Chapter 22
There’s a trail of bodies leading out of the basement we were kept in.
We linger at the top of the stairs, trying to figure out the layout and people above.
I have no idea where we are, but from the size of the labyrinth below, it has to be some sort of industrial area and building.
What of, I have no idea. Considering the police didn’t arrive after the barrage of gunshots and screams, I’d say we are outside of the city.
Butcher always did like to stay off grid, since it’s easier to do his work.
He likes the freedom seclusion brings him.
“You go first.” I nod at the door. “Age before beauty and all that.”
“You’re my rescuer. You go first,” he counters with a cocky smile.
“Pussy,” I mutter as I reach for the handle, but he knocks my hand away and opens the door, creeping out.
I follow behind him. We are in another corridor, with horrible lime-green walls and a swinging door at the end.
We move silently together. Putting our backs to the walls, we count down and nod, bursting out, only to freeze.
The place is fucking huge. There are two floors, with metal railings surrounding the second floor above, showcasing private offices and rooms. Down here, there is old machinery and crates that are being moved, most likely filled with drugs and guns.
I spy some guards milling about, but that’s not what has horror gripping my heart.
It’s familiar.
As I spin around, I realize I know this place. I never saw the basement, but up here? I remember it all too well.
“Bexley?” Kane mutters as he drags me down behind a crate and peeks around to see if we were spotted, but I’m frozen. “What is it?”
“I know where we are,” I grit out, tightening my hold on the gun, needing that lifeline now more than ever.
“Great. Where?”
Licking my teeth, I take a deep breath. “It’s an old power plant outside of the city. It’s heavily guarded, and they use it for their films,” I tell him.
“Films?” He frowns as he looks at me in confusion.
I meet his eyes. “Snuff films, that kind of thing. He used to bring me here to show me what would happen if I didn’t behave.
There are cages in the back filled with women.
They also sell them here for an hour, a day, a night, or forever.
I don’t see the setup for auctions, so it must not be happening right now.
I came back to this place after I thought I killed Butcher, but it was empty.
I guess they moved in right under my nose.
” I hate this place. It’s filled with nothing but horrible memories I would rather forget, which is precisely why he brought us here.
He thinks reminding me of the broken woman I was when I was here before will hurt me. He’s wrong, it just infuriates me.
“These films . . . Did he make you perform in them?” he asks, anger etched into his features.
“Sometimes, but not the snuff films. He made me watch the deaths, knowing I couldn’t do anything.” I meet his anger with my own. “I want to burn this place to the fucking ground.”
“Then let’s do it.” He nods. “You know the layout?”
He doesn’t offer sympathy or pity, simply accepts it and offers to help me, and in that moment, I realize I trust Kane, which is odd since I trust no one.
Peeking over the crate, I debate our options.
“If Butcher is here, he’ll be in his office.
We need a distraction to set the fire and get up there.
There are too many guards for us to take down.
If we circle around, we can get to the holding area at the back.
There are usually only a few guys there.
We can take them out quietly and let the girls out, cause a distraction, and give them a chance, then we’ll set the fire and let Butcher and his men burn in it. ”
I know my face is cold and my voice is deadly, but he nods. “Lead the way.”
Putting my gun away, I pull out two knives, holding one in each hand as I crouch walk to the next crate, and then I wait before darting to the next.
It’s slow-going, but we move like that until we circle around the room, and the railing offers protection from above.
Behind the wall of crates, I open the door that leads to the back and the holding cells.
The smell is the first thing that hits me—unwashed body, excrement, and piss.
It’s a smell I used to be blind to, having been around it so much, but now it’s as unfamiliar as the chains that lock the cells.
“Shit, I thought you meant cells like the one we were kept in. These are fucking cages,” Kane grumbles in horror.
I look around, seeing what he does. Rows upon rows of animal cages are stacked on top of each other, reaching the ceiling. Some are empty, but most are filled with women of all ages, and they are all naked except for the collar around their neck with Butcher’s initial on it.
“Yeah, well, cell always felt better than admitting we were kept like dogs,” I snap as I head down the aisle in the middle.
Some of the older ones have probably been here the longest, but they don’t even bother looking up.
They don’t expect anyone to save them, so they don’t call out.
There are a few gazes that track us, unsure and hostile.
I can tell who’s new. They reach through the bars, begging as hope flashes in their eyes.
Eventually, they would be punished, and hope would be beat out of them, but for the moment, they still have it.
“Keep quiet or the guards will come,” I admonish.
“We are getting you out.” That gets their attention.
When I reach the end, I find the button that controls the electronic locks.
The panel is unmanned, which is odd, but I guess sometimes luck is on our side.
“When the doors open, run out and right to the back door. Don’t stop for anyone.
Keep running and don’t look back, and don’t accept help.
Get to the nearest police station and demand protection,” I order.
That’s all I can do for them right now. I have no way of contacting anyone on the outside to pick them up, so I have to hope they can save themselves.
It’s more important we end this and kill Butcher for good.
Otherwise, he will never let them or me go.
Slamming my hand into the button, I hear a buzz fill the air just before all the cage doors swing outward.
For a moment, nobody moves. “Go!” I yell, and they scramble from their cages, falling over each other.
Some help others down, but most rush to the door, hesitating before taking their chances then making a run for it.
While they do, we move through their midst and go left, heading behind more crates as shouts ring out.
Guards forget their posts as they sprint for the girls and the door they are escaping out of.
The front is completely abandoned, so I take a chance, stand up, and rip open the lids of a few crates. Straw lines the tops with drugs hidden underneath in chopping boards. Rolling my eyes, I open the next few and pile the straw up, hoping like hell it ignites.
“I don’t suppose you have a lighter, do you?” I ask as I look at Kane.
“Fresh out, hellion, but I have a gun.” He covers my face and fires into the stack I made.
It lights, and we hurry away, crouching behind other crates near the stairs as the fire begins to spread, engulfing that crate and crawling to the next, eating everything in its path as the fire alarm blazes.
Guards hesitate, torn between their merchandise and the fire, and it’s the distraction we need.
No one notices us silently climbing the stairs in the chaos.
My throat tightens from the smoke rapidly filling the warehouse, but I keep my burning eyes wide open.
I can feel Kane close behind me as we take the stairs two at a time, our steps loud on the metal, but it’s drowned out by the whooshing of the flames and shouts.
We get halfway down the walkway when a guard comes running toward us.
“This one is mine. You get his friend,” I tell Kane as another appears.
Grabbing the railing, I throw myself over it and land on the other side of the frozen guards.
Leaving the first to Kane, I grab the second and slam my knee into his balls before throwing him over the railing.
He lands with a thud below, and by the time I’ve turned, the other guard is sprawled on the walkway behind me, his stomach and throat ripped open.
Kane stands above him, running his eyes down me as his tongue darts out to lick his lips.
“I don’t know about you, but killing together has got me feeling some kind of way.”
Rolling my eyes, I stomp down the platform toward the door at the end where Butcher’s office is.
He wouldn’t move it because he likes to look down on people.
It’s why he chose it. My eyes scan the glass window that looks into the room next to it, showing his bedroom and the dog bed he keeps there—the one he used to force me to sleep on.
He’s nowhere to be seen, and when I reach the door, I realize why.
He’s on the phone, not even looking our way as he heads toward the door to see what the hell is going on.
I debate going in, since it would be satisfying to kill him with my own hands, but I can think of something much worse.
Turning, I grab Kane’s chain and wrap it through the door to the railing, linking it shut just as he looks up.
His eyes widen for a moment as he peers at me through the glass, and his phone falls to the floor.
He tries the door, and it rattles, only making my smile grow as heat swells around us. The whole place is filling with flames and smoke. “Pet,” he warns.
“Don’t mind if I stick around this time just to make sure, right?” I sneer, and he releases a full belly laugh before the sound turns into an angry roar as he yanks on the door. It rattles in its frame but doesn’t budge.
“Little pet,” he drawls, “when I get my hands on you, you’ll beg for death.”
“Seems unlikely since you’re behind that door.
You’ll burn to death in the very place you wielded your power.
Ironic, isn’t it?” I grin as I move closer.
“You always were too cocky, and look where it got you. You really thought you could control someone like me? Dumb move. You should have killed me when you had the chance,” I tell him before pressing my lips to the glass and stepping back with a grin.
“Let’s go.” Kane coughs. “The fire is growing.”
Laughing, I turn away, leaving Butcher roaring and rattling the door that will become his coffin.
I hear it the moment before it happens—a smash and a pop. My head turns in time to see Butcher bursting the door from its frame before he throws it out of the way. I flatten myself against the window with no time to warn a wide-eyed Kane as it soars straight for him.
It slams into Kane, knocking him back and over the railing, and I turn my head to see Butcher in the open doorway, his muscles heaving as he glares at me. He’ll kill me if he gets his hands on me, so I take the first shot.
After all, sometimes you just need to fight a man and beat the shit out of him to show him who’s really boss.
Rushing him, I grab the discarded chain on the way and tackle him back. He catches me as we fall, his hands going to my waist to throw me off, but I’m faster. I wrap the chain around his thick neck and through the grates of the walkway underneath.
I yank it tighter and lock it in place as he roars and bucks below me. His neck bulges as he pulls on it, but the metal doesn’t budge because it’s now attached to the bottom of the walkway, pinning him like a bug.
“Pet!” he roars as I spit on him.
“Now who’s the pet?” I growl before I turn and walk away, leaving him screaming after me. I thought I would feel more satisfaction, but the fact that I won’t get to watch him burn is irritating me. Self-preservation tells me to get my ass out of here, since I don’t want to be a kebab.
Leaping down the stairs, I cover my nose and mouth as I scan the building until I find Kane.
He’s just getting to his knees, coughing and rubbing his head. Rolling my eyes, I run his way and help him up as he leans into me, disoriented and hurt.
“How many times do I have to save your heavy ass?” I grouse as we stumble to the door.
“However many you want. It seems to be your kink,” he teases, coughing as we suck in fresh air and fall through the open door. We turn to see the warehouse engulfed in flames and share a look. His eyes darken before he grabs my neck and pulls me close, his lips finding mine.
He tastes of blood and ash, and for a moment, I lose myself in the softness of his lips as he demands entrance to my mouth. He kisses me like he can’t stand living another second without it, like I’m the air he needs to breathe.
Still, he didn’t ask.
My fist slams into his gut, and he drops to his knees, coughing as I let him go. His watering eyes meet mine as I smirk and reach down, tilting his chin up as he heaves and coughs. “If I wanted to kiss you, Sai, I would have. Now, be a good boy, and let’s get our asses out of here.”
“If I’m good, will I get to kiss you again?” he rasps.
“Try it and see.”
Kane takes me by surprise when he yanks me down and presses his lips to mine again. I don’t move for a second before I ram my knee into his balls. He falls away with a cry of agony.
“Worth it,” he wheezes as he rolls on the ground while I turn and walk away, leaving him groaning in pain.
He eventually catches up to me, and we wander to the road and keep walking. Neither of us have a phone. It’s going to be a long walk.