His to Protect - Em Petrova Page 0,3
dumpster behind the butcher shop. The meat had started to turn, and she breathed shallowly at the smell as she gripped the bucket handle and hauled it out of her car trunk.
Darkness shrouded her. She’d chosen this moonless, cloudy night on purpose—having cover was top priority when breaking a woman out of an unpredictable man’s house.
Her footsteps were quiet as she hurried down the lane, careful to avoid the gravel that would reveal her presence to the dogs. The bucket bumped against her hip, and she’d probably bear a bruise there by morning. But hopefully, she’d also have another of that motherfucker’s hostages freed.
A slight huff sounded from her right, and she turned toward the noise, digging her fingers into the meat inside the bucket. When a dog rounded the shed, a thick chain around his neck, Sloane suddenly wished she could steal the dog too. She had no doubt that this man mistreated everything in his possession. Any man who could buy a young, underage and innocent girl for his wife didn’t give a damn about caring for his animals either.
When the dog rumbled out a low growl of warning, she tossed the chunked meat at him. He sniffed it and then began gulping the food while she made a run for it. She didn’t stop until she reached the back yard.
Before the dogs chained up there could bark, she dumped the entire bucket of meat. They leaped on the morsels, and Sloane ran up the steps to the door. She already knew where this bastard kept his key. After locating it, she slipped it into the lock and entered the house.
She could see the headline now—Movie Maven Sloane Sailor Arrested for Breaking and Entering.
Add kidnapping to that.
The house stunk of unwashed bedding and trash. She moved quickly—no time to waste. As she rushed by the living room, she saw what she expected—the man passed out drunk in his chair.
She knew from her daddy that drunks were mean, and she couldn’t risk him waking, so she tiptoed past the room. The low ceilings and tight walls of the hallway pressed down on her from all angles, leaving her sweaty and anxious.
This wasn’t the first time she’d experienced a spike in adrenaline. She felt plenty of them from various roles in action movies. While she didn’t perform all her own stunts, she did as much as she was capable of, pushing herself further each time. On numerous occasions, she found herself in the tight spots that made her feel this jump in her internal panic meter. But she knew what to do.
She sucked in a slow, deep breath and carefully released it. She hurried past a doorway. The bathroom reeked of piss and worse, and she held her breath on the way. By her count, she had a few more minutes where the dogs were silenced, which meant no time to spare. She had to find this girl—fast.
Heart tripping faster, she peeked around the next doorway. There on the bare mattress in the middle of the room sat a young girl, knees to her chest, hair dirty and lank around her bleak features.
She looked up and spotted Sloane, mouth open on a scream, but Sloane rushed in, fingers to her lips to indicate she needed to remain silent. The girl clamped her jaw shut and stared at her, eyes wide.
Sloane waved to her to come with her.
For a horrifying heartbeat, she didn’t know if the girl would move. She sat there, frozen, as if chained to the bed. But she isn’t, Sloane reminded herself. Only her mind is chained here.
“I’m getting you out of here,” she whispered to the girl, who Sloane knew from her research, had just topped fifteen years old. She’d spent her birthday in this hovel, serving that sick fuck in the other room who’d purchased her off an even worse man, at least in Sloane’s opinion.
Frantic that they’d be discovered, that the dogs would kick up a fuss, that the bastard who’d married this underage baby girl would wake, Sloane waved again. “Hurry!” she mouthed.
The girl slowly unfolded her legs from her chest and slipped off the bed. When Sloane spotted the sores on her legs that looked suspiciously like cigarette burns, her stomach twisted.
No more.
She moved forward, grabbed the girl by the hand, and took off with her in tow. She dug in her heels a little as they reached the end of the hall, but Sloane continued to pull her on. They reached the