Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 75783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
The two of us kneel down behind a kitchen island while we hear the commotion of all the guards getting into position as our men descend upon the estate with weapons in hand.
We rush toward the staircase in the heart of the living room, pushing past all the guards trying to stop us. I shoot my gun to tear through some of them as I dodge out of the way to keep moving without hesitation.
Xander gets caught up in a squabble with one burly guard, and I move to help him, but Xander shakes his head. “You have to go!”
I don’t hesitate to turn around and run to the stairs again. Xander knows as well as I do what the mission is here. Of course, I want to kill Malik with every fiber of my being. But we’re here to save Harper. I have to find her and make sure she’s okay.
I climb the stairs as quickly as I can and begin kicking every door I come across down with my gun raised like this is some kind of SWAT raid. I search every room on the second floor, even looking in all the closets and under beds for any sign of Harper or Malik, but there is none.
The commotion downstairs settles down during my search, and by the time I’m done, the battle is won, and Xander stands victorious in the center.
“She’s not up there,” I call to them as I hurry down, immediately beginning my search of the first floor.
Everyone helps me look for Harper and Malik, but there’s no sign of them. The only sign of life in the entire estate is a maid who is hiding in a storage closet with her hands covering her ears. She’s crying and begging us not to hurt her, and all of us promise her we won’t.
“Just tell us where Malik is,” I urge her, resting my hands on her shoulders while I stare in her eyes, showing her the desperation I feel. “He should have a blonde girl with him. Where is she?”
She shakes under my grasp and takes a raspy breath as she looks over my shoulder at the danger possibly awaiting her should she not comply. “I overheard two of his men talking about taking someone to a brothel he owns. She must be there.”
I let her go and back away, feeling how my heart drops to my stomach. The thought of her being in some dingy, disgusting brothel with different men ogling her and reaching out to touch her makes my skin burn. Harper is mine, and nobody else gets to have her. I have to stop this.
We get the name of the brothel and general instructions of how to get there from the maid and leave as quickly as we can. A massacre is left behind us, but I don’t care.
Xander drives me and Quinton to the brothel as I stare out the window and think about what I’m going to have to do when I get there. If Malik is there with more of his men, we’ll just kill them. Just like we did everyone stationed at his house.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to find her,” Xander offers as we keep driving.
I believe him. No doubt we’re going to find her. The real question is, what kind of condition is she going to be in? The thought of finding her hurt or worse has my stomach twist.
It doesn’t take long before we’re pulling up outside of the brothel disguised as a nightclub. The maid told us there is a code word we have to use to get into the basement where the women work. The bouncer at the door tries to stop us, but we walk in regardless.
There was an option to be covert about this and give the person at the brothel door the code word, but instead I knee him in the groin and shove him to the ground, pointing a gun at his head. Nobody else in the nightclub seems to notice when I pull the trigger, and he goes limp on the stairs.
We walk into the brothel, and I immediately start searching for Harper amongst the women working. Various different men are all drinking and looking at the women they’re going to pay for the evening. Cigar smoke fills the room and only adds to the disgusting atmosphere as we walk through the crowd of people.
Everybody seems to turn their attention toward us when we approach. A group of armed men will do that to a crowd. People run and hide in the corners, locking themselves away in rooms. I’m about to yell out to the crowd to ask if anybody has seen Harper when I hear a shriek coming from one of the rooms and run toward it.
I kick the door down to see exactly what I was expecting. Harper is lying on a bed with a man on top of her, trying to hold her arms above her head. He’s clearly drunk and out of it, looking down at her body without a care for what she’s feeling. He tears his eyes away from her and looks at me with his eyebrows wrinkled.