Page 65 of Hunted

So I continue for him. “They passed around a photo, one of Bower and Kingsley. Then they pointed to me and the warehouse and the man holding me started to drag me towards it.”

I rub my arm, still feeling the bite of his touch.

“Let me see,” Weston says, as he moves up beside me. I remove my hand and look down at my arm and am surprised to see it’s already bruising. Weston makes a noise, not too dissimilar to a growl, and my eyes jump up to his, I watch his jaw work back and forth in obvious anger.

“I’m okay, big guy.”

“You’re not.”

I shrug and try to play it cool. “I’ve lived through worse.” I don’t think that’s the right thing to say because instead of calming him down, he seems to grow angrier. I see a storm of emotion roll through his eyes and do the only thing I can think of; grab the front of his shirt, pull his face to mine and kiss him.

At first, he’s rigid and doesn’t kiss me back, but I move my hand around to the back of his neck and lick at the seam of his mouth. That’s when he stops holding back, his arms move around me as he opens up and kisses the living crap out of me.

Someone clears their throat, and we reluctantly pull apart. The anger is gone from his face and all that’s left there now is heat.

Mission accomplished.

“So anyway…” Bower says, giving me a quick wink. “You were saying?”

“Right,” Kingsley says, trying to subtly adjust himself in his pants. Was he turned on watching me kiss Weston? Interesting….

“So, when they tried to drag her away and uh… shoot me… Darla went a little feral. She nailed the guy in the nuts, and he let go, she grabbed a rock, smashed him in the face, then attacked the second guy, who seemed to be the leader. I went after the third and managed to get his gun and shoot him, then I shot the leader.”

My eyes move from Kingsley, to Bower, to Reece. The way Reece is looking at me sends a chill up my spine. I can’t tell if he’s upset at what happened or what I did, but whatever it is he doesn’t look happy. I move my eyes to Weston and he’s giving me a similar intense stare.

I try not to roll my eyes in frustration. Did they not want me to fight back? Kingsley would be dead if I hadn’t done what I had. But I don’t want to fight right now. I’m tired, hot, and just want to get out of here.

“What happened in the warehouse? What’d you find?” I ask, bringing us back to the reason we’re here. Weston and Reece share a glance that I can’t decipher, but it’s Bower who breaks the silence.

“It was bad. Real bad.” He pushes his hand through his hair, and it snags in his bun, so he pulls out the hair tie and reties it quickly.

“What did you see?” Kingsley asks, still holding the rifle.

“The charity is a front,” Reece says bluntly.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, there is no charity.” I frown, not understanding. He glances back at the building before looking at us again. “We should probably get out of here in case they come out, but…”

“But what?” I ask, not understanding what he’s talking about.

“But I don’t want to leave all those people there either.”

My breath catches in my throat. I try to ask him to explain, but I can’t seem to get the words out. Luckily, he seems to understand as he continues.

“I don’t know why there aren't any guards outside. Maybe this is them,” he says, pointing to the men on the ground around us. “But as soon as we stepped inside, we knew it was no charity organization. Theplace stunk like sewage and it was extremely dark. Inside the door looks like a small waiting room, but with no furniture and two doorways. We chose the first one and instantly saw a long hallway with lines of cages on each side.”

He glances nervously at Bower, his hand scratching at the back of his head as he continues.

“I thought they were dogs,” Bower says, looking down uncomfortably.

My eyes widen in fear as I quickly look between them, waiting for one of them to explain.

“The cages were full of people. Women and men mostly, but some kids, too. They looked like they’d been in there for a while.”

“Ohmygod!” I cover my mouth with my hands in shock.People? In cages?

“They’re dealing in human trafficking,” Kingsley says, putting it all together. Weston and Reece nod, and I try to swallow down the bile rising in my throat.