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“No oneoutsideit,” Blaze clarified. “We know Gordell has a contract with a private security firm—one known for not minding getting involved in dirty business. I’d bet he has ten or more men on the inside patrolling and ensuring the women don’t make a run for it. It could be as many as twenty.”
“We can handle them,” Julius said grimly. “We just have to make sure none of the women get hurt in the crossfire. Use blades as much as you safely can; be careful with your aim.”
I nodded, fully agreeing with his sentiment. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally wound or even kill one of the women I was trying to save.
I pointed to the stand of cherry trees just to the right beyond the back of the mansion. “We can get within twenty feet of the back door without being seen by using the trees for cover. After that, it’s going to get trickier.”
Julius slipped off the wall, his boots thumping softly on the grassy ground. “Let’s take a closer look and figure out our best approach from there. Once we’re inside the house, we spread out, take down everyone in league with our target on the first floor. Talon and I will head upstairs and tackle anyone up there as well as sending any of the women we find downstairs. Garrison, you go up too and stand watch by the front windows over the foyer in case they manage to call in back-up before we’re out. Blaze and Dess will get the women ready to run by the back door.” He glanced at me. “You’re probably going to need to do a lot of the talking. We have no idea how much they’ll trust any man after what they’ll have been through.”
“That’s no problem.” I just hoped they believed me when I told them we were here to help.
And not just them but other women like them. Once the Blood Hunter’s clients realized that they were vulnerable too, they should start pulling away from him. Maybe someone would even turn against him to preemptively save their own skin.
We set off across the expansive lawn, keeping the cherry trees between us and the windows of the house. As we stepped between the trunks, my feet trod over fallen blossoms turned brown and rotten. A faint, sickly sweet scent lingered in the air. It turned my stomach, which was already churning.
Stopping in the shadows at the edge of the trees, we studied the back of the house from closer up. I thought I made out a form through the frosted window of the back door, but it didn’t move, so it was hard to tell whether it was a guard or something else.Someonewould probably see us if we just marched across the open ground to the door and spent the multiple minutes it would take to break through the lock. Shattering windows would announce our presence more loudly than we’d prefer too.
An idea wriggled out through my mind. My first impulse was to dismiss it, but it wasn’t so different from tactics I’d implemented in the household’s service before. Why shouldn’t I use every bit of training the Blood Hunter had arranged for me to receive against him?
“I’ve got this,” I said, unbuckling the holster at my waist and handing it to Blaze for safekeeping. “Wait until I’ve cleared the doorway, and then run for it as fast as you can.”
“What are you going to—” Blaze started, looking confused, and snapped his mouth shut when I pulled off my black tee as well, leaving me in only my bra from the waist up. Julius had raised his eyebrows. Garrison let out a soft whistle. Only Talon gave little reaction, but I could feel his gaze burning into my skin.
“I know what I’m doing,” I said, glowering at them all, and tossed my shirt to Blaze too. My other gun was concealed at my calf under the loose leg of my sweatpants, my favorite knives in hidden sheaths in my hip pockets. At a glance, I’d appear unarmed. I shoved my fingers through my hair to tousle it as if I’d been wandering in the wind for hours and then stumbled out onto the open grass.
I drifted this way and that, wandering toward the house in a vague zigzag, swaying a little on my feet. For effect, I swiped at my eyes as if I’d been crying.
It took less than a minute before the back door swung open and two men in suits stepped out, both with guns at their hips. They hadn’t even unholstered them. Ha.
“Who are you?” one of them demanded.
I froze, staring at them with widened eyes. “I—I need help. Please…” I let my voice rasp and shake. Then I wobbled closer to them, holding out a hand.
The first guard glanced at the other. “How the hell did she get out?”
The second shook his head. “Fuck if I know. Hey, what’s your name?”
I pretended to swallow a sob. “Delia.”
“All right, Delia. Let’s get you back inside where you belong.”
I hunched my shoulders, which conveniently brought my hands closer to my knives. One man put his hand between my shoulder blades to guide me into the house, the other turning next to me to scan the grounds, and I whipped into action.
I grabbed both knives at the same time. One I jabbed backward at the man partly behind me, carving open his throat. The other I thrust sideways into the second guard’s jugular. Neither of them stood a chance. After a few twitches and spastic gropes toward their guns, they slumped over onto the grass.
Footsteps were already pounding toward me across the lawn. I wiped my knives on the grass quickly before hauling one man over to lie him close against the side of the house where the shadows would partly conceal him, and Julius and Talon joined me to heave the other out of view. Blaze caught up with us on the threshold and tossed me my shirt and holster.
As I yanked them back into place, Garrison leaned close to murmur in my ear. “Has anyone ever told you how hot you are in action?”
I tsked my tongue at him. “Keep your mind on the mission.”
“That’s right,” Julius said in a low voice. “Fan out and take them all down. The faster we work, the less chance a call for backup goes out.”
We marched into the house as if we belonged there. Julius went left and Talon went right, so I strode on straight ahead, my pistol in one hand and my knife in the other.
At a movement by a nearby room, I pressed close to the wall and darted forward. I caught a guard just as he stepped through the doorway. He got out half a shout before I clapped my forearm over his mouth and drove my knife into the side of his neck. He sagged in my arms. Similar thuds from around me told me the men were keeping equally busy.
I glanced into the room the guard had come out of and found myself staring at two young women in dresses that covered little more than their breasts, bellies, and hips. One of them was biting her lip, her stance rigid. The other was trembling, sucking in a breath as if she were about to scream.
