AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Nineteen
Avery pissed-off, hulking Maddox flung aside seats and anyone else dumb enough to get in his way as he approached. Some guy juiced up on a bit too much self-confidence lunged from the elevated platform. Only he didn’t calculate the strength of a man made of what looked like stone or the fact her pissed-off Russian held his boss captive by the jugular.
Sevastyan lifted Dimitris at the end of his arm, unperturbed by Maddox quickly advancing. Spurts of adrenaline spiked through her blood and she could feel what felt like the legs of a thousand tiny spiders descend over her bare skin.
She shuddered, momentarily surprised when Sevastyan hauled back his arm and slug Dimitris into Maddox’s waiting fist.
A loud crunch and Dimitris flailed across the room, taking out the thug hell-bent on a fight.
Roman was the first at her side with Matteo and Lucian fighting their way toward them from the opposite side of the room.
Closed in.
There wasn’t another way out and the thugs that seemed to keep following her had friends currently descending the stairs, eyes fixed on them.
Fists and guns turned into a blur of movement. Chairs flew and loyal protectors seemed to take it personally that Sevastyan didn’t like their slave supplier.
“Ambush,” Sevastyan bellowed moments before two men were on his back.
“Get her out of here,” he roared at Maddox, who was busy imprinting his knuckles into someone’s face.
“Dimitris!” she yelled, pointing toward the back wall and wishing for the first time she had a gun of her own.
Using a hidden set of stairs, she watched the fucker slip out of the auction room; the black-haired girl pulled behind him. “No!” she hissed. He would not get away.
Sevastyan managed to shake one guy off. The other still clung tight.
Turning, Rhia grabbed the nearest thing she could find and reared back ready to heave the heavy candlestick, when Sevastyan threw him off with a swift punch to the face.
Rhia looked down. Beneath the blood-splattered shirt of his tuxedo, his muscles shook with the black rage she saw on his face. Lips peeled back, he roared and she felt his feral need to hunt, to kill as if it were her own.
“Behind me now and stay there. I will not lose you to these fucking vile people.”
Roman wiped the blood from his face. “I’m right behind her.”
Lucian, gun raised, popped off several rounds, dropping several people looking to do the same to them.
Dragging a limp body to him, Lucian took all the extra ammo and stuffed it in every available pocket. “I’ve got enough to cover us. Find an exit. Get her to safety.” And then he sank a blade into the neck of someone pointing a gun in her direction, looking nothing but happy about the fact.
She turned to Sevastyan. “Dimitris got away. Back stairs. We can’t let him leave. He slips into the wind and it’s over.” She dodged behind one of the glass casings—not that it did much good—when a body came hurtling her way by courtesy of Maddox.
Sevastyan wrapped his fingers around her arm and hauled her against his chest. “Your new friend has a habit of showing up at convenient times. I want to know why.”
Roman caught a lunging, leather-clad man on Dimitris’ payroll by the neck, snapped it, and dropped him like Tuesday trash.
“You want answers, huh. Well, get in line. I wouldn’t mind a few of my own.” That answer pulled his gaze off Maddox’s and back on her, his face drawn into a pucker of frustration.
“How do we get to the lower levels of the basement? We need to find that girl and the others.” She yelled to be heard over the chaos.
“Roman, Lucian, see to Rhia’s safety. Once she is secure, find the girl and then the containers.”
Fires erupted from somewhere near the staircase and quickly ate up the silk and soundproofing foam covering the walls. Smoke filled the room.
Not this again. Maddox joined and served as a protective shield between them and everyone else.
“Should I worry you won’t follow orders this time?”
“She’s hard of hearing,” Maddox added over his shoulder.
