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Cold fingers wrap around mine where I hold the unforgiving bar.
Scared tears hang from her lashes. “How? How do we get out of here, Nova?”
Her voice is small, weak.
I can’t believe what I am seeing. Dragon had said the torture was psychological, not physical. But my eyes are not lying. Bruises cover the side of her face and her arms look more purple than her beautiful sun-kissed skin. She’s wearing a flimsy sleeveless gown made of what looks like gauze instead of real cloth. It hangs off her thin frame in tatters.
“Why did they beat you?”
“They got tired of me fighting, I guess.” She tries to smile but I can tell it hurts to move any part of her face.
“You must be cold.” I take off Ares’ shirt, dirty as it is, and pass it through the bars, leaving me in a thin camisole. “Put this on.” She takes it. She lifts her arms and I spot more bruising along her ribs.
“I have a plan,” I assure her. I take out Avery’s phone. The one I pinched from the kitchen counter on the way out the door. I hit the power button and thank you baby Jesus; it has no lock code. The screen flashes to life and I flip through her contacts. Ares is the first on the list.
“The keys are in the room with the green door. That way.” Polaris points to the left.
That changes things. I stuff the phone in my back pocket. “Are you sure?”
“A guy with black hair in a bun and dragon tattoos up his neck keeps them on a hook inside the door. Both sets are there.”
So the bastard did know about the double keys. “Dragon.”
She nods. “That’s what they call him.”
A vision of hope brims to life in my sister’s eyes when I tell her, “Get ready. I’m getting you out of here and then we will disappear. I promise. I’ll never let anyone else hurt you ever again.”
Cold fingers brush over mine, but the young woman I helped raise doesn’t have the same bright shine to her eyes. Icy blue is now a dull ghostly white.
Dragon warned she wouldn’t be the fun-loving carefree girl she was before all this went down. But I hoped and prayed.
I can’t think about that now. Moving quickly, I run the length of the hall and skid to a halt when it dead-ends at the green door. It’s standing open and inside men are talking. I can’t hear what they are saying but the hisses and growls tell me something is up. I guess that’s why they haven’t spotted me on the security feed yet. They’re too busy arguing.
I stay plastered to the side of the hall and wait.
Inhale. Exhale.
My heart pounds so hard in my chest it’s the only thing I can focus on. That and at any second some asshat security douche will detect my presence and I’ll be locked inside a cell right alongside my sister and I don’t think Ares will be able to save me so easily.
I swallow and pull up courage from the depths of my soul and tuck around the corner. The room is empty. I look up and find the hook where the keys should be just as empty.
“Damn it!” I curse under my breath.
A heavy hand comes down on my shoulder and my feet solidify to the floor. I might as well have super glue gunking me in place.
My knees lock, my heart stops. It’s game over.
Somehow I find it in me to turn. Palm straight, thumb flexed, I rear back and aim for the throat.
But the man on the receiving end of my wrath is prepared this time. He blocks, throws my hand to the side, and pins me to the wall with a forearm to my chest.
I shove him away and he lets me go. I say lets because like Ares, this man doesn’t take anyone’s shit.
“Dragon…” I want to sigh in relief but it’s short-lived when he doesn’t say anything for a long dreadful minute. When he does speak my soul shivers from the power of fury seething from every pore on his body.
“What the ever-loving fuck areyoudoing here?”
Black eyes shooting daggers come to rest on me. He takes a phone from his front jean pocket and I grab it from his hand. “No, I know what you’re going to do. Don’t call Ares.”
