AllFreeNovel
Share Us
36
Annie
The guards took us down together. Lettie had finished my makeup minutes before they'd pounded on the door, telling us we'd had long enough.
The sky outside the mansion looked bruised with predawn dark. The green hour had passed but instead of lightening, the sky darkened. Probably oncoming thunderstorms. Probably not an omen.
We walked side by side, one guard in front of us and one behind. Through unspoken agreement we didn't talk or look at each other, didn't touch or exhibit any signs of friendship. Nothing that could be used against us, or to pit us against each other.
The guards stopped us at the door to his majesty's chambers, knocking out an obviously coded rhythm. Then they opened the door and we were ushered in and despite my fear, I barely kept myself from rolling my eyes.
He was a real estate broker. He sold homes to rich people and had obviously done well enough with his commissions to be rich himself, but still. He wasn't royalty. He wasn't master vampire. The security, the coded knocks, the deferential attitudes – it was all a bit over the top.
And yet the instant we stepped through into his private chambers, everything in me went on high alert. Scenting the air. My eyes closed in an attempt to use my sense of smell better. There was a lingering charred smell in the room, which might have been my imagination and might have been my flesh.
There was nothing else. No lingering or fresh smell of branding iron heating. But it felt like the brand began stinging and burning again, so much worse than it had been minutes earlier. It took me a minute to understand this was because I was sweating. The salt from my sweat did not feel good on the new burn. I wondered if sweat salt carried too much bacteria to be healthy or if the salt being human salt might help. Then stopped, realizing I was only distracting myself.
I was afraid.
Bevington was relaxing in a robe, sitting in one of the armchairs in his bedroom with his feet up on an ottoman I was sure had been used for things I didn't want to know about. "Ahh, better late than never," he said to the guards, and I felt both of them still before they replied with obsequious responses. Bevington was no more interested in those than I was. He waved his hand as if shooing away a fly.
"Someone should remain with you, Mr. Bevington. There are two of them."
That was the asshat who assaulted me in the shower and I thought personally if Bevington decided to beat him to death for making such an obvious observation, I wouldn't raise a hand to prevent it.
Bevington just laughed. "Your math skills are improving, Joseph. You may both wait outside until I'm finished with these two. It may be a while." He leered at us, as if he had anything either of us wanted for any amount of time.
The guards looked at each other and the one who wasn't Joseph (and wasn't, in my book, marked for early demise), said, "We'll be right outside, Mr. Bevington."
"Whatever. Whatever. Go."
So flattering he couldn't wait to be alone with us.
There hadn't been time to wait for any responses from Cole. That would have been too much of a risk. No way to go back after, since the guards showed up. Outside it was still night, though draining toward morning.
Cole would get the email. Even coming from an address he didn't know. His techs would be working shifts around the clock. They'd find it.
Question was, how long would it take for him to come to where I was.
Question was, how to hold out until there were more people than me and Lettie.
Bevington shifted, sitting up in his arm chair. That caused his silky robe to split apart from the tie at the waist, each side slithering off him to frame his genitals on full display. No problem with his erection tonight. Bevington rubbed his hands together. His beady little eyes gleamed.
"Let's start with the two of you taking off all your clothes and do it sexy. Or no, undress each other!" His erection bobbed.
I tried to ignore it. I wasn't sure yet how this was going to play out. I'd rather have backup before trying to get out of a locked house with a handful of armed guards in it and three nervous girls who weren't cops. I could undress Lettie, if it came to that. At least I liked her.
No more than 90 minutes since I sent Cole the email. If he was in Vegas, he'd be getting here by now. The flight wasn't that long. He owned his own jet.
My heart gave a nasty little thump. I didn't want to acknowledge that he should be here already. The trackers should lead him to me. I'd expected when I was taken that he'd be right behind me.
He wasn't.
No one was. No one was bursting through the windows. No cherry lights strobed.
Where are you?
Lettie reached for me and removed my tie before I batted her away, meeting her eyes, my own giving nothing away. She looked scared, reached again for the neck of my shirt. I started to move, to look around her to where Bevington sat, caressing himself. But he spoke first.
