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Huxley cupped Trish’s chin. “Be a good girl.”
She nodded, and he took the blade from her throat to cut one of the binds on her feet. I took my first full breath since I’d been down here. One loose bind closer to freedom.
Once she was free, I rolled toward Allegra, knocking her off balance. A gun fired. I waited for the burn of pain, but it never came.
She tackled me, straddling my hips, her weapon aimed straight for the center of my head. My chances of getting out of this alive were growing slimmer by the minute. No way could I sit there any longer. As long as Trish was safe, I’d be at peace.
“Ahhhh.”
Allegra took her eyes off me as Huxley screamed. I took advantage, batting the gun out of her hand and flipping her onto her back. I pinned her wrists above her head and held her legs down with my knees.
Now that my point of view had changed, I could see Trish again. She gripped a knife, holding it above Huxley’s crumpled form. Blood seeped from a wound on his back.
“Help me, sweetheart,” he pleaded.
Trish stared at him, poised to strike. Huxley loosely held his own blade, his fingers slowly tightening around it. Officer Wilson crunched Huxley’s arm under his boot. Huxley yelped.
“Run, Bright Side,” I said hoarsely.
She hesitated at my precarious position before darting up the steps.
“Looks like you could use a little help.” Drew sauntered over, twirling a pair of disposable restraints around his index finger.
Daniel stepped from the shadows and yanked Huxley to his feet. Officer Wilson slapped handcuffs on him and held him in a firm grip.
“You might want to have that attended to.” Daniel motioned toward Officer Wilson’s shoulder. A small tear was in his otherwise pristine uniform, though the black was discolored from the blood.
Drew slipped the restraints around Allegra’s wrists like an expert. “Don’t tell my wife I cuffed another woman.”
“Timothy, tell them to let me go,” she hissed.
I dug my knees into her thighs. “She’s in on it, Wilson. I don’t know how, but she is.”
“Get her up, but watch her. She’s got a hell of a roundhouse kick,” he said.
“You got her?” I asked Drew once we had her on her feet.
“Yep.”
I took the steps two at a time as I barreled back to the main level of the house. To my right, Patrick had Huxley’s sister restrained on the floor with some of Drew’s handy disposable ties. He nodded toward the front door.
I bolted through it.
Trish was huddled in a dark corner of the front porch, her arms wound tightly around her middle. She rocked back and forth, naked and shivering.
I stripped my shirt off and wrapped it around her shoulders. She slid her arms in, and I buttoned it, careful not to touch her wounds. Her eyes remained trained on the floor. I fought the urge to pick her up and take her away from there. She’d been robbed of too many of her choices. I couldn’t be the one to do that to her again.
“Want to get in the car? Go home?”
Slowly, she lifted her gaze to mine. “What home? Ella and I will be on the run for the rest of our lives.”
I took her hands in mine without thought before considering my actions. “Is this okay?”
“Nobody ever asks me that. They just touch.”
“Not me. Not anymore.” I gently squeezed and released. This had to be up to her, no matter how I needed it.
She stared at me incredulously. “He was out of prison for days and found me. Within a couple of hours, he’d already started pimping me out again.”
