55. Where Is She #2
We finished the sweep of the upstairs bedrooms, and there was still no sign of her. I gripped a doorframe and tried to steady my breathing, feeling my chest tighten, wondering if I was about to have a panic attack.
I felt Liam hovering by my side. “Breathe.” Head hung, I nodded, forcing another slow breath out. “We’re gonna find her.” Liam said, but when I finally met his gaze, his dark eyes looked as frantic as I felt.
I took three slow breaths and forced myself to move. I had no doubt we’d find her, but what if we were too late.
Suddenly, “Anybody looking for a rat?” Vaughn asked all too cheerily through the comms. “Because I just cornered one in the study.”
Liam and I locked eyes, and I jammed a fresh clip into my gun as we hurried downstairs, chaos erupting in my earpiece. Must go faster .
I burst into the study, finding Tag on his knees, blood already pouring from his face.
“ WHERE IS SHE? ” I demanded, hauling him up and slamming him against the wall. God, it was so incredibly tempting to lighten my clip a few rounds, but I knew wherever Sara was—we’d find her a hell of a lot faster with his cooperation, and her safety was far more important than my revenge.
“Fucking hell, how are you still walking?” Taggart muttered, his cuffed hands rattling. “Can’t you stay dead for once.”
My finger twitched on the trigger. “Tell me where she is,” I started, lethally soft. “And I’ll think about letting you live.”
“It’s nothing personal.” Taggart tried negotiating, lifting his cuffed hands. “I’m sure we can work something out. I’m very willing to sell you my contract for the right price.”
“You really are a moron.” I shoved him back against the wall with a disbelieving laugh. “Here’s how this is gonna go. Every time you make me ask where she is, I’m going to make it hurt.” I promised calmly. “Do you understand?”
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll sell you the contract for the bid price plus ten percent interest.” Tag offered.
I dropped my head, my finger flexing over the trigger as I lifted the gun. “I must not have made myself clear.” I emptied half the clip into the wall next to his head and then jammed the hot barrel into his throat. “ WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE? ” I growled, crushing his windpipe as I burned him.
“If you kill me, my fingerprints won’t work.” He gasped a strangled cry with just enough amusement to push me right to the edge of my restraint.
Seeing red, I never moved my eyes from his face as I holstered my gun and pulled out my knife.
“I don’t need your goddamn fingerprints to get behind a door.
” I grabbed his hand, and he screamed as I took the first fingerprint before he even had time to realize what was happening.
“Let’s see how many you have left by the time you finally decide to talk. ” I went for the next finger.
“Basement! She’s in the basement.” Taggart screamed as I took the next fingerprint just for the hell of it.
I threw him towards the doorway, wiping my knife on my pants.
“Lead the way, and you’d better start praying to whoever it is you pray to because that’s just a taste of what I’m going to do to you if you laid hands on her again.
” He’d already laid hands on her, and that was already enough for me to kill him. Now, I was going to do it slowly.
Taggart was cradling his bloody hand, staring at it, when Liam shot the floor around Taggart’s feet several times. “Let’s make haste Taggart, I don’t have all day, and neither do you.”
“Yeah, giddy up, motherfucker.” Cade clapped Taggart on the back. “And don’t look so surprised. You took one of the most beloved people in Briar Rose and thought nobody was going to come looking for her? You’re a fucking idiot.”
Vaughn just grinned, and my gaze fell to the brass knuckles he’d slipped onto his fingers.
Theo pushed past Vaughn, grumbling, “I doubt you’ll get your turn while the body’s still warm; don’t forget we haven’t even discussed your disciplinary action yet.
” Vaughn’s jaw flexed as guilt flickered through his eyes, and I didn’t pity him a damn bit.
It was his fault. He’d dropped his guard, and it was his neck I was coming for next.
The sound of footsteps was heavy behind me as the team followed us down into the basement. Taggart led us into a dusty storage room and hesitated in front of a closet door, seeming to know he was already damned.
I yanked the door open, half expecting to find Sara tied up inside, but I blinked as row after row of bright lights clicked on, illuminating a long white hallway.
“What the hell?” I murmured, realizing it was clearly an addition. The shiny floors, the massive vault door at the opposite end—it all felt incredibly out of place in the historic estate.
“Why the fuck do you look so nervous?” Liam demanded. “If you laid a finger on her.”
“Of course not.” Taggart swallowed hard, and for the first time, fear flashed through his eyes, and I got the sickening feeling he was lying through his teeth.
Liam wasted no time jamming Tag’s fingers onto the vault door scanner.
I’d rescued dozens of hostages on covert missions over the last several years, but this wasn’t anything like that. This was my whole world, this was my future, this was the love of my life .
The heavy metal door groaned open, and a terror like I’d never known hit me at the same moment a gust of musty, dank air did. The light from the hallway poured onto a set of ancient stairs that led down into a pit of darkness.
I stared at the crumbling stone masonry for a beat too long as pure shock washed over me. Several variations of what the actual fuck were murmured behind me.
My gaze slowly slid to Theo and then Liam, finding equal shock and worry in their eyes.
Suddenly, I didn’t care about retribution anymore. My body was shaking with fear as I plunged into the darkness. If I was too late… I’d never forgive myself.