51. Leona #2
They looked like products on display, not real people.
Some gasps went through the crowd of buyers as the women were paraded up to the main stage. They weren’t the same gasp I felt deep in my lungs, like all the air was being stolen from my chest. These gasps were excited .
My heart twisted, and a wave of nausea rolled through my body so hard it had me reeling. My hand gripped my gun hard enough that I knew I’d have a bruise there tomorrow.
They looked so helpless.
So resigned.
“I’m going after the girls,” I whispered to anyone who could hear me. I had a new goal. My guys could deal with the Albanians, but I knew exactly what I was going to do.
An auctioneer stepped forward, dressed in a crisp suit. It wasn’t Ervin Vokshi. So who was he? He began speaking, pulling one girl forward, and the entire room went quiet.
“Fan out,” Obi whispered, breaking my attention. He gave hand signals to direct us all. “Dispatch anyone who gets in your way. Silently .”
Our men dispersed into the room, trying to stick to the walls.
I followed beside Cas. My guys had paired up: Wynn and Ciel, Ryu and Obi, me and Cas.
Cas and I went left, along with Max and Daniele.
Wynn and Ciel went right, with a chunk of Giulio’s men.
Ryu and Obi pressed forward into the back of the crowd.
I watched them each take down a man, carefully pulling them away from the group and then snapping their necks.
In front of me, Cas covered a man’s mouth with one palm, and used the knife in his other hand to draw a red line across his throat. My eyes locked on the auctioneer, and the person bidding a disgusting amount of money on the first woman.
Max and Daniele were getting closer to the entrance through which the Albanians had brought the girls. With an auction this size, with this many people, there had to be more.
A shout caused my head to whip in the opposite direction. One of Giulio’s men was locked in a grapple with an Albanian.
Shit.
Time slowed. We watched Giulio’s man wrestle with the Albanian. Everyone froze.
Then a gunshot went off. The Albanian dropped to his knees, blood spurting from the hole in his chest. He let out a wet, gurgling breath before collapsing.
A woman dripping with wealth screamed, a blood-curdling sound that reverberated through the chamber.
All hell broke loose.
Buyers started scrambling, yelling and pushing one another to get to the exit. Max and Daniele were already there, blocking the path.
More gunshots were fired all around. The jig was up, and our secrecy was blown.
“Cas!” I jerked my head toward the main stage.
The auctioneer grabbed the chain tying the women together and yanked them off the stage. I went after him, dodging around scrambling people, with Cas following right behind.
I raised my weapon to fire, but one of our men fell to the ground right in our path. A Vokshi man stalked behind him, raising his gun, but I fired on him instead and he dropped to the ground. Cas looped his hand around our man and lifted him to his feet.
When I looked up again, the auctioneer had four other Albanians surrounding him while he jerked the chain back toward the tunnel. Some girls resisted, tugging their wrists and grimacing in pain. The others were numb, staring at the ground.
I followed. The chamber had turned into a battlefield. My ears rang with the sound of gunshots, shouts and screams, and terror- filled cries. It was the chaos of a hundred people trying to kill each other or run.
I had to stay focused on the women.
A body slammed into me, knocking me off-balance. My hands scraped against the cold concrete and I bit back a pained hiss, but thankfully I didn’t drop my gun. Cas sunk a bullet into the person’s chest.
I was dimly aware of my men fighting all around, but I couldn’t get distracted or we’d lose them. I had no idea where those tunnels led.
Finally, we reached the mouth. The tunnel was dark, with no lights hanging from the ceiling, but a bend about five hundred feet forward gave off dim illumination.
“Cas?” I panted. The battle raged on behind us, and we were the only two people here.
“I’m with you,” he answered, giving me a nod.
I didn’t have time to tell the others we were following, but I quickly scanned the room to make sure they were okay.
Ryuji whirled knives. Wynn was grappling with someone, brass knuckles bloody.
Ciel had his garrote around someone’s neck.
Obi fired his gun and then round-house kicked another man in the chest. Max was still with Daniele, the two of them herding some buyers back into the room.
They could handle themselves. I turned back toward the tunnel and quietly stepped down its path. The closer we got to the light, the more voices I heard. Shouts. Whimpers. My pulse echoed in my ears, and my fingers went numb. I gritted my teeth, willing feeling back into them.
I stepped around the corner, and into the light.
We came face to face with cages.
Filled with dozens of people.
Women. Girls. Boys.
The auctioneer shouted something to his armed guards. Beside him, Ervin Vokshi was unlocking cages and yanking his victims free, then pushing them toward the guards. An open-top jeep idled on the other side of the room, its lights illuminating the space.
I looked to Cas. A muscle feathered in his jaw as he came to the same conclusion I did.
We were out-numbered by far.
But we couldn’t let them disappear.
What were we supposed to do?
“I’ll take the auctioneer,” I whispered. “You focus on the guards.”
Cas’s jaw clenched. “Princess…”
“We don’t have time to debate this,” I insisted. I raised my gun, aiming it at the auctioneer. If I timed the shot right, I could get him in the chest. I’d been practicing at the range with Ryuji, Ciel, and Wynn. I could do this.
Cas aimed at the two closest guards, ready to take them out before they could hurt the victims.
I exhaled and pulled the trigger. My bullet caught the auctioneer right below his neck. He fell back, reeling. Cas’s bullets followed right after. He hit his marks, and two of the men fell to the ground.
We charged in. A bullet whizzed past me, clipping my side. I blocked out the pain and kept shooting until they were all dead.
I inhaled, trying to calm my breathing. The victims stared back at me like we were ghosts, figments of their imagination, or demons come to kill them.
I raised my hands. “We’ve got you,” I said. “We came to h?—”
My world tilted to the side when a body crashed into me. A knife lunged for my stomach, but I used my forearm to hit his wrist and deflect the blade to the side. The blade clattered to the ground before hands circled my neck and squeezed.
Ervin Vokshi.
Ervin Vokshi choked me. The weight of his body pressed against mine, pinning my legs to the ground. I clawed at his hands on my neck, my nails digging into his skin. His furious face dripped spittle onto my cheeks.
Somehow I grabbed the knife I stuck in my boot and jammed it into his abdomen. He groaned when I wrenched it free and slammed it into his temple. Blood dripped from his face onto my forehead as he fell to the side. It happened so fast.
Cas’s face hovered above mine. “Leona!”
He reached for me, and I flinched away, hiding my face to the side. It was too much like Buzz Cut. It was too much like the ship. Coughs wracked my chest, and my throat burned while I tried to catch my breath.
With a blink, the memories were front and center. I’d tried to bury them, but the feeling rushed back, choking me even worse than Ervin Vokshi.
“Leona?” Cas said softly. He held his hands tentatively in front like I was a wounded animal.
I blinked, trying to get control of myself. My thumb dug into my engagement ring. I was fine . We were saving the women. They needed help.
I reached for his hand, and he pulled me to my feet.
“I’m okay,” I rasped.
“You’re bleeding.” He frowned, then looked around for something he could use to staunch the wound on my side.
“Oh, just a scratch,” I said, inspecting the graze. The bullet just lightly tore my shirt and raised an angry red scratch through the skin. It was barely bleeding. There were more pressing things.
Dozens of faces watched us. Some were terrified, some relieved. Most were bruised. All were thin and malnourished.
I swallowed, trying to keep my voice level, but it came out more of a croak. “It’s okay now.” I coughed. “Can we help you?”
They stared at me, saying nothing.
“Does anyone speak English?”
A few nodded, but most said nothing.
I tried again in Italian, and even more responded .
I stepped closer. “We’re going to get you out of here,” I said, repeating myself in Italian. “I don’t want to scare you.”
We needed Willow’s team. They knew what to do. I didn’t.
“Does anyone know where the keys are?” I asked, again in both languages.
A few of them pointed toward the auctioneer. I rifled through his pockets, finding a set of keys attached to a retractable chain. I yanked it from his belt loop and then began unlocking any cages still closed.
Cage after cage, person after person. All dressed in those white shift dresses. All up for sale.
I tried to remember the fact that we stopped them from being sold tonight, but it didn’t mean jack shit against the horrors they’d already been through. In the last cage, two girls waited, huddled together. When I opened it, they hesitated and made no move to leave.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, moving to the side. “You can come out now.”
As they stood, I caught sight of a body laying on the ground behind them.
My breath stuck in my throat. She was young. A teenager. Her hair was strawberry blonde, just shades lighter than mine. Her eyes were open, staring at the ceiling. Her chest was unmoving.
Blood coated her thighs and the bottom of her white dress.
My nails cut half-moon grooves into my palms.
Cold, dark cages. Metal digging into my skin. Lifeless eyes, accusing.
“Come,” I choked out. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“We can’t leave her,” one girl responded in accented English.
“We won’t,” I promised, my eyes filling with tears. “We’ll get her out of here. We’ll take her home.”
The world lurched to the side.
It was too much.
“We heard a gunshot!” Wynn shouted as he and Ciel rounded the corner to the room. He stopped dead in his tracks, taking everything in. “Shit.”
My feet carried me as if on auto-pilot. The room was closing in.
I had to get out of here.
I couldn’t let them see.
“Help them,” I said, before stumbling out of the room and further down into darkness.