Page 7 of Biker's Dark Revenge

"Who the hell is that?" I asked, staring down at the little girl clinging on to her legs.

"She – she's the daughter of another woman who is being kept in here," she explained quickly, as she thrust the girl into my arms. "You need to get her out."

"I’m not leaving without you," I replied, as I picked up the little girl, almost on instinct. She wrapped her arms around me, hanging on to me for dear life. I didn’t understand what she was doing here, but there was no way I was going to let her stay in this fucked-up place.

"Thank God," Liana breathed, as she slipped out of the room. She glanced back towards the cell for a moment, hesitating.

"What is it?" I asked urgently.

"Her mother," she explained, biting her lip. "She’s going to come back and find that her girl isn’t there..."

"Here, use this," I told her, tossing her a coin. "Scratch a message into the floor. Tell her we got her kid out of here. And then we need to leave."

Liana did as she was told, moving as quickly as she could. Her hands were shaking as the girl nestled against me comfortably. Fuck, this all felt too familiar. How many times had I held Dina just like this, cradling her in my arms? I couldn’t let it get to me, not now. I needed to move. I needed to run.

As soon as Liana was done, I bolted for the stairs, leading the way outside. Before we could reach the bottom, though, I heard voices echoing up towards us.

"Both of them are dead?" Someone yelled. I froze. They had found the guards. They knew they were dead. And that meant they knew someone was loose inside this place. We couldn’t use the front entrance; it was too dangerous – we had to find another way out of there.

I glanced around, wrapping my arms around the little girl protectively. I didn’t know what we were going to do. But I knew we had to move fast.

And then, all at once, Liana let out a cry of horror.

"Hadley!" she screamed. And, before I could stop her, she darted down the corridor, towards the slumped-over body of a woman just a few feet away from us.

Chapter Five – Liana

Oh, God, no, please, no...

I reached Hadley, my breath tearing in my lungs as I dropped to my knees in front of her. She was nodded out, her head against her chest, but if I could get her up, maybe I could get her out of here...

"Liana, we need to move!" Lee insisted, through gritted teeth. I could hear voices downstairs, but I couldn’t pay attention to any of them.

"Hadley, please, wake up," I pleaded with her. She’d gone to work a few hours before, leaving Kara and I alone together, and it looked like she hadn’t even made it back to the room before she’d shot up again – Lombardi and his men, they provided her with the heroin, and this had probably been her payment for doing God knows what all night.

"Liana!" Lee roared again. I grabbed her shoulders, shaking her head, but her head just lolled to the side. Her skin looked pale, and her eyelids half-opened – but there was no life in those eyes, nothing left there. Oh, fuck. Was she...?

I lifted my hand to her mouth, trying to feel the warmth of her breath against my fingers, but there was nothing – nothing. A white foam had formed at the corners of her lips. The needle had fallen from her arm beside her, and an ooze of blood dripped from the vein she had shot into. Whatever they had given her, it was too much. Far too much. And now...

Now, I didn’t know if there was anything I could do to save her. I felt a lump in my throat. I couldn’t just leave her here, not after everything she had been through, I couldn’t just leave her here to die...

I shook her again, but I knew it was useless. There was nothing I could do. She was gone.

"Liana, now!” Lee called, and I wrapped my arms around Hadley for a moment, squeezing her close. I doubted she could feel it anymore, but I just needed her to know that, even now, even in her final moments, someone cared about her. Someone wanted the best for her.

"I’ll take care of Kara for you," I whispered. And, with that, I sprang to my feet, and raced back towards Lee and Kara. She was resting against him as though it was the most natural thing in the world, utterly un-scared, despite what was going on around her. She must have seen and heard much worse than this. The thought of it made my stomach twist up again, but I could deal with what that meant later – right now, all that mattered was getting out of there.

"I think that’s a fire escape," Lee told me, pointing to a large window at the other end of the corridor. "Can you open it and check?"

There were footsteps on the stairs behind us, and I tried to keep my cool as I scrabbled at the latch for the window. I didn’t know what this place had been, an apartment block, maybe? But whatever it was, if this was a way out, I would take it. The dank smell felt like it had seeped into my bones like it was never going to wash out, and I needed to get out of here for good.

The window opened a crack, and I wedged my hand underneath it and yanked up – it finally flew open, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Outside, there was a rickety old metal staircase leading down to the street below, and I hooked my leg out.

"Come on! There’s a way out over here!” I called to Lee, and he raced towards me, still holding Kara in his arms. The way he was holding her, it was like he could never imagine letting her go – like he wanted to make sure she would never be anywhere other than safe in his arms. I didn’t expect such a paternalistic sweetness from him, but I guess anyone with even half a soul would have felt the same way about a sweet little girl like her.

"Here, you take her," Lee told me, handing Kara to me. "And go. Run. Don’t look back, okay? I’ll cover us up here..."

"Lee, you have to…"

---