Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“Hard left past the third door,” I said quietly.
Finch nodded once and led the way. It wasn’t like he didn’t know where he was going or that he needed my approval. I’d spoken mostly to myself. I needed to make sure the directions felt right in the actual setting. I trusted my memory, but the fact remained that I’d been drugged some of the time. While I prided myself on my near photographic memory, I wasn’t too proud to admit I could have made a mistake. Thankfully, Finch seemed to realize my need for confirmation.
We hit the T-intersection and I turned toward the observation room. The one-way glass was set into the wall at eye level, dark on our side, and I knew what was behind it. I pressed close to the wall and looked through.
The main room was lit the way I remembered it. The low amber light hid the bruises when they'd roughed us up to keep the merchandise looking unspoiled for the buyers. Denton was still using the trick. Dark walnut furniture, the bar against the far wall, the dark partitions between the booths. Two women waited in the room, both on their knees with their legs spread and their palms resting on their thighs. Both of them had their heads down but I could see their slight quivering as they waited for whatever fresh hell came for them. Again, I had to fight back a wave of nausea.
Denton stood near the center of the room. He gestured toward the women like they were his property. Which, since they were physically unable to leave on their own, I supposed they were. Across from him, a thickset buyer with the casual confidence of someone who never gets denied, glass of amber liquid in hand. They were talking deals.
At the edge of the room, another man watched everything. Broad-shouldered, dressed expensively but understated. He stood stoic, military posture, graying close-cropped hair giving him some season. The menace coming off him had nothing to do with his size or his clothes. He had the same hard look some of the men in Kiss of Death had. And Tonio. Without moving or speaking, he was easy to peg as the most dangerous man in the room.
"That's Rainman," Tonio whispered softly. "He's the one who set up the meet." The coldness radiating from Tonio was unmistakable.
“I don’t like this,” Kass muttered. “To have such wide-open rooms, this place feels claustrophobic. There’s too much going on at once.”
I knew how he felt. Much as I needed to be here, to help Mercy and all the other women and girls in this house of horrors, I wanted to be anywhere but this fucking club.
“Keep going,” I said softly. “There are more rooms just like this and the women aren’t always in as good a shape.”
“Christ.” Antonio swore, snagging my hand as we advanced behind Kass down the corridor. “We’re not leaving anyone in this place, Kass. The women go back to Haven until we know they have safe places to go. Everyone else dies.”
“You don’t have to fuckin’ tell me twice,” Kass growled. That surprised me. I’d never heard Kass offer an opinion on anything. Tonio or Seth gave an order, and Kass carried it out. These men weren’t bad. They might not operate on the right side of the law, but they weren’t the monsters they’d been painted as. At least, not to anyone who didn’t deserve the monsters.
We continued down the corridor, turning left, then right before we came to the last heavy steel door in the hallway. Kass used some kind of gizmo to double-check the combination of the electronic lock against the numbers Rourke had given us. The numbers must have checked out because Kass punched in the code and opened the door.
I blocked Antonio reflexively, one arm out, because three women in the room all pulled in on themselves but didn’t make a sound as we entered.
“It’s OK,” I said, holding my arms out to my sides. “We just want to help.”
Antonio signaled Kass and Finch, who stepped closer to the door to keep an eye on the corridor. Hawk and Sully poked their heads into the open doorway, but remained outside, likely conferring with Knight while they freed the other women we’d come across.
One woman lay on a cot. Her eyes were wide and fixed on me, not on the men behind me. The other two women were younger. One lay curled on a second cot, her knees to her chest. The third sat on the floor with her back against the wall, her wrists zip-tied to a grate in the floor. All of them had a hollow, stripped look.
I kept my voice low. “My name is Tessa. We’re here to get you out.” Her mouth opened. Nothing came out. “We’re taking you to Haven. It’s safe there.” I moved closer, slow, and knelt by the cot. “Can you walk?”