Page 74 of Brutal Truths

“I know.” Zander holds him back the best he can. “Look. He’s almost got it off her neck. But if she moves or you do something stupid, it won’t matter. The wire on her arms and legs will slice her up too. The best thing you can do is to stay put. Let us handle this.”

With a heavy thud, Silas sinks to his knees. I’ve never seen him so terrified in his life. Good. It’s refreshing to know he has a soft spot for his daughter.

His voice drops, cold and lethal. “He’s a fucking dead man. I’ll hunt him down and kill him. Every last one of them will die. No mercy.”

“You’re not helping,” I grit out, my jaw tight with frustration. “You wanna help? Talk to your daughter. Keep her calm while I unravel this fucking mess.”

I keep working on the wire. “Or better yet, get up and check the place. Tell us what you see that we can’t.”

When I hear him getting up, I remind him. “Careful. The place is littered with explosives. See if you can find a timer. I don’t think there’s one. That door you almost opened is the trigger. He was counting on someone panicking after we cut them free. Running for the nearest exit… boom.”

I can’t believe he’s listening. Not a word from him.

For the next five minutes, the only sounds are my steady breaths, Freya copying them, and Silas’s footsteps as he moves through the barn searching.

“Nothing I can see,” Silas reports back. “Sick fuck.”

That doesn’t sit right. He could’ve missed something. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for. Not like me or Zander. But there’s no way we can stop what we’re doing.

These women are barely holding on. If we don’t get them out soon, one of them is likely to collapse. And when that happens the razor wire will do what it’s designed to do.

Slice through them like butter.

Not on my watch.

It takes me a solid fifteen minutes to cut the razor wire off Freya. By the end, a network of shallow cuts crisscrosses her skin, but nothing deep enough to warrant stitches.

Good thing I always carry my Leatherman. It wasn’t easy. I had to be careful. Without it, this would’ve been a nightmare.

By the time I’m done, Zander almost has Merial freed. Now it’s up to me to free Jen.

The second Freya’s loose, she runs to her father, collapsing into his arms and using him to stay upright. Silas scoops his daughter into his arms, clinging onto her, holding her like he’ll never let go.

There are tears in his eyes, burning with hate for the man responsible.

“Take her outside,” I tell him, slicing through the first wire at Jen’s throat. “Just in case.”

He doesn’t argue, and I don’t blame him.

“Blink once for yes, twice for no. Got it?”

Jen blinks once.

“Is there a timer?”

She doesn’t blink at all.

“So, you don’t know?”

She blinks once.

“Then I guess I better move my arse, just in case.” Which isn’t as fast as I’d like.

As soon as Zander frees Merial, she does exactly what I feared—heads straight for the nearest door. The one rigged with explosives.

Zander catches her just before she opens it.

We lock eyes, a silent understanding passing between us, before letting out a long, shared sigh of relief.