The man staggers back, lifting his hands in surrender. Perfect. His eyes are as wide as saucers and pupils so dilated there’s no color to them.
I nod my head to the side towards Hayden, “Dude’s high as a fucking kite right now.” Hayden huffs a laugh.
“Who are you?” He asks. The smug bastard’s confidence has quickly diminished.
“Why does everybody keep asking that?” I ask derisively.
He takes a step forward, and my spine straightens. “I wouldn’t do that,” I warn, keeping my facial expression lax and smooth. Motherfucker must be finding a little courage in there somewhere. Apparently, he’s only got balls when it comes to taking advantage of innocent women.
T gives a brief update in my ear, letting us know the coast is still clear aside from the fucker standing in front of us.
“I’ll make a deal with you.” I offer, and he lifts a single brow before nodding once.
“You tell me where the newintakeis, and I won’t hurt you,” I failed to mention ‘as bad’, but it was implied, and he’ll learn that sooner or later.
He crosses his arms, contemplating my offer. “Otherwise, your torture begins…” I glance down at my watch. “Now.” I cock my head.
“She’s in the basement, go straight down, it’s the chamber on the right.”
I already knew where she was, but that was a test to check his honesty. Now, for what I really want to know. Ijerk him up to eye level by the front of his shirt, “I already knew that. What did you do to her? And don’t even think about lying.” I snarl. “I have hacked every single surveillance camera in this godsforsaken place.”
I don’t actually know what’s happened in that chamber, yet. But he doesn’t know that. I can tell that question’s made him uncomfortable, and fuck if that doesn’t make my stomach knot. Icy hot rage washes over me, and I’m doing everything to hold back from strangling him.
“Aye, bro, she came into me.” He says, throwing his hands back up.
“So we’ve resorted to lying, huh?” I aim the sight of my gun right over his heart. I won’t shoot him, at least not to kill, but he’d better start confessing before he’s in the type of pain he could never imagine.
“We’re not your bro’s,” Hayden growls. His emotions are a lot harder to mask than mine. I already know he’s got a permanent snarl on his face.
Rocky jumps from the left to the right of the narrow hall, attempting to throw me and Hayden off. We’re far too trained to fall for that mediocre bullshit. “Big mistake, Rocky.”
He pauses for half a second before running straight at us. As soon as he’s close enough, I rear my fists back and swing, connecting with his jaw. I’m not sure if the crunch was his face or my hand. The idiot lies limp on the floor, testing to see if he’s conscious or not. I kick him in the rib with my boot. Not so much as a peep comes out of him.
“Help me drag this waste of air and space to the closet.We need to give him a heavy dose of that tranquilizer, too.” I start listing the next tasks.
After dumping this piece of shit with the other piece of shit, I need to find one more piece of shit—Lilith. We slowly walk through the curving hallway down to the basement. After reaching the end where the space opens up, I’m speechless. It looks like a prison, except prisoners are treated like royalty in comparison to these people.
“Were all these people abducted, too?” Hayden asks as if I would know that answer.
“I don’t know. But we need to hurry and find Kelsey before somebody else pops up on us.”
We walk past a guant woman, nothing but a skeletal heap lying on the bare concrete floor. A thin, white, and deteriorating gown barely covers her, hanging just below her bottom. If it weren’t for her weak, shallow breaths, I would have assumed she was dead. Dirt covers every inch of her frail body, and her hair is a matted mess. An aching twinge stabs at my heart. This is horrifying. None of the other captives looks any better. All bordering death.
Empty hollow eyes glare back at me through another cell. The woman is clinging to the bars so tightly her knuckles have turned a scary shade of white. Handprint bruises wrap her tiny arms. She doesn’t act afraid of us, but more like she’s intrigued, as if we’re the caged animals in this zoo and not her. She’s probably drugged out of her mind and isn’t even seeing us for what we are.
One girl stands out to me the most. The eyes glaring at us, pleading with us silently. Like she has a story she needsto tell, but is afraid to. Her dark skin was mottled with bruises and fresh scars. She grips her knees tight to her chest in the back corner of her cell. Not once does she take her eyes off mine, nor does she blink. I make a mental note to come back for her. I wish I could save everyone here, and I’ll try my best to, but it won’t be today.
“I think this is the room straight ahead,” Hayden points out, bringing me back from my thoughts.
I nod and walk faster towards the room. We still have plenty of time to get Kelsey, the other girl, and our two douchebags out of here before the tranquilizer starts to wear off.
“Backup is heading in. Where do you want them?” T asks.
I didn’t know he was still sending them out, so I never thought of a plan for them. That was supposed to be his job, since he was orchestrating it.
“Figure it out. I have a bigger issue. Is the room clear?” I ask as I wait on the other side of her chamber door. I don’t want to go in guns blazing and traumatize her any more than has already been done.
“All clear, I didn’t look any more than I had to, I felt like I was violating her.”
