Page 91 of Savage Desires
"Sorry, Hurley."
"As if I could stay mad at our little warrior queen. Even though you're probably going to get your ass busted for it later, you were very kickass tonight," he says.
"How do you know?"
"The wizard never reveals his secrets."
"Quit flirting with my woman," Kisten complains.
"Sure, sure," Hurley says.
I'm sitting on Kisten's lap when his phone finally rings. I breathe a little easier when I see Gunner's name on the screen. He answers on speakerphone so everyone can hear.
"Everyone good?" Kisten asks as a greeting.
"Five dead, one bullet that needs to be dug out by Doc, and half a dozen of ours with minor injuries," Gunner says.
"Who died?" I ask, holding my breath to see if I lost any of my new friends today.
"Two of Jett's men. Tommy, Kasen, and the bald guy switched sides, so they had to be dealt with."
I'm sad for Mauve's brother losing two men, but glad that it isn't any of the guys I consider friends now. I almost feel bad about it, even though everyone knew what they signed up for. We got lucky at Mecca that there were only a few minor injuries.
"What about Nolan and his crew?" Kisten asks.
"He only had ten with him. The Italians scooped them up before they made it past the tree line. Nolan was hiding in his car like a little bitch. Emilio was pretty pleased with how easy it made it to capture him."
"What a chicken. Talked such a big game and didn't even have the balls to fight with his men," I say disgustedly.
"After the Italians got the Irish out of the way, we moved in. It was a clusterfuck. Over thirty men were waiting to defend the mansion. Several Russians, but the rest seemed to be paid security that had shit training. Duke, Trevor, Cash, and some of Jett's men went downstairs to where the girls were being held while the rest of us dealt with the upper floors. There were a couple men who hid upstairs once the fighting started. Didn't end well for them.
"We managed to keep three Russians alive for you. Not sure if two of them will be worth anything because they were sent in like cannon fodder, but the third man was the guy leading the group," Gunner says.
"Excellent, take them to Down Street. We'll meet you there," Kisten says.
"Did the women get out safely?"
Gunner sighs. "Barely. That crazy woman fucking blew the mansion up when the last girl was barely twenty feet away from it. The explosion is where most of our guy's minor injuries came from."
"Hera blew up the mansion?" I ask.
"Yes. There's nothing left. Whoever taught her how to rig up a building should be proud," he grumbles.
"She's a fucking menace. She knew we needed to dig for any information to ensure no one else was involved and to drain their accounts." Kisten sounds less than pleased, so I lean into him a little more, tracing circles on the back of his neck to distract him.
"Don't get your panties in a twist. I cleared everything out before I blew the place. You act like I'm some kind of amateur," Hera says, strolling into the room like she has zero worries. She takes a massive bite of watermelon, and juice drips down her chin. She hops up on the table in front of us, taking her normal cross-legged position. She has a whole fucking watermelon that she sits in her lap. She cuts another piece and offers it to me without a word. I have no idea where she got a watermelon, but it smells delicious, so I take the fruit from her.
"How many women were there?" Kisten asks.
"Thirty-two. We had to send some of them with our guys in the SUVs because we didn't have enough room in the transport vehicles. One of the women said they were gearing up for another auction so about ten of them were being held for that. They were locked in a different room. They're young, too," Gunner growls.
"How young?" I ask even though I don't want to know.
"I didn't ask, but if I had to guess, I'd say they range from twelve to sixteen."
My eyes burn with tears, but I don't let them fall. Kisten rubs a soothing palm down my back.
"We got them out, love. We'll keep them safe," he promises.