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And she was now one thousand percent convinced Pen’s twin was part cat burglar, part spider, and partsomethinginexplicablyclimby. Pen’s twin had practically scaled the forty feet to the ground in seconds.
Even half out of it like the girl was. No hesitancy, no fear. She’d just climbed. Sydney had done her best to follow under the girl’s guidance. A lot less gracefully.
But Sydney had found her way back inside.
Only to meet…this.
As soon as she’d entered the hall on what she thought was the first floor. He had just been there. This man was bigger, stronger, and armed. Andevil.
Sydney knew she was facing a real fight. This guy was broken. In his soul evil. It was in his eyes. He wanted something, and he wasn't going to stop until he had it.
"What do you want, asshole?" she asked coolly. Gerard had trained her. She had her black belt in karate. She'd started taking lessons after they had found Carrie. Melody had driven her three times a week, saying she understood Sydney needed to feel some sort of control.
After everything else that had happened to their family, it hadn't been about control so much as a feeling of...safety. A defense.
"I want my money.” He lisped it. Something so menacing from a lisp was...incongruous. No denying that. "Then...that blue-haired bitch is mine. To do whatever I want with her. She’s my payment. I like them tall and skinny like that."
Hell no, he wasn't getting Pen. Sydney would kill him herself first. Resolve filled her. If that was what she had to do, she’d do it.
"I have money. You turn around and walk out of here and I'll give you double what the old man has promised you for your murdering spree today." This man had killed people she cared about. Wild rage threatened to choke her.
She forced it back.
Gerard had drilled it into her head—hold back the emotions andthink.Break down later—when you were safe. And alone.
A lesson she wouldneverforget. Words she would live by for as long as she lived. However long that was.
But this asshole wasn’t gettingPen.
He laughed. Leered at her. "I want my turn with you, too, bitch. I may just screw you instead. Right here."
He lunged right at her.
Sydney kicked him. Her foot caught him in the stomach. He growled. He had a gun. She had to keep him from pulling that gun.
A gun beat karate every time.
Sydney kicked him again. Right in the groin. He went down, gasping. She thought about grabbing his gun. But he was big and strong and evil and if she got that close, she couldn't get away.
Sydney ran—down the stairs, and to the other end. She didn't stop running until she saw an open door. She listened for the sound of him following her.
It never came.
Sydney darted inside. If she had to, she'd go out the damned window. Then find her way back in. Just like before.
Pen was in here somewhere. That asshole wasn't going to get her.
She closed and locked the door. Doors in this hellhole were flimsy. It wouldn't keep him out for long. But the window was right there and first floor level. She could climb.
There was a desk. With a laptop open on it.
A phone. A landline. It looked like something from the eighties, for sure. The whole place had that 1970s/80s vibe to it.
Like time had just stopped. Frozen in one moment and never began again.
She grabbed the receiver. There was an actual dial tone. She dialed 911 and told them to send help. Who she was. That she had been abducted. That there were other people in trouble.
And at least four men with guns inside. Maybe more.
