Page 27

I hate getting knocked out. At least the guy didn’t break my nose. Not that I’m queasy about the blood, just not a fan of getting it reset. Had that done twice already, and it sucked each time. It’s the headache that comes with the punch-out that pisses me off the most. Reminds me of the same one I got when I came out of whatever cost me Blue.

I blink a few times and see very little, but at least Candy is with me. The room we’re in must be back in the basement—it’s cold and damp with low lighting. I look around to figure out what woke me, as I felt startled as I came out of my not-so-peaceful slumber, but don’t see anything.

Till it happens again and bits of the ceiling crumble onto me as I feel the floor and walls shake.

I smile. Fucking cavalry is here. Jack is the only one to use explosives like this, and I know Charles is going to have her ass, but I don’t care. If C8 is coming, then Casper knows we needed the help. I just hope he’s still okay.

I push the thought aside. I don’t have time to worry about him when I’ve still got to get myself and Candy out of here. Hopefully, the others I saw earlier too.

Standing, I groan and hold on to the wall as I sway a bit. The guy hit harder than I thought he had in him. Fucking asshole. And he took my other shoe. At least I’m still clothed, but the pin holding my hair is gone. Guess he was smarter than he looked.

Candy’s still out, and with how long she’s been undercover for, I can only assume they’ve drugged her the entire time. Even if she was lucid enough to recognize me, she won’t be any help to me. It’s going to be a long road to recovery for her once we get her out of this. And we will. I might have wondered before, but now I know. Even with all the odds stacked against us, we’re getting her out.

Save one if you can.

Candy is that one.

Noise has me looking to the door, and I step against the wall a second before it opens.

“Where’s the other one?”

Two walk in, and I jump on the closest one. He’s too bulky. I can’t get much of a hold before he’s jamming his back against the wall, grinding me against the exposed brick. I struggle to breathe, but I squeeze my arm tighter around him to choke him. He swings around, and my legs flare out to kick the gun out of the other guy’s hand.

“Dude, get her the fuck off me. Shoot her,” the guy grits out as he slams me back into the wall again.

The other guy stares at the floor, his arms flailing about frantically as if he’s having a seizure. “I’m looking for my gun.”

Where did they hire these guys? If it were me, I’d ask for a refund. Sure, they’ve got muscles. The guy I’m on is the size of a bull and isn’t going down no matter how much I try to choke him out. But they’ve also got shit for brains. Who only brings one weapon? I had two—three if you count my left and right heels. If these morons can even count.

Even as I think that, I look at the ground from my high perch and don’t see the gun either. And we aren’t in luxury down here. There’s nothing but us and a cot that has no mattress on it, just springs that allow you to see through to the floor. There’s nowhere for it to hide, even with the awful lighting.

A shot rings out, then another before the guy I’m on top of stumbles and falls to his knees. I expect someone to be at the door shooting, but we shut it somehow when I was being thrown about to get off the giant.

As soon as my feet touch the ground, I let go of the man’s tree-trunk neck and grab the gun from his belt, shooting him in the back of the head. He falls in front of me, landing on his face and giving me a clear shot at the other guy, who’s trying to get the gun away from Candy. Another shot and he’s out of commission.

Candy’s still struggling, confused as fuck. I move as slowly as I can, which isn’t very much. Someone had to have heard that, and we don’t have a lot of time before more come in to collect us.

“Candy, sweet girl, it’s me, Billy. Give me the gun, honey.”

I’m impressed she’s awake at all, even able to pull a trigger. Sure, she missed everyone that first time, and the second time she barely got someone but for a lucky leg wound, but she doesn’t need to have a loaded weapon right now. I don’t care how much training she’s gone through. There are too many drugs in her system for her to have a clear head. Which is obvious as she fights me for a second before I get the gun free and she slumps back.

She rests her head against the wall, exhausted. I push her hair off her face and kiss her forehead. “You did good, girl. Real good.”

“Not enough,” she says between dry coughs. Her voice is hardly a whisper but loud enough for me to get it. Girl’s going to go through hell before she gives herself time to accept all that she went through. She might leave the company after this; she might dig in deep. Whatever it is, the girls and I will be there for her, whether she likes it or even wants it.

“Come on, babe, we’re getting out of here.”

I check both clips and choose the one with more bullets, giving her the other one. I’d rather she not have one, but if it’s between her aiming wide or not at all, I’ll choose whatever gets me some coverage. Plus, if I need to, I can just grab the gun from her and use it myself. Not like my negligee has pockets. It scarcely covers me, much less has a slot to hold a gun.

Oh, an idea to pass along to that store, A Little Spice. They had a suggestion box, after all. And who doesn’t like pockets?

I slide my hand under her and lift. She’s better than before, though still too weak to take much of her own weight. I keep my arm tight around her as we make it to the door. We can hear the explosions, but other than the screams each time one happens, there’s nothing to let us know if someone is out there.

“All right, chica, tits up. Let’s do this.”

My comment pulls a huff from her cracked lips, and I take that for a full-on belly laugh as I pull the door open and point my gun into the hallway. It’s empty, thank God, but it’s also not the same one I was hoping for.

“Right, well, we’re officially out of Kansas, my friend.”

That one was so bad I don’t even get a noise out of Candy as I half carry, half drag her down the hallway. I keep our backs to the wall as we slide down it, continuously checking left and right to see who’s coming. I expected us to be close to the stairs, but it seems my luck ran out right around the time Cast Off saw me.

Dickhead.

Everything looks the same down here, and without a map, I’ve got no clue if I’m heading in the right direction. And the explosions are echoing off the walls, so I can’t even guide us toward the noise.

A hallway comes into view to go left, but we continue going straight till we hit a door. It takes a bit of a push; the building seems to be taking more damage with each blow. I’m finally able to kick the door open after giving up on pushing it with my shoulder.

We’re back at the dock. Halle-fucking-lujah. There’s even a cruising yacht left.

I grab Candy’s hand that’s gripping my shoulder and start rushing toward it. Not about to leave this to chance and have someone get to it before us. I don’t see anyone right now, but I’m at the bottom of a hill, the door hidden in the landscape. Someone else might head this way from the house, trying to escape before the place explodes like in a cheap James Bond movie.

I have to believe that the others found a way out. I can’t think that I’m leaving anyone behind. If my people are behind the explosions, I’m sure we’ll find the others. If it’s us who did this. If not, I’m choosing Candy over the others. Over Casper.

If things were reversed, I would want him to get her out first, then come back and look for me. Which is precisely the plan. Get her somewhere safe, hopefully with the team that’s waiting for us in the water, then double back.

As our feet touch the dock, six men emerge from belowdecks on the boat. I stumble to a stop, halting our progress as I push Candy behind me. Lifting my gun, I stand firm to protect us.

“Drop it,” Cast Off says as every one of his men’s guns point at us.

I might get out of this alive if it were just me, or if I had another C8 with me. But Candy isn’t operational right now. She’s a liability, a victim. She might carry a gun—I’m surprised as shit that she hasn’t dropped it, honestly—but I can’t rely on her to help me out like before.

Especially when she wobbles, almost taking me down as she teeters before falling and landing on her ass. The gun falls out of her grasp and thumps onto the wooden dock.

Awesome.

“Drop it. Now.”

I listen this time—sort of—tossing it into the water to my left. One less gun that can be used to kill me. And with that thought in mind, I sweep Candy’s gun over the side with my foot as well.

Cast Off looks pissed, but it could be for a plethora of reasons. Most likely that he’s not getting paid and is now on the run. Regardless, it makes me smile as his goons grab us both and put us on the boat. Literally where we wanted to be, though I wish we had fewer passengers.

I elbow the guy pulling me on board, then grab the knife out of another guy’s belt and stab it into his heart before kicking him overboard. The first guy wraps his arms around me from behind, lifting me off the ground and squeezing me so tight, I drop the knife on reflex.

Another guy snarls, “You bitch,” at me before I’m backhanded. I look back to see the end of a barrel just as it’s pushed out of the way a second before it goes off.

“Enough. Put her down. Tie her hands and feet,” Cast Off barks as he moves away.

“She killed Trevor,” the shooter screams, dropping the gun to his side but not putting it away as I’m dragged up four steps to the main deck.

“We can still sell her. And with Trevor gone, your end of the pot just got bigger.” Cast Off doesn’t even look at the guy as he finds some rope and starts wrapping it around Candy. Not that she’s fighting it much as she sinks into the cushioned chair right outside the top cabin door.

I’m dropped unceremoniously next to her, but before I can even gain leverage enough to stand and fight back, my hands are being tied to the railing to my left. We’re sitting at the back of the boat with just a single guard as the other four go inside. It’s all glass windows up top, and I make no pretense that I’m not looking around.

I can’t see anyone else, but more could be hidden below. They could even have the others they planned to sell, if they haven’t been sold already.

The boat purrs to a start, but we’re still tied to the dock. I look around, hoping for anything to use. If we leave here, our odds of being found drop considerably. I’ve got no clue if the camera is still working on my clothes, and while I might have the tracking device under my skin, that can also get messed with if they find it at the back of my neck.

The lake is too big. We didn’t plan but for a few boats to cover it all. And if they’re already out chasing the other boats down, who knows if anyone will look for us till after we’re gone?

The reflection of glass blinds me a second before I see Casper emerge from the tunnels we were in. With zero thought for anything else, I stand and scream.

“Casper!”

The hit I expected is worth the sharp pain shooting through my cheek as I fall back. With an aim that only a sniper of his caliber can have, Casper fires one shot as he runs toward the dock, killing the guy who hit me. He falls back over the railing, landing on the small bottom loading deck of the boat.

I know now isn’t great timing, but he just made my heart flutter.

Casper keeps shooting, getting one more guy inside before they take cover and return fire. The boat takes off at a breakneck speed. Candy tumbles to the floor, and I almost go with her but just manage to hold on to the railing. The two dead bodies slide to the back, one going off into the water and the other stopping by Candy, who I hope is only unconscious and not dead. There’s blood on her head from where she must have hit it, but I can’t reach her to check on her. If she dies now, I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive myself. So close to freedom and then fucked because I chose to keep going and not wait for backup to find us.

Casper keeps firing till he’s out of bullets. I never look away, even as we get farther out into the water. My eyes remain on his as the others turn and go back to help drive the boat or something.

“He won’t be saving you.”

The smile I can hear in his voice has me looking away from someone I want to call mine in front of everyone I know. Someone who I would not only die to save but fight to live for. Whatever Cast Off thinks is going to happen, plans to do to break me, it won’t. I’ll fight every second to get back to Casper. Every damn second.

“You won’t win this.”

He tilts his head as if he’s actually taking in my words and measuring their worth. “But I already have, sweetie. Don’t you see? I have you and her. He”—he tosses his hand out in Casper’s direction without looking, but I do—“won’t come after you. You aren’t worth the price of butter to him. But to me, and a few others, you could be very pricey. Very pricey indeed.”

I don’t respond. Why bait him? I know he takes my silence for fear. And I let him think that as he walks back inside.

Only then do I smile. Because I know something he doesn’t.

My man is coming for me.

And he’s doing it now, as a speedboat picks him up from the dock and heads in our direction.

Oh yeah, my man is coming for me. And I plan to give him one helluva kiss when he gets here. It’ll be well deserved.

And if he’s lucky, I’ll even call him Sir.