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CHAPTER NINETEEN

UNA

I woke, this time suddenly and alert. I was on the damp ground, but I wasn’t alone. I blinked up at the woman sitting beside me in the dim light. She had my head on her lap, and she offered me a wobbly smile.

“Hi.”

I sat up, everything spinning. “Careful,” she warned. “The drugs they pump into us linger.”

I pushed my hair off my face. “Who are you?”

“Annabelle Lewis.”

“What are you doing here?”

Her bottom lip quivered. “Same as you. They took me.”

“From where?”

“I had just arrived at the bus station. I was heading to the hotel, and they grabbed me and dragged me into an alley. I woke up here.” She paused. “Two weeks ago. Or maybe more. I can’t keep track.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “It’s always dark here.”

I shivered.

“You’re Una.”

I narrowed my eyes, shifting away. “How did you know that?”

“I was here. In the corner where I like to sit. I don’t think they can see me there, but even if they can, it’s as far as my chain stretches.”

“Oh.”

She met my eyes, hers glazed with tears. “I heard what he said. That younger, dark-haired one. I thought I was scared before, but now that I know what’s happening, I’m more terrified than I’ve ever been in my life.”

I studied her in the dimness. I could see she was about my age. Long blond hair that I was sure at one point was lovely and wavy. Now, it was a dirty, ratty mess. Her skin was grubby, her cheeks raw from wiping them when she cried, no doubt. She was thin and looked exhausted.

“ The same way you’ll look soon ,” a little voice in my head whispered.

My chest ached with repressed tears, but I refused to let them out.

“Are there others?” I asked, wondering if we could work together and somehow surprise whatever guards they had checking on us.

“Yes. But they’re down that way. And if we try to talk, they come in and hurt us.” She turned her face, and I saw how swollen her cheek was. I could make out the bruises, even in the dull light. “I think there are six of us being held.”

“How many men are there?”

“I’m not sure.” She shuddered. “The one who wears the red sneakers is the worst.”

“Do you know where we are?”

She shook her head. “No.”

I tugged on the iron bar around my ankle, feeling along the chain to the end. It was screwed into the cement of the wall, and the only way I could loosen it was with a tool.

“There is nothing,” she whispered. “I looked. I tried.”

“Finn will find me,” I stated firmly. “He’ll rescue me and you. The other girls too.”

“I hope he gets here soon. I heard them say we’re gone next week.”

“How long was I out?” I asked, wondering how much time had elapsed.

“He gave you a heavy dose. I’d say a day.”

A week. Finn could find me in a week. Right?

“It was supposed to be sooner,” she confided. “But I heard them say the Russians were delaying things.”

I frowned and she shrugged. “I pretend to be asleep a lot if I hear someone coming. He, the younger one with the ugly shoes, is always staring at me, and I hate it.”

“Juan,” I told her.

“Well, Juan talks a lot. He and the other redhead just stand there and try to outdo each other. They forget I’m there at times.”

“The other redhead is my brother.”

She gaped at me. “And he’s part of this?” She grabbed my hand. “Oh, Una. I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

“He—Juan—keeps telling me I’ll be his. I hate him.”

I squeezed her hand. “We have to try to help each other.”

“Do you really think your Finn will find you?”

“Yes.”

“I hope you’re right,” she replied as she sighed out a shaky breath, pulling her knees to her chest and laying her head on her hands.

I looked around the dark, damp space, sending up a prayer.

“Please, Finn. Please.”

* * *

FINN

I was going crazy. I couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t eat. I paced, spent hours with Niall and Aldo chasing down leads. More hours on the phone and in front of the computer.

I tugged my hands through my hair. It had been forty-eight hours since Una disappeared. I had no idea where she was. If she was okay.

My imagination ran rampant when I thought about it too much.

Was she scared? Hurt? Crying for me? What horrors was she enduring?

Would I ever see her again?

I was ready to storm the racetrack, infiltrate the building we were certain was a hidden lab, and force Lopez to talk, but it was Roman who stopped me.

“If we go in there and blow up his lab and not find Una, Finn,” he said, his voice steady, “you will have signed her death warrant.”

His words made me stop.

“You need to stay calm. She needs Finn O’Reilly right now. Syndicate man. Not her lover.”

Two hours later, Luca Costas walked in, adding more power to our search. But it seemed fruitless. Lopez hadn’t moved off the property. Brian hadn’t shown up that we’d been able to see. Una’s purse and phone had been left behind in her apartment. We’d discovered Tom in the garbage room, dumped into a wide, lidded garbage bin. He’d been shot but was miraculously not dead. Brian was as inept with a gun as he was with his brain. The bullet had grazed Tom’s head but buried itself into the wall of the garbage room. He was furious and upset when he came to in the hospital, but he was unable to give us much detail.

The car Brian had been driving was found in a deserted parking lot. There were no cameras around, so we had no idea what sort of vehicle he’d transferred Una to or where they went. Niall currently had a man tracing every car we could pick up in that area, trying to track which one might have Brian behind the wheel.

And then Roman and Luca disappeared. I hadn’t seen them since last night, and neither of them answered their phones. I was angry, frustrated, and pissed off. All I knew was they said they had to follow up on a lead. Since then, it was as if they had vanished.

Niall came in, looking as exhausted as I felt. He sat down, pouring a coffee and tossing it back like a shot of whiskey.

“Anything?” I asked.

“Rumors. Nothing we can substantiate.”

“I’ve reached out to everyone. Offered rewards. Favors. Called in favors.” My shoulders fell forward in defeat. “Nothing.”

He nodded.

“Where the fuck are Roman and Luca?” I asked. “I don’t understand.”

Niall began to speak just as the door opened, and they walked in. They wore the same clothing as they had been wearing when I’d seen them yesterday. They were both somber and looked tired.

Before I could speak, Roman held up his hand. “I know you’re full of questions. I had a lead I had to follow fast, and I didn’t have time to explain. I didn’t want to give you hope in case it didn’t pan out.”

“Did it?” I asked, my voice tight.

Roman and Luca shared a glance. “We need to sit down, Finn. This is gonna be hard to hear.”

I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “Tell me.”

Roman drew in a deep breath. “We went to find Greg Santini.”

“Who is that?” I asked.

He rolled his shoulders. “The man who had my wife kidnapped and planned to sell her.”

I gaped at him. “Why would you do that?”

“He had a lot of contacts with people I would never deal with. If anyone could help you, it would be him. He owed me.”

At my questioning look, he explained.

“His brother broke the truce, and he died. Greg ran, leaving this world behind. We knew where he was, but we left him alone. But I thought he could help in this case. And he did.”

I leaned forward. “How?”

Roman rubbed his lip, glancing at Luca. “He had deep connections. Still has a few. He called in some favors after I persuaded him it was in his best interest.” He flexed his hand, and I saw the torn knuckles, understanding how the persuasion had gone down.

“Lopez calls himself a Dominant. One of the worst kinds. I just call him a sick fuck. But he doesn’t like to train his subs. He, ah, doesn’t have the patience. He likes them…broken.”

I couldn’t speak, indicating for Roman to keep going. I gripped the arm of the chair, knowing I needed to stay strong.

“There is a group of men in Russia that specializes in training. That’s all they do. Buy them. Men, women, boys, girls. Train them until they are a shell of their former selves.” He met my eyes, his filled with sympathy. “They’re particularly brutal.”

I could feel my chest contract rapidly. It felt as if I couldn’t get enough oxygen into my lungs.

“Lopez finds people. Sells them to this group. Part of his reward is they train subs for him and gift them back. It happens frequently since they never last long. If they make it out of Russia.” His tone was low. “He has a reputation for cruelty. And he has a thing for redheads.”

I was out of my chair in a flash and out of the room. I bent over the toilet, and the meager contents of my stomach were ejected, bitter and searing. Tears filled my eyes, and I struggled for breath.

Una.

My Una.

Mo chroí.

I stood, wiping my mouth. I looked in the mirror, my reflection almost unrecognizable. I was pale, sweating. I looked older. Defeated.

Then Una’s face drifted across my mind. I heard her voice in my head.

“Hero,” she whispered. “My hero. I love you, Finn.”

I straightened. Splashed my face with water. Stiffened my shoulders.

“How do we find him?” I snapped as I walked back into the room, my emotions locked down and my focus on one thing. Finding her. Saving her.

Or die trying.

Roman looked me over and nodded, the pity gone from his eyes.

“Greg found out they’re headed here. The group. There’s an auction happening in a few days. Six women. One of whom I am certain is Una.”

“Do we know where?”

“Not yet, but Greg is finding out. They only disclose it the day before.”

Niall spoke up. “What if the lab and the place they’re holding Una are the same?”

I frowned at the thought. “The lab is a bomb waiting to explode. Would he risk that? Having—” I had to swallow “—the merchandise so close to a possible disaster?”

“It’s Lopez. Think about it the way he would. Everything in one place. Fewer men, less attention. More profit.”

Luca spoke. “I think he’s done it before. From what I’ve read, he takes a lot of shortcuts, so it would make sense.” He looked at Roman before finishing his thoughts. “Frankly, as much as he is obsessed with Una, if something happened, he would just move on. There would be no mourning for his loss.”

I had to turn away for a moment. It all made sense and, in some ways, made things easier for us. Planning. But the thought of Una being trapped underground, close to a dangerous lab, made me feel ill again. And until we had the place confirmed, we didn’t know if we were right. If we stormed it now and she wasn’t there, she was as good as dead.

I had to pray nothing happened until we had confirmation.

“How do you know this Greg is telling the truth?”

“He owes me,” Roman said firmly. “I’m collecting. He is going to find out the location and let us know.”

“He won’t double-cross you?”

“No,” he said firmly.

“Then, gentlemen, we’re about to crash the party once we have a location.” My hands tightened into fists. “And everything goes. The lab, wherever he’s hiding her. We hit it all at once. He is left with nothing. I want him to know I took it all before he dies.”

Everyone nodded.

“Let’s make a plan.”

* * *

UNA

I had no idea how much time had passed since I’d been chained up in the dark. We were left there, the occasional bottle of water tossed to us, barely enough food to even begin to satisfy the hunger pangs that were constant. We had a bucket for a toilet. No place to wash.

Once, we were dragged to another room and hosed down, the water barely tepid. The scrap of cloth tossed our way was not enough to get dry. I hid my necklace from Finn in my pocket, praying they wouldn’t find it. It was all I had of him, and I held it in my hands in the dark, rubbing the metal between my fingers, knowing he had touched it.

My hope was fading. The longer I sat there, scared and alone, the fainter my spirit became. The only thing keeping me from total despair was Annabelle. Or Anna, as she had asked me to call her in a hushed voice. We always spoke quietly, our heads bowing close together, unsure if we were being overheard. She told me about growing up in the north. Spending summers on the lake, helping her parents run their small camping ground.

“Wouldn’t they be looking for you?” I asked.

“No. Dad died a few years ago and Mom this past winter. I sold the campground and planned on using the money to start in the big city.” Her shoulders slumped. “Big mistake, I guess.”

“Your friends?”

She shook her head. “We lived out of town. I didn’t have a lot of them. Those I did wouldn’t think I was missing not hearing from me yet. They’d think I was busy getting settled.”

Her eyes glistened with fresh tears. “No one will remember me soon.”

“We’ll get out of here. Finn will come,” I assured her.

But I was beginning to think maybe Finn couldn’t find me.

I told her about my dad, growing up as an only daughter with Brian. I shared good memories, trying to stop the dislike I was feeling toward him. It felt as if I were talking about someone else. A different person from the man filled with hate and greed that he had become. I talked about my mum and how I missed her after she was gone.

And I told her about Finn and how much I loved him. How I regretted wasting the time I had on a stupid promise I had made to myself as I grew up.

“I’ll never leave him again if we get out of here,” I whispered. “I’ll show him every day how much I love him.”

Lopez and Juan showed up at various times. Lopez was always leering and hurtful. He liked to pinch and slap; although he did it and then stepped back, the coward that he was, so I couldn’t retaliate. He had a lot to say, all of it meant to frighten me—and it did—but I refused to show him. He loved to use the words broken, doll, and possession. He talked about how he looked forward to me pleasing him. Serving him. He grinned, staring down at me, kneeling in the dirt.

“On your knees—you will always be on your knees now. My own little whore.”

It was all I could do not to tell him I looked forward to Finn killing him. Preferably slowly.

Juan was even more impatient, often tugging on Anna’s hair as he hurt her and said things to her I couldn’t hear but made her cry. He liked that. He also liked to kick. I wanted to grab a red-covered foot and knock him off-balance, but I knew he’d take it out on Anna. Both men enjoyed building our terror. Emphasizing their position with physical pain.

Sick fucks. Both of them.

Brian never came. I wondered if he was still alive. If they were still using him.

And I wondered how much longer I would live. If what Lopez and Juan kept telling us was true, I wouldn’t survive.

It was only the thought of never seeing Finn again, never feeling his arms around me, that could make me cry. And I hid my tears so no one could see.

At least those were still mine.

* * *

The sound of footsteps and voices made me sit up straighter, and I gripped Anna’s hand. Juan appeared, looking unusually animated. “Stand up.”

We did, and he aimed a gun at us. Instinctually, I stepped in front of Anna, and he sniggered. “You can’t protect her.”

“Someone has to,” I replied.

He only sneered.

Another man appeared and unlocked our ankles. We were pushed down the hall and into the room with the showers. But it was different. Now, there were towels. Robes. Shampoo.

“Clean yourselves up. You have fifteen minutes.”

We did as we were told, neither of us wanting to risk being hit or shot. My hair was knotted and hard to wash, but I did my best. After drying off, I pulled on the robe, hating the fact that it was short, white, and left nothing to the imagination. There was a small tear inside the lapel, and I slipped Finn’s necklace into it, feeling it fall to the hem. Even though they were wet, I put my underwear back on.

Anna did the same. Then we waited, knowing our lives were about to change.

And not for the better.