A couple, an older man and much younger woman, stepped in front of Brand, blocking the exit temporarily. I gritted my teeth and suppressed the urge to scream.
So close. We were so damned close. James grunted his annoyance, a guttural noise from deep in his chest that drew the attention of a nearby woman in a silk pants suit.
She gave him a once over, olive eyes sharp and appraising. For his part, James seemed not to notice the attractive older woman staring at him.
“Settle down, mate,” Riley mumbled. “Don’t draw attention now.”
“Just a quick smoke, is all,” the woman in front of us said to the guards. “Is that not allowed? What? Think I’m smuggling a piece under my skirt, do you?”
She lifted the skirt of her silver dress, hiked the shimmery material high enough to expose her thighs.
“Nothing under there but me, love. You see?”
The guard blushed and sputtered a reply.
The second guard noticed Brand and gestured him ahead, asking about purchase papers for James and me.
Oh crap. He doesn’t have them. What is Brand going to say? What is he going to do? Is it time to fight? How will I know?
The communicator on the guard’s belt crackled and a red light began blinking furiously.
It’s an alert. They’ve discovered the dead and unconscious guards. Now is it time? How long am I supposed to play the part of obedient merchandise?
Following Brand’s path, Riley hurried around the drunk couple to speak with the second guard.
“Bet you’ll be happy when this day is over,” he said, voice too high and strained to be natural. “I know I will be. Can’t wait to hit the pub as soon as I get on with it. Pints with my mates ahead, if I can get just this lot where they’re going.”
If the guard noticed Riley’s odd tone, he didn’t comment.
“Edwards, what are you doing with this lot?” the first guard asked with surprise, having completed his business with the smokers.
“These lovely couples are good friends of Master Jaylen’s,” Riley lied. “He asked me to escort them out with their merchandise, in case their security has a rough time of it.”
Sweat was turning the hair at the nape of his neck darker brown and he began to fidget.
“I’ll still need to see their purchase papers,” the second guard said.
“Silly me, I’ve got them,” Penny declared from behind the guy, in that bubbly drunk voice she’d used during our encounter in the arena.
She’s a pretty decent actress. Though I guess you’d have to be to infiltrate an organization like TOXIC and spend years undetected.
Penny stepped forward, swaying lightly, and linked her arm through Brand’s.
She kissed him on the cheek then reached into the top of her dress, as if she was keeping the papers in her bra. Of course, her hand came out empty, but neither guard seemed to notice. Both were glassy-eyed and slack-jawed. Tell-tale signs of mind manipulation.
Beside me, his head still down, James suppressed a smirk.
“Your friends are good,” he quietly whispered to me.
Without warning, both guards’ communicators started squawking with incoming messages.
I wanted to scream at Penny to drop the charade and run, that we were blown. When I looked around at our little group, though, only James and Riley looked nervous. The UNITED agents appeared unconcerned.
Penny leaned towards the first guard, as if to share a secret, and gave him a great view down the front of her dress.
“Here you are,” she drawled, showing him an empty palm.
As she did, both guards’ communicators fell instantly silent. I glanced around to see which of the Electrical Manipulators had disabled the devices.
Not James. His powers are most likely still dormant, same as mine. Riley? No, he looks baffled. Brand. Brand must be an Electrical Manipulator, too.
“Everything appears in order,” the first guard said.
“Wonderful. We’ll be going then,” Brand said.
“Of course, sir,” the second guard said.
The two men stepped aside and opened the doors to allow Penny and Brand to pass through. I sagged with relief. They’d done it. They’d actually done it.
The last rays of the setting sun poured into the foyer, through the open door, bathing my face in warm light. A cloud of tobacco smoke blew through the open door on a gust of wind. I breathed it in, preferring the noxious fumes to the oppressive air I’d been inhaling since my arrival.
When he passed the guards, Riley nodded curtly and followed Penny and Brand through the doors and onto a wide porch.
I’d thought Talia was the one controlling the guards’ minds, but once Penny was gone, their dopey looks faded. Somehow, even though I knew she was a fellow Brain, I realized that Penny was somehow the culprit. Fearing the guards might ask questions now that they were free to think on their own, I hurried forward.
Without Riley flanking me on the right side, no one stood between me and guard number two. Without warning, his enormous hand reached out and latched on to my wrist as I tried to pass. My muscles tensed. My pounding pulse ratcheted up another notch.
“You’re a pretty one, aren’t you now. Our American friend out there will have a good time with you,” the guard said, a suggestive note in his voice.
You’re still supposed to be a prisoner. Or merchandise. Or whatever. Don’t react, don’t react, don’t react.
Flat eyes the color of dirty dishwater swept me from head to toe and the man licked his lips.
Had he stopped there, the situation might have turned out differently. But he did not. Instead, his splayed his other palm flat against my stomach, climbing higher and higher until his fingers closed around my right breast.
And then, all hell broke loose.
JAMES AND I reacted in unison. I slammed my elbow into the pervert’s groin at the same moment James’s fist closed around the guard’s throat. Trembling with rage and humiliation, I tried to pull free from the guard’s molesting fingers.
The first guard moved as if to attack James, but Angus was between them in a heartbeat. Angus and the guard began to grapple, both reluctant to draw their guns with so many people around.
Behind us people began shouting. A girl’s soprano wail threatened to make my ears bleed. Talia was yelling into her comm unit, shouting orders and sounding the alarm to evacuate.
Instead of just letting me go, the sleazy guard shifted his grip, slipping his hand down to my waist. His fingers bit into my flesh through the dress, pinching and twisting the skin.
“You bloody lil’ c—” The guard’s derogatory slur ended in a strangled yelp.
His head snapped back. When his skull hit the wall, it bounced back as if made of rubber. And straight into James’s fist for a second time.
“Kenly, run!” James grunted. Talia spoke the same words in my head simultaneously.
Sounds of a commotion came from behind. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Poacher guards pouring into the foyer from every direction. They pushed startled buyers out of the way in their haste to reach the doorway.
Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. We’re done, done, completely done. And now they have all of us.
Suddenly adding to the chaos, guns, knives, and other weapons began flying through the air, followed shortly by the guards themselves. I would’ve smiled if the situation wasn’t so dire. Talia was singlehandedly fending off the entire approaching horde. As impressive as her display was, I also appreciated the tremendous outpour of energy that it required. She’d soon be spent if she kept going at that pace.
I redoubled my efforts to break free from the handsy guard, who still had a tight grip on my dress. The silk fabric tore as I finally wrenched away. James delivered a gut punch that sent the guard to his knees.
The first guard, the one Angus had been fighting, was also down. A tranquillizer dart protruded from between his eyes.
“Look out!” he called to James, who stepped aside. Angus fired a
second dart into the grabby guard’s neck.
The man seemed to melt into a puddle in the doorway.
“Go on!” Angus yelled to us, gesturing to the door with the tranq gun.
Pausing, I scanned the crush of people now in the foyer, looking for Talia. I wanted to be sure she was coming before I ran out of the door.
“I’ll get her,” Angus, having noticed the focus of my attention, called with an approving nod. “But it’s best if you run along now. We’ll catch up.”
Since I already knew what he meant, that having us there created a vulnerability that wouldn’t allow them to concentrate on the fight, I wasn’t going to argue. But before I could say another word, an arm looped around my waist, half urging, half tossing me over the fallen guard. James followed, and Angus retreated further inside to help Talia.
The smokers clogging the porch outside looked on with interest, but made no efforts to either stop or help us.
“Move!” James ordered the crowd.
Miraculously, they obeyed.
Once the path was clear, I hurried across the porch and down the steps, James by my side. When we reached the lawn, the grass was soft and cool and felt amazing on my bare feet, but there was no time to enjoy the small luxury.
I glanced back again, searching for Talia and Angus to be confirm they were, indeed, following.
Sure enough, Talia was just inside the entryway. She’d gotten ahold of a tranquilizer gun. Not just any, but one of the really big ones. Judging by the number of bodies littering the floor, she’d been having fun with it.
A line of guards were barreling right at Talia. One by one she picked them off, but there were too many for any one person to handle. Thankfully, Angus pulled Talia through the doorway, shouting something I couldn’t quite make out just before the approaching mob swallowed her whole.
“Kenly, go!” Talia yelled from the top of the porch, waving me forward. “Don’t worry about us, we’ll be right behind you!”
But I was worried. I wanted to help. I wanted to be the one mowing down the Poachers’ guards.
Through my anger and desire, I knew it would only put more of my rescuers in danger if I charged back in sans powers. Feeling disappointed, I was about to heed Talia’s orders when I saw a tiny female guard break free from the pack. Her dark eyes flashing, she ducked between two men in decorative military attire.
While weaving through the crowd to get past Talia and Angus, Pint held her weapon at her side. But as soon as she was no longer in danger of hitting a bystander, Pint came to an abrupt halt and raised the weapon.
Pausing, she took aim at Talia’s exposed back.
My scream was swallowed by the cacophony of shouts and cries erupting all around us.
Just as Pint’s finger pulled on the trigger, someone in the crowd bumped her and she lost her balance. She pitched forward and the shot went wide. Wooden splinters exploded from the doorframe right next to Talia’s head.
Though she must have felt the air rush past her, Talia kept moving forward, never once looking back to see how close she’d come to a fatal shot.
The woman in the silk pants suit, the one who had been admiring James just before everything went to hell, bent down to help Pint to her feet. But her gaze was on me.
“Go,” she mouthed.
This time, I listened.
Riley, Brand, and Penny were already halfway across the lush green lawn that stretched between the porch and a line of stretchhovers and ground SUVs waiting for their wealthy owners. A wave of guards who must have been patrolling the grounds were descending upon the trio.
The pop, pop of gunfire rang out as the Poachers fired real bullets at the UNITED agents and Riley. Astoundingly, not one projectile came anywhere close to hitting them.
Preoccupied with the battle twenty yards in front of me and worried about Talia behind me, I was not paying attention to the more imminent threats surrounding me.
Amateur move.
A man in a gray pinstriped suit reached for me. His iron grip wrapped around my forearm, still holding the cigarette he’d been outside smoking. James had been several steps ahead of me, clearing our path of spectators, and didn’t hear my cry over the sounds of gunfire. I watched him moving further ahead of me, unable to break free from the man.
Finally, I curled the fingers of my free hand into a fist and swung, landing the blow on the underside of his chin. Unfortunately, my left side was significantly weaker than my right, and the sloppy blow barely registered.
Struggling frantically, I kicked at his shins as Pinstriped Suit tried to drag me off to the side, away from both James, who was straight ahead, and the other group of my friends off to the left.
Pinstriped Suit tugged me past men and women still holding glasses of champagne who looked on with interest, as if this was all a show put on for their amusement. At one point, while sidestepping a group of onlookers, the lit end of my captor’s cigarette brushed the tender skin on my wrist. I hissed in pain, now genuinely angry.
Who the hell did he think he was? What right did he have to just decide that he wanted me and haul me away?
“Get off of me you lunatic!” I screamed, wrenching my arm backwards.
Out of nowhere, James charged forward through the crowd, his elbow connecting with Pinstriped Suit’s nose with a sickening crack. The man’s hold on both me and his cigarette faltered. Not wasting the opportunity, I yanked my arm free and sprinted away, stopping ten yards away to wait for James.
Instinctively, my eyes went right to the place I’d last seen Talia, scanning again for our rescuers to make sure they were still coming.
Guards were now pouring onto the porch. Talia and Angus had stopped at the edge of the porch, attempting to hold them back, to allow James and me time to run.
Problem was, there was nowhere left to run to.
The porch with the multitude of guards still emerging was behind us.
Penny, Riley and Brand were still clashing with the roving guards on the left side of the lawn, opposite us. Running to join the trio would ensure that someone would get hurt—either James or me because we were unarmed, or one of our friends trying to protect us.
Ahead of us was the line of luxury vehicles. The rendezvous point. The getaway hovers. And the swarm of guards who’d been stationed out there to protect the vehicles. They were now organized and stood in a uniform line. A perimeter of sorts between us and every means of transportation we could use to escape.
We were surrounded.
OVERHEAD, THE WHIRRING of helicopter blades caught my attention. Looking up, I did something that was previously unimaginable: Upon seeing UNITED’s emblem emblazoned on the side of the chopper, I breathed a sigh of relief.
The helicopter wasn’t alone, either. Three identical birds came into view, each from an opposite direction. In the distance, I counted three hoverplanes also speeding towards the island.
The four UNITED helicopters encircled the expansive lawn, two of them kicking up dirt and debris as they landed in turn. The other two hovered in place above the plush grass.
Just as I was feeling relieved, telling myself that we just needed to stay alive for a few more minutes, a clump of earth exploded next to my foot. Followed by another two feet to my right. And another directly behind my left heel.
I screamed.
More bullets peppered the ground around my feet.
James’s arm was around my waist, yanking me to his side. He held me tightly against his body, throwing an arm over my head to shield me from the hailstorm of gunfire directed at us. Together, we began running across the lawn towards Riley, Penny, and Brand. They’d been joined by a throng of UNITED agents who’d spilled out of the nearby helicopter.
“Put down your weapons. This is an official raid.” A voice boomed out from one of the helicopters.
The Poachers, unconcerned, didn’t even pause.
More agents leapt from the other choppers, fighting back guards to aid our escape. One landed directly in front o
f James and me.
I came to an abrupt halt several feet before we reached him.
My heart skipped a beat.
Terror held me captive.
Unable to think, move, breathe, scream, run.
Turquoise eyes bore into mine.
Phantom fingers encircled my throat.
My own hands flew to my neck, nails clawing at the invisible digits that seemed to be choking the life out of me.
He stared.
I trembled.
And then he spoke.
“Come on, Kenly, let’s get you out of here,” Erik Kelley called over the sounds of helicopters and battle all around us.
I stared. Was he really being nice?
He was just choking the life out of me….
That was over a month ago, Kenly. Circumstances were different. You were different.
“Our hovers are waiting just on the other side of that line of limos. They’re going to take you to the safe house, okay?” he continued slowly, peering at me curiously.
Erik’s gaze held a wealth of other emotions, but he was doing his best to contain them. Mostly, I saw fear and distrust. Anger and worry also tinged the edges of his oceanic eyes.
He broke eye contact with me to look over my shoulder, towards the house, his expression becoming decidedly anxious. Then Erik gestured behind him, to where the Poachers’ guards were quickly losing the skirmish to UNITED’s agents.
“Penny, Brand, and that other guy are clearing a path for us through the fighting. We need to go,” he said.
“What about Talia?” I cut in. “We have to go back for her. She’s with that Angus guy and they are really outnumbered.”
“Not anymore. She’s got plenty of backup. She asked me to make sure you get to the hovers,” Erik replied.
He turned to James.
“You, too. Come on.”
After a moment of hesitation, I nodded, still wary of Erik after our last encounter. James looked over at me, clearly confused by my reluctance to go with our new bodyguard. Obviously, he didn’t understand who Erik was.