“Where’s TerminalChaos?” Bernard asked, and I stepped a little to my right to get my first view of his face.
“You’re early,” the other man’s voice said and, after another quick step in the right direction, he came into view. Undeterred by the entire scene, the Grandmaster lounged on a leather chair in a relaxed pose. “But have no fear. I always provide for my children.”
Two men stepped into the room standing right behind Bernard and pushed him closer to the middle of the warehouse where two chairs, one with the Grandmaster already in it, filled the space and nothing else.
I nodded for Ridge to head to his right and we all took a few steps in that direction, putting the scene before us in view. We were only in the small section of the building, covered by shadows. If anyone turned their head, they’d spot us in an instant. Thankfully, everyone’s attention stayed focused on the middle, where all the action was about to take place.
Imogen and her mother stood off to one side, huddled together, clutching each other. Katy and Vonnie were a few steps to their side, both watching intently as if it wasn’t happening right in front of their faces, but an action movie on TV and they hoped they didn’t get interrupted with a commercial break soon. Something was wrong with those women.
With my gaze on Ridge, I waited to see what he’d decide to do. At what point did we rush in and rescue the women? From one second to the next, our entire situation changed.
Imogen turned her head a fraction and spotted us in the shadows. Her eyes grew wide and she let out a gasp, which had her mother turning to spot us as well. Ever my strong woman, she hadn’t been teary-eyed before, but after seeing us, she wiped stray liquid from her eye.
I did my best to tell her to not give our attention away, and she firmed her stance, nodded once with a quick head jerk and turned back to pay attention to the scene unfolding in the middle of the warehouse, but I could tell she glanced in our direction every few seconds.
Seeming to notice she was missing out on something, Katy looked around the room and spotted us as well. She cringed when her gaze fell to Drake and Ridge, and then she turned right back around, staring at the Grandmaster pretending she wasn’t seconds away from a rescue. Vonnie stood beside her now, looking bored. The action seemed to take too long to unfold for her preference.
“There’s only one problem,” the Grandmaster said as three more of his men filed into the room and stood in the half circle surrounding Bernard. Ridge was right, we were definitely outnumbered. “You’ve been a very disobedient child. Sex trade. Kidnapping. What else have you been hiding?”
We didn’t need background music to kick in at that moment to let us know the conversation between the Grandmaster and his once protégé was about to meet a fever pitch. Ridge motioned with his shoulder and I waved for Imogen and the other women to make their way over slowly so not to be detected.
Her mother took one step to the right and then paused. And then another. And then another. It was agonizingly slow, and I wanted to yell out to make a run for it, but the thickness in the air warned that it any moment everything might explode like a powder keg.
As the endangered women made their way toward us, the conversation between the two men continued.
“You are missing out on so many opportunities. You were supposed to lead our crew, but instead you continued to let prime opportunities pass us by. For a boss, you never think of the money,” Bernard argued.
The Grandmaster reared back, and then, with a slow headshake, his shoulders relaxed. “And you only thought of money.” He slammed his fist down on the chair, his movements not matching the calm of his words.
Everyone in the room froze. My heart barely beat as we all waited for what happened next.
The Grandmaster stood and stalked toward Bernard. I waved more frantically to get the girls to move quicker because we were running out of time. “You’re feral, Bernard, and you know what happens to dogs who bite their masters.”
Imogen finished her walk across the space, and once her feet hit the shadow, she dove into my arms. I pulled her in tightly and ran my hands over her, searching for injury while nuzzling my head in her hair and placing kisses over the strands.
Katy and Vonnie were the last two to make it and our now large group hovered in the shadows as Ridge walked backward, headed toward the door we came in through. We didn’t want to leave ourselves open for attack once they realized we were gone, and we needed a quick exit.
I cut my eyes to the two men in the middle of the room and followed the group with my footsteps.
Ridge opened the back door, the metal creaking from disuse over the years, and he and Imogen’s mother slipped out of the warehouse. I pushed Katy and Vonnie through and then paused for the last few seconds. The Grandmaster leaned toward Bernard, and his words were as dark as the night that waited for us outside the warehouse.
“We put them down.”
A shot echoed through the empty warehouse. Drake shoved me against the back, pushing me outside it into the dark night where a few paces ahead of us the five other members of our group raced through the evening night into the industrial park to safety.
CHAPTER 25
IMOGEN
One calm week later
“IT’S NOT ASgood as the front page,” Cyrus said as he skimmed the article in the Pelican Bay newspaper. The big flat pages cast a shadow over his face from the sun’s rays on the warm beach.
I dug my hands into the sand, getting myself closer to him on the towel we shared at the public access portion of the town’s beach. “What are you talking about?” How could he find a reason to complain?
He moved a little to have a better view. “Our placement is disgusting.”
I leaned right into his space, getting as close as possible to read the article again. Our picture took up half the third page of the paper. I’d never made the paper, let alone that close to the front. One time in elementary school, we wrote letters to the State Legislature, and the newspaper came and took pictures of our entire classroom as we did it. I got in the group shot, and they used my name in the small caption. But this was a highlight of my fame.
