Savage Vandal (82 Street Vandals #1) - Heather Long Page 0,56

it let us out into a dingy little alley.

The smell of exhaust tangled with dampness, oil, trash—my nose wrinkled at the last—then a breeze pushed chillier air down the street from where cars thrummed as they drove past. It was almost sensory overload after weeks of being inside. I tipped my head back to look at the building I’d been in. It definitely had the look of an old, well-used warehouse. The wood was dark and stained, the roof stretched higher easily two, maybe three stories.

Did they use that space?

“Come on, princess.”

I clenched my teeth at that nickname. “Don’t call me that.” I loathed it with every fiber of my being. He called me that, and I didn’t want to hear it from anyone.

Rome shot me a curious look, then shrugged. “Starling then, come along.”

Irritation scraped under my skin. Now was my chance, I had on shoes and clothes. I could make a run for it. Rome wasn’t even looking at me, he’d headed down the alley with a backpack over his shoulder. I could run.

But where would I go? I needed the lay of the land. I didn’t know anything about the area. Following Rome, however, wasn’t the right answer if I wanted to get away. I knew it, and when he glanced at me over his shoulder, I recognized that he knew it too. The corner of his mouth curved, and then he looked away again.

Stuffing my hands in the pockets of my borrowed hoodie, I hurried to keep up with him. Honestly, I was a little breathless after three blocks. Holy crap, a month of not working out was going to be the death of me. Focusing on my breath control, I refused to pant. Panting could flood the body with a quick fusion of oxygen, but deeper breaths worked better for longer, sustained performance.

The morning streets were crowded.

And it was morning because a local bank ahead had a digital clock that flashed nine-thirty in the morning, temperature forty-two degrees, and the date was…

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and waited for the date to flash up there again.

Time.

Temperature.

Date.

Someone bumped into me and jostled me. Then another person did.

“Move,” a woman snapped when I stepped into her path, and I shifted to get closer to the curb. A car horn blasted at me, and then a hand gripped my upper arm and pulled me back from the road. I swung my head to find Rome staring at me. Unlike when I stood still on the sidewalk, no one bounced into him or me. They took a wide step around us both.

“You okay, Starling?”

“Has it really been almost six weeks?”

How many days had I lost? I knew it had been a month. But holy shit.

It was deep into winter now. No wonder it was so damn cold.

Rome glanced from me, then across the street and back. The blue of his eyes was like ice, gleaming and yet opaque. No emotion reflected in his expression as he looked me over. “Yeah.”

That was it.

Nothing else.

Just ‘yeah.’

“Come on,” he said, and this time, he held onto my arm as he started walking again. All of the guys were tall, but right here on the street while he was holding my arm, he seemed even bigger. Lean where Vaughn was thicker in the shoulders and the chest, but I’d seen the ripple of muscle Rome sported. He might be skinnier than the other guys, but he was still wiry. Jasper and Kestrel were built similarly, tall, broad shoulders and thick arms, but narrower at the waist.

Vaughn was just big.

Weirdly, he was also the one I felt the most relaxed with.

Arguably, he was the most dangerous.

I tried to match Rome’s pace, but his legs were a lot longer and I had to take two steps for every one of his. The thoughts pinged off each other. Six weeks. The guys—my kidnappers, arguably the men keeping me hostage—had become more familiar over the last few weeks, and I’d gotten comfortable. We even had routines. It was deep into winter. The show was probably in Florida now? There was a European leg coming for January and February, and then I was done.

I was free.

Except, I wasn’t with the show and I was far from free.

It wasn’t until Rome came to a stop that I glanced around. We’d walked a few blocks. It was busier here. There were shops up and down the street. A lot of them had holiday decorations in the windows.