46
GAbrIEL
“She’s injured,” Seven said, rather unnecessarily because even I could follow a blood trail.
We’d found the clearing with the obsidian statue and Seven had laid out the scene. Now, we stared up at the dead man that hung in the middle of the trail by his ankle. She’d obviously shot him. Seven moved on down the path and studied her footprints.
“She’s limping,” he said.
We increased our pace after that, the urgency to catch up to her intensified.
Another few twists and turns and when we rounded a corner, there she was.
She had her back to us and didn’t know we were there yet.
She had just about reached the far corner, when two men appeared.
She backtracked, but when she turned and saw us, she dove for a small path cut into the hedge wall.
Seven raised his gun. “Left.”
We both pulled the trigger and the two men dropped. I squeezed myself through the narrow gap in the wall where Emersyn had disappeared, and when I emerged I saw a flash of blonde as she ran down the path. We took off in pursuit and reached her just as she rounded a corner.
I had time to register it was a dead end before instinct made me react. The only thing that saved me from a dagger meant for my neck was my fast reflexes. The mist swirled around our bodies as her momentum slammed us into an obsidian statue that sat in a small rounded out area of a dead-end path.
I vaguely realized it was my own fucking knife at my throat. She’d somehow grabbed it as I’d rounded the corner.
“What are you waiting for?” I growled as the blade dug into my neck.
We both noticed Seven shift in our peripheral vision, and Emersyn let the blade nick my skin.
“Don’t fucking move,” Emersyn snarled.
Seven’s soft laugh filtered through the damp air.
“Oh, I’m not gonna stop you, darlin’,” he said smugly. “G happens to like this kind of thing. I was just getting a better view.”
“What do—”
Without warning, I grabbed her wrists, and with a twist brought her crashing down into the soft dirt.
My hips settled between her legs and pressed her down into the mud.
The small gasp that escaped her parted lips, as I rendered her immobile, went straight to my dick.
One of my hands grasped her wrists above her head and pinned the offending blade, while the other settled on the curve of her hip.
“If you’re going to kill me,” I growled. “Don’t hesitate.”
I trailed my nose along her jaw and leaned in close to her ear. “Anything less is just being a tease.”
My blood sang in my veins and reveled in the way my body pressed against hers. When I pulled back and met her gaze, there was a crease between her brows and a hint of wariness in her eyes that mingled with disgust.
“I was wondering when you’d make your move,” she said bitterly.
I didn’t like that, but I chose to ignore it.
“That’s twice now,” I replied. “That you’ve hesitated.”
I bit back a groan as she bucked her hips up against mine, but it was a half-hearted struggle at best. She scowled at the amusement in my tone.
“Yeah, well, maybe we should see what happens a third time?”
Seven came over and crouched down near her wrists. “That sounds fun, but maybe later. We need to get going.” He plucked the weapon from her hand. “I’ll take that, thank you.”
Emersyn released the knife without issue and I caught her attention again.
“I’m going to let go,” I explained. “And I’m going to wrap your ankle. Is that okay?”
Emersyn’s brow furrowed. I could tell my words confused her because I’d certainly not said, I’m going to fuck you now.
“I need your words, little storm.”
She blinked rain out of her eyes that had widened slightly in shock. I wondered if anyone had ever asked her permission for anything before.
“Yes,” she said. “Fine.”
I slowly released her wrists and slid my hand down her leg to her ankle where I grasped it gently. I sat back between her legs with her ankle carefully held near my chest.
“Not broken—definitely sprained,” I rumbled.
It took all of my will power not to look my fill of her at that angle, or to touch her further. Even with a layer of mud, she was still very, very naked. I wanted to explore every inch, and show her exactly what it would mean when I actually made a move.
But, I didn’t. Instead I carefully ripped a section of my shirt off the bottom.
I gripped her calf and brought her foot to rest against my chest. I gently wrapped her ankle in a rough field dressing, my eyes alternated between her own and my handiwork.
When I was done, I set her ankle back down and held out my hand.
“Let me see your hand.”
“Why?” But it was said less aggressively.
“You’re bleeding all over the place,” I muttered. “Left a blazing trail for Seven over here.”
Emersyn glanced over at Seven, who smirked and wagged his gloved fingers at her from where he leaned against the statue.
“How bad did they sedate you?” I asked.
“It’s worn off a bit,” she muttered as she placed her bleeding hand gently in mine.
“Good.”
I pulled her into a seated position and her other hand slammed against my chest in reflex.
I calmly waited for her to realize I wasn’t going to do anything further, and her hand slipped away.
There was a puncture wound between her pointer finger and thumb and a large gash along the side.
I quickly wrapped it with what was left of my scrap of shirt.
I climbed to my feet and held out my hand to help her up.
“Can you walk?” I asked.
She put weight on it and nodded.
“Alright, let’s go, we have to find our way out now,” I grumbled.
I led the way with Emersyn in between us.
My instincts told me we were somewhere deep on the northeast side of the maze.
The forest was on our right still and while I usually enjoyed nature, something about that forest was sinister and made the hair raise on the back of my neck.
I hoped the path didn’t double us back closer to it.
I kept our pace deliberately slow, both to help Emersyn out with her ankle, but also to ensure we meticulously checked each corner we came to.
The maze eventually pushed us back toward the center, away from the forest, and we found ourselves on several long stretches of straight path.
We’d just rounded the corner of another one, when I saw something odd up ahead and held up my hand.
“What is it?” Seven asked.
“The ground—” I nodded my head at several weird patterns in the dirt.
Emersyn peered around me. She’d been suspiciously quiet and had tagged along with us without a fight.
“Mines?”
I looked at her sharply. “How would you know that?”
Her lips pressed together and she shrugged. I crouched down near one of the strange areas. I knew it was a mine field already, but it was weird that she knew it too. It again confirmed she’d had some sort of training, and now I knew it was definitely military.
I stood up. “We need to find a new path.”
We were just about to find another way, when Seven and I heard footsteps behind us at the same time and whirled, guns pointed at the nearest corner. Angel and Marcello appeared.
“You found her,” Angel said.
While Angel had lowered his gun when he saw it was us, Marcello still had his trained on me with a wicked look of victory on his face.
“Hand her over, Griffin,” he demanded.
“How fast are you with that thing, Marcello?” Seven drawled.
“Fast enough,” Marcello snapped. “Drop the gun.”
“What the fuck, Marcello?” Angel signed in annoyance.
“I’m taking what’s mine,” Marcello said. “Either help, or stay the fuck out of my way.”
I weighed my options and decided I’d play along. I slowly lowered into a crouch and set the gun on the ground.
“You too,” Marcello snapped at Seven.
I jerked my head in a nod without looking away from Marcello, and Seven begrudgingly dropped his gun into the dirt.
“Come here, girl,” Marcello ordered.
Emersyn scoffed and crossed her arms over her bare chest. “Fuck you.”
“I’m not playing around,” Marcello growled. “Come here.”
“Or what?” Emersyn argued. “Are you going to shoot one of them?” She gestured to Seven and me. “Because, I don’t care if you do, so that would be a stupid decision. And, I think it might be against the rules to shoot me.”
Seven coughed as he hid a laugh, and Marcello gaped at her like he had no idea what to do next.
Angel rubbed his mouth to fight off his own amusement.
Marcello’s hand tightened on the gun, but he looked far less sure than he had before.
He hid it behind a scowl and took a step toward her.
I went to move, and the barrel of his gun swung to me.
“Don’t move, Griffin. Don’t think for a second I’d love nothing more than to put a hole through your skull.”
Emersyn threw up her hands. “Fine, fine,” she sighed. “One captor is as good as the next I guess.”
She went to take a step forward and stumbled.
With her ankle, I might have thought it was real, except she didn’t catch herself.
With a dramatic oops, she fell into me. I used the distraction for what it was and lunged forward.
I grabbed Marcello’s gun and pushed it wide, just as he pulled the trigger and a deafening explosion went off at my back.