Wild Dirty Secret(86)

This time Luke and I hung back while Major checked out the building with the goggles. “Too many to get an accurate count,” he said when he got back. “But I’m estimating twenty total.”

Twenty of them, three of us. And I probably shouldn’t even have counted myself, compared to these guys. Two and a half. Could the situation get any worse?

“There’s another problem,” Luke said. “Rico isn’t responding.”

“Shit,” Major said.

“Yeah, shit. You heard him when he got inside the fence, right? Then nothing. We’ve made it past two buildings now, and he hasn’t reported in about a single one.”

“What do we do?” I asked.

“We follow the plan,” Luke said grimly. “We’ve found the right hangar. Now we go in.”

“Redundancy.” I felt light-headed.

“Keep breathing,” he told me. Then to Major, “You stay with her. I’ll go in.”

“That wasn’t the plan.”

“Well, in the plan we had two teams, one to keep watch outside, one to go in. Since there’s only two of us, that means one person per team.”

“Bullshit,” Major said. “She can wait outside by herself. If anyone comes close, shoot them in the fucking face. We’ll hear the shot and come get you.”

“No,” I said. “I want to confront Henri. You said I would be able to.”

“It’s not a good idea,” Major said, his voice oddly gentle, as if I might break.

Maybe I was shaking a little. “That’s why I’m here. I know I’m slowing you guys down, but it will all be for nothing if I don’t at least try. If he dies before he calls off the hit on me and Ella, we’re screwed. You know that.”

Luke looked away, the moonlight drawing long shadows over his eyes. “Okay. We all go in.”

We waited until the side of the building was clear and then crept to the back. The night air felt suddenly as thick as fog, as rich as butter. The light beaming down on us from the stars seemed blinding, even though I couldn’t quite make out anything.

I felt invincible.

“That’s the adrenaline talking,” Luke muttered, and I realized I had spoken aloud. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

Right, adrenaline. Except it already was in my head, in my body, rushing through my veins like a sweet hit of coke. I had done drugs a few times. There were men who wanted to get high and wanted the girl to ride it with them. The crash at the end had never been enough to make me want to repeat the experience without a paycheck to help me bounce back.

This racy, jittery feeling was just like shooting up. I wondered if adrenaline had a crash at the end too. But who cared when it felt this good? It felt surreal, and that kept me safe.

We crept through the quiet hallways. Where was everyone?

Major motioned with his hand. Up the stairs.

We started to climb when Luke paused. He put a hand to his ear. “Shit,” he muttered.

“I love it when you say that during sex.”

Major gave me a strange look.

“Not you,” I assured him.

He rolled his eyes. “You are flying high.”

“Almost,” I whispered.

Luke pressed a hand to his ear, listening. “They need backup,” he whispered. “Major, you go.”

Major firmed his lips, as if he wanted to protest. But he didn’t have a choice. With a salute and a faint look of regret in his eyes, he was gone.

“Come on.” Luke waved me to follow him.

We crept down the hallway, hearing men and women moan and groan and cry out in questionable pleasure.

He looked back at me.

I shook my head. Henri didn’t moan. He shouted. And anyway, I didn’t really expect to find him in these upper rooms. He rarely took his prostitutes to bed. This wasn’t a party to him, unlike Major had thought. This was business. This whole setup was too dirty, too common for him. Despite that, I couldn’t shake the eerie feeling, as if he would be here, exactly where he would never be. It didn’t make sense, but I wanted the feeling to go away. I wanted to see Rico and Major and Jeff again.

“Downstairs,” I mouthed.

Luke nodded his agreement, and we slid along the wall the way we’d come.

From the stairwell came the raucous sound of male laughter and female giggling. I looked back and saw nothing but rows of doors. Trapped. Their footsteps climbed the staircase, banging along the sides, as they tumbled about in wild sexual abandon. At least he did. Her laughs were obviously fake, way too high-pitched and evenly spaced. They reached the top landing. I held my breath. Then it was pushed out of me in a whoosh as Luke slammed me inside the closest room.