Chapter 15
Iwatch Andie flee my side as if she’s seen a ghost, my hand still outstretched from when she tore hers from it.
“Women. Always gotta tinkle.” Johnny laughs. “Even the fucking hot ones.”
My head swivels toward the short prick. “Do you know her?”
“What?”
“She was afraid of you,” I say through gritted teeth. “Do you know her?”
He shrugs and laughs as he looks at the man to his left. “He’s askin’ if I know his girl. How the fuck would I know her?”
I narrow my eyes on him. There was no mistaking Andie’s reaction. She went ramrod straight the moment she saw him. At first, I thought it was her apprehension at meeting anyone while she’s with me, the way she was when I sent the stylist up to her.
But she didn’t run like the devil was at her heels when Erik went up to dress her.
“How the fuck would you know her?” I throw the question back and take a step toward him. His guards instantly move to block him, leaving only a sliver of his face.
“Our paths might have crossed, years ago. Trust me, she’s not worth getting worked over.”
“I decide who’s worth getting worked over,” I seethe. With every word that comes out of his mouth, I’m more certain he did something to hurt her. “I want to know exactly why she’s scared of you.”
“She couldn’t handle my big dick.” Through that tight space between his guards, I see him adjust his junk and smirk.
Everything disappears, my instant rage shrinking my vision to a single focal point, and Johnny is at the center of it. The idea alone that anyone has touched Andie, much less a leering scumbag like him, sends me over the edge of self-control.
I’m about to lunge when a hand grips me from behind and startles me out of my mission to tear him limb from limb.
“Now’s not the time,” Patrick growls near my ear. “You have bigger problems.”
Johnny laughs smugly. “Yeah, hold him back. Come on boys, this place stinks like whore’s pussy.”
Patrick motions to our men and they immediately surround Johnny’s gang and escort them out.
I shrug his hold off, furious. But there’s one thing that keeps me from throwing myself on him instead. Patrick is the first to take someone out when the need arises. So, for him to have stopped me, there’s a good reason.
“Have him followed,” I sneer, unable to shake the anger fully. “I want to know exactly where he is all night.” It will make it easier to take him out myself if I don’t have to hunt him down.
“Not now.” Patrick scans the area around us as he leans in and whispers, “Gustavo just got an anonymous bomb threat.”
“What?”
“We must evacuate the building.” As he says it, I glance at our security team, all of which are either reading the alerts coming in on their cell phones or already moving toward their designated emergency posts. It’s protocol to get them in place before the announcement is made in order to be able to guide guests out safely.
My jaw tenses so hard it hurts. “Gideon.”
“I don’t know. It may be false information, but we can’t take the chance.”
I nod. “Meet me at the Hufton.”
“Where are you going?” He grabs my arm when I make to walk away. “You’re supposed to be the first one out.”
“Andie’s in the bathroom.”
“Leave her. She’ll be fine.”
Several feet behind him I spot Sheila. She’s tapping her foot impatiently. Nervously.
“You go take care of your woman. And I’ll take care of?—”
Suddenly, there’s a loud crack through the air, like the sound of a gunshot magnified thousands of times. Everyone in the room, including myself, drops to the floor, covering our heads. Another crack comes, this one shaking the floor violently and bringing with it pieces of the ceiling crashing down.
Then chaos and smoke fill the room, and when my hearing returns the ringing in my ears is almost as loud as the screams.
“Get them out!” I shout to Patrick, who is coughing and rubbing his eyes furiously.
He doesn’t argue, but begins to feel his way out instead, scooping anyone he can on his path to the exit.
Another crack, this one causing the building to rumble from a floor above. More dust and smoke engulf the space, making it difficult to see.
“Andie!” I throw my arm over my nose and mouth as I make my way to the restrooms, desperately hoping she’s on her way to me. “Anderson!”
Someone crashes into me. It’s my head of security, Gustavo. “Mr. Alexander, you must come with me.”
“No! I need to find Anderson.”
He looks around and shakes his head. “It’s too dangerous. We have to evacuate.”
“Make sure all the guests are out. I can’t leave without her.”
“My men can search for her,” he assures me.
“Do as you’re told,” I snap and turn from him, resuming course toward the bathrooms.
I push through the tables and mass of people going in the opposite direction, until I reach the hall where the restrooms are located. Plastered against the wall, her hair a mess and blood streaming from her temple, is Andie.
“Andie!” I shout, and she lifts her gaze to me.
She pulls away from the wall, relief on her face as she reaches for me. “Gavin!”
That’s when another crack rends through the air, this one much quieter than the others, but sharper. Pain sears the side of my head for only a split second, there and gone before I can really feel it. But it’s enough to knock me to my knees.
In a daze, I touch the spot, bringing back sticky wetness on my fingertips. I stare at the red stuff. Blood.
When I glance up again, Andie’s eyes widen in horror and her mouth opens in a silent scream as she bolts toward me. The last thing I hear before the room tilts and everything begins to fade, is one last crack.
Then it all goes black.
* * *
“Stay with me, Gavin. Shit, you’re heavy.”
“Wha—” I desperately try to open my eyes, but I’m so tired.
“You have to help me… Shh. Be quiet. He’s in here with us.”
I lift one lid, however, all I see is white. Tiny specks that float in the air, blanketing everything.
“Where—?” I stop when I realize I’m standing, my weight supported not only by my own legs but by someone else too.
“Shh.”
“Andie?” I wobble, and she quickly steadies me.
“Hush,” she scolds. It’s a whisper, but firm. “You’re going to get us killed.”
She leads us somewhere, I don’t know where, and I hear the rattling of a door. Then we’re moving again, or the floor is moving, I can’t tell.
“We have to leave,” she says. “It’s not safe... Can’t trust anyone.”
I shake my head in an attempt to clear my confusion. “What are you saying?”
A breeze suddenly hits me and I look up at the smoke tainted night sky. We’re outside? How did we get here so fast?
“Hurry,” Andie urges me, shoving her shoulder hard under my armpit. “We have to go before they surround… Could be the bad...”
I dumbly glance down to see my feet half dragging, half moving of their own accord. It’s both fascinating and terrifying.
Then my scalp begins to prickle and my ears to heat. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Swallow it down. Just a little farther to go.”
It’s difficult to say if I’m able to swallow it down. Bile rises in my stomach one moment, the next I’m being unceremoniously dropped like a sack of potatoes onto the ground. I reach out to feel for her, but can’t find her.
“Andie,” I whisper.
“Stay put. I have to find us a car.”
A car? Did I hear that right?
“An…” I manage to sit up and pry my eyes open. I’m in the middle of a parking lot, but from my lowered position between two vehicles, I can’t tell which one.
When she reappears, she’s at a low crouch. “Found one.”
“One wha— fuck!” I curse when she shoves herself under my arm once more and begins to tug. My head rolls and pounds furiously, forcing me to shut my eyes again.
She takes me somewhere not far from where she originally dropped me. Grunting, she opens the door to an idling car and shoves me in.
“Fuck! You’re going to kill me,” I grab my head when it hits the car on the way in.
Without bothering to apologize, she grabs my legs, pushes them inside and slams the door shut.
I must blackout because next thing I know, the car is moving and Andie is on the phone. “I’m on my way. Be ready for us.”
It’s impossible to lift my lids now, even though I’m desperate to see where the fuck I’m being hauled off to. However, I’m certain it’s nowhere good.
My fear is confirmed when another voice, one I haven’t heard before, comes into the picture. “He has to be tied up, Andie.”
“I have rope.”
“What?” I ask. At least I think I do. I’m not sure I can speak. Or if I can even move, because although in my mind I’m pushing them away, they’re still grabbing my arms and legs and carrying me somewhere.
“Damn, he weighs a ton,” the other woman complains.
Good, I think. I hope I fucking break your back.
“Just bend your knees,” Andie suggests.
“I’m losing my grip!” the woman cries out.
“Three more steps.”
Then, there’s a third. This one young. “Momma?”
“Shit,” Andie curses. “Go inside.”
“But—”
“I said inside, Lola.”
The girl must finally obey because somewhere in the distance a door slams. The bang it creates startles me into alertness just as I’m brought into an apartment and dropped onto the floor.
However, before I can sit up, there’s a tiny pinprick on my forearm.
“The fuck?” I glare from the young black woman still holding the syringe to my skin, to Andie who is crouched beside her.
“How long will it take to kick in?” Andie asks.
I don’t remain conscience long enough to hear the reply.