Through the gauzy curtains over the front windows of the safe house, Alex was able to make out the shapes of the two thugs and the portly outline of the sex boss as he advanced on Hunter in the brightly lit kitchen. Her already jangled nerves went into overdrive and adrenaline flooded her system. Time to put all those martial arts moves she’d learned for her roles into action.
After a deep breath for courage, she slammed open the front door and stepped into the living room, doing her best Wonder Woman pose to boost her confidence. “Touch him and you’re going to regret it.”
Three astonished looks met hers from the kitchen—the two thugs and the sex boss. Hunter just sat there on the chair he was tied to grinning at her with pride radiating from his gorgeous blue eyes. Then, everything seemed to happen at once.
Hunter took advantage of the momentary distraction to headbutt one of the thugs in the gut, while simultaneously grabbing the sex boss’s wrist and twisting hard, causing him to drop the knife. Alex’s gaze flicked from Hunter to the small pile of rope on the floor and realized he’d somehow gotten his hands free, though his ankles were still tied to the chair.
The third thug advanced on Alex in the living room, menace radiating off him in waves. He stood a good foot and a half taller than her and gave even Hunter a run for his money in the muscle department. But they always said the bigger they were, the harder they fell. Whoever the hell “they” were.
Alex snorted at her own joke and began circling the thug in the living room, careful to keep one eye on the kitchen and the other on her attacker. The sound of wood splitting echoed through the air and she glanced over to see Hunter ram backward into the second thug, shattering the back of the chair upon impact with the thug’s abdomen. Even she winced. That was going to definitely leave a mark.
“Give up now, bitch, and I might use lube when I rape the fuck out of you,” thug two said, with little tact and even less intelligence. “Your choice.”
“Really?” Alex shrugged. “I go for choice number three.”
The thug looked confused, frowning. “Huh?”
“Choice three.” She eyed his frame for weak points. There weren’t many. Still, no one was immune to the old SING technique—solar plexus, instep, nose, groin. The thug stopped and seemed to think about her statement for a moment and Alex seized her chance. Head lowered, she ran straight at the startled man, elbow up and aimed straight for his mid-chest. A loud OOOFFF sounded as she made contact, then fast as sin, she stomped her heel down on his foot. When he bent over in pain, she rammed her elbow into his nose, satisfaction flooding her system. Cartilage cracked and blood spurted. Alex was normally squeamish about any kind of violence, but when her life and the life of the man she cared for was at stake, she’d do whatever it took to survive.
The thug reared back clutching his battered face, and Alex delivered her final blow. One hard slam of her knee straight between his legs. She barely had time to get out of the way as his huge body heaved forward. He dropped to his knees, his face draining of color beneath the blood as a high-pitched wheezing noise escaped from his mouth. Then he keeled over face-first into the carpet, holding his injured dick and crying like a tiny baby.
“Jesus Christ, woman!” Hunter called from the kitchen. While his attention was diverted, the sex boss made a run for the back door. Hunter tried to catch him, but with his ankles still bound to the chair, walking fast was difficult. “Fuck!”
Alex ran for the door too, but it was too late. Moments later an engine roared to life and the sex boss took off in a screech of tires and burning rubber. Which left only Hunter and Alex and the two thugs who were currently moaning on the floor.
She immediately dropped to her knees and reached for Hunter’s ankles to undo the ropes. “I was so afraid they were going to kill you before I got here.”
“I was kind of afraid of that too,” Hunter said, wiping away a drip of blood from his nose. Seemed the thugs had roughed him up a bit anyway. Alex stood and ran her fingers over his bruised, beautiful face. “I’m glad you showed up when you did though. Where the hell did you learn to fight like that?”
“I told you. Movie roles.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed his lips gently before lowering to flat feet again and looking around. “What do we do now?”
“Now.” Hunter stepped around her and closed the back door. “We clean this shit up then we call Loki for back up.”
“What about the thugs?” Alex began picking up pieces of broken chair from the kitchen floor. “Do we call the police on them?”
“Not yet.” Alex headed back toward the master bedroom. “Let’s lock them in the safe room for now. That way we can have the cops pick them up in the morning. You and I have more important things to do tonight.”
Alex shook her head and grabbed a garbage bag, her tone teasing. “Is sex all you ever think about?”
“Yes.” Hunter returned and stuck his head around the corner of the kitchen, a wad of white Kleenex sticking out of one nostril to staunch the blood. “But I wasn’t talking about that. I heard them talking before you arrived. They thought I was knocked out. We still might have a chance to save your friend and bring the sex boss down, if I can get a plan together.”
“What?” She looked up at him, surprised. She’d been so focused on saving Hunter, she’d forgotten all about poor Bea. Guilt and shame flooded in, along with a glimmer of hope. “How?”
“My guess is they’ll take the slaves to Club Xcite tonight instead of here. If we can get enough reinforcements, I can take a team in there and end this shit.”
“Okay.” Alex blinked several times, running through things in her head. “Do you know enough people out here to do that? Get a team together, I mean.”
“No.” He waggled his fingers toward Alex. “Grab his feet while I take his shoulders.” Together they moved first one, then both, of the still out-of-it thugs into the safe room. Hunter waited until the metal door slid shut, then punched a code into the keypad on the outside of the room, smiling at Alex again. “But Loki does. He’s got friends all over the world. One phone call should take care of it.”
“Guess we’ll be making a stop at the mini-mart again, huh?”
“Guess so.” Hunter slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her in for a kiss. He kissed her so thoroughly she nearly forgot her name, let alone what the hell they were doing. “Thanks again for saving my life, baby. Now, call that driver of yours to pick us up so we can get those phones then get to your place for a nice hot shower. My back is killing me.”
16
Two hours later, Hunter was clean and dres
sed in a fresh T-shirt and clean jeans. They were safely ensconced in Alex’s home, and he was planning out the best way to both put an end to the human trafficking ring at the club that evening and get Bea back safely at the same time. He took a seat on the sofa on the opposite end from Alex, the new burner phone he’d bought at the mini-mart still pressed to his ear as it had been since he’d walked out of the shower an hour prior.