Outlaw's Promise(87)

“You’ll love her,” said Volos. “Red hair, pale skin. She’s—”

He turned a little and his eyes fell on me. Both of us froze.

“She’s perfect,” he said into the cell phone. “I have to go.”

He ran for the grate. I flung myself backward just as he heaved the cover away and lunged for me. His straining fingers brushed my tank top but closed just too late. “Here!” he bellowed. “She’s in the drains!”

I turned around and crawled for my life but I knew it was useless. There was only one other grate and by now the guards would be running to block that one. They had me trapped like a rabbit in its burrow.

Volos was chasing me as I fled through the pipe, glaring down at me through every vent I passed. “I told you what would happen if you disobeyed me,” he spat. “I can hurt you in ways that don’t leave marks.”

I was hysterical, now, almost in tears. Then I pulled up short: I’d hit a dead end. I was up against one of the walls, I could even see an exit through the tiny vent above me...but I had no way to get to it. I was trapped. I stared up at Volos, panting in fear.

“You!” he snapped, pointing to someone I couldn’t see. “Stay here and keep an eye on her.”

A guard ran over and stood directly above me, glaring down at me through the vent.

“Someone go in and drag her out,” said Volos as he led the others away. “You. Use a cattle prod on her if you have to—”

There was a crash of metal that reverberated through the whole building. Everyone looked towards the entrance. An instant later, there was a boom that could only be a shotgun.

But not any shotgun.

“Fuck!” yelled one of the guards. “It’s O’Harra!”#p#分页标题#e#





59





Carrick





I was beyond rage.

Before I’d even made it fully through the door, the anger had taken hold. As soon as I smelled the stink of human fear, as soon as I glimpsed the place where they’d been holding my Annabelle, I forgot any notion of plan or strategy. The place had been chosen by that psycho to make women afraid. He deserved to die and so did anyone who’d helped him.

Two men in coveralls ran toward me. I raised Caorthannach and pulled one of the triggers. When the cloud of gun smoke rolled away, they just weren’t there anymore. A third guard rounded the corner, gun raised, then staggered to a stop as he saw the blood on the floor. He hesitated long enough for me to reach him, lift him by his collar and hurl him into a wall.

Behind me, the rest of the MC were flooding through the door. Some with guns, some with brass knuckles, a few with baseball bats. They were finally face-to-face with the people who’d devastated their club and they were pissed. Outside, Tailor was calling the cops. If it didn’t go our way, we wanted to make sure someone was there to get the women to safety.

We slowly fought our way through to the main slaughterhouse floor. I used Caorthannach’s other barrel to take out another guard and then switched to my fists, yelling in fury as I punched guards to the floor. I couldn’t see Volos anywhere. But I saw the women locked naked in stalls and my stomach knotted. Where’s Annabelle?

That’s when I saw a guard standing off on his own, near one of the exits. He had his gun out and was glancing between the battle and a vent in the floor. He was guarding something.

Something valuable.

I put my head down and charged at the guy. He swung around and saw me but it was already too late. My head hit the middle of his soft stomach and he folded around me as we went down to the floor. One hard punch to his face and he was out cold.

I leaned over the vent, hardly daring to breathe. Please let it be her!

Big green eyes looked up at me. Copper hair gleamed in the darkness. She was in some sort of pipe, her clothes stained with black slime. But she was alive. All the emotion welled up inside me. I’d thought I was never going to see her again. And from tearful expression, she’d thought the same.

She put her fingers between the bars of the vent. I snatched them and entwined mine with hers. “Are you okay?”

She nodded but her head lolled a little. The bastards had drugged her. I wrenched on the vent but it was built into the floor and far too small for her to get through. “How do I get you out?”

She sniffed back her tears. “There’s a grate.” She pointed. “Over there. The exits are locked. We need the keys.”

I looked at the guard I’d knocked down. There was a whole bunch of keys on his belt. I grabbed it. And I could see the grate Annabelle had pointed at and there was no one near it: all the guards were fighting.