There are dozens of girls, and all of them turn toward the now open door, staring, watching, and waiting.
I stalk into the room; it’s not the room from the surveillance footage, but there are several girls being held captive.
They could have moved Harper.
I glance at each of them as I search for my wife, relieved when I find Harper sitting on a makeshift bed on the floor with another girl.
“Boss wants to have a chat with you,” I say, keeping my head bent down. I grab Harper’s arm, dragging her to her feet.
“Get your grimy paws off me!” she snarls, and I catch her gaze.
It flickers and flashes with hatred.
She yanks away from me like I’m the enemy, but it has to be an act.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Is that so?” I ask and glance her over, gripping her arm, forcing her to follow me into the hallway.
“The collar,” the guard says, like it’s a reminder.
My eyes land on the device secured around her neck.
Shit.
What the hell is that thing?
“Please, no!” Harper pleads with me, and my stomach flops. The fear in her voice is real.
Does she think I’d purposefully hurt her, to make them believe I’m one of them?
“Then you’ll do as I say, won’t you?” I keep my hand affixed around her arm as I yank her out of the room and toward the metal gated door I left unlocked.
“Boss is that way,” the guard says and points in the opposite direction.
I shove Harper behind me, shielding her with my body as I lift the barrel and shoot at the armed men as we hurry backward through the gated door.
Slamming the gate shut, forcing them to unlock it if they want to chase after us, I grab Harper’s hand, pulling her in the direction of the front entrance.
Several guards approach from around the corner near the door, blocking our escape. Guns drawn, a woman steps out from behind them, a small black device in her hand. She presses the button, and Harper collapses to the ground, trembling.
Screaming.
“Stop!” I shout, commanding the woman to obey me.
Livia DeLuca.
She removes her thumb from the trigger, and Harper gasps for breath, panting hard from the floor. Her forehead is slick with sweat, her body weak after the assault.
The men surround us with guns pointed at us from every direction. I kick my weapon away, showing that I’m unarmed, and bend down, lifting Harper into my arms. “You’ll let my wife go.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” Livia says with a cunning wickedness that sends an icy chill down my spine. “Mercurio, show them to their new accommodations.”
I carry Harper, it’s the least I can do considering she’d just been jolted with several volts of electricity. What else had they done to her while she was their hostage?
Her breathing is soft, raspy, her heart still pounding wildly as she trembles every so often in my arms, like her body is trying to catch up after the onslaught of violence within it.
I press a kiss to her forehead, hoping that the team will be inside soon, break through the front door and subdue the guards.
