Chapter 20
TWENTY
CHLOE
I shook my head as he cupped my cheek, but the second he did his warmth made me nuzzle against his skin.
I was afraid that I’d never feel his touch again.
That I’d never have his body seated against mine in pleasurable silence.
I cupped the back of his hand, keeping it there for a few more seconds as his words dawned upon my mind.
And when they did, my gaze found his. “How the hell are we going to get out of here? What’s your plan?”
He grinned. “Let’s test just how valuable you are to them. Can you fake passing out?”
I blinked. “I can certainly do my best. You still have that piece of glass?”
He kissed my forehead. “Get one for yourself and store it away somewhere safe. Somewhere that it won’t hurt you when you collapse. And once you do, I’ll yell for them. All right?”
“Why didn’t they tie us back up? Is that something I should be worried about?”
His gaze searched my own. “One step at a time, okay?”
“So, I should be worried. Got it. Should I do anything else after I pass out?”
“Act as sick as possible. I’ll handle the rest. Now, go. Get yourself a shard of glass, and then hit the deck.”
I took a small step away from him. “Are you sure this is going to work? Because I don’t think—”
He pushed me softly toward the glass on the floor in the room where they’d had me tied up. “It has to work. We don’t have any other choice. No one knows to come looking for us, so we’re on our own. Now, go. I’m serious. Stop asking all these fucking questions and just do what I’m telling you.”
I swallowed down the other questions I had and scooped up the second-largest shard of glass I could find.
I thought about sliding it into the hem of my jeans, but I opted to put it in my sock instead.
Less risk for major punctures and if I was on my side after “fainting,” I could get to it easier than something behind my back.
And after I tucked it away, I nodded toward West before I rolled my eyes into the back of my head.
Then, I collapsed my legs.
“Chloe! No!” West exclaimed.
He rushed to me and scooped me into his arms. “Chloe, wake up. Somebody help me, please!”
The front door slammed open before heavy footsteps fell quickly toward us.
“What the fuck are you yelling about?” a man asked.
West panicked over me. “She’s—she’s out cold. I can’t—Chloe, wake the fuck up!”
He shook my body softly and I kept my eyes closed and my body as limp as possible. I just prayed to any God that might’ve had mercy on us at that moment that it worked.
That whatever West’s plan was worked in our favor.
“Hey!” the man roared next to my ear.
It took all I had not to flinch before West pulled me close against him. “She needs help. We need to get her to a hospital!”
A couple of men laughed in the distance while the other one who checked on me scoffed. “Yeah, not happening. Call me when she wakes up.”
West laid my body on the ground and hissed at the man, standing to his feet.
“You want to tell your boss that the woman he’s keeping for high-paying clients passed out on your watch and you didn’t do anything to help her out?
How the fuck do you think that’s going to roll over with him?
You think he’s going to be happy if she chokes on her own vomit or something and dies? ”
I had no idea what the hell the guard looked like at that moment, but I would’ve given anything to see his face. The entire world seemed to fall silent at West’s accusation, and as I laid there—trying to stay in my trance— someone kneeled down to me.
“I’m going to check her pulse,” the man said.
I let out all of the breath in my lungs and waited until they cried out for mercy. It forced my pulse up, my heart pounding in my chest. Slowly, I let air in, just as the man’s fingers touched down against my neck.
And the second he felt my heartbeat raging out of control, he leapt back up. “Her pulse is high, amigos! She needs a doc—what the fuck!”
Everything happened so quickly that I almost didn’t register anything.
One minute, the man was checking my pulse, and the next minute West growled at him to get off me.
A gunshot popped off and the man cried out before a door burst open somewhere, and as I curled up into a ball, I did my best not to scream as I reached for the glass shard against my ankle.
“And you,” West grumbled, “and you. And you, you, you, and you.”
Every time he said the word “you,” a gunshot popped off.
I managed to open my eyes and saw a pair of lifeless ones looking back at me and I shrieked.
I couldn’t help it. I scrambled to my feet and held the shard of glass over my head.
It threatened to slice my hand open the harder I gripped it, but I didn’t even care.
Heavy footfalls sounded before there were even heavier thuds against the floor.
I watched in horror as West reloaded the gun he had gotten from… somewhere.
It wasn’t until I looked down at the dead man at my feet that I realized his gun holster was empty.
Take one for yourself. You need it.
My eyes darted around before I found another body close to me.
I dropped the glass and scrambled to the man’s side before I slid both guns out of the holsters on his hips.
I grimaced as I checked his pockets, finding two sleeves—magazines?
—of ammunition that I assumed went to both of the guns I held in my hand.
Before West snatched one from my grasp.
“Come on, we need to gather up all we can before another wave of them comes,” he said quickly.
He gripped my arm, pulling me up from the floor. I stumbled a bit before I got my feet beneath me, then the two of us got to work. We stripped the dead men of everything they had on them, everything from knives to guns to ammunition to fucking pepper spray.
“Bingo,” West murmured as he pulled a set of handcuffs off someone.
“We’re clean over here,” I said, trying to force back my tears.
“Same here,” West said as he checked all of the guns he had for bullets.
At least, that was what I thought he was doing.
“What now?” I asked breathlessly as I stood to my feet.
He strode over and padded my pockets. Lining my bra.
He shoved guns and weapons into every orifice I could stand, loading me down with cold metal that sat against my skin.
He shoved magazines for my guns into my back pockets.
He showed me quickly how to eject them and shove in a new one.
And after he cocked his own guns, he took my hand.
“We need to get the fuck out of here, that’s what we need to do,” he said curtly.
With more footsteps falling outside, we started down the first thing we saw, which was a hallway.
We came to a set of steps and West put his shoulder into the door, crashing it open before we started up the steps.
I tried to stay as silent as possible, but I wasn’t in nearly the kind of shape I needed to be for something like this.
I huffed and puffed, and at one point in time, I had to stop and catch my breath.
“You stay here,” West said, barely panting, “I’m going to go check out some of these rooms. I mean, there’s fucking carpet up here. We have to be somewhere with some sort of connection.”
I gave him a thumbs up before I straightened my back, locking my fingers behind my head.
Men rushed around two floors beneath us, and I closed my eyes, allowing myself the smallest moment to process what the fuck was happening.
I’d never be the same after this. I’d never sleep easy, rest easy, or go fucking grocery shopping without looking over my damn shoulder.
My life, as I knew it, had completely changed.
And I didn’t know what to do with that information.
“You need to come with me. Now,” West glowered.
He took my hand and tugged me down the hallway as if I were some sort of rag doll.
But I followed him. It seemed that he’d drag me everywhere so long as it kept me safe, so I assumed this was all part of the plan.
We stormed down the hallway while Carlos himself barked orders beneath us.
Footsteps came up a set of stairs before the men were only one floor below us, and I had to swallow the bile working its way up the back of my throat.
However, once West pulled me into a room at the end of the hallway, my jaw dropped.
“There’s a computer in here?” I asked.
West walked over and toggled the mouse. “It’s fucking hooked up, too.”
I cracked my knuckles before I reached for the charm of my necklace. “Don’t mind if I do.”
“I figured that if we—what are you doing?”
I uncapped the unassuming charm around my neck and revealed the end of a USB drive. “Give me ten minutes. That’s all I’m going to need, all right?”
He kissed my temple with a smack. “You’re a fucking miracle on legs. I’ll get you your ten minutes. Just get everything you can off this damned thing.”
And as he strode out of the room, closing the door behind him, I set one of my cocked guns right beside my hand before I hacked around the password on the screen.
Just in case I needed to grab it and pop a few shots off into someone barreling through the damn door.