Trey - Shandi Boyes Page 0,84
straight at me, she doesn’t see me. She’s completely fucking gone. Her eyes are lifeless and blank, swallowed by her miserably bleak existence.
“Go!” Eight roars when we get word from Nikolai it’s time for us to move. We don’t use listening devices to communicate. The healthy discharge of machine guns and the potent scent of death guides us through every raid.
“Duchess,” I push out through a groan as I sprint for her cell, praying I’ll reach her before she can do any of the morbid things I see in her eyes.
She wants to die, to be free.
She most likely thinks she’s already dead.
I’ll prove her wrong. I’ll show her how your heart doesn’t have to beat in your chest to prove you’re alive.
Sometimes it thuds in your ears.
After taking down three men charging at me from the other end of the dungeon, I punch in the five-digit code Hunter assured me would open the digital lock on K’s cell, then throw open the heavily-weighted door keeping her hostage. Having no time to remove the glass from her hand she’s intending to drag down a vein in her neck, my palm takes on the brunt of the glass’s jab. She pierces it into my hand deeply before yanking it down with a groan, proving she wasn’t playing.
She truly wants to die.
As the undeniable scent of blood seeps into the air, K collapses. I catch her just before she hits the grubby ground with a thud, my nostrils naturally flaring to suck in her intoxicating scent.
With K held in close to my chest with one hand, and the other gripped on my gun, I gingerly make my way out of her room. I’d rather place her down and make sure the route is safe first, but there are too many objects she could hurt herself with if she were to come around while I was gone.
I also refuse to leave her alone.
I made that mistake three and a half months ago, and look what happened. The last of the light in her eyes has been stolen. I don’t know if she’ll ever get it back.
Partway down the almost black corridor, Eight raises his hand in the air. He fires into the dark two times, silencing the faintest conversation of two men talking in a foreign language before he gestures for me to keep moving.
The itch for a bloodbath treks through my veins when we race across a body-studded field. Nikolai’s crew went in quiet and heavy as planned. There are more bodies littering the grounds than there were when I was freed from captivity three years ago. I wouldn’t hold back my desires if K wasn’t my main priority. This isn’t a turf war. It’s an extraction.
Nikolai’s crew is once again saving one of their own.
After sliding into the back seat of the SUV door Eight is holding open for me, I instruct the driver to go. Once the tail lights are at a safe distance, Nikolai will command for his men to pull back. Then he’ll meet us at the airport that has a private jet idling on the tarmac.
As the sound of a helicopter hovers over my head, I peel K off my chest to check her for injuries. Her neck is marked up and bruised, and she’s far too skinny, but those are the least of her problems. Her eyes are open, but just like the pair that stared back at me only minutes ago, they’re lifeless and blank.
“You’ll be alright, K. I’ll take care of you.”
When I unscrew the cap on a bottle of water, Mikhail slides down the privacy partition separating the front half of the SUV from the back. I originally wanted Roman to fill in the spot of evacuation driver, forgetting Nikolai couldn’t leave Justine without an army of her own men. Roman is the perfect leader for that group. “Don’t force-feed her water. If she shuts down, the water could end up in her lungs. You’ll drown her thousands of miles from the nearest ocean.”
Although I’m still pissed at him, I jerk up my chin before placing the water back in its holder. I want to help K, not hurt her more.
Seemingly hearing my private thoughts, Mikhail says, “We’re two miles out from the airstrip. Dok is waiting in the hangar. He’ll give you more of an idea on how you can help her.”
He waits for me to lift my chin for the second time before he returns the privacy partition to its original