Chapter 10
ASH
A lthough I’ve seen War in nothing but his boxer-briefs before when I showed up at the Crue house, I mostly looked away in the past, pretending to be busy.
Now there’s no way to do that. If I look away, it’s because I’m uncomfortable.
Or intimidated. And showing fear and weakness is the wrong move.
Even with him. Maybe especially with him.
I’ve tried to tease him in the past, wise-cracking at his expense, comparing him to some massive animal or mythic creature.
Minotaur being the most frequent. I knew from his expression that he didn’t find it cute, but it’s hard to know whether he was offended.
If so, he might decide now’s the perfect time to get even with me. Or to get rid of me.
Does he hate me that much?
As usual, thinking about his animosity irritates me. I haven’t earned it.
My gaze, which really wants to examine all his ridiculously overblown muscles, has to be forced away from his body. He’s not my type. Or maybe he is now. I think about Crosby’s bulging muscles. I like those, too .
I thought I might’ve heard Crosby’s voice when I started to wake up the first time.
Recalling those frantic moments, I frown.
Whatever they’d sprayed in my face had started to wear off.
I guess they didn’t want me awake and causing trouble while we were en route here because they forced me to swallow bitter-tasting water.
I fought, and they held me down. It drove me into a panic, and my lip got banged against my teeth from the bottle they jammed in my mouth.
It was swallow or choke. Survival won out, of course.
Dwelling on that feeling of helplessness will only undermine my ability to stay calm, so I try to push it out of my mind. Not easy.
Rising, I clasp my hands behind me to cover my ass cheeks before turning to examine our surroundings.
“Do you spot any cameras, War?” When I’m only met with silence from his side of the cell, I continue. “I don’t, but I know some are pretty tiny?—”
“A bluff.” His voice is so low I barely hear him.
Looking over my shoulder, I raise my brows. “You think? He came when you touched the bars.”
“Or he came when he realized we were awake because he heard us talking.” Again his voice’s volume is barely above a whisper.
“There’s no electricity down here. And wifi won’t reach.
That’s the point. Could have local battery-operated cameras storing footage on an SD card, but realtime surveillance is unlikely. ”
I follow his gaze to a small battery-powered lantern sitting on an overturned wicker basket outside the cell.
“They took everything off us,” I say as I inch over to the cell’s toilet.
It’s a commode over a dark hole that goes so far down there’s no trace of a foul smell.
There’s also a spigot from a ceiling pipe.
Beneath it is a metal grate over another dark hole.
This dirt-floored cell has a shower? Where the hell are we?
At least it seems to mean they’re planning to keep us alive for awhile .
Time is exactly what I need most.
Turning from the shower, I glance at the mattress with its single fitted sheet that looks new. The only mark on it is a little blood, which I think came from my scraped lip.
“They took it all,” I repeat, my gaze shifting to War. “Phones. My jewelry. Anything they thought might catch a signal and transmit. Why do that if there’s no connection down here?”
“Probably removed before transport.”
“Just so no one could track us to the point of entry? The mouth of the cave or whatever?”
“Cave?” he scoffs. “Where do you think we are? Does this look like an old quarry or a boulder to you?”
Staring at him, I feel my cheeks burn.
“You think they’d house us in a tourist spot?” He shakes his head, sending thick black hair over his mountain-sized shoulders. “We’re in the GU underground.”
Pressing my lips against each other, I remember too late that it’s painful.
Relaxing my jaw, I touch a fingertip to my swollen lip.
“I heard there were tunnels beneath campus, but I thought they were blown up or something. Didn’t I read that?
” I feel stupid for not doing more Granthorpe research.
Also, I don’t like that he’s better at reading and analyzing our environment.
Is that because the Crue trained him? Or is he just naturally good?
“Four charges went off on the night of the underground Casanova hunt. Western section. Probably caused a half mile of destruction. I suspected it didn’t get everything. Now, we know.”
I ignore this intelligence, even though I’m curious and want to ask questions. GU topography is not the most important thing at the moment. “Are the bars loose enough for you to get us out?”
“Am I still here?”
Sighing impatiently, I roll my eyes. “I didn’t think the bars could be blown down by a heavy breath. But you look like an army tank, so I figured you might have some of the same skills.”
His gaze flicks to my face, and I get a solid look at eyelashes any girl would kill for. Long, black, thick. They’re like criss-crossed spider legs, but prettier. It’s ridiculous and wasted on him.
“The thing they want, what is it?” His soft baritone raises gooseflesh.
I rub my arms. I’m freaking freezing. Maybe hypothermia is the first form of torture they’re trying on us.
Turning so I’m fully facing him, I cup my hands around my mouth, to mask my mouth movements from any cameras that could be lurking. “Not completely sure,” I whisper, moving closer. “Might be something from Madelyn Hearn, since I used to stay?—”
“I know that part.” He snaps his fingers impatiently.
Annoyance seeps into my bones. It’s not my fault he’s here. If he’s going to be a dick, as per usual, I will stop talking, and he can stay curious.
“Do you also know someone ransacked her place?” I demand.
War shakes his head, causing a lock of black hair to fall over one solid cheekbone. His face isn’t course enough to be a neanderthal’s but rough handsomeness aside, there are clearly signs of our caveman origins in him.
“When I went to her place looking for signs of her, I found a hidden jump drive. Not sure if it’s what they want or not. Couldn’t access what’s on it. Password-protected.”
His mouth opens, but I hold up a hand to stop him.
“Don’t ask where I hid it. I’m not telling you.”
The edge of his mouth curves. “You’ll tell me if I decide to make you.”
Glaring at him, I wave off the threat. “That’s a suicide bomber move. You’re smarter than that.”
“How do you figure? ‘Twitchy with the rifle’ said it’s the way I save myself.” His tone is half amused as he taunts me with what I hope are empty threats.
I decide to ignore it. This isn’t the place to get in arguments. “That guy? He’s not in charge. Not even temporarily. ”
“You expecting a quick rescue? White steed time?” War’s skepticism annoys me.
“You know, if it was just you down here, the Crue might take their time. Finish up whatever high priority ops they have going. But I’m here, so yes, they will tear up the campus if they have to.”
“They won’t make noise.” He says this with such confidence it causes my stomach to twist in knots.
No, he’s wrong. Crue leadership will come. They will be heavily armed and out for blood until I’m safely recovered.
“Keeping a low profile on campus is a high priority,” War says smoothly. “C won’t let your brother come in hard.”
Swallowing against the lump forming in my throat, I exhale slowly.
“I’m not just Scott’s sister. Sasha has me on retainer as a babysitter for his little girls.
I’m one of the few people in the world he trusts with them.
I’m C Crue royalty. His words, not Scott’s.
Even if C wouldn’t be inclined to go crazy to find me, he wouldn’t stand in Scott and Sasha’s way. That’s not how they roll.”
“Your brother might be sentimental, but Anvil’s not. If you die, he’ll find a new babysitter, guaranteed. The Crue’s goals are his goals, period.”
“You don’t even know him.” My voice is louder than I mean for it to be.
A blackness enters his gaze.
“Listen, they will come,” I say, infusing my tone with appeasement. “For both of us. And it probably won’t take them long. But before then, we’re on the same side. You see that, right?”
“I see that one of us needs protection and the other has a scar from her careless shooting of a firearm that she never should’ve been carrying.”
I could lie and feign ignorance about War’s gunshot wound, but instinctively, I know it would be a mistake. “That shot ricocheted. ”
“Close enough to hit me.”
I nod. “It was intended to give Maddie a chance to get away from guys who were chasing her. But you’re right that it was reckless to shoot the ground that close to you.”
His sharp gaze studies me, and in the moment, his expression makes him look so much like his uncle that, for a second, I’m speechless. “Did you know it was me in that alley?”
“I was on the roof. Not like I could see your face when it was staring at the wall.”
“I’m hard to mistake for someone else. Twenty feet up is nothing.”
“It was dark.”
“Not that dark. Answer the question.”
After a beat, I shrug in resignation. War’s sharper than I realized. Is he as sharp as his uncle? I remember what Scott says about Connor. “Lying to C is a big mistake. Ninety percent of the time, he will spot it. The other ten, he’ll uncover it. It’s what he does.”
My tongue strokes the swollen spot on my lip I can’t seem to leave alone. It feels so strange. “I thought I recognized you, yes.”
In an instant, his fingers close around my wrists and drag them above my head, so I have to rise on my toes to keep my arms from being pulled out of their sockets. A small gasp escapes my lungs before I lock my lips shut.
War steps so close my body is pressed against the hard bars when he leans down to whisper in my ear. “You could’ve shot any of the pavement between the girl and her pursuers. You chose to shoot the ground where I was standing. Did you try to hit me? Or was that just a happy accident?”
Pulling down on my wrists, I frown. “I was not trying to hit you.”
“But you were trying to do something. Scare me?”
Shit. Dangerously sharp. “I thought you’d be startled, yes. A nice change from your monolithic stone routine.”
“You spilled my blood. Don’t act surprised when I return the favor. Though, it won’t be on the dirt floor when there’s a mattress.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I hiss, my heart thumping wildly in my chest.
To hurt me while there’s still a chance of our being rescued by the Crue would be insane, but there’s a part of me that realizes he might just be crazy enough to do it. His voice certainly sounds serious.
“Wouldn’t I?” he whispers before his tongue licks my neck just under my earlobe, sending a riot of shivers through my half frozen body.
“Cut it out.” I kick his shin with my bare foot and then try to knee him in the groin.
His own thigh jerks forward to pin my right leg against my left. “I walked off a gunshot wound. You really want to trade pain with me, baby doll?”
“You know what else is small compared to you? A tranquilizer dart. But it knocked you flat on your ass. Small doesn’t always mean harmless.”
“And talkative rarely means smart. Yet, there you go running your mouth again like there’s no tomorrow.”
“Hey,” a voice bellows. “Get off of her.”
“Yes,” I whisper. “Get off of her.”
War’s gaze locks with mine.
“I said?—”
For a moment, only War’s eyes shift to the side. Then he drops my arms and turns sharply.
Before I even realize what’s happening, the guy slams against the bars—because War has his arm and the barrel of the rifle. I watch the guy try to jerk backward and hear a cracking sound before he screams.
He falls down and grabs his bent right forearm as he scrambles backward. War jerks the rifle up to shoot as the guy rolls onto his knees and clambers up .
War misses by several feet and shoots again, pointlessly, as the guy disappears into the dark corridor.
“Stop! Don’t waste the bullets,” I snap. “You don’t have a shot.”
War turns his head to give me one of his signature black stares.
Shivering from the cold of not having his massive furnace of a body pressed against mine, I cross my arms over my chest. “Look.” Again, I try to make my voice sound reasonable.
“It’s impressive that you broke his arm and got his gun,” I concede, trying to sound friendlier than I feel.
“But it doesn’t make sense to waste ammunition, does it?
That’s all I’m saying. Because there are a lot of them.
And they all have guns. If they get you to shoot off all the rounds in the rifle, we’re back to where we started with them holding all the cards. ”
“How many?”
“What?”
“How many of them did you see?”
“I saw three, but the count has to be at least five.”
“Because?”
“There were two who hadn’t exited the other vehicle before I lost consciousness.” Rubbing my upper arms, I tilt my head toward the gun. “That’s a bolt-action rifle. How many rounds left? One?”
He opens the gun, then closes it and sets it against the stone of the back wall. Drawing in a slow breath, he frowns. “Try to touch that weapon, and your ass will pay for it.”
“Meaning what?”
“You heard me.” His fists close around the bars, and he shakes them hard enough to cause ancient mortar to rain down on us.
I jerk back and shake the sand from my hair, watching his muscles flex.
“Listen,” I say softly. “There’s something you should know about me. ”
“What I know is you’ve been babied your entire fucking life, and I’ve survived worse than this in a country where frost burns toes off faster than a man can spit.
Stop trying to give orders. It’s like a fucking Pomeranian yipping at a mastiff.
Sit in the corner and keep your mouth shut before I decide I’ve got time to fuck you before I work on getting myself out of here. ”
My brows rise slowly. Is he serious? Does he think I’d go along with that? Or is he saying he’d outright rape me?
“Are you a rapist?” I demand, not even trying to control my disgusted tone.
“Not yet,” he says smugly, which makes my head want to explode. “But the day is young.”
He bends down to examine a bar entering the ground.
No way am I cowering in a corner, playing the victim. Not now. Not ever.
I dart toward the gun and have my hands on it by the time he spins and lunges.