I heard shouts downstairs and more gunshots. Then a guttural scream that morphed into a wet, gurgling sound. In a rush of panic, I dragged myself off the mattress and over to the corner of the room. There was a spot I’d found there after my first “customer.” A floorboard that was loose where two of them connected. Pulling it back as far as it would go, I fought to stay conscious as I squeezed my hand inside, my fingers searching for the items I’d stashed there. A ring. A watch. A money clip. Small items that I barely remembered taking while they were too distracted to notice or that were left in my room. I didn’t take something from everyone who entered my room. Most of the time I was too out of it to even realize what was happening until later when I found the evidence on my body. Clutching everything in my fist, I made my way back over to the mattress and curled up under the sheet. I don’t know why I felt like I needed to have these things on me, but I was either about to be rescued or killed, and for some reason, I felt it was important.
And then everything went eerily quiet. Cowering in the corner of the mattress, I tried to make myself as small as possible.
The floorboards outside my door creaked, and I heard the door across the hall open. I listened intently as the footsteps faded as the person outside my room made their way down the hall to the other rooms. Maybe it was one of the guys who ran the house, checking to make sure we were all still here now that’d they’d killed whoever had tried to interrupt their business. Or maybe they were all dead. Maybe one of the customers decided he didn’t want to pay anymore. Hysterical laughter bubbled up inside of me and I slapped my hand over my mouth, trying to keep quiet.
The footsteps stopped outside my room. I tried to keep my eyes open as the doorknob turned and the door slowly creaked open. Hope flared inside of me, but I dashed it down. No one knew where I was. No one was looking for me…
A gun barrel appeared through the crack in the door and slowly swung around the room until it pointed directly at me. The door was pushed open a little more.
Oh, my god.
A violent sob burst from me before I could stop it.
He’d found me.
CHAPTER4
Enzo
Iimmediately lowered my weapon when I saw there was only one occupant in the room. The woman cowering on the mattress was nothing like the confident female who’d shown up at my door in a dress that looked like it was made of nothing but fucking bandages. I almost walked away, thinking I had the wrong room, until I saw a lock of pink hair sticking out from beneath the sheet covering her body and most of her face. “Sera?”
Her sob was raw and painful in my ears, but she didn’t move. Didn’t come to me. I scanned the room, wondering if someone was in there with her. If it was a trap. But I saw no one. I slid on the safety and shoved my gun down the back of my pants, then pulled out my cell phone and called Tristan.
He answered on the first ring. “Yeah.”
“I’ve got her. Is everything clear outside?”
“You’re good to go. I’ll meet you at the front door.”
He didn’t ask if anyone was left alive inside. There was no need to. I ended the call and slid the phone back into my pocket, then stepped fully into the room and closed the door, but didn’t latch it. “Sera, baby. It’s just me. You’re okay.” I spoke softly to her as I approached. “It’s just me, baby girl. It’s just me.”
I knelt on the mattress and reached for the sheet with hands that shook with the effort it took me not to rip apart this entire fucking room, this entire house. I wanted to scream and rage that she’d been brought here. That I didn’t find her sooner. That I didn’t save her. All of the dead bodies littering the place? I wanted to kill them all over again. Only slower this time. But I kept my movements steady, my voice calm, despite the violent anger erupting inside of me. She didn’t need that shit from me right now. “It’s just me,” I repeated. “I won’t hurt you.”
Her movements were slow and sluggish as I pulled the sheet away so I could see her face. Her eyes were half shut, her mouth slack, as she tried to focus on me and keep the sheet over her at the same time. It took her a few seconds for her eyes to lock onto my face, but when they did, tears ran down her cheeks, and every time she exhaled, she did so on a sob. She smelled like lye. And the mattress she was on smelled like sweat and sex.
“You wanna keep the sheet? That’s okay. You can do that,” I told her. “But I’m taking you the fuck out of here.” I brushed her hair back from her face. “I’m taking you out of here right fucking now.”
She clutched the rough material to her chest with her arms still underneath and I wrapped it around her as best I could before I slid one arm around her back and one under her knees and picked her up. She weighed practically nothing as I stood with her. Did the bastards even fucking feed her? Or did they just use women up until they were worthless to them and then bring in the next batch?
As we entered the hall, I tucked her into my chest. “Don’t look,” I told her. She did as I said, burying her face into my bloodstained shirt as I picked my way over the bodies on the stairs and in the main room. I didn’t stop to see what the other girls in the house were doing. They could stay or go as they pleased. They weren’t my concern. I wasn’t here to play the fucking hero. Just to get Sera back.
Tristan was standing guard at the front door when we arrived. When he saw us coming, he led the way out of the house, gun held casually by his thigh as he watched for anyone who might try to stop us until we reached the car Rene had loaned to us. But no one showed their face.
I slid into the backseat with Sera, and Tristan jogged around the front of the vehicle and got into the driver’s seat. I held her tight against me as we drove out of the city to the small airport where Rene was waiting for us to ensure we got out of the country safely. Knowing how dangerous it was for us to be there like this, no one spoke a word until we were back on the private plane.
Even then, I wouldn’t let her go.
“What the hell did they give her?” Tristan asked as he took a seat across from us after thanking Rene for all he’d done to help us and promising to give his regards to Luca.
“I don’t know,” I told him. “If I were to guess, maybe large doses of Molly. But her pulse is strong and her color is decent. She’ll be alright. It just needs to wear off.”
He nodded, then buckled himself in for takeoff. I knew I should put Sera in the seat beside me and do the same for her, but I couldn’t bring myself to even do that much. Besides, she had a death grip on my shirt, and she was completely nude underneath the sheet. I didn’t think to look and see if there were any clothes in the house I could’ve brought for her, but there wasn’t time anyway. And I sure as hell wasn’t expecting they’d deny her something as decent as clothes.
“I’ll call Luca as soon as we’re in the air and let him know we’re on our way home.”
“Ask him to bring her some clothes.” I laid my head back against the seat and closed my eyes. It was cloudy outside, and my sunglasses darkened things even more, but I couldn’t sleep. Not until we were safely back across the border.
By the time we landed two and a half hours later, my arm muscles were shaky from holding Sera so tight against me. She’d fallen into a fitful sleep on my lap almost as soon as we were seated, and I hadn’t wanted to wake her.
