Keene’s gaze cut to Rhys. “His Majesty?”
“A long, disgusting story,” he replied.
Price came up then. “You’re bleeding, Langston.”
Rhys looked down at his sliced, saturated shirt and pulled it aside. The bleeding had already slowed. “I’ve had worse.”
“Where are Gaby and the others?” Keene asked.
Rhys’s blood went cold. “I’ve been tied up here. She and Mateo went searching for her sister.”
Both agents swore softly.
“What?” Rhys demanded.
“The house isn’t contained,” Keene said.
“Neither is the fire,” Price added, delivering the hardest blow.
Already moving toward the steps, the Blackwood mask fell away. He was just a man running toward the woman he refused to lose.
Chapter 23
A concussion rolled through the east wing. The floor shuddered, the walls groaned, and the windowpanes rattled.
Natalie flinched, fingers biting into Gaby’s sleeve. “What was that?”
She barely got the words out before alarms wailed.
One of the other girls appeared in the doorway, wide-eyed and shaking. “What’s happening?”
Mateo was already moving. He crossed to the window at the end of the corridor. “There’s smoke coming from the dock and the ridge.”
“What’s on the ridge?” Gaby asked, moving up beside him.
“The helipad,” he answered. “And the mechanical building. The generator’s there.”
She hesitated, almost afraid to ask, “If both are destroyed, how do we get off the island?”
Mateo’s mouth tipped downward. “Good question.”
Peering out, wondering what else could go wrong, she saw sparks lift on the wind and catch along the roofline of the main building. “We need to get out,” she whispered, “before the entire compound goes up.”
“Agreed.”
He pivoted and strode toward the gate at the far end. Gaby, Natalie, and eight frightened young women followed him, running to keep up.
Mateo gripped the bars and shook them. They rattled but held firm. He reached through for the security panel, but it was just out of reach.
“Damn,” he muttered, stepping back and eyeing the structure. “Maybe I can pry out the hinges.”
Another concussion hit, louder, closer, shaking the ground beneath their feet. The alarms cut off mid-shriek, leaving an eerie silence.
Natalie gasped. “What now?”
Mateo flipped a wall switch. Nothing. “Power’s out.”
Gaby looked at the gate. “Then this should be unlocked.”
