Being tied to a chair limits my options.
The door opens again, and a guy steps in, his face a stone mask as he starts undoing his jeans on his way to me.
“What the hell are you doing?” I growl.
He smirks at me. “I’ve come to make you talk. Lathan sent for me.”
Garren. He mentioned a Garren.
“Whatever he’s paying you, I’ll quadruple it. All you have to do is get me out of here.”
His gaze rakes over me as he bites down on his bottom lip. “Lathan would kill me,” he says absently. “And passing you up would be hard to do.”
“Ten million might change your mind,” I offer, arching an eyebrow.
That has his attention, and his gaze sweeps back up to my eyes, suspicion pooling in their depths.
“Ten? Just like that?”
“You’re only down here to torture information out of me—apparently by really disgusting measures—because Lathan wants access to the unlimited funds I have at my disposal. Ten million is the kind of change you find in my couch cushions, if you get my meaning.”
He runs a finger over his lips. “Fifteen and you have a deal.”
“Twenty if you get me to Halo,” I go on, and a grin spreads over his lips.
“Done.”
He buttons his jeans back up, and he checks over his shoulder before pulling out a knife. I try to stay composed even as I stare at that knife.
When he bends and starts cutting my legs free, I blow out a breath of relief. He quickly moves to my hands, talking quietly as he frees them.
“Lathan will talk to Nicholas for at least an hour, filling him in on the various drops. He doesn’t let anyone handle that part of the business. And Nicholas and his club will be all over the front yard. Once we get to the top of the stairs, we’ll creep out the back. You have to stay silent.”
My hands get freed, and I alternate between my wrists as I rub feeling back into them.
“I want the money wired to me by the time we reach Halo,” he adds.
“Not a problem, but I won’t connect the full funds until I’m safely away from your vehicle. I’ll only give you half until then.”
He looks at me skeptically.
“I’m not the one who is untrustworthy. You came down here to do terrible things, and I’m paying for my freedom. Keep that in mind.”
Shrugging like that makes sense, he turns his back and moves toward the door.
Fingertips throbbing, I stand and grab another bottle of water, guzzling it as he goes to peek out the door.
He gestures for me to follow, and I do, putting the bottle down, even though I’m still thirsty.
I stay close to his back as we creep up the stairs, but as soon as he opens that door, a gunshot sounds, nearly deafening me, and I swallow down any sound that tries to escape me as something wet splatters against my face.
I look up, seeing a gross hole all the way through Garren’s head, as he slowly starts to collapse. I barely dodge his body in time as he starts rolling down the stairs, and I look up to find my brother blowing the end of the gun like it’s an old Western movie.
“Good help is so hard to find when your sister can pay them more than you,” he says on an exasperated sigh. “Guess I’ll just have to torture you myself. Obviously I’ll use different methods, since I’m not quite that fucking sick.”
I cling to the railing, wondering if he’d have the balls to shoot me and risk killing me before he could get the info. Dead sounds better than tortured, so I risk it.
With one hard lunge, I tackle Lathan to the ground, surprising the hell out of him. He cries out in pain when my knee slams into his balls with all the force I can muster, and I knock the gun away before pushing up and taking off running toward the back door, bending and scooping up the gun on my way. I never slow down long enough to try and shoot behind me, too worried I’ll miss and end up shot instead.
“Fucking stop her!” Lathan shouts through the strain.
I hear what sounds like chairs scraping the floor and shit crashing to the ground before thunderous footsteps start chasing. I practically crash through the back door, running as hard as I can toward the small canyon-like thing I can barely make out under the moonlight.
Gunshots ringing out from behind have me dropping to my knees immediately and then belly-crawling as fast as I can.
“Stop fucking shooting!” I hear Lathan roar. “If I wanted her dead, she’d already be dead! Get her!”
With that bit of assurance, I leap to my feet and start barreling ahead once again.
Bet those fuckers chasing me aren’t making fun of all my skating now—after building up my leg muscles and stamina. They might still catch me, but I’m going to make them work for it.