AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had decided to tell Ethan that I was sorry for reacting as I had. Truth was, I understood what had impelled them to go look for clues about Shane, no matter the risk, no matter if they were being manipulated. Ethan’s barb had been right on the money. If I had ever had even the slightest reason to think my sisters were still alive, I would steamroll anybody on earth who tried to stop me from following up on it.
So it had been pretty unfair of me to get so damned snotty about it.
Then again. He had apologized so nicely. Maybe I should leave matters as they were. After all, apologizing was a muscle men needed to exercise on a regular basis.
The helicopter was getting louder. Maybe Ethan called for one to pick them up, to save time. Rich people operated according to different rules than normal folk.
In any case, the sound was pulling me up out of my emotional reverie. I was too jazzed on stress hormones not to go and check it out. It was silly of me to rouse myself, since we were guarded by an army of Unredeemables, for God’s sake. Even so. I was a nervous and suspicious woman. I might as well give in to it.
I slid a hand under Holly’s head and held it tenderly as I inched myself out from under her, but Holly’s stress levels were high right now, too. She woke with a start.
“What?” she asked sharply. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing, I’m sure,” I told her. “I just heard a helicopter, and I wanted to see who it was.”
Holly leaped up eagerly. “Me, too. I’ll go with you.”
So I went, holding her hot little hand, which was sticky from the orange and berry flavored gummies she fallen asleep clutching in her fist. We went out onto the terrace, and I squinted up at the helicopter, which was getting closer.
“Mick would have cleared them to land,” Holly said knowledgeably. “Let’s go to the security room and ask him.”
Seemed like a good idea, so we headed to the far side of the huge terrace. Before we got there, Holly let go of my hand and scampered ahead, into the room, calling out to them.
Her voice broke off. “Kat? Come quick!”
Her high, quavering change in tone made me leap into action. I hurried in the door, and stopped with a shocked gasp. Four men sprawled on the floor, unconscious.
“My God,” I muttered, crouching down by Cade. Feeling his throat for a pulse.
There was one, thank God, and it was steady. “He’s alive, honey,” I assured Holly, who stared at the men on the floor. Her face had a blank, shocky look.
I knew that look. I’d felt it on my own face, back in the bad old days.
I checked the other guys, ascertaining with immense relief that they were all still alive, but I was terrified and bewildered by the implications of this. How the fuck…? Drugged, I expect. They had to be. I identified Trey, Cade, Ryder, and Dale.How?
“Where’s Mick?” Holly’s voice was squeaky with panic. “Do you think Mick is sick, too? Maybe he’s all alone! We have to find him! Let’s go look for him!”
She ran out the door before I could shout to stop her, so I leaped up and gave chase, a looming dread clutching at my insides. Something was terribly wrong, there was danger, and I had to get a handle on it fast. I sprinted to catch up with Holly as she pelted down the breezeway, to the stairs that led up to the helipad and the parking lot.
The helicopter’s roar got louder. Then Mick came into view, walking backward, signaling. Even over the noise, he heard Holly’s shout, and turned.
Oh, shit. I knew, the instant I saw his face, even from a distance. It was that look in his eyes. Burned holes opening into the pits of hell. The man was in agony. I recognized it right away. I knew that feeling, far better than I wanted to.
Mick had done this. He had done it reluctantly, but he’d done it. The drugged men in the control room were his work. Whoever was in that helicopter was no friend of ours.
Which meant, we were fucked.
Holly waved her arm at him, jumping. I grabbed her hand and pulled her back. “Come on!” I yelled, over the helicopter’s noise. “We have to go!”
“But we have to tell Mick about the—”
“No, baby. We can’t talk to Mick about anything,” I said.
Holly gulped as the implications of that sank in. “You think that Mick…oh no. He couldn’t. Kat. He couldn’t!”
“I’m afraid that he did, sweetheart,” I said, miserably. “Hurry. How do we get out of the house, and into the woods where we can hide?”
“Hide?” she squeaked. “We have to hide?”
