Fuck, there’s no way this is going to go well once Blaze’s father realizes what happened.
We start to make our way down the hallway, and I wonder how many of the rooms are occupied.
I don’t really want to know the answer to that.
Pandora slows down suddenly and extends her hand in front of me. She drags me back down the hall and around the corner, right as Blaze and Asch’s voices waft toward us—echoed, now, hearing them both through the ear piece and in real time.
It’s a strange effect.
We both duck down behind a decorative cabinet. Pandora’s warm body presses against mine. Our breaths are slow and shallow to avoid making any noise.
“You know, if you aren’t decided, you could come back another day,” the woman with them—Pam?—suggests, the exasperation palpable.
“But I’m here now,” Blaze says. “It would be a waste of a trip. Are you sure you can’t just pull out a bunch of the girls at once and have them model for me in a room?”
Pam sighs. The three of them move along, past the hall we’re in. “You insisted on utmost privacy, sir. If you want me to call in another three guards?—”
“No, no, never mind. Ugh, I don’t need other men staring. That’s fucking nasty. The only cock in the room should be me.” Blaze sounds so disgusted, like he truly believes all that.
If the situation wasn’t so serious, I’d scoff, but it’s not the right time for that sort of reaction. Blaze has already been distracting her for a while now, and I don’t know how much longer he can pull it off. We need to grab Samantha and get out of here without worrying about what Blaze is spewing.
I take Pandora’s hand and lead her in the direction of the lower numbers, fighting the urge to move too quickly.
As we get closer to 203, Pandora’s steps grow slower until she comes to a stop.
I tug on her hand again, but she doesn’t move.
“How many?” Pandora whispers, staring at one of the doors. “Are all these rooms filled?”
“We can’t worry about that right now,” I murmur back, pulling harder on her hand. “You know we can’t. We only have a few more minutes, max. Look, we can get out of here, then call the FBI or something…” I trail off, knowing that’s a terrible idea, but I also recognize the look in Pandora’s eyes.
I don’t think she’s going to let this go, but the logistics of letting so many women free is a nightmare. We aren’t armed, all we have is two cars, and we barely have any time left.
Pandora nods and finally keeps moving.
We finally reach room 203. Pandora unlocks it, and I stand guard, my hackles up.
It’s been so fucking quiet aside from that interlude with Blaze and Asch walking by.
They must have noticed the disabled camera by now, right? And we hadn’t spotted other cameras inside, which might be by design—privacy, lack of evidence—but it feels wrong to me.
The door unlocks, and Pandora rushes inside.
I glance across the hall, unease making my stomach twist. I want to follow her inside, but I also don’t want to come out to a nasty surprise.
I’ll have to risk it.
I step into the room and close the door behind me. I approach, and Samantha flinches when she sees me.
I can’t say I blame her. I don’t know what hell she’s been through over the past month. I’m glad Pandora is here, too, because I don’t think Samantha would’ve agreed to go anywhere with me alone.
“Pandora?” Samantha is asking, and the way her voice shakes has my hands clenching at my sides. “What are you doing?”
“Hey,” Pandora says. She pulls her mask down to smile at Samantha. “Sorry it took me so long to find you. I, uh.” She glances at me, then laughs. “I lost sight of a few things. But I’m all here now.”
“Why would you bother?” Samantha asks. “You hate me.”
Oh, she really doesn’t know Pandora at all if she needs to ask that question.
