Wicked Games by Jarica James

Otsana

Seth and I didn't say a word as we walked up the stairs. Part of me thought it would just be a warehouse or something, especially from the industrial vibes the basement had. But when we walked upstairs I realized it was some kind of hangar. Only it clearly wasn’t used for planes, if the row of black SUVs and white vans were anything to go off of. There were stacks and stacks of wooden shipping boxes randomly throughout the room, the kind you need a crowbar to open. A few long tables filled the space as well like they held meetings out here.

Is there even an airport near the city?

“Hey!” someone shouted out, but I turned and fired a shot before he could bring more attention, wincing at the lack of silencer. So much for being inconspicuous. The sound rang through the open structure, sounding even more intense than it should have.

“There’s a door,” Seth hissed and I glanced back to look where he was pointing. Nodding, we shifted directions but an onslaught of shouting and yelling filled the air and I grabbed his arm and pulled us behind a stack of boxes. My pulse was pounding in my veins and I felt light headed from the drugs they obviously felt the need to pump through me.

“The basement’s empty, five men down,” one of their men yelled. Seth’s eyes went wide at the angry banter that followed.

“We’ll fuckin’ kill them, they can get her back in a body bag.”

“She took the other prisoner, too!”

“Call the boss!”

“He’s dead downstairs!”

Shit… I did kill their boss, didn’t I? Sorry not sorry, douchebags. Maybe don’t kidnap someone who’s been trained her whole fucking life for this. Oh wait, Eros probably kept that fact to himself, huh.

“Do you trust me?” I mouthed to Seth and he nodded numbly. Being this close to him I could really see the damage they’d done, the guy was weak and frail. I held out my hand and he slipped his in mine before I aimed my gun at the hanging fluorescent light over the bulk of the group and took my shot. They all started reacting, but we were already moving and stepped out of the door before the first counterattack sounded off. Bullets flew out of the door but I was already pulling Seth around the building. I’ve been in one of these before and they always had a roof access ladder.

When we finally reached the rusty ladder, I urged Seth to go up first, praying they didn’t see us before we reached the top. We had the evening shadows to cover us, at least. And if not, at least they had extended clips already loaded into their guns.

“Go sit on the ventilation, you’ll be safest there,” I pointed and gave him a glare when he tried to argue. Nodding in defeat, he followed orders as I climbed over to the edge, the men now spilling out. Clicking off the safeties on the guns, I started aiming and firing, taking them out as quickly as possible, changing direction if someone started to aim their gun my way. The Lachs really shouldn’t have been this stupid, but I’ll take a win where I can get it at this point.

Either I’d gotten them all or they’d gotten smarter, because I suddenly ran out of targets. Before I could take a breath, Seth was yelling.

“Turn around!”

I crouched and spun, gun at the ready and firing off at the guy who’d snuck out the side door and tried to run. No way in hell was I going to let him go call for backup. He dropped forward like a sack of potatoes and I did one more scan of the surrounding area.

“That’s all of them I counted inside,” Seth confirmed my suspicion.

“Good, let’s go find out which car this key goes to,” I said, heading for the ladder and dropping down to the ground. My feet landed on a thick carpet of dead bodies, a wet thud sounding off before I hopped off of them.

“Tell me Jason made it out?” Seth begged as we walked the length of the building toward the front of the compound. My heart broke for the guy who’d already endured enough, but I wasn’t in the business of lying.

“I’m sorry. They used him as an example,” I said, giving him a sympathetic look. He nodded in defeat, eyes tinted with sadness.

“They held us together, until one day I woke up and he was gone,” he explained.

“And they will pay for what they’ve done,” I promised, but he just chuckled.

“Not to be sarcastic, but we kind of already did that. The body count was easily at twenty-five, including the boss.”

“They’re like fucking cockroaches, crawling out of every dark crevice of the city,” I said. “More will come.”

We finally made it to the cars and I tried the key in three of their SUVs before I finally found a match. Seth climbed in on the other side at the same time I started it up, letting out a relieved sigh at the full tank of gas.

“So, any clue where we are?” I asked, turning to him. Because I sure as fuck didn’t. He shook his head and I shrugged. We weren’t staying here either way. “Well, maybe if we drive long enough, one of us will figure it out.”

But it didn’t end up being a problem, no more than fifteen miles down a deserted highway, we started seeing signs for Haverden.

“I’m going to be sick,” I muttered after another five minutes, a rolling wave of nausea hitting me before I pulled over and hopped out, puking up bile since my stomach was so empty. Seth, thankfully, kept himself inside of the car, because there was little I could do to fight off the aftereffects of the drugs now that the adrenaline wore off.

Ten minutes later, the heaving stopped and I sat in the grass, breathing through the last of it until only lingering dizziness was left behind.

A squeal of tires had me looking up, a sob of relief escaping me when I saw Kyrell’s car and my triplets already running toward me.

“Sana?!” Killian slammed into me with so much force he nearly sent us both tumbling, but I clung on tight. My body shook, which only made him hold me tighter.

“Tell me that’s not your blood,” Keir demanded, pushing Killian away and yanking me to my feet.

“No, it’s not,” I said. “And I left you a present in the car.” Ky took me from Keir, who was already walking toward the car with his gun out. “Don’t shoot.”

“Kitten?” His question held so much weight I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I just nodded that I was alright, the best I could offer him at the time.

“Seth?!” Keir’s disbelief had both Killian and Ky moving forward. The poor guy let out a broken cry of relief, collapsing in front of them in a full faint. I couldn’t blame him. He’d gone from captivity to a gunfight, to running for our escape in the matter of an hour. Not exactly an easy transition. Killian didn’t hesitate to scoop him up, cursing at how light his cousin was in his arms.

“Can we go home now?” I asked as soon as he turned toward me.

“If by home you mean the estate… yes,” Ky answered, gesturing for Kill to put Seth back in the front seat. I groaned at that… apparently, our night wasn’t over yet.