I headed in that direction, with Owen following me. Through my earpiece, I heard Finn say that he and Bria were back safely at their car and would hold their positions until we met them, but I tuned him out, far more interested in what the stones had to say at the moment.
Owen and I crept back over to the cottage. Even though it was still afternoon, Porter had left a couple of lights on inside. I walked all around the structure, peering into every single window, but it seemed as empty as when Finn had checked it. Owen came with me, still watching my back. Eventually, we wound up back at the front of the cottage.
I tried the door, but it was locked. And not just a simple lock like those that had been on all the mansion doors. This one had three dead bolts all in a row. That was total overkill—unless you had something to hide.
Like the girl you’d kidnapped and were planning to murder.
“Gin?” Finn’s voice sounded through my earpiece. “We have a problem. Rivera’s car is pulling in through the front gate. He’s already back from the bank. Looks like Mosley wasn’t able to stall him as long as we’d hoped.”
I checked my watch. We’d been searching for Elissa for more than an hour. It would take me several more minutes to make Ice picks and to actually finesse all three locks open, and Damian Rivera could come here at any moment to check on his hostage. So I decided to be direct about things. I gestured for Owen to stand back, and then I put my hand on the door, right over the locks, and blasted them all with my Ice magic.
Three inches of elemental Ice coated the dead bolts in a matter of seconds. The wood and metal shrieked and groaned in protest, almost as loudly as the stones were still muttering, but I ignored the sounds, sent out another wave of magic, and blasted right through the locks and all of the surrounding wood. Broken bits of metal flew through the air, along with long splinters and sharp, needle-like pieces of my elemental Ice.
The second the locks busted open, a loud alarm blared, and lights started flashing inside the cottage, which only made me even more convinced that Elissa was inside.
“What is that?” Finn yelled in my ear. “What did you do, Gin?”
“Just a little breaking and entering!” I shouted back at him over the continued din of the alarm.
“Well, I can hear it all the way out here on the street!” he yelled again. “Which means that the guards can hear it too!”
“Stay here,” I told Owen. “I’ll go inside and search for Elissa.”
He nodded and raised his gun, his gaze locked on the mansion in the distance, where the interior and exterior lights were also flashing in time to the cottage’s alarm system. He would watch my back and hold off the guards as long as he could, but I needed to do my part fast. So I put my shoulder down, rammed the door open, and hurried inside.
The front part of the cottage was one enormous open space that was a den, kitchen, and dining area all in one. I’d already seen all of this through the windows, so I moved over to a door that led into a bedroom and shoved it open. Elissa wasn’t in this room either, so I wrenched open the closet door. That too was empty, so I headed into the attached bathroom. Still no sign of her, so I went back out into the main part of the cottage, looking around again.
Now that I was actually inside the structure, the stones’ shrieks were harsher and louder than ever before, ringing in my ears right along with the alarm. This was definitely the place where Rivera held his victims for days on end before he beat and strangled them to death. But where was Elissa? If she was yelling at me to help her, I couldn’t hear her over the alarm’s constant blaring.
So I moved through the cottage again, searching everywhere, and counting off the seconds in my head. Owen and I probably had about five minutes before the guards would arrive in full force, and I needed to find Elissa and get her out of here before then.
I had started to go back into the bedroom to search in there again, even though I’d already cleared that area, when I noticed a crack in the stone floor, one that was peeping out from underneath the corner of a rug that I’d pushed aside with my boots when I first stormed in here. I glanced at the surrounding stones, but the crack didn’t match the rest of the floor pattern.
So I slid my knife back up my sleeve, dropped to the floor, and ripped the rug aside. A secret trapdoor was set into the floor, complete with a large metal ring to open it. I grabbed the ring with both hands and pulled on it with all my might, but the thick door was far too heavy for me to open.
Since I didn’t have the strength to pull up the trapdoor, I decided to go right down through it. I dropped back to my knees, slapped my palms on the floor, and blasted it with my Ice and Stone magic, just like I had done to the front door.
The floor was much harder and thicker than the wooden door had been, but I was motivated, and I forced my Ice magic down into the trapdoor, used my Stone power to crack it away, hooked my fingers into the jagged chunks of rocks, and tossed them aside as fast as I could. The sharp, splintered rocks cut into my hands, but I ignored the painful stings and focused all my magic on the floor.
Ice, Stone, blast, blast, grab, lift, throw away . . .
I repeated the motions over and over again until I’d blasted the entire trapdoor out of the way. I waved away a cloud of gray dust, leaned over, and peered down through the jagged hole that I’d made in the floor.
A glimmer of gold glinted in the dark space below.
For a moment, the odd, horrible thought filled my mind that I’d only discovered Rivera’s stash of lipstick. But the dust cleared, and I realized that the golden glimmer was actually a strand of long blond hair.
I’d finally found Elissa.
23
I sat down, scooted over, and dropped through the hole in the floor. My boots hit hard-packed dirt, and I straightened up and glanced around.
The area was only about six feet high and twelve feet wide, making it bigger than a crawl space but not quite large enough to be a bona fide basement. A wooden ladder that I hadn’t noticed before led up to what had been the trapdoor. Shelves lined the walls, but I didn’t take the time to see what was perched on them. Dust hung in thick clouds in the air, the particles slowly drifting down and turning everything a dull, murky gray.
Elissa was sitting just to the right of the trapdoor ladder, tied to a chair, with heavy ropes binding her wrists and ankles. She wore a fancy red cocktail dress, along with matching stilettos, and someone had taken the time to curl her long blond hair into sleek waves that cascaded over her shoulders. She looked beautiful, and if not for the ropes, I would have thought that she was a model, patiently sitting and waiting to be called to some photo shoot.
Her head was bowed, her blond hair hiding her face from sight, and her entire body was still—much too still. My heart stopped, and my breath caught in my throat. I wondered if I was already too late, wondered if she was already dead, beaten and strangled by Damian Rivera like all those other women.
After several long, agonizing seconds, Elissa slowly lifted her head, shook her hair out of the way, and peered up at me, squinting against the harsh glare of the still-flashing lights in the cottage above. My heart started beating again, and my breath left my lungs in a rush. Alive. She was still alive.
But my relief was short-lived.
Elissa’s face had been carefully, expertly made up with foundation, powder, eyeliner, and shadow, highlighting her green eyes and beautiful cheekbones. But the thing that made my blood run cold was her lipstick—Heartbreaker red, just like all the other women.
No cuts or bruises marked her skin, and no fingerprints ringed her throat. But that ugly stain on her mouth told me I’d gotten here just in time.
“Who are you?” Elissa’s lips moved, forming the words, but her voice was so weak and low that I couldn’t hear it over the blaring alarm.
“I’m a friend of Jade’s!” I shouted, trying to get her to understand that I was here to
rescue her.
Elissa’s eyes widened. “Jade!”
I nodded, stepped forward, and palmed a knife, quickly cutting through her bonds. Then I slid my knife back up my sleeve and helped her stand. Elissa wobbled, her body stiff from sitting in the same position for so long, but she gripped my arm and let me lead her over to the ladder.
“Go!” I yelled, although I wasn’t sure that she heard me over the alarm. “Go! Go! Go!”
With shaking hands and legs, Elissa climbed the ladder. I hung on to the side and helped her. It seemed to take forever, but she finally crawled through the opening at the top about ten seconds later. I scrambled up after her, as nimbly as a spider climbing its own web, and pulled her up and onto her feet. Elissa wobbled again, a result of the towering high heels she was wearing, but she staggered across the cottage and out through the open front door.
Owen was waiting outside, his gun up and ready to fire. “They see us!” he yelled. “The guards see us, and they’re heading this way!”
Sure enough, several dwarven guards armed with guns were up at the mansion, frantically running around the pool area and searching for who or what had triggered the alarm. Owen was right. A couple of them had spotted us and were yelling at their friends and pointing in this direction. The men began racing down the lawn toward us.
Owen stepped up and fired off several shots. Even though he was too far away to hit them, the gunfire still made the men stop and hunker down behind the bushes and trees for cover. But I knew that it wouldn’t be long before they charged at us again.
“Don’t let them take me back down there!” Elissa sobbed, tears running down her face and ruining her perfect makeup.
I looked her in the eyes. “The only place you’re going is back home to your sister. Now, do what Owen tells you, and everything will be fine. Do you understand?”
Elissa glanced from me to Owen and back again. She nodded, her head snapping up and down, ready to do anything to escape from this nightmare.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the guards getting to their feet and creeping in this direction again. Owen noticed them too, and he fired off a few more shots. The men scattered again, but this time, they started darting from bush to bush and tree to tree, hopscotching down the lawn until they could get close enough to open fire on us. Time to go.
I handed Elissa over to Owen, then raised my hand to my ear, trying to hear over that damn alarm, which was still ringing as loudly as ever. I’d be surprised if they couldn’t hear it all the way over in Cypress Mountain.
“Finn?” I said. “Finn? Are you still there?”
His voice crackled in my ear. “Of course I’m still here! What’s going on?”
“We found Elissa, but the guards are heading toward us. I need you and Bria to come back to the woods to help Owen.”
“On our way,” Finn replied.
I looked over at Owen. “Go. Get her out of here. Now.”
“What are you going to do?” he asked, worry flashing in his eyes.
I whipped up my knife. “I’m going to take out as many of the guards as I can. Don’t worry. I’ll hold them off until you guys have a good head start, and then I’ll be right behind you. Now, go. Go!”
He didn’t like leaving me behind, but he knew that I could take care of myself and that getting Elissa to safety was the most important thing. Owen gave me a sharp nod, then grabbed Elissa’s hand and pulled her away from the cottage toward the woods. She stumbled along behind him, moving as fast as she could.
The second that they disappeared into the woods, I turned back to the guards. With Owen and the threat of his gun gone, they left the trees and bushes behind and ran straight toward me. I palmed a second knife, so that I had one in either hand, and charged up the lawn to meet them.
• • •
Normally, people run away from goons with guns, so my unexpected sprint toward the dwarves made a couple of the men pull up short, raise their weapons, and take aim at me. But I didn’t slow down, not even for an instant. Instead, I reached for my Stone magic and hardened my skin, turning it into an impenetrable shell—and not a second too soon.
Crack!
Crack! Crack!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Bullets kicked up the dirt and grass at my feet and zinged through the air all around me. A couple even hit my body, but they bounced off my Stone-hardened skin and rattled away.
And then the men were on me, and I was on them.
I sliced my knife across the chest of the first guard who came at me, making him scream and stagger away. His buddies snapped up their guns and started firing at me again, but I kept my grip on my Stone magic, ignored the hard continued blasts of bullets against my skin, and waded right into the center of them.
My knives sliced every which way, the silverstone blades gleaming in the late-afternoon sun, and I cut into every single man I could reach. Blood spattered through the air like sheets of rain, the stench of it mixing with the acrid scent of gunpowder.
The guards quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be felled by mere bullets, and they whirled around and ran away, trying to get back to the mansion so that they could regroup.
Too late.
As they ran, I summoned my Ice magic, shooting out spray after spray of deadly daggers, which punched into their backs, making them fall face-first onto the ground. The perfectly pruned grass quickly turned a dark, mottled black with blood.
In less than two minutes, it was over, and half a dozen guards littered the lawn, all of them bleeding out from the vicious wounds that I’d inflicted on them.
I glanced behind me, but Owen and Elissa were long gone, and I didn’t hear any sounds of gunfire coming from the front of the mansion.
“Owen?” I said. “Owen, what’s going on?”
A second later, his voice sounded in my ear. “Elissa is with Jade. Finn and Bria are here too. The only one we’re missing is you.”
A grin curved my lips. “On my way.”
I turned to go, but one of the guards rose and grabbed my ankle. I tried to pull free, but he was a dwarf, with a strong, firm grip, despite the fact that his guts were leaking out all over the lawn. So I kicked him in the face with my other foot, breaking his nose with my heavy boot, and he screamed and slumped back down onto the ground. I stepped over his body, ready to head back to my friends—
“Well, this is a surprise,” a voice slurred. “And way more exciting than my trip to the bank was.”
I whirled around.
Damian Rivera stood on the edge of the stone patio. Wavy black hair, dark eyes, bronze skin, shockingly white teeth, expensive suit. He looked just like he had when I spied on him in his office two nights ago, and it was obvious that he’d been drinking just as heavily today as he had been then. A ruddy flush stained his cheeks, and his eyes were glassy and bloodshot at the same time.
He gave me a lopsided, goofy grin, as though it amused him to see his men crumpled all over the lawn like paper dolls that I’d shredded to pieces. Rivera didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned by his moaning, groaning guards or the blood dripping from the knives in my hands. The longer he looked at me, the wider his grin became, as though he were actually pleased to see me.
After several seconds of grinning like a fool, his brow furrowed, and he snapped his fingers over and over again, as if trying to remember who I was or where he had seen me before. It must have come to him, because he snapped his fingers a final time, much louder than before, and stabbed his index finger at me.
“Gin Blanco, right?” he said in that same slurring voice.
I flashed my bloody knives at him. “The one and only.”
Rivera nodded and grinned again, happy that he’d figured out who I was. “So you’re the one who’s been causing so much trouble lately.” He shook his head. “You’re really starting to annoy Mason. And let me tell
you from personal experience, that’s not something you want to do.”
My eyes narrowed. Mason? Who was Mason?
Was he—could he be—was he the leader of the Circle?
My breath caught in my throat, but I forced myself to rein in my shock and surprise. Instead, I tightened my grip on my knives and slowly sidled toward Rivera, not wanting to startle him in his obviously drunken state.
“Gin?” This time, Bria’s voice was in my ear. “What’s going on? What’s taking you so long? Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“Rivera’s here,” I muttered. “And he seems to be in a chatty mood. I’m going to ask him a few questions. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“You need to get out of there,” she said in a worried voice. “Silvio says that three more SUVs are pulling up to the front of the mansion. Whatever alarm you triggered, it’s summoned a lot more men.”
I’d been so focused on taking down the guards that I hadn’t noticed that the alarm had finally quit blaring. The lights in the mansion had also quit flashing. Someone had shut off the alert system. I wondered why, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up.
“All I need is one more minute,” I said.
“And I’m telling you that you don’t have one more minute. Get out of there, Gin. Get out of there now!” Bria yelled at me.
But I couldn’t go. Not yet. I’d blown my cover with Rivera, and I couldn’t leave him alive to tell Hugh Tucker that I’d been here and had killed his men. Tucker would realize that I’d identified Rivera as one of the Circle members, and the rest of them would start closing ranks. So I might as well stay and get the answers that I wanted—needed—about the Circle.
It was worth the risk.
“Tell me about Mason,” I called out, as I crept closer to Rivera. “Is he your boss? Is he the one who runs the Circle?”
Rivera gave me another sloppy grin, but his eyes sharpened, telling me that he wasn’t quite as drunk as I’d thought. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” He frowned, as though some odd thought had just crossed his mind. “Although I’m wondering how you found out that I was a member of the Circle. That’s most upsetting.” He paused. “Isn’t it, Porter?”
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