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Four women out of thirteen.
It is better than nothing, but not what I hoped for. I wish I could have done more.
“Stay with them,” I say to Vito, a short, bald man with a tattoo of a snake across his neck. “I’ll send someone back to have you bring them to the front when it is clear. Protect them.”
Maddie is reluctant to let me go, but as protective as I feel over her, I have my own daughter to worry about now.
Luka and I might get out of here alive, but the Cartel still has our baby girl.
I have to make sure Luka is okay, and then we have to get her back.
There is no other option.
22
Luka
Dead bodies are scattered across the hallways and the stairwell. Blood drips down the walls and saturates the carpets, filling the air with the scent of iron.
We move slowly through the inn as we have a thousand warehouses, drug dens, and stash houses before, but there is no movement. No sound.
I think the Cartel members may all be dead.
Then, as I move to leave the lounge, I hear the sound of a wooden cabinet door closing.
It is a soft thud, just a whisper, but in the silence, every noise is amplified.
I turn and see the bar cart behind me. One of the half-full bottles resting on the edge is sloshing slightly. Enough to let me know it was recently disturbed.
I hold my finger to my lips and limp towards it.
Silently, I count to three, and then wrench the doors open.
Kari’s pale blonde head is the first thing I see, but it is enough. Her hands are held up in surrender, and she is shaking all over.
I lower my gun and kneel down on my good leg. “Kari?”
She looks up, blinking. “Luka?”
I’m not even halfway through reassuring her she is safe and we won’t hurt her before she scrambles out and clasps her hands together as if in prayer. “I’m sorry. I want out of here. I worked for the Cartel but only because I had to. I’m not one of them. Please take me with you. Please.”
She is talking so fast I can hardly understand her, but I understand enough. She wants out.
“You saved my life,” I say, laying a hand over hers. “I don’t blame you for anything that happened here.”
She nods but still pulls away from me.
I can understand that. After everything she has been through, I wouldn’t want to be too close to a man, either.
Eve had such compassion for these women, and while I still find it difficult to fully empathize, I’m trying. I want to take care of Kari the way Eve would. The way Eve would want me to.
Kari stays close to me as we finish our sweep of the first floor. A few men come from upstairs and tell us that floor is clear, too.
The Cartel is dead.
Or gone, at least.
Edgar is lying in the hallway, a gaping wound in his neck, and I have a feeling it’s from Eve. Part of me is disappointed, but part of me is proud, too. If I couldn’t be the one to kill him, I wanted it to be her.
