I hazily see the figure standing in the doorway, and I inch back into the wall, worried they might be here for reasons other than drugging me more. These men are foul, and I don’t doubt they’ve used the girls they capture for far more nefarious reasons than merely selling them. After all, who’s ever going to find out about it?
My body feels so weak against the metal that I can barely move, let alone react, when he steps inside.
Is it my turn now to scream? Fuck.
Sweat drops roll down my back as I try to focus, but my brain refuses to cooperate.
“Lana?”
That voice …
My eyes burst open, and I home in on the way it sounded.
Could it be …
No, he can’t be here. My imagination must be fooling me.
Something hard clatters to the ground, and the figure rushes at me.
I close my eyes.
Only for two arms to wrap around my body so fiercely I almost melt away.
“Lana, you’re alive.”
I suck in a hampered breath. “Kai?”
“Yes, kitty, I’m here.”
The tears welling up in my eyes refuse to back down, sheer disbelief dripping into my voice. “You came …”
“Of course I came for you,” he says, his voice so soothing I just let the tears flow freely. “Why do you sound surprised?”
I suck in another breath. “I just thought, after my outburst about those pictures, you guys would never—”
“I would scour the world for you and burn it all down just to rescue the only woman I love.”
He … loves me?
He smashes his lips onto mine for just a second, but that one second is enough to snap me back into reality. And for the first time in what feels like forever, I can see clearly again, his marred face shining like an angel coming straight from the heavens. And I have never in my life been happier to see someone.
He leans back and grips my face, his thumb caressing the wound on my cheek. “That’s not a scrape … Who did this to you?”
“Romeo,” I mutter.
He bares his teeth. “That bastard will pay for touching what’s mine.”
I swallow as I brace while he grasps the metal clasps that keep me a prisoner in this cell. “I’m getting you out of here,” he growls.
Someone else approaches, and I blink a couple of times when I notice the red hair. “Milo?”
“In the flesh,” he muses. “You didn’t think we’d leave you here to rot, did you?”
I smile through the tears as he comes close and pecks me on the cheeks. “You look like you’re about to fall asleep, though.”
“They drugged me.”
He looks at me with half-mast eyes. “Is it getting stronger or wearing off?”
“Wearing off, I think,” I mutter.
He nods before ramming his nunchucks into the clasps. With a few more hits, my wrists are released, and Kai and Milo focus on my ankles next while I rub my painful wrists.
My body leans forward the second I’m freed, my feet still wobbly from the drugs, but Kai catches me before I fall.
“Whoa. I’ve got you,” he murmurs, clutching me tightly.
I can feel myself growing weak in his arms, lulled by the safety he offers me.
“Can you walk?” he asks.
I nod softly. “If I focus.”
But I’m still stuck in this hellhole, and a million of those Bonesmen are swarming this compound.
BANG!
A gunshot makes me look up at the door.
I grasp Kai’s arm in shock. “Wait. Crystal. We have to find her.”
“What? Who?” Milo asks.
“My friend, she was taken and brought here with me.” My fingers dig into Kai’s skin. “It’s my fault. They’ll sell her. We have to save her.”
Kai puts his arm underneath my shoulder to support me. “We’ll try our best, but you’re my main priority. We have to get you to safety.”
“I can’t leave here without her,” I reply starkly.
“If we must, we must,” he grits back as he drags me to the door. “C’mon. We’ll look for her on our way back.”
A guard runs down the steps, but Milo throws his nunchucks at him before he can even reach us.
“Thanks,” Kai says.
“I’ve got your back.” Milo winks, grasping his nunchucks before beating the life out of the guard.
“Check the doors,” I say, pointing at the other ones. “I heard a scream coming from one of them.”
Milo hits the locks with his nunchucks, and they fall apart with ease, but each time he opens the doors, the cell behind it is empty.
“Shit,” I mutter, pushing myself off Kai’s shoulder so I can wobble to the cells and have a look myself. “Where is she?”
BANG! BANG!
“We don’t have time for this,” Kai says.
More screams from upstairs catch my attention, and I jerk free from Kai’s grip and bolt toward it.
“Lana! Be careful!” Kai yells as he runs after me, but I’m fixated on the noise.
Upstairs, I pause and stare at the scene in front of me. Bodies litter the hallways, blood and remains splattered across the floors everywhere I look. When I take another step, I spot the guards coming from the main hall to our left, guns at the ready.
Just before he pulls the trigger, Kai drags me back behind a wall.
BANG!
“Get down!” Kai barks, shielding me from the gunfire with his own body.
Milo jumps out only to shoot right back at them.
“Lana. Focus. We need to get out of here.”
“But we haven’t checked all the doors,” I say.
“There’s no time. We’ve already been through most of those cells. Most were empty.”
“But she has to be here!” My voice sounds as desperate as my heart feels.
Kai grips my shoulders and shakes me a little. “Look at me! I’m not losing you after just getting you back. Do you hear me?”
I’m shocked and overwhelmed at the same time because my body is still trying to fight the drugs while my brain is overloaded with fear.
Fear for losing someone dear to me, who’s stuck here because of me.
BANG!
The last gunshot ricochets through the corridor before a gun is thrown across the hall. I hear fighting and lean around the corner to watch Milo kick the guy’s ass, pummeling him to the floor with ease before smashing his face in with a chair.
Milo’s face is covered in blood as he turns to look at us. “Go!”
Kai grabs my hand, lacing his fingers through mine as we run through the hallway with Milo on our tail to cover us.
I stop in front of another door and pull at the lock, but it won’t budge.
Grunting, Kai yells, “Move.”
And he slams the lock open with an empty gun snatched off the floor.
I open the door, but no one is inside.
More tears well up in my eyes.
We’re too late.
“We have to go. Now.” Kai leans around the corner to watch more Bonesmen pour in.
“What about Crystal?” I ask.
“No more time,” Milo says as he pushes us forward.
We run down the hallway, but then I bump into someone and lose my balance, falling ass first onto the floor.
BANG!
Someone right in front of me holds up a smoking gun, the frame and blond hair familiar, and when he turns his head to look at me, I almost want to burst into tears again.
I lean up on my elbows. “Nathan?”
He came here too?
He turns around and goes to his knees in front of me, wrapping his arms around me.
“You’re safe,” he mutters, burying his face in my neck. “I was so fuckin’ worried they’d already sold you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I’m momentarily too stunned to even speak.
“Where’s Felix and the rest?” Kai asks. “And what about Caleb?”
“They’re killing everyone who’s trying to block our only way out,” Nathan replies, and he returns his attention to me. “I’m sorry, Lana, I should’ve been more careful with those pictures. If I had, you wouldn’t have gotten so angry, and we could’ve kept you out of their claws.”
“Yeah, this is kind of your fault,” Milo says, and Nathan throws him a seething look.
“I didn’t share those pictures.” Nathan focuses his attention back on me. “I swear on my goddamn sister’s life, it wasn’t me.”
His … sister?
She’s all he’s wanted to protect, and he swears it on her?
I suck in a breath. “I believe you.”
“I don’t know who did it, but I will find them and punish them.” He grips my face. “I don’t want you to hate me. I can’t bear to lose you too.”
His words strike my heart and gut it open, forcing me to come face-to-face with my own anguish and infatuation.
Because those pictures forced us together.
Bound us in a way that was inescapable.
And then those binds were suddenly released.
“I know who—”
“Talk later.” Kai interjects as he runs at a guard and engages in a fight.
Out of nowhere, a guy covered in tattoos and piercings shoots at the guards. “I’ve got you covered. Don’t worry.”
“Who is that?” I mutter.
“Caleb. Long story,” Milo says. “We should run.”
Nathan pulls back and caresses my cheek. “Even if you despise me, I will keep you safe. I promise.”
He presses a gentle kiss onto my hand before helping me stand.
But as I stand, I briefly glance over my shoulder at the others and notice one Bones Brotherhood guy with a hoodie and a ton of tattoos, making my blood run cold.
Romeo.
He’s aimed his gun right at me.
My eyes widen.
Nathan’s eyes follow mine, and when he sees the guy, he jumps right in front of me, shielding me.
The gun goes off.
BANG!
The bullet lodges into Nathan’s back, and his knees buckle and he falls into me while I scream, “Nathan!”
