I grabbed the fire extinguisher, swung it back and brought it down on the guy’s head with all my strength. He crumpled to the floor and I stood over him panting, adrenaline coursing through my body.
Sometimes, simple is best.
I started trying keys in the padlocks. “Come on,” I told the women. “We’re getting out of here.”
A few minutes later, I was leading all seven of them back the way I’d come. When we got to the exit, they stopped and stared in wonder. Some of them had been there for a month or more: the idea that they might finally be free was too much for them to take in.
“Go!” I told them. “Hide behind that cattle shed. The cops will be here soon.” And they ran, bare feet padding down the slope.
I was the last one out. I was just slipping through the door when a hand grabbed my arm. Shit! I pulled as hard as I could but the grip was like iron—
I turned and looked down. The arm wasn’t clad in an expensive suit. It was bare and tanned, thick with muscle.
I looked up into Carrick’s blue eyes.
“You’re meant to be out by the cattle shed,” he growled.
I wilted against him, all the exhaustion and stress and the effect of the drugs hitting me full force. “So are you,” I mumbled. I pressed my cheek against his chest and wrapped my arms around him. “Oh God it’s good to see you!”
He brushed his hands through my hair and down over my cheeks, then tilted my head back. His lips came down on mine: a quick, hard kiss to reclaim what was his. And I knew everything was going to be okay. I closed my eyes, opening under him and relaxing into it. But then he grudgingly pushed me back and shook his head.
“Come on,” he said, nodding down the hill. “First, let’s get you out of—”
His words were cut off as if someone had thrown a switch. And suddenly his whole huge body was falling, torn from my grip. He went down hard, slumping on his back on the floor. And as he fell, Volos was revealed behind him, panting in rage. He was holding a cattle prod like a baseball bat, ready to swing again.
“Run,” croaked Carrick from the floor. And he launched himself at Volos’s legs. But Volos brought the cattle prod down again and Carrick went limp.
I launched myself through the door and ran into the night.
62
Annabelle
I could hear Volos charging down the hill behind me. I knew he was going to catch me. There was no way he couldn’t. The drug he’d given me had been held back until now by adrenaline but my body’s supply had run dry. My muscles ached, my lungs burned and my vision was going blurry.
I saw the cattle shed ahead of me. But the last thing I wanted to do was led him to the other women. I veered and headed down the steeper side of the hill instead.
That decision saved me. I stumbled and fell, rolling headfirst down the hill in a limp tangle of limbs. I picked up some bruises and felt like I was going to throw up but, when I picked myself up near the bottom, I’d gained a little ground on him.
It didn’t matter, though. In front of me was the road and across that an empty field. There was no place to hide. He’d be on me in seconds. Unless—
The MC’s bikes were right in front of me, gleaming in the moonlight just like Carrick’s bike had, twelve years before. Monstrous, chromed beasts out of my dreams.#p#分页标题#e#
The drug was coming on fast, now. I was woozy and getting worse and my fall down the hill hadn’t helped. This is a bad idea. I could only just control one of the big bikes when I was at my best. But I didn’t have a choice.
It took me two attempts to get my leg over the nearest bike. Then I frowned at the controls. I knew this stuff...but thanks to the drug, I might as well be trying to fly an alien spaceship.
Footsteps pounding closer, off to my left. Think! Don’t look at him—think! I hit the starter button and the bike roared into life. But as the engine settled down to an idle I could hear Volos again, even closer.
What’s next? I flipped up the kickstand, almost overbalancing. Then I twisted the throttle….
The bike didn’t move. Volos’s feet didn’t sound like they were on grass anymore. They were on asphalt, running across the road towards me—
I stared at the bike in drunken bewilderment for another second. Then, put it in gear, you moron! I toed the lever and felt it click.
Volos’s hand clapped down on my shoulder and tugged, trying to pull me off the bike.
I twisted the throttle as hard as I could and the bike leapt forward like a startled horse. If I hadn’t been gripping the throttle so hard, it would have shot straight out from under me. Volos’s hand kept hold of my shoulder for a split-second...and then slipped free and I was roaring off down the road.