“Shit,” I mutter, then it occurs to me. “You get phone signal down there? Any sort of interference?”
“No, you can’t get a signal down there. The main electrical lines and the cement block the signals.”
“It’s her,” I say, my jaw locking up then I growl through my teeth, “Yeah, show me the way. I hope you can run…”
I follow as he heads that way, huffing and puffing but giving it his all, but before we can disappear, a voice echoes down the hall from behind.
“Hey, asshole, where the fuck you going?” I know who it is without looking.
“You’re coming with me,” I demand, waving my arm in a come here gesture, and he shrugs.
“Sure. Where are we going?”
“To find Emee.”
***
We’re two stories underground when I hear it. Emee’s voice. She’s screaming, and it’s not in celebration.
“Go back,” I tell the security guard, already picking up the pace, following the sound of the voices. He’s falling behind looking like a heart attack ready to happen and I don’t need to be dealing with that right now. “Victor, you’re with me.”
He stops, bending over with a thank you sort of wave as Victor and I run headlong down a narrow corridor, raised voicesechoing through the empty space as clear as if we were right on them.
“Your brother told us it was a sure thing. Told us you’d take care of it. You don’t like your brother, is that it? You know what happens when you don’t square up? Then, you screw us and we lose money?”
“Let go!” Emee’s shrill voice pounds nails into my heart as I push my legs faster, harder, down the hall toward the sound. “I’ll pay you whatever he owes, just let him go.Please!”
“Yep. You’ll pay. Sweet girl like you gets a nice price.” A low male voice yells. “You don’t fuck with me. Make a fool of me. You’re gonna work off this debt taking a lot of dicks in all your holes.”
Blind rage crackles over my skin as we come around the corner and my world falls apart.
Emee’s lip is bleeding, there’s swelling around her eye, and her hair and clothes are disheveled. There’s a guy holding her arms back while another holds her chin in his hand.
No, fucking way.
I don’t say a word to Victor, but we’ve been friends long enough not to need it. He wades in right alongside me, heading for the guy holding Emee while I rush the one who was touching her. They weren’t expecting company, and they take a second too long before they see us coming.
Benjamin is on the ground with another goon standing over him, but right now, it’s all about Emee.
The squelch of blood as his nose explodes against my right fist gives me a satisfying rush of adrenaline. I hear a grunt and a shout from the other fight, but don’t stop to look as I swing with my left, feeling my knuckles crush against his temple. He stumbles back, raising a hand to defend himself, but I’m already following up.
“Stop!” he shouts. But I’ve got him on the ground, smashing the back of his head over and over onto the concrete as my vision turns red and blood weaves its way from his nose, down the sides of his cheeks and over my fingers.
But, I don’t stop.
I cock back for another punch but this stupid motherfucker smiles, then says, “You still think she’s for real, don’t you? Only reason this bitch spread her legs for you was to put you off your game, so her big brother could bet against you. So, we could clean up. Now, look at you. Here to play the hero. Oh, man, you’ve beenplayed.”
I growl, my fist hanging in the air, muscles twitching and burning.
“Ask her.” He sputters, spitting blood and saliva, keeping himself from choking.
I turn my head, Emee is standing there, eyes wide with horror, brow knitted together.
But, there’s something else.
She doesn’t just look scared, she looks…sad?
No, not sad. She looks like she’s been caught.
