Chapter 14
fourteen
The Salvation
The phone in my hand chimes just as someone taps on the window. I glance down, then back to the bed, where my lambs lie in a blissed-out tangle.
“We have to go,” I say, catching the words on the screen.
SwiftCode001: Cameras restored, locks disengaged.
The tapping comes at the window again. I give the lovers a moment to hurry into their clothes before I open.
“Better get going,” Walker says, smiling through his swollen, purple lips.
“How’d you get down here?” I ask, frowning past him at the empty hallway.
“They let me go once they found out who I am,” Walker says. “Guess that Sincero blood has benefits after all.”
“I guess so.”
“Y’all won’t get so lucky,” he says. “We’d better make ourselves scarce before they realize you’re still here.”
“We’re coming,” Heath says, hopping on one foot as he tries to get his shoe on.
“Still?” Walker asks, arching a brow.
“You were watching?” Saint demands.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Walker says, holding up both hands. “I just came down to warn you. I can’t help what you happened to be doing in plain sight when I got here.”
Saint takes a step towards him, but I give a quick shake of my head. “We don’t have time for that. We need to get Mercy to safety.”
“Or,” she says, pulling on a pair of cheap khaki pants from her closet. “I could stay here. They’re looking for me. They’ll come here eventually.”
“And then what?” Angel demands.
“And then we make our move.”
“No,” I say firmly. “There’s been enough bloodshed.”
My mouth forms the words, but my thoughts tell a different story.
My pulse pounds with excitement at the thought of lying in wait, ambushing the guards or doctors, whatever sick fucks come for her.
But if I saw them touch her, I wouldn’t be able to hold back.
I’d snap like I did once before. This time, I wouldn’t stop at one man. This time, I’d make them all pay.
Mercy starts to argue, but I cut her off. “I’m not putting you in any more danger than you’ve already been in. We need to get you off this island. Now.”
“Fine,” she mutters. “But like you said, I’ve already been here.”
The four of them follow me out into the hallway. Walker steps out of the room last, just behind Mercy.
“When you told me you had boyfriends, I didn’t believe you,” he says, cracking a smile that looks painful. “But damn. You weren’t kidding.”
An alarm blares somewhere in the building, and Walker turns to Saint. “Give me back my phone.”
I hand it to him, and he thumbs it on and hits Nathaniel’s contact from his favorites. “Yo, Nate. Guide us out, cuz.”
“Bet that’s the first time you’ve asked for guidance in that direction,” Nathaniel says, grinning up from the screen.
“Fuck off or I’ll hang up on you.”
“Go right ahead,” Nathaniel says. “Through that door and then an immediate right. But this is just entertainment for me. It’s life or death for you.”
“Not for me,” Walker says smugly as I stride ahead with Angel to check the hall. “Apparently I count as a Sincero here. Good thing they brought me instead of you.”
“Definitely a good thing,” Nathaniel says. “Since you’d be useless in my place. Hold right there… Okay, camera’s down, go-go-go…”
We turn a corner and rush down the hall that Nathaniel’s hidden for us.
“They’re definitely on to me,” Nathaniel says, sounding especially cheerful. “Two guards headed your way. Might want to duck into a room.”
Instead, Angel draws his firearm, lifting it and cradling the butt in his other hand while he takes aim.
We slow, creeping along behind him until the guards turn the corner.
I want to be the one in front, leading and guarding them.
That’s my duty. But I don’t have a weapon, and I know better than to ask a gangster for his gun.
There are limits, even to my influence, and asking for something unreasonable is a good way to lose my power over them.
So I hang back, shielding Mercy with my body in case the guards come around the corner with guns blazing.
“When you said you’d already been here,” I remind her, keeping my voice quiet so the conversation stays between us. “I want you to know that I’m well aware of that. I didn’t mean to imply that you’re not fully capable of taking care of yourself. I’m proud of you, lamb.”
“Thank you, Father,” she says, smiling up at me.
“But while I’m around, you should know that I’ll always take care of you, as far as you’ll let me.”
She nods, biting down on her plump lower lip, her luminous eyes cast upwards at me. “I’d let you,” she murmurs, her voice sweet but seductive.
It sends a jolt straight to my groin, and I have to swallow hard and tear my eyes from hers.
She’s the picture of innocence, a sweet little lamb, as if she wasn’t just writhing in ecstasy with three men penetrating her at once while a fourth looked on; as if their cum isn’t leaking down her thighs at this very moment.
Angel squeezes off several rounds in quick succession, the shots deafening in the corridor. Their echo joins with the ringing in my ears, and I put a protective arm around Mercy when she cowers against me, palms pressed to her ears.
“Everyone okay?” Nathaniel asks, and I catch a glimpse of his startled face on Walker’s screen.
“All good,” I say, raising my voice so he can hear. “Where to now?”
“End of the hallway,” Nathaniel says. “I’ll disable the lock. You’ll be outside then, if no one stops you.”
“Aww, thanks for your concern, baby cousin,” Walker says. “I knew you loved me somewhere deep, deep down.”
“I wasn’t worried about you,” Nathaniel says. “I was worried about your lack of subtlety. Now they’ll be all over you.”
“Let ‘em come,” Angel says darkly. “I’ll take down every fucking one of them for bringing Mercy here.”
“I’m hanging up,” Nathaniel says. “I can only do so much, and that does not include saving you from yourselves if you’re going all kamikaze.”
He hangs up over Walker’s protest. The man scowls at Angel. “Nice going, meathead. You pissed off our guide.”
“Yeah, well, we didn’t need him anymore, anyway,” Angel says. “And we don’t need you. So why don’t you stay here on Pedophile Island where you belong, and we’ll go home.”
“Whoa, what the fuck,” Walker says. “You can’t just be throwing around accusations like that.”
“I wasn’t aware traffickers carded people before they kidnapped them,” Angel says. “I guarantee you there are minors here. Unless I’m wrong. Mercy? Did they card you before they threw you in the van?”
“No,” she says, glancing at Walker. “He’s right. There are kids here. But to be fair, I don’t know what exactly everyone is here for. I think some are legitimately getting care.”
We hit the door at the end of the hall, and the alarm with the ear-splitting volume goes off again.
“I thought Nate was disabling that,” Saint yells as we all rush through the door into the cold night outside.
“Told you not to offend his delicate sensibilities,” Walker says, jogging away from the building with us. “Nate is the king of petty.”
“Do you think he let them access the cameras too?” I ask. “They could have seen us leaving. They’ll see we have Mercy with us and search the island.”
“No way of knowing,” Walker says. “I can call him back, but I guarantee he’ll send us straight to voicemail until he gets an apology. And maybe a good grovel.”
“Fuck you, Sinner,” Angel says. “I’ve never groveled in my life, and if I ever do, it won’t be for his bitch ass. Or yours, if you’re just trying to see me simping because I unmanned you.”
To my surprise, Walker chuckles. “Trust, it takes a lot more than a fist fight to unman me.”
“I don’t remember it being much of a fight,” Angel says. “Seems like I jumped you, and you didn’t get in a single hit while I kicked your ass.”
Walker just shakes his head. “One day you’ll grow up and learn when it’s worth it to fight, and when it’s better to walk away.”
“Walk away?” Angel asks. “Or lay back like a pillow princess and not lift a finger to defend yourself?”
“The fact that you’d beat up a pillow princess says more about you than me,” Walker says, unruffled.
Knowing he’s a former member of the Hellhounds as well as several other questionable fraternities, I was surprised when he came to me for advice about joining the priesthood, but I advised him to the best of my abilities.
Now that I’ve been around him for a few days, I’m beginning to see his potential.
He’s only a few years younger than I am, and maybe it took him longer to find his way, but his unflappable air would be fitting for the church.
I’m still unsure of the depth of his belief, but then, I’m hardly one to judge another man by that particular virtue.
We stumble through the woods in silence for a few minutes before I bring the party to a halt. “We should check in with Nathaniel. See if it’s safe to go back to the dock.”
Walker leans against one of the thick trunks of the pines around us. “It’s not,” he says casually.
“Does anyone know where we’re going?” Mercy asks.
“I can get us back to the dock,” I say. “We can circle around and come up from the side. But if they’re looking for us there…”
“Will they be?” she asks, turning to Walker.
“Undoubtedly.”
“I’m sorry, how did you end up with this group?” she asks, shaking her head. “We’ve met, but I’m not sure how you fit into all this.”
“I’m a hostage,” he says, sounding wholly unconcerned.
“A hostage?” she says, turning to me as if I’ll provide clarification. Surely a priest wouldn’t do such a thing, her gaze says.
“More or less,” I admit.
“Why?” she asks. “You obviously know he’s related to the Sinners.”
“Exactly why,” Angel says. “This asshole is supposed to get us in and out.”
“I could,” Walker says, crossing his arms and looking superior. “But what’s in it for me?”
“You get out alive too,” Heath says.
“I can go down to the dock and catch a ride back on my own,” he says.
“What do you want?” Saint demands. “And if you say Mercy, so help me God…”