She stares at me, eyes wide with shock and horror and then she starts babbling. “I shot them... I know you said... but I... I... ” She takes deep ragged breaths, her wide browneyes staring at me. “They did things to me.” Then she sinks to the floor, letting the gun fall from her hands.
Giving her a gun was a mistake, but we’re in this now.
Footsteps thunder through the downstairs hallway, more of Finch’s men alerted by the gunfire. Leaving Leah on the floor, I crouch at the top of the stairs and pick off three of them as they charge up the stairway. The rest take cover, firing off shots that get nowhere close to me.
I run back to Leah and duck down on the floor beside her. “You’re going to be okay.”
She’s trembling violently, babbling to herself. I grip her jaw firmly enough to get her attention. “We have to get out of here and we can’t go down the stairs. Do you know any other ways out of this place?”
She nods. “The b-basement. They brought me through the basement.”
Fuck this! “That means going downstairs.”
“No, there’s a staircase at the other end of the house.”
If she knows that, Finch’s men will know about it too, but it’s a better option than the main staircase right now. “Then we have to move.” I pull her up and shove the gun back into her hands, and then she leads me to the stairs.
Slipping on the night-vision goggles from my utility belt, I cautiously take a step down and find nobody. Seems like they all headed for the house to protect the boss when they heard the gunshots. I hope to fuck there is an exit down here. I make it to the bottom with Leah close behind me, and the sound of thundering footsteps in the upstairs hallway, coming straight after us.
“Through there.” She indicates a doorway ahead of us. I take a deep breath and yank it open it to reveal a dimly lit hallway. “It leads to a garage.”
The barn? There must be keys to the vehicles in there somewhere.
Blood thunders through my veins as I take her hand and runthrough the hallway to another set of stairs. Footsteps follow after us. Leah is still shaking, but I don’t have time to reassure her, so I keep us moving until we get to the barn. I see the armored SUV and a couple of motorcycles. My eyes dart around the room, looking for a place where they might leave the keys. And then I spy the small metal box on the wall with a key-code system.
There are voices outside now too. Growing closer. “What are we going to do?” Leah asks, gazing at me with wide innocent eyes. Here in the harsh light of the barn I can see the deep bruises on her face more clearly. The dried blood around her mouth, nose and ears. The ligature marks on her neck and the fingerprint bruises that cover her arms.
Sick fucks.
“We’ll shoot our way out of here if we have to. Okay?”
She nods, cradling the gun to her like it’s her lifeline.
I shoot open the lock and work through the keys until I find the one with a fob that will open the SUV. I press it and the car beeps to life. More thundering footsteps. Leah shrieks and I spin around and see the two guys come charging into the barn. I duck and sniper them both as their bullets whizz past me. Then I feel the cold barrel at my neck.
“Take off the fucking mask,” the voice commands. I already know this is Henry Finch from a voice clip I heard of a police interview I uncovered when I was researching him. So, Billy was a lying piece of shit... I grind my jaw. Thoughts of Imogen fill my head. I have a knife strapped to my thigh. I can take Finch out before he even blinks. But if the worst happens, my girl will be safe with Pierre. Nobody will find them at RooksBlood.
A shot rings out. The back of my neck is splattered with something warm and sticky.
“Let’s go,” Leah yells.
I spin around and find Henry Finch face down, the back of his head blown wide open. Leah is holding the gun, standing beside the SUV with the door pulled wide open. She climbsinside and I run after her, shooting out the tires on the four motorcycles before I jump into the car beside her.
I check the rearview mirror as soon as we’ve cleared the grounds of the compound and sigh with relief when I find nobody following us. I’ll have Edgar and some of his men torch the entire place and get our car back as soon as the heat dies down. Beside me, Leah is quiet, but she continues trembling now the immediate danger is gone. We’ve been driving for over ten minutes before she finally speaks.
“I killed them,” she whispers.
“You also saved my life,” I tell her.
She stares out the window, taking in a deep breath. “I ruined your plan to get out quietly.”
True. She fucked it all to hell. But Edgar and I can work with the carnage we just left behind. “Well, with all those dead bodies back there, it will look like a drugs war. You probably did me a favor,” I assure her.
She turns to face me now, her face drawn and pale. “Who are you?”
I keep my eyes on the road. “Nobody important.”
“Are you like a secret vigilante superhero? Is that why you wear a mask?”
