To be safe, they landed a good distance away and shifted back. Drake was anxious to get to the house, but he knew they had to be careful. As they hiked through the woods, they kept their eyes and ears open to any sounds around them.
The compound was huge when they reached the first fence. Various barns were scattered all around the main house, which was a two-story ranch house with huge plate glass windows. Nobody walked around, and there were no signs of horses or any other livestock.
"Weird," Colton commented. "It looks abandoned."
"This has to be the place, right?" Drake didn't see how when it was the only signs of civilization for miles.
"It's the right place." Colton pointed to the front door. "The numbers are right. They're here, but I doubt they know we're here yet."
"Yeah, I don't like the looks of this. It's like they're ready for us."
"But where are they?"
Drake glanced over at Colton before he held the barbed wire fence for his brother to squeeze through. "We're not going to find out standing here. Let's go."
Chapter Twenty Five: Unlocking a Chance
Josephine “Joey” Preston
Joey woke with a start, but she forced herself to lay still as her mind crawled through the haze of unconsciousness to awareness. All she heard was silence, but it smelled like she was in a barn. When she opened her eyes, everything was dark. All she could remember was being lifted off the ground and feeling nauseous as they gained altitude.
That creature had taken her away from Drake. Had they killed him? Fear gave her more confidence to move around. She wasn't going to save herself by playing dead.
She moved her hand and felt straw. She moved her fingers around and they came in contact with hay. Still hearing nothing, she frowned as she pushed herself up and felt all around her.I am literally laying in a pile of hay.Had they brought her back to the Hale ranch? Somehow, she doubted it.
She wiped the side of her face and glanced around. All she could see as she peered through the darkness was a faint ring of light about the outline of a window. She huffed out her cheeks and gave her head a slight shake to clear her faculties. She was going to need them.
What the hell is going on now? Where am I?
Cautiously, she stood up. She shuffled her feet as she felt in the darkness with her hands, and it didn't take long before she felt cold bars. "What the..." As she felt her way along, she realized the bars were all around her. "I'm in a goddamn cage."
She felt her way along the perimeter of the cage before she backed away. "What the hell am I doing in a cage?" Her voice echoed in the blackness around her, and she struggled to adjust her eyes so she might see something. Anything.
Joey retraced her steps, but this time, she felt carefully as she made her way around the inside of the cage. When she finally found the door, she ran her fingers down the bars until she found the lock. She had bobby pins in her hair, and while she had watched it done plenty of times on television or in the movies, she had never attempted to pick a lock before.
But right now, she was willing to do anything to get out. The cage made about as much sense as anything else in this whole fiasco, but she needed to figure out where she was and how to get back to Drake.
A bright light suddenly shone from one end of the building as someone opened a door before the entire room was illuminated with glaring overhead fluorescent lights as a switch was flipped. Joey automatically covered her eyes against the brightness before she blinked quickly to regain her vision.
Percy walked toward her, followed by two of his goons. "Well, Josephine, it's good to see you up and awake again. I was afraid that your heart had suffered permanent damage from your flight here. I believe at one time or another you had told me of your fear of heights, but in this case, it was unfortunate that I had no other options."
"What the hell have you done to me?" She resisted the urge to reach through the bars and try to reach him so she could bash his head into the steel cage.
"To you?" Percy seemed surprised. "I haven't done anything to you, my dear. Not yet anyhow."
Once her eyes completely adjusted, she glanced around the barn as Percy made his way toward her. There were several other cages in the barn, but they were all empty.
Anger boosted her bravado. "Are you starting a circus now, with all these cages? They literally look like circus rejects."
"Not a circus, Josephine. Rodeo at a new level." Percy waved his hand around. "Once I have those dragon friends of yours, we'll begin the training for the best rodeo ever created."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Her eyes widened as his words started to sink in. "Dragon friends? You're going to cage the Hale family?"
"I am."
"And you really think they're going to allow that to happen?"
"They won't have any choice," Percy replied matter-of-factly. "They'll be mine to do with as I please."
