Damaged (Boys of Winter 2)

Knox grunts and as Grayson flinches to finish him off, he holds up his hands. “Kill me then,” he spits. “Sam is just going to kill me if he finds out that I gave the girls up.”

“Girls?” I question, flying forward and grabbing a handful of Knox’s hair, tearing it back to force his face to mine. “How many?”

When Knox doesn’t respond, Grayson slams him against the wall, his head bouncing off it with a solid thud. “How. Fucking. Many?”

Knox shakes his head, staring at Grayson with wide eyes, finally believing that this guy he grew up with has exactly what it takes to end his life. “I don’t know, maybe four or five.”

“Fuck.” He slams him against the wall again and Knox groans low. “Where are they?”

His gaze snaps to me before flying back to Grayson in defeat. “Third bedroom on the left. There’s a false wall that leads down to the underground cells.”

Fuck. Underground cells. What the hell is wrong with this guy?

Grayson punches him again, this time knocking him right the fuck out. He releases his hold on Knox and his body crumbles to the ground, his head lolling at an unnatural angle.

Grayson looks back at me. “Ditch the fucking drawer, we’ll come back for it. We have to get these girls out.”

My heart breaks as I drop the drawer against a shelf and Grayson forces my gun back into my hand. “Shoot first, ask questions later. Got it? They’re going to be distracted by the shooting upstairs, but someone is bound to come down here to check.”

I swallow over the lump in my throat and nod.

“Follow me. Stay right on my fucking ass.”

I don’t hesitate and follow him straight out the door. He keeps his gun held expertly in his hand, and I stand behind him, my heart racing as fear pulses through me. I’m the kinda girl that beats up dirty perverts; I never signed up for shootouts.

Grayson doesn’t bother being quiet anymore; he just barrels down the hallway until we finally reach the third bedroom. He kicks in the door, tearing it right off the hinges and keeps his gun raised, assuming the room will be guarded, but when we find it empty, we storm straight in.

My gaze sweeps over the room, trying to figure out where the false wall is. Grayson walks around, skimming his fingertips over the ugly cream paint, feeling for any abnormalities while I scan the paintings on each side of the room. Three of them are modern and bright while the painting on the wall directly across from the bed is old and worn.

“There,” I tell him, pointing out the painting of the woman standing in an overgrown garden wearing nothing but a sheet and struggling to hold it up as her left tit hangs free. “There’s something off about that painting.”

Grayson walks straight to it and roams his fingers over the frame, his brows furrowing as the seconds tick by. He shakes his head, not figuring out how it’s supposed to open a false wall when he gets frustrated and tears the painting off the wall and throws it carelessly against the back of the room.

Grayson scoffs seeing the small button on the wall right where the painting used to be and without hesitation, he presses it and takes a step back. The false wall peels back and I stare in astonishment. I’ve seen a few secret doors like this since I came here and it’s something that I’ll never tire of.

The secret door opens to a dark room and Grayson instantly looks back at me with a strange cautiousness in his eyes. “Are you sure you’re ready to see what’s down here? It’s not going to be pretty.”

I give him a hard, determined stare. “I can handle it.”

Grayson watches me a second longer, but it’s precious seconds wasted that we could be using to save these girls. I push forward, shouldering past him into the dark room, only the floor drops away and I begin to tumble.

Grayson’s hand shoots out like lightning and catches me by the waistband of my ripped jeans. “Careful,” he says, almost like a curse, pulling out his phone and turning on his flashlight app. Light filters through the secret room and I realize that I was only moments from falling down a steep set of metal stairs.

I let out a breath and try not to focus on the smell. It’s just as bad as the cells that Sam kept me in. There’s not going to be anything good down here.

We reach the bottom of the stairs and Grayson slides in front of me, not knowing what we might find. He raises his flashlight into the small room and we find four cramped cells, each with girls laying naked on the floor with not even enough room to sit up properly.