to reach the morgue. She could taste blood as her cheek throbbed, and said a silent prayer that she was wrong about dead bodies being involved in the activities perpetrated in the belly of the building.
They headed down another eerily deserted corridor with no doors. Hannah was confused when they got to the dead-end. It looked as if they were trapped with nowhere to go. She watched Jake pull out a small fob from his pants pocket, and press a red button. The wall in front of them began to slide open to disclose a frightening room with three burly security guards wearing black leather pants, and tight black tee shirts that clung to their massive muscles. All wore shoulder holsters securing their handguns. She caught more than a few knives sheathed in cases attached to wide leather belts.
She forced herself to look around the room, praying that even if her protectors couldn't talk to her, they were at least still watching. She wanted them to have an inside track on what defenses they would be up against when they raided the building.
The walls of the small room were filled with TV monitors showing varying vantage points of the perimeter and interior of the building. Guards had their eyes peeled watching for intruders, and Hannah's heart hurt as she realized just how hard it was going to be for Dylan to rescue her. The second Lukus and his team pulled up out front, the guards would go on offense, and it could take forever for the men to get deep enough in the building to find her.
Hannah's panic turned to defeat. She'd unknowingly agreed to a suicide mission. Even if Jake didn't kill her tonight, she was pretty sure she'd be praying for death before long. She couldn't go through another torture session like the ones she'd suffered at the hands of first her father, and then again a few days ago with Jake.
Then she remembered Connor. Sweet, innocent Connor, who deserved a good life free of violence. She was all he had left in the world.
I have to be strong for him.
She tried to push down her fear, bolstering herself to get through whatever hell Jake had planned for her that night so she could get home to Connor, and it was working—right up until they went through the next door and stepped into a small room, only six feet by six feet. There was a modern-looking low leather couch just inside the door facing a wall of dark red drapes.
Jake pulled her forward, letting the heavy door thud closed behind them, trapping them in pitch darkness. Within seconds, the sound of the drapes being opened by an automatic pulley filled the small space, exposing a scene that had her knees buckling from under her. Jake did nothing to cushion her fall, letting her crash her knees hard into the plush carpet. Unfortunately for her, the wall of windows went from the floor to the ceiling, ensuring she could still see the horror in front of her.
Five naked women were trussed up in the middle of an octagon-shaped room no bigger than twenty-by-twenty. That she knew two of the five broke her heart.
Mia and Lucy looked terrified in the center of the small room, each with women on their other side. All five were stretched high by chains attached to cuffs at their wrists. The chains were pulled tight so that each crying woman had to extend to balance on her tippy toes, wiggling uncomfortably as they knew they were being scrutinized by God-only-knew who from the other side of what looked like two-way mirrors surrounding them. From Hannah's vantage point, it looked as if the room went on to infinity as the images of their naked bodies bounced off the many mirrors.
The only other person visible was Mohammed, who stood slightly behind the women, riding crop in hand. When a woman's whimpers would die down slightly, he used the crop to stripe a breast or ass cheek, eliciting a scream or cry from the woman at the end of the punishment device. It was as if his sole job was to ensure the unwilling captives remained in pain.
"Make him stop!" Hannah screamed, as Mohammed's crop connected with the front of Mia's thighs, leaving a bright red welt in its wake. Mia's scream tore at Hannah's heart.
Jake's voice was almost jovial. "Sorry, kiddo. We're just getting started." He looked down at his smartphone, typing a message to someone. Mohammed