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"I can try!" she squeaked.
I got her onto my shoulders and she managed to reach the large industrial vent. "You have to hide in there. Don't come out until you hear either me, or Knight's voice, okay?"
"Okay," she said with a panicked tone, struggling to open it.
"Hurry!" I urged her. It felt like a lifetime before it finally gave way.
I barely had enough time to push the panel back in place before running back over to the dead body when Antonio appeared in the doorway.
I held the gun towards him. "Don't move."
He held his hands up but he took in the other guard, face down in a pool of blood. "Tatiana," he tsked, giving me a disappointed look. "You can't go around killing the guards. Now what am I going to tell Louisa?"
"You can tell her," I came towards him, "that he was an asshole keeping a woman and akidlocked up against their will."
"Where is the girl?" he demanded.
"She escaped. Now move."
Antonio glared at me but took a step backwards. "You won't get out of here."
"Move slowly," I instructed him, then followed quickly, keeping him in my sight as I left the room.
I swallowed down my fear and allowed the rage inside me to surge to the surface. "Take me to him." I wasn't trying to escape. No, I had other plans.
Antonio turned his back, leading me through the hallway. "You know he won't care if you kill me."
"Well, let's just hope your little buddies care whether you live or die, then."
Antonio led me down a maze of hallways and I committed them to memory so I could go back for Honey.
We came to a wooden door painted red, and I knew this was Manuel's. He was obsessed with the color; every single door in our house had been painted red.
"Go inside," I directed, "And don't even think about giving him any kind of warning."
His expression cold and hard, he turned the handle. The door opened easily.
Too easily.
Just as I was about to step away, a hand reached from the darkness of the room. It grabbed my wrist, jerking me forward and towards the shadows inside.
Manuel and I struggled for control of the gun, with Antonio joining in. Then the rest of Manuel's men surrounded us. Too quickly, I was pressed up against the wall, my hands behind my back.
I didn't know where the gun was; it had been lost in the fight.
My fresh tattoo burned against my chest, along with my shoulder-wound from the last time I'd been held captive by Manuel's men.
"Looks like the little pajarita has lost her wings," Manuel's breath poured over the shoulder of my flimsy dress.
I could feel his hard dick pressing into my back; he got off on this kind of thing.
Disgust rolled over me and bile surged up my throat. Sweat plastered my hair to my face, which was pressed up against the cold wall.
A wave of helplessness overwhelmed me as a flashback threatened to unfurl through my mind.
"You'remine,little pajarita," he growled over my shoulder; my howl filling the air as his teeth bit down on my shoulder. "You'll never escape me. Even after death, I'll chain you to me and we will walk the dregs of hell together."
A roar ripped from my mouth. "I willneverbelong to anyone ever again!"