Page 49 of Ready for You
“Home?” It was the first word Stephanie had spoken since the chain was removed. Her voice was small and my heart broke. It was like looking into a mirror of the girl I’d been four years ago. If I had to guess, her home was barely a step up from where we were now.
I put my arm around her shoulders. “Don’t worry, sweetie, we’ll figure something out.” I smiled at her reassuringly, already making plans to find a place for her in Little Falls, if that was what she wanted.
The door at the top of the stairs opened without warning and Mick knocked us both backward onto a mattress, covering our mouths with each of his big palms.
“Trust me,” he whispered in my ear and I gave a small nod. What choice did we have? His hands slipped down and gripped both of our throats, my pulse throbbing under his loose palm.
“Ah, Murphy! So sorry to interrupt you mid-session, but I simply couldn’t stay away. Has my new pet been giving you trouble?” I couldn’t see him but I recognized the voice as Ashwood’s, not to mention the disgusting term of endearment he’d bestowed upon me.
“Bitch tried to bite me, I’m reminding her of her place in the food chain.” His features had morphed back to that of the torture master I’d teased him to be and I understood why he’d been able to keep his cover for this long. My pulse kicked up another notch and Stephanie had started softly crying next to me.
“Why aren’t they chained?” Great, Jacob the asshole was back, too.
“Ain’t fun when it’s easy,” Mick grunted as he rolled off of us, shifting his hands to the back of our necks and dragging us to our feet. “It’s not like they could overpower me,” he laughed and shook us slightly to show off his strength compared to ours.
Ashwood looked delighted but his lackey seemed unconvinced. Hoping to help the lie, I allowed the very real fear I was feeling to slip out in a whine. Jacob’s eyes narrowed, jumping between the three of us and I could tell he wasn’t buying it.
His lips parted and I knew he was about to call us out when the sound of gunfire erupted from above. Jacob pulled his gun shockingly fast and stepped in front of a pale-faced Ashwood.
“What the fuck did you do?” He spit the question our direction and I belatedly realized he wasn’t talking to me but Mick, who had pulled his own gun and had it trained on the two men in front of us.
“How about you point that gun somewhere else, dickhead? Then we can talk about how you two fuckers are going down for kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault and anything else I can make stick.”
I reached out, gripping Stephanie’s hand in mine once again and moved us backward behind Mick’s gigantic body. The move didn’t go unnoticed.
“You betrayed me?” The color had come back to Ashwood’s cheeks and he was glaring around his second in command.
“Hard to betray someone you never worked for in the first place.”
I could tell Ashwood was calculating his next move, weighing his possibilities and likelihood of escape. “Let us leave. You can keep the younger one, make like the hero who saved the damsel in distress. Give me my pet and I’ll make sure you have more money than you could ever earn in your entire life.”
The sound of voices shouting joined the gunfire. Mick’s stance was unwavering, gun still pointed at the immediate threat.
“There’s no way in hell I’m letting you walk out of here, especially not with her.” The breath I didn’t know I’d been holding whooshed out of me at his declaration. I’d already made the decision to trust him but damn it felt good to have confirmation that he was still on our side.
Ashwood’s disappointed scowl shifted to me. I’d come face to face with pure evil before I left my old life, my father being the first of many. It was obvious that Ashwood was nothing but a depraved monster.
“I found you once, Lily Barrett. I’ll find you again.” Terror flooded me at the certainty in his words. He’d never stop, I’d have to go back into hiding, moving from town to town. Always looking over my shoulder or wondering if that day was the day he’d take me again.
No, I went to step around Mick’s large body, ready to stop Ashwood myself but Mick blocked me, pushing me back with one step.
Ashwood was backing away now, moving toward the stairs. “Make sure she stays alive. Kill the other two,” he demanded as he began to ascend the stairs. I tore my gaze away from him, feeling sick that he was getting away.
“Think you’re faster than me?” Mick taunted. “You better be damn fucking sure you can kill me before I pull my trigger.”
“I don’t have to be faster than you,” Jacob sneered. “I just have to make sure I don’t miss.” Then his arm swung to the left, to Stephanie, and I screamed in denial as the shot deafened me. I flung my body on Stephanie’s and we both fell to the ground with a hard thump.
I waited for the pain but the only sensation was an ache in my knee that had hit the ground first. Opening my eyes, I blinked but everything around me was fuzzy. I ran my hand over my face, my glasses were gone, they must have fallen off when I dragged us to the floor. I looked at Stephanie, she was too still. I began to frantically search her for wounds, for any sign of blood or trauma on her body.
“Stephanie? Stephanie, open your eyes, sweetie.” Her eyes fluttered open and I’d never felt so grateful in my life.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she repeated. “I-I don’t think he shot me.” I helped her to sit up and we looked around the room. Mick was standing over Jacob’s lifeless body.
“Rot in hell, you bastard,” he said before coming to where we were still sitting on the ground. “You both okay?”
“We’re good,” I croaked, not wanting to look over at the dead body again.
A herd of footsteps sounded seconds before people started filing down the stairs. It was chaos as demands were shouted and Mick slowly put his weapon on the ground, explaining who he was. He seemed unperturbed as his hands were wrenched behind him and cuffed.