to think. I couldn’t let her die for me, so I pulled the trigger, and then I pulled it again.
Nothing happened.
I gasped. Where the hell was the safety? I frantically fumbled, feeling the man’s brutal eyes slide to me as I stumbled back, but that was all the window she needed. The woman spun, slicing the man’s Achilles, sending him to the floor with a cry before she climbed on top of him with her knife already dripping his own blood.
I looked away, nearly vomiting as wet, awful sounds filled the hallway like echoes from another one of my nightmares.
And speaking of nightmares, “Hello Sarafina.” Fingers gripped my cheeks roughly, forcing my face up to his. “Long time no see.”
“Tag.” I breathed, taking him in—he seemed so much bigger than the last time I’d seen him. Looming over me, he was incredibly intimidating, maybe not as muscular as Carter but nearly as tall, and certainlymuchbigger than me.
