“Not powerful enough, as it turns out.But maybe next time.”
I watch him look at my cards, confused, and then grow angry, his face all thunderclouds and fury, and know that I was right about him wanting to destroy anyone who beats him.When he looks at me again his eyes are no longer full of lust.
They reflect only murder.
I smile softly at him, though, because he can’t lay a single hand on me, and he must know it.
I am, after all, the Landry heiress.
And I’m not sticking around here any longer, because I just got the text I’ve been waiting for.Only two people have the number to this phone, and them texting me means they’re in position outside my father’s mansion.
It’s time to run a rescue mission.
Pity I won’t be getting any information out of the Russian, but that can’t be helped.
I gather my winnings, drop them at the purser’s with a murmured demand that he put them on my tab, and then head for the door–and from there, the servant’s staircase at the back of the house.
Because I have a date in the basement, with girls who are a whole lot more important than that Russian asshole at the poker table.
***
I fly down the stairs toward the basement, losing my shoes as I go like fucking Cinderella.They’re gorgeous shoes and I hope for a moment that they’re not broken, but I don’t pause.I sure as hell don’t stop.
This mission is going to be easier without the shoes, anyhow.I’ll come back for them after I get those girls to safety.
If I’m still alive.
By the time I get to the basement I’m already working on a plan–which I didn’t bother with until right now–and I think I’ve got a good idea of what we’re going to do.I sprint down the hallway that hugs one wall of the basement, making for the door at the end of it.When I get there, I struggle with the lock for a good thirty seconds before I can get the fucking thing open, which is insane when this lock has to be opened and closed at least once a week.
If my father is storing girls down here, they have to get them in somehow, and it’s not through a fucking locked door.
When the lock finally gives way, it does it so quickly that I almost slip, all of my weight going to the side, but I keep my feet–thanks to not having 5-inche heels on–and throw the door open.
My cousin is standing on the other side, dressed in head-to-toe black, including a balaclava pulled up over her face, and behind her, Kate is peeking around her shoulder.Also dressed like a fucking ninja.
I stare at them for a full ten seconds, caught between shock and hysteria, before I finally get my head wrapped around the idea that those are my friends rather than random thieves or Instagram bikers who don’t want to reveal their faces.
I fly through the door and wrap them both in one hug, so happy to see them that for a second, I can’t even manage any words.
When I do, though, I know exactly what I want to say.
“What the fuck are you doing, wearing the most obvious disguises you could find?”I hiss.“You look like you’re dressed up for Halloween!”
“Better than you!”Camille hisses back.“What did you do, pick the brightest, sexiest dress you could find?How the fuck are you going to sneak around inthat?”
I pull back quickly and take a look at what I’m wearing.Okay sure, it’s not the most subtle thing in the world–red silk and slinky as fuck–but it was the only thing I was given for tonight.And when it comes to dressing up for my father’s parties, I’m at his mercy.
I don’t bother with any of that, though.
We have more important things to worry about.
“Forget the dress,” Kate hisses.“How many girls are we talking about?You were short on details when we talked.”
I grab their hands and yank them through the door, already wondering if there are cameras above us.On the doorway.In the hall.In the rooms where the girls are being held.
I don’t think there are.I’ve been in their databases and seen their computers and I’ve never seen any surveillance of the girls.Maybe they don’t think the girls will act up enough to cause trouble, or, more likely, they don’t want any video record of what they’re doing.
But Christ, I hope I’m right about there not being video around here.
