by Sophia Reed
But Lettie gave me a level look he couldn't see because she still stood three-quarters turned from him, reaching for my shirt. Wait, she mouthed.
I almost shook my head. Wait for what?
But Bevington was at it again, directing who to do what, that I would have some time to anticipate what's coming and I would be the one to start with doing the caning.
There were two of us, in our twenties, and one of him, looking well over the century mark. But when I looked again he'd stopped pleasuring himself and he held a gun. Small. A 5-shot revolver. But close range. Five bullets. Two of us. He'd just more than evened the odds.
I nodded at Lettie. I needed to close the distance between me and Bevington. Lettie raised her skirt over her ass and bent over the desk, making certain Bevington had a good view between her legs. She had to angle herself to make that happen.
No mistake.
I looked to the umbrella stand. Now Bevington would tell me which to start with and probably it would be a flexible light stingy cane when what I wanted was the biggest, thickest cane he had.
There was no time to be choosy. I had to grab and hope big meant heavy.
"Hurry."
There was something in his voice. Like he was about to come. Which I thought would be bad. Whether he thought it was embarrassingly fast or he hated losing control, I thought Bevington coming meant more pain.
I grabbed the nearest implement. I moved around Lettie, changing from her right side to her left because I'm right handed. I took care not to block Bevington's view.
He was still hard. My mind wandered for a second. I'd had the idea in mind. Now I pondered an alternate for a moment before I returned to my idea.
I tapped Lettie's ass, just getting my distancing.
"None of that. Hurt her. Hit her hard."
I smiled. I lifted the cane an brought it screaming down. I heard him laugh just before I jerked my arm still, straining muscles, jolting ligaments. I touched Lettie with the cane, heard her confused Mrph?
And dragged the cane backhanded as fast and hard as I could, making a wide movement like a frisbee toss that would sail all the way to another country, my trajectory so wide.
So fast.
So fucking hard.
The cane caught him across the cheekbone. I heard the crunch and knew the pain. I'd had my own damaged. The sound of the cane would be familiar. The sound of his cry was high and wrong. It might take security a minute to figure out it was their boss and not some disposable female.
Just long enough.
He'd dropped the gun. It skittered across the room under the desk before either of us thought to grab it. His erection was going fast.
I brought the cane down in a double handed overhand strike, smashing his length into his balls and both into his lap.
This time the cry was unmistakably not one of us.
Lettie whirled to the door and locked it. "Are you insane? Now what?" Her eyes were wide and terrified.
"Now this," I said, and as the door strained on the lock, shuddering as huge shoulders slammed into it, I pulled the knife from my garter and pulled the shivering, shaking, retching Bevington from his chair, wrapped my arm around his throat, and put the tip of Theo's wicked blade against the very corner of his eye.
Security came through the door and stopped.
Standoff.
37
Annie
Joseph tried to run back out of the room. Going for help? Getting away from the most assured retaliation if his boss got free?
"Uh, uh," I said, shaking my head. That let the tip of the blade sink just under the surface of Bevington's skin. A drop of blood beaded up and slid down. It looked like it came from his eye. The blade was that close. "You need to come in, hands up and off your weapons, kick the door closed, or I'll blind your boss." Right before I slit his throat. But since then I'd have no more bargaining chips and security might actually be less trapped in their jobs and more really well paid, they might end up looking for revenge on anyone who took away their meal ticket, I didn't add that.
They came in, hands up, and the one who wasn't Joseph kicked the door shut. Bevington was starting to shake. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. This is a really sharp knife. You blink the wrong way, you're going to lose an eye."
That just made him shake harder. I smiled on the inside where it didn't show. How many years had this thing been playing unwinnable games just like this with girls who had no way out?
"Lettie, can you help yourself to their guns and kind of take a feel around for anything else we might find – useful." Or troubling. Whichever. I didn't think she'd like doing it but I didn't want to take a chance while making the tradeoff of knife and Bevington and besides, if it came down to it, I thought I really could plunge the knife into his eye.
But Lettie surprised me again. She had zero problem disarming both guards, keeping her eyes on them as she backed away with each weapon to deposit them on the far side of the room, on my right side where Bevington wasn't. She piled them on the seat of a matching armchair to the one in which Bevington shook. She had equally little problem feeling up the guards and searching them for other weapons. She found a Taser, pepper spray, and a small baton. If there was more, we missed it.
I gestured at the one who wasn't Joseph. Almost asked his name. Didn't. "You guys have handcuffs?" Lettie hadn't produced any.
They both stared at me mulishly like they'd just forgotten English. Whatever. I was starting to try and figure out where to put them while we got the other girls. Taking the three of them with me was too big a risk. Killing them was too murdery. They were unarmed. Not that I wanted them to do so, but they'd have to try something before I shot either one.
Even Joseph.
I wasn't sure about Bevington. The burn on my ass gave a pang as if in agreement.
"Is it light yet?" I asked Lettie and she opened the windows and a sort of dark sunlight crept in. It was early morning, just barely past dawn, the time when the sun lights the sky but hasn't yet climbed into it.
"So you've got us," Joseph said. "What now?" He lowered his arms, which I didn't like, but ordering him to put them up again wouldn't take and I'd rather deal with what I didn't like than look weak. Looking weak put ideas in people's heads about exploiting that weakness.
"We're all going outside," I said, making it up as I went along. "Get up, asshole." I gave Bevington another jab, this one in the cheek. Blood rolled down and he hissed. To his credit, that was all he did, and when he got up, he didn't play the old man card. He got up as smoothly as he ever had. Next second he made a lunge for his right, going for the weapons.
I lashed out with the knife, catching him across the biceps. It was a nasty cut, instantly starting to stain his robe crimson, but it was Lettie who took him down. She moved like she knew what she was doing. She moved like she was grabbing for a gun herself, but instead she brought her fist up in an inelegant but excellent upper cut.
She caught Bevington under the jaw and toppled him backward. He didn't go out, but he didn't get up from where he sprawled, either, toppled back into the chair I'd just gotten him out of. Both security reacted, one running for the open window, the other for the door.
But I had a gun now, not just a knife.
And so did Lettie.
"Open that door and you're dead," I said and thought, Please, Joseph. Go for it.
I was an excellent shot.
He didn't. He stopped and turned back, glanced at his partner, appealed to me, pointing at Bevington. "At least let us see he's all right." As if I were endangering the man's health. As if he himself hadn't just tried to run out on Bevington. He actually started to move toward the asshole, as if I had okayed it.
"I don't care if he's all right or not. Kind of the way none of you cared if I was. Get the fuck back." I motioned with the gun.
He hesitated, looking at the gun. I think he was checking the safety, and the way I held it. Checking to see if I knew what I was doing.
I must hav
e convinced him.
He backed off.
I took the key to the deadbolt out of Bevington's pocket and unlocked the front door but left it closed. I didn't want anything to attract outside security until we were ready.
In the front entry, I made both guards and Bevington lay face down, hands behind their heads, and was glad to see at least here was something it was difficult for Bevington to do. His arms shook with the strain as if I'd put him in a stress position.
I didn't relent. I let him shake.
"Go get the others," I told Lettie. It was no time to pretend I wasn't in charge or to try and be polite or diplomatic or feminine. I said go and she went.
She ran, her bare feet slapping on the tile stairs. I heard her at the door to the harem, where there were no guards. Because they were outside? Because there were only two at a time? I had no idea. I only knew she wasn't stopped.
That the others would be awake and probably dressed I had no doubt. There was a fear when someone was taken. It put everyone else on alert.
It took long enough for me to hear her knocking and then realizing she couldn't get the door open and neither could they. I heard her shout to get away from the door, and then she shot it, apparently well, because it took one shot and I heard her saying, "Now. We're going now. Come on. Leave everything!"
As if Mia and Nikki wouldn't.
Then their footsteps coming back.
I was afraid the shot fired would bring the other security. I didn't care. I had Bevington. No one had a job if Bevington died. He was our ticket out.
The other girls stopped partway down the stairs, mouths open, then moved before either Lettie or I could shout at them to get moving again.
"There are guns in his office," Lettie said. I wouldn't have thought of that.
Mia darted in while Nikki stood looking confused, came back out and handed Nikki a gun. "Safety's off so only point it at someone you want to shoot. Then you just pull the trigger."
Nikki nodded, looking dazed, and promptly asked in a normal voice, "Why aren't we shooting the motherfucker?"
"Because I'd rather see him in prison," Lettie said before I could. "Wouldn't you? He'll lose his shit being locked up."
"And buggered," Mia said, and laughed. "Front door locked?"
"Here," I said, and threw her the deadbolt key. "Look out for outside security."
She did, standing as well back from the door as Theo had after I'd clocked him with it. I felt bad about that now. On the plus side, he'd played his undercover cards well. I'd just thought he wasn't as inhuman as Chad.
The four of us took turns looking out and checking for security before motioning everyone to get up. Hands still behind heads.
"Let me help him up," Joseph said to me, motioning at his boss. He had the gall to sound angry like I was doing a terrible and unfair thing.
"Touch him and I'll shoot you in the knee," I said and he backed off. I watched without compassion as Bevington pushed himself up from the floor..
We made a procession, stepping out, Mia and Nikki first, their guns pointed at nothing and keeping it that way, and me and Lettie herding the three captives. I had no idea what I'd do once we cleared the porch. Lettie seemed to be figuring out as much of this as I was, if not more.
Turned out I didn't have to know what to do next.
We got clear of the porch and the yard lit with floodlights from law enforcement vehicles, from jeeps with bugeyes and from powerful mag lights. There was only one second of disconnect before I knew the lights were from backup for me, not for Bevington. Because the lights hadn't come on when Theo and Chad brought me here. There were no outside motion activated flood lights.
These lights were activated by people in vehicles, people who had come for us.
"Don't move!" someone shouted.
Someone else shouted, "That's her!"
And I'd know Cole's voice anywhere.
What I wanted to do was shout to him to stay where he was. Safe.
What I did do was fall as a bullet hit my shoulder, just before the outside security was taken down.
38
Cole
The firefight lasted seconds. That felt like an eternity. I saw Annie go down, saw blood explode on her shoulder. Even though I knew she was all right – over the guns I could hear her solid nonstop cursing – I wanted to get to her.
Scott held me back in between shooting. He didn't have to. I'm not stupid. I can't hold Annie if I'm dead.
Two minutes after it started, it stopped. If there was more security on sight, which I doubted, they were playing it safe or running like hell.
Two of them were dead. Three were injured. One surrendered. Apparently Annie had a grudge against that one because when everything was secure and everyone dared to move again, she walked over and ordered him to his knees, then kicked him hard between the legs. When he collapsed forward, she smashed him in the head with the butt end of the gun she held.
When he lay face down in the dirt, she spit on him.
Only then did she come to me. Running. Hard. And launch herself into my arms.
39
Annie
Cole closed his arms around me and instantly turned away from Bevington's yard and everything there. He was already moving me back toward a Hummer that stood, motor running.
I stopped him. He hadn't picked me up, maybe because I was more of a target if he did – he could shelter more of my body with his if we were both upright – but ushered me ahead of him.
I stopped walking and turned in his arms and went up on tiptoe, kissing him hard enough to bruise. Only one of my arms would go around his neck. That was enough.
His hands tightened around my back, pressing me into him as if meaning to crush me. When our mouths came apart, he said, "Bad place for this."
I nodded and looked past him, making him jolt a little to try and keep me where I was. I wasn't going anywhere. I was making sure of my posse.
Lettie was right behind Cole, looking a little confused or maybe overwhelmed. She hadn't been out of Bevington's house in months. Mia and Nikki were behind her, looking back and forth between the law enforcement ranged around us and at Bevington and his security goons, as if constantly reassuring themselves the danger was over.
I thought it was, but I had some residual feelings myself about that. It was the fear that Bevington might stand back up like the villain in a horror movie, alive when he shouldn't be. Not that he was dead. Just that he was supposed to not be a threat anymore. I had that Hollywood jump scare fear that at any minute he'd be after me again.
Might take a while for that to fade. Maybe at least as long as it took the burn to heal.
What I wanted to do was ask questions and make sure what was happening. What Cole wanted to do was load me into an ambulance and get me and my blood soaked shoulder to a hospital.
We compromised. I let the EMTs treat me if Cole would answer my questions during. It wasn't like we could keep this from getting out. The police cars out front were local sheriff's department.
Yet there was still some secrecy. We spoke in a modified way, watching every word and how much information we gave out. Knowing each other after more than a year together helped that.
"Two men drove me to Arizona," I said, wincing as one of the techs did something to my shoulder that hurt. They'd cut my shirt off and were working around my black lace bra. For once I wasn't even vaguely humiliated at that.
The one monitoring my vitals, working from my left side as the other worked on the bullet in my right, said, "We can give you painkiller for this."
I hissed, because damn, that would be nice. I met Cole's eyes and saw no judgement there. Whatever I decided, he'd support, and worry about the results later.
"No, you can't," I said regretfully "I'm a recovering addict." I thought I saw respect in his eyes, then, though I'd rather have seen a needle in his hand. Getting shot fucking hurts.
Eventually a day would come when I'd have to use a painkiller. I wasn't going
to go through a root canal, for example, without Novocain and lots of it. But for today, I'd take Cole's eyes and find my strength there.
Or maybe somewhere within myself, untouched depths I hadn't realized were still there.
"About the drivers," I said. I meant to tell Cole there were two but one needed to be allowed to walk. Or something. I wasn't sure how to put it so he'd get the fact that Theo wasn't what Chad was and we had to watch his cover didn't get blown. I was 99 percent sure Theo was undercover and even if I was wrong, I wanted him to skate on this one.
Whatever information Cole had, he didn't share then, but he looked me directly in the eye and said, "You must have been drugged. Only one man drove you to Arizona. Chad Williams. He's in federal custody."
Well, that was unlikely, if not impossible, but it let me know what I needed to know. Theo was being protected and Chad had transported me across state lines – twice – for immoral purposes of sex. That violated the Mann Act and took the whole thing to federal levels.
My shoulder was stabilized and we were about to roll. I asked for a minute to talk to the girls who were with me and to talk to Cole. The driver and the tech both bristled and started to talk about blood loss and mobility and Cole, being Cole, simply turned on the billionaire and got the entire buss to ourselves for no more than three minutes the tech emphasized.
Without the medics there, we could talk less guardedly, though I didn't go back to Theo.
"What happened to Raven and Evie?"
Cole kissed me, then squatted down in front of me in that easy way men have of making balancing on their toes look simple. "Raven was picked up ten minutes ago. There were feds on the ground already in Kingman. They were working a case, looking for traffickers. Your information turned it around for them. Made it faster and gave them proof."
"Hearsay," I said. That felt gloomy.
Cole shook his head. He was smiling though it looked strained. "The trackers you're wearing instantly malfunctioned."