Page 160 of Caged

“Fuck.” Mikhail stands. “Jax, Alexei, Niki, let’s sweep the area.” He turns to me, his dark eyes nearly pinpoints over his balaclava. “You guard the kids, okay?”

I nod.

It would take an army to get past me.

Twenty minutes later, all of the clowns are gathered as Mikhail grills them with a brandished pistol.

Alexei drags back to the table and slouches down. He rubs his temples with both hands, his elbows planted on the plastic surface. “I can’t believe I messed up. She’s my responsibility.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t you guys a thing?” They’re almost always together.

Alexei knots his brows. “No. I keep her safe. It’s always been that way. It’s my purpose. And, I failed.” His arms fall flat and he drops his forehead onto them.

I reach out and pat his shoulder. “She’ll turn up. She probably just went for a walk.”

He has bags under his eyes when he looks up, then past me. “The green one.”

Jumping to his feet, he whines as he runs toward Mikhail. “The magic clown. He had the green hair. Where is he?”

The man dressed with the oversized pants shakes his head. “We don’t have anyone like that. We thought he was a special hire for the gig.” He holds his palms up toward Mikhail, his painted face exaggerating the scared look.

Nikolai and Jax reappear.

I can tell by the look on Nikolai’s face, it isn’t good.

“We found drag marks, and this.” Jax holds up a single shoe.

Nikolai runs his hand over his jaw. “She’s been taken.”

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