Chapter 21 Brooks
Brooks
I manage to stop running moments before I get to the door of the room where they’re keeping the other girls, and walk in like I didn’t just hide a dead body in a closet.
Unfortunately, my absence hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Where have you been?” a guard snarls, hurling me against the wall.
I grunt when my head hits the wall behind me, but don’t let it slow me down. I don’t have time to stand around talking to this asshole. Please see what I said above about leaving a dead body in a closet.
I’m pretty sure these guys are going to be pissed when they realize what I did.
“Bathroom,” I gasp. “I had to pee.” I open one eye and glare at the man in front of me. “Actually, as long as I have your attention, what the fuck is going on here? How long are you going to hold me? Because I have a date tomorrow night and I need to get my hair done before I go.”
He freezes, the way I knew he would, and then practically runs away from me. They always do that when I ask too many questions, like they’re afraid I’m somehow going to kill them with any knowledge they give me.
I mean, I might.
I smile after him, then turn and continue into the girls’ room. I need to get Kate, and we need to get the fuck out of here.
She’s across the room when I enter, talking to one of the girls, and I motion for her to dump the girl and get into the corner where we have the most privacy.
I’ve been watching the guards since we got here, and at this point I can guess here they’re going to be and when.
That includes knowing that they never come near the corner I’m now in.
Handy, when you’re trying to foment rebellion and need to meet with your lieutenant.
“What’s going on?” Kate asks when she arrives. “And why do you look...”
She gestures vaguely at my face and I lift one eyebrow, waiting for her to get to the point.
“Like you just went into the hallway and took heroin or something,” she finishes.
I frown. “What the fuck does a person look like after they take heroin?”
“I don’t know, flustered and worked up. Go look in the mirror and you’ll get a good idea. Were you out there taking drugs?”
“Yeah, I found some in the hallway and figured I’d try them out,” I say, almost laughing. “That’s what every good rebellion needs, isn’t it? People too high to know what they’re doing. No, I wasn’t doing drugs, but we’ve got trouble.”
Her face turns immediately more serious. “What kind of trouble? What actually happened out there?”
“Short version? I saw a buyer bothering one of the girls and took him off her hands. Then I killed him and shoved him in a closet.”
I have never seen Kate at a loss for words, but she opens her mouth and then closes it again, like she doesn’t have any language available to her. She stares at me for one beat, then two, before she finally finds something to say.
“You killed him and shoved him in a closet. Right. I guess that means it’s time to get out of here.”
“So glad you agree with me,” I hiss. I grab her arm and tow her toward the door of the room. “I don’t know how long it’ll take them to figure out what happened, but I’d rather not be here when they do. It’s time for us to make our escape.”
She snorts, now. “You think they’re just going to let us walk out?”
We get to the door and out into the hall, and I guide her so we’re walking close to the wall.
“That’s exactly what I think. I’ve been watching their routes and they’ve only got one guy on duty right now.
I already scared him off by asking too many questions.
We should have an open pathway down to the front door. ”
“And how are we going to get through it?” she responds, falling into stride next to me and matching her steps to mine. “Because they’re idiots if they don’t have a lock on that door.”
I fish the key card I stole from Smiley Face Man out of my bra and flash it at her, grinning widely. “That’s where the key comes in handy.”
She looks like I just told her we could eat all the candy in the world, her eyes going big and glassy with excitement. “Where the fuck did you get that?”
I shrug. “The guy I killed had it in his pocket. Got some cash, too. Figure we might need a ride when we get out.”
She chuckles but doesn’t ask any more questions, and we stride down the hall, doing our best to look like we belong out here and like we’re definitely not trying to escape with a key card I stole off the guy I killed and then hid in a closet.
***
By the time we get downstairs to the foyer, I’ve come up with a pretty solid plan.
We’re going to get out of the building and onto Canal Street.
I know the area well and can see that we’re in a dance hall, which puts us in the entertainment district.
Boudreaux will have gambling halls just down the street.
We’ll get to one of them and demand to see Lucien.
If he’s not there, I’ll tell whoever I find to call him.
Once he arrives, we’ll come back for the girls.
Then we’ll hit every other dance hall on the street and save the girls there, too.
When they’re safe, we can talk about taking down my father and whoever he’s working with.
My father isn’t the man in charge, I don’t think—he’s not important enough to be running this whole thing himself—but he’s got to know the head guy.
And my fingers are itching to start torturing him for information.
He’s working for someone bigger, and if my suspicions are correct, we’ll save hundreds of girls when we take them down.
Maybe thousands. The girls in New Orleans. The ones from Atlanta and Boston.
Aislyn.
Bonus: If this works, I’ll never have to worry about my father again. Because I plan to make sure he’s behind bars for the rest of his life. Or dead.
I just have to pray that Lucien’s willing to help me out one more time.
Pray that he’s still alive. Because somewhere, deep down in my stomach, a fear has been growing.
I’ve never known that man to give up on anything he wanted.
If he has his mind set on something, he’ll move heaven and hell to get it.
Sell his very own soul, and the souls of all his family members.
I don’t like that he hasn’t found me yet.
It reminds me of when he didn’t come find me in New York, and makes me wonder if he’s decided he’s had enough of me.
Or if he’s dead.
That thought scares me enough that I haven’t been willing to touch it, and even now I shy away from looking at it too closely.
I can’t imagine a world without Lucien in it.
It’s been years since we were together and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about him, but he’s one of those forces of nature that keeps the world running.
He’s the one I instinctively each for when I’m in trouble.
The only person who really knows me. And the only one who’s never let me down.
I don’t want to live in a world without him, and the realization is a shocking one.
Because what if he’s out there dead because he tried to save me from this stupid, stupid plan that we never even discussed?
I’m jerked out of the thought by a guard, who comes around the corner ahead of us, spots me, and lunges forward. Kate sees him coming before I do and manages to get out of the way, but I’m a step too slow.
“You!” he snarls, grabbing me and throwing me against the wall.
“Me,” I agree, gasping at the impact. I drag my eyes up to meet his, knowing I look like I’m about to murder him.
I don’t care. I don’t know what the fuck this guy is, but he’s getting in the way of us getting out of here, and that means he’s on borrowed time.
“You’re not supposed to be down here.”
That’s true, but also doesn’t require an answer, and I can see by his face that he doesn’t realize what’s actually going on. He doesn’t think we’re trying to escape.
He thinks we’re just lost or something.
I seal my lips shut and stare at him, waiting for him to continue. And because I’ve found that when you stare at someone, it makes them intensely uncomfortable. They forget what they were so upset about and focus on wondering why the hell you’re staring at them.
He does just that, blushing and getting flustered, and I almost laugh at how well it works.
He draws back a step, like he’s just going to let us keep going, and I start coming up with the script we’ll need to get out of this.
Just tell him we got lost. Keep going. Get the fuck out of here without anyone suspecting anything.
Leave this guy to answer for why he didn’t stop us when he had the chance.
Then he yanks out his gun and holds it to my head, and I realize that’s not going to work.
“Get back upstairs and stop playing your tricks, girl. The boss has special plans for you,” he snarls.
Shit. So much for taking the easy way.
And him pulling a gun on me already is a problem I didn’t see coming.
My mind flies through several different options, cataloging every possibility, but I’m not sure I can pull any of them off, and panic starts to rush through my veins.
I don’t have anything but a card key and a stack of cash, and neither of those is going to get this guy off me.
Even worse, I don’t know if he has orders to shoot.
He might pull that trigger the moment I start to move.
I’m in trouble.
I’m about to move anyhow, counting on my instincts to be faster than this guy’s, when he clicks the safety off.
“Don’t even think about it,” he mutters.
Christ. Even I can tell this is bad. He’s just caught me trying to escape—and failing—and if he takes me back up to that room things are going to get ugly. This is my chance, and this asshole has me pinned against a wall, ready to shoot me.
Shit, shit shit. How do I get out of this? Think, Brooks, think!
And then someone else speaks.
“She’s mine. Let her go.”
The world stops spinning, because I know that voice.
Lucien.
Lucien is here.