Three Hours (Seven Series Book 5) (22 page)

Wheeler dragged him around a large bush by his ankles and then stared at him for a minute. “See anything we could use to tie him to a tree?”

“How about that rope?” I suggested.

His eyes flicked up in surprise.

“That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? Just leave him and let’s go!” I carefully approached the back door, crawling in front of the bushes to avoid someone spotting me through one of the windows. Delgado must have liked his backyard view, because he had windows that went from floor to ceiling.

When it looked clear, I turned the doorknob and slowly stepped inside. A cool gust of air teased my hair back, and I listened for an alarm. Nothing.

The living room had all white furniture. I stood amid white leather sofas, white marble flooring, and a pristine white rug without a spot on it.

“Just in case you’re wondering, you didn’t die. This isn’t heaven,” Wheeler whispered sarcastically against my ear.

Voices murmured in the distance, and I quickly moved toward them. Wheeler’s arm flew out in front of me, holding me back so he could peer through a large doorway. He pointed to the left, signaling their location.

Wheeler skulked around the wall, and my anger began to bubble. My mother had always said I had a temper like a volcano—dormant for years until provoked by the wrong person. This wasn’t a man’s job, so I brazenly walked into the room with my catlike strut and straight toward the voices.

Much to the dismay of Wheeler, who had found a hiding spot behind a nude statue.

“Does anyone here know where I can find Damian Delgado?” I announced, moving as sultrily as a woman could.

Two men reached for their guns and hesitated, looking at me and then each other with stunned expressions. They wore black suits with slim ties.

“Hold it right there,” one of them said. “Don’t move.”

Ignoring him, I summoned a naughty smile and approached that man. “I spoke with the guard outside, and he said it was all right to come in. Are you Delgado?” I asked, running my hand down his chest. “He called my boss—asked for his best girl to show him a good time.”

The one on my left with the thick sideburns tucked his gun back in the holster. “You have the wrong house. You’re going to have to leave.”

“Wrong house? But he gave me this address! Doesn’t he live here?”

“Not tonight, he doesn’t.”

I lowered my eyes, ignoring the chatty man on my left and giving all the attention to the guard in front of me—the one who looked like the man in charge. My fingers slipped between the buttons of his shirt so I could touch his skin. “That’s a shame. I’m paid through the night. I got an extra bonus to do whatever he asked of me.”

“You’ll have to get a refund,” the guy with the sideburns said.

“Shut up, Mark,” my guy said tersely. “Let’s just think about this.”

“I think we’ll be in deep shit if we…”

I unbuckled the guard’s pants and slid them to the floor. I knelt down and gazed at him with provocative eyes. That took care of the gun attached to the belt around his waist. All he had left was the one in his hand.

“Oh, shit,” he said, out of breath, grabbing the frame of the door.

I stroked him with the palm of my hand. “Do you think your friend will join us? I want to suck on you while he’s behind me.”

By that point, Mark—the guy with the sideburns—was sold. He set his weapon on the table and fumbled with the latch on his own belt. Most guards in the Breed world weren’t as gullible as this, so that told me they were not only human, but Delgado surrounded himself with idiots.

I stood up, undoing the button on my jeans, looking every bit as anxious to get this threesome on the road. The man in front of me tucked his gun back into the holster beneath his jacket and then began stroking himself. So I turned to Mark and licked my lips seductively. His eyes hooded, and when he bent down to take off his shoes, I kneed him in the nose.

Blood spattered everywhere, and I elbowed the other guy in the ribs before pulling the gun out of his holster and sliding it across the floor. When I stood back up, he wrapped his arms around me like a boa constrictor. I used this to my advantage and pulled my feet off the ground, kicking Mark in the chest. He flew against the wall, gasping for breath.

Wheeler appeared out of nowhere and clamped his hand around the throat of the man holding me. I wriggled free just as Mark leapt to his feet, wiping his bloody nose with the back of his arm.

I lowered my eyes to his crotch and giggled out of control. It made him look, and when his own pride distracted him for two seconds, I scratched him in the face with my nails. Pain exploded in my eye when he swung his arm around and struck me, causing my panther to snarl. I tempered that fury and channeled it into my attack.

I’d never been in a fight like this, and I hadn’t known a punch could hurt so much. I grabbed a small statue from a glass table and struck Mark over the head with it. Spatters of blood painted the walls like a Pollock work of art. Before he could rise up, I struck him again.

The other guy was at a disadvantage with his pants wrapped around his ankles, and it took only moments before Wheeler incapacitated him as well.

I gulped down a breath and placed a hand over my racing heart as I looked around the house. It was large enough that no one upstairs would have heard us.

“Where’s Reno?” I asked.

He snatched my wrist and we rushed through the room, analyzing the layout of the house. When we hit the kitchen, we backtracked into an open area with a massive crystal chandelier above our heads and a circle of gold rings beneath our feet.

We rushed up a flight of stairs and I hurried my pace when I heard a commotion. A voice shouted, something crashed, and Wheeler climbed two steps at a time until he was out of sight.

“Wait!” I shouted. I reached the top of the stairs, panting and holding on to a stone lion as I focused my attention on the noise coming from a wall straight ahead. The banister looped around in a semicircle to my left with an open lounge. The carpeting up here was chocolate brown, and the furniture white.

Doors didn’t line the hall, but rather entranceways. On the right, I glanced into a sitting area with a door. There were two brown chairs and a plant between them that reminded me of a doctor’s office. I moved farther down toward the noise until the hall curved left, revealing a row of doors.

My legs propelled me forward at breakneck speed when a woman shrieked. “Skye!” I shouted. “Skye!”

Fists were flying and a mirror crashed to the floor as Reno fought a guard. Inside an open doorway, Wheeler was sitting on a man’s chest with his hands wrapped around his throat.

Skye was on the bed with her knees pulled up. I rushed to her side and pulled her into my arms. “Let’s go!”

Something held her back, and then I noticed the handcuff attached to a thick slat of wood in the headboard. “Wheeler! I need a key for handcuffs.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “I’m a little busy.”

“Can you stop choking him for two seconds? I need a key.”

“If you wait two more seconds, I’ll have that key.”

I cursed and hurried around the bed, shoving Wheeler off-balance. The man gasped, struggling to pull in air. I flipped him over and felt in his pockets until I found what I needed.

“Now you can finish,” I said with annoyance.

After removing Skye’s cuffs, I cupped her face. She looked dreadful. “Honey, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“I want to go home. Please take me home.” Her arms were shaking and she tried to grip my shoulders. I couldn’t tell if she had been hurt since there were no marks, but she appeared weak and exhausted. I helped her up and we moved toward the hall.

By then, Reno had knocked out the guard he’d been fighting.

“Take her,” I said.

He hooked his arm around Skye’s narrow waist. “I got you.”

“I have something I need to do,” I said, jingling a set of keys in my hand. “If there’s anyone else in here, I’m not leaving them behind.”

“That could be problematic if Delgado comes home early. Wheeler, get your ass out here! Pull the car around; we’re done!” Then he turned his dark brown eyes to mine. “Let’s go. We don’t have time.”

“I’m right behind you,” I lied.

Reno picked Skye up and ran down the hall.
Ran
.

I went through several keys before finding the one that opened the door across from us. Empty.

I tried a second door. “Hello?” Another empty room. When I hit the third room, a voice yelled out from inside.

This room looked nothing like Skye’s. It was barren of furniture, and Delgado had shackled and chained a young man to a metal ring in the cement floor. This sweet boy didn’t look older than twenty, although in Shifter years he could have been ancient. The youthful glimmer in his eyes tipped me off—the one that showed me a boy scared witless.

I fumbled through the keys until I found an odd-looking one.

“I’m here to help you,” I said. “Don’t hurt me.”

“I won’t, I won’t,” he promised. “Just get me out. Hurry! Hurry! He’ll come back. He always comes back.”

“Why are you in here?”

“This is where he keeps his personal pets,” he said under his breath.

I brushed my hand over the short curls of blond hair. “It’s not your fault. Nothing that’s happened is your fault, including whatever you’ve done to survive.”

It dawned on me that I was looking at a man who could have easily been Wheeler all those years ago. Maybe if someone had said those words to him just once, it would have made a difference.

The young man sobbed, holding his wrists up and looking at them as if they were marked, which they weren’t. He grimaced, and the torment he had endured played across his features like a silent film. That’s when I knew Delgado had been using this boy for more than just fighting.

“What’s your name?” I asked, wiping away his tears. “I’m Naya.”

“Evan.”

“Listen to me, Evan. We’re getting out of here. So I want you to stand up and follow me as quickly as you can. Your life will never be the same again, but you need to make a new life for yourself. Maybe someday it’ll be you helping someone else.”

That lit a fire in his eyes—one of hope.

I clasped his hand in mine, and I pulled him up with a hard jerk. After that, we never spoke again. I checked three more rooms before we headed downstairs and ran into Reno.

Evan reached for the door, and Reno pressed the toe of his boot against it.

“Not yet. We’re not running into the open like target practice. When Wheeler pulls up the driveway, we haul ass to the car. You two keep an eye on the stairs and back of the house.”

Wheeler’s engine growled outside. Evan bounced on his heels, anxiously looking around. I hadn’t noticed until that moment how gaunt he was, which didn’t suit his height. His clothes looked two sizes too big and were nothing more than a long shirt and pants with a drawstring. Delgado was a man going on my panther’s naughty list, and that was never a good place to be. I smoothed my hand over Skye’s long hair, but she kept quiet and rested her head on Reno’s shoulder.

“Hold on. We’re almost home.”

“Open it,” Reno said, backing up a step. “Run! Run! Run!”

I swung the door open and chortled.

Wheeler had pulled his car all the way up to the front door and was leaning across the seats, looking at us through the window. “You
said
pull up front.”

Reno grumbled out a few obscenities. I darted ahead of him and opened the passenger door, pushing the seat forward. He set Skye on her feet and she wobbled before I caught her around the waist.

“Crawl in. Everything’s fine, chickypoo. You’re going home.”

Evan went in next and then I sat directly behind Reno.

Smoke billowed behind the car as Wheeler spun the tires and said, “Hang on!”

Our heads snapped back when he hit the gas and we tore out of there, kicking up grass and mud where he skidded off the concrete and onto the lawn. He spun in circles until Reno smacked him in the head.

“We don’t have time for this shit,” Reno yelled.

“This is my fuck-you to Delgado,” Wheeler said, turning the car once more before he finally ran over a bush, clipped the brick mailbox, and then bounced onto the street.

“You just fucked up your front end,” Reno said, pulling out his phone.

I glanced at three broken nails and realized Delgado was going to know I had a part in this. I didn’t naively think he wouldn’t have found out anyway, but it left me unsettled, wondering what his next move would be.

Then I thought about Misha. I hadn’t seen her in the house, and suddenly I was overwhelmed with a feeling of regret. Why hadn’t I searched all the rooms downstairs? She might have been hiding. I put my head in my hands and tried to contain my tears. I didn’t want these men to think I cared more for a cat than I did the two people we had rescued, but it didn’t diminish the devastation that burrowed through me, knowing I would have to mourn in silence.