Chapter 29 Rescue Me #2
“Try that again, and I’ll break it in half.” He flipped me onto my stomach and pulled until my feet met the floor. Bent over the bed, I cringed as his hands slid down my sides to my hips, and lifted the tiny slip.
“Please,” I whispered.
“Please what?”
“Please don’t do this.”
His hands stilled. A small gurgle emitted from his throat. His filthy touch slipped away from me, and a heavy thump hit the floor.
I twisted in time for Lucas to slide my dress down and haul me to my feet. Nicholas Blake lay dead, bleeding from his neck onto the carpet.
Lucas set to work cutting through my restraints with the bloody knife in his hand. The ropes fell away, and for the first time in almost a week I was free to move my body however I wanted.
He gripped the sides of my head and stared into my eyes, expression strained, voice wavering. “I searched for you everywhere.”
Crushing my fingers into his shirt, I brushed against a multitude of oddly shaped objects underneath. “It’s you, right? I’m not hallucinating?”
“It’s me, Sophia. I’m here.”
I crashed into him before he’d finished speaking, throwing my arms around his neck, burying my face in his shoulder.
Thanks to the wounds in my back, he couldn’t hug me the way I wanted, but his hands gripped my ribs as I cried in silence.
He kissed my hair, the side of my face, anywhere he could reach. Over and over again.
“I’ll get you out,” he whispered. “Okay? You have to do everything I say. This— It isn’t going to be pretty.”
I lifted my head.
Wait. What?
“Lucas, you’re not going back down there to face four men by yourself.”
His thumb grazed my cheek. “There’s no other choice.”
Flashes of images scorched my mind, of Lucas trying and failing to fight them off…him fatally wounded…me trapped as a Hunter prisoner, Luke’s blood staining my hands.
Him dead and me wanting to be.
“Tie me back up,” I said. “I won’t let you do this.”
“You won’t let me?” He whisper-yelled, stepping away from me.
Fresh tears fell, and I reached for him. “You can’t die. I’ll be alone. What if I can’t get out?”
“You’ll never sneak out with them alive, not even with my help. They’re trained killers.” He gripped my arm too tightly. “You really think I’m going to let them live after this?”
“I’m fine, Lucas!” I choked around the tears. “But I won’t be fine if you die. It’s just a few cuts.”
His eyes widened. “Just a few cuts?”
“Yeah—”
He manhandled me until my back faced the vanity mirror on the far wall. “Have you even seen it, Sophia?”
He moved my hair, and I stared at the mutilation on my back. I thought they were random cuts meant to disfigure me.
Not random though.
The Brotherhood Cross.
Speechless, I gawked at the bleeding hate emblem that would forever scar my skin, thinking of the lynched bodies hanging from the ceiling during the siege on Safe House Red.
“Don’t even try to tell me what happened to you wasn’t that bad.”
Tears clogged my throat. “We—we could sneak out.”
He scoffed at me. “You’ll sneak out. I’ll provide a distraction.”
“You’re only one man.” My voice broke. “Against four.”
Luke’s death would disintegrate everything inside me, and if I couldn’t escape, it would be in vain. I’d be theirs.
“I’ve had worse odds,” he said.
“I don’t want you to die for me. I’ll be trapped here.”
Lucas took hold of my upper arms. “I won’t let you be trapped here.
You got on your knees and begged me to kill you today.
You have handprint bruises around your throat.
Argue all you want, but if I have to die to get you out, to save your life, I will.
” He pressed the knife into my hand. “You know what to do. If you have to use this, you aim to kill. None of them have firearms. They’re prohibited here.
” He handed me a key. “If something does happen to me, there’s a Jeep down the street.
Use the kitchen door, Sophia, okay? I killed the guards there, but there are two at the front.
Turn right at the sidewalk and run. In the glove box is a loaded gun.
Use it only if you need it. Get back home as fast as you can. ”
He removed his long-sleeved shirt and helped me pull it over the dress. His scent wrapped around me like a warm embrace. He left me, heading for the door, extracting something from beneath his thin undershirt.
“Wait!” I rushed across the room. “Lucas, wait.” I threw myself around him.
He wreathed his arms around me, gentle. “Sophia.” His lips dropped to my ear, his voice barely a whisper. “Do you know how much I love you? You disappeared, and I never even said the fucking words. I love you. Forever. Until I die.”
He could die. Tonight. My blood froze. “Say it again.”
“I love you. Let me fix this.” He kissed me once and pulled away. “This isn’t the end for you. There’s a clear path to freedom. Stay out of sight, or you’ll distract me.”
He peeked through a crack in the door and stepped into the hall.
Too fast! My mind couldn’t keep up, and I didn’t know what to do. Four Blood Colonels sat downstairs, and while he might take the first one or two unaware, they were all sadists with fighter’s instincts.
I flinched as a crash echoed through the house, chased by a bang and muffled shouts. I gripped the knife and tiptoed to the top of the stairs. More cries rang out, some of them screaming questions at Lucas.
“What are you doing?”
A shout, and then another loud thump.
“Th’fuck, Scott!”
Grunts and the unmistakable thuds of fists against flesh emerged from the end of the hall. The picture of Lucas being restrained and beaten flashed through my mind, and I lost it. Slipping down the stairs, I snuck toward the fight.
Fabric ripped, then a clunk vibrated the floorboards.
I made it to the bottom of the stairs and glanced around the corner.
One colonel sat slumped at the poker table, throat cut.
Another two—Miller and Kingston—scrambled away from Lucas until the table stood between them.
Lucas stared into the remaining one’s frightened eyes, screwing a knife into his stomach.
The man whimpered, falling when Lucas yanked out the knife.
He landed on all fours, and Lucas kicked him hard in the face. Blood sprayed the ground as the thin bones of the man’s face crunched and gave way. He fell to his side.
One more kick, and he was gone.
Lucas headed for the other two. He whipped out a pair of karambits. Kingston took a defensive position. Miller had been messing with his shoe, but he straightened, and thrust his knife toward Lucas. Dodging, Lucas entered a deadly dance with his remaining foes.