Page 73 of Hear Me Roar

“Thanks, we’re gonna needit.”

And then he wasgone.

This was it. There was no turning back from here. Not that I was leaving here without either Hazel or Maya, but if we wanted helped, that help was gone. I climbed wrung after wrung of what felt like a skyscraper when I finally reached the top and jumped down onto the deck beside Manny. Not a soul was in sight but he shook in stance, firearm drawn. With a quick hand, I pulled out the one at my side and cocked back the slide, the telltale click locking one in thechamber.

“Where the fuck do we go,” I whispered, squinting to see ten feet in front ofus.

“Toward voices. We’ll search up here first, then move downward. You see someone, just shoot. The less rats we have scurrying around, the easier it’ll belater.”

When I nodded, he took off in front of me, keeping his pistol aimed straight as we treaded through the deck in the dark of night. There wasn’t much to tread, though; boundless cargo pods stacked one on top of the other with barely any space between each row. I didn’t expect to see anyone out here, especially at this hour, but nevertheless, every few feet I found myself spinning around to watch our back. Better to be safe thansorry.

Whether it was pure luck or the calm before the storm, we made it to the deckhouse at the very back without issue. The door was wide open and upon entering the dimly lit space, we were faced with two sets of stairs. One leading up and other down. I pointed in both directions wordlessly and Manny signaled downward, tapping his ear. Straining my own, I could faintly make out voices and laughter from somewhere below. How far below, I didn’t know. But it looked like we were goingdown.

Once again, on my nod, Manny headed down the iron steps first, taking each one quietly. I followed closely behind him with my heartbeat thumping in my ears. The last time I felt this way was the night Jason struck out of thin air and I woke up in that warehouse, strapped to the chair with nowhere to go. You’d think I would’ve learned a valuable lesson from that...never let your guard down. But we had, and now here we were, in a grave predicament far worse JasonFremont.

“Don’t move,” growled a deep Russian voice suddenly, a gun held to the back of myhead.

Fuck…

I stood stock still and peered at Manny from the corner of eye to find him frozen in placetoo.

“Hands up where we can see them,” another similar voice instructed, to which Manny and I obliged, lifting our arms in surrender. “Now,walk.”

We shuffled to the opposite end of the hallway in silence, my stomach lodged in my throat the entire way. I kept waiting for them to blow our heads off when we least expected it and just be done with it, but as we came to another flight of stairs leading downward, the shove to our heads prompted us to descend them. The flight that followed those, too. The further down we went, the more eerie it became, and I couldn’t help but wonder where they were taking us or why they hadn't killed us already. Isn’t that usually how this works? Then again, they could have specific orders to take any intruders to Dimitrifirst.

After trudging the short ways to a set of double doors, the man behind me banged on them. They opened breezily to a large room lined with large windows on the backside. I assumed, given our depth within the ship, those windows probably overlooked all the cargo thrown down here, but I couldn't see much. What laid beyond the glass was drowned in sickly yellow lights that flickered every few seconds orso.

“Drop your weapons,” they said as they pushed us to the middle of theroom.

We released them as advised, and with it, I dropped a little bit of my confidence too. That was my lifeline right there, gone, clanking onto thefloor.

We’refucked.

“Sergue. Take this one to the hold.” Another man entered, motioning to Manny as he came to stand before us. “Dimitri only needs to see Mr.Carr.”

What the fuck? How didhe…

Manny was being pulled away before I could react, and when I finally did flinch, dude behind me was quick to press the gun a little harder, rendering me immobile. I’d get Manny later, somehow. Right now, I was more concerned with the fact that any of these men knew who I was. Through the windows in front of me, I caught the reflection of two men huddled in the hallway. If I listened hard enough, I could just barely make out their hushed conversation, all of it mumbled in Russian. I knew one of them was the man who’d ordered Manny away and the other was Dimitri. Although I wasn’t afraid of him, per se, my heart pumped in double time once more as he clapped the other gentleman’s shoulder and started into the room. This wasn’t how I’d envisioned any of this playing out. Not only did he know who I was,he’d been expecting me.They all had, which meant I had to play this right. If I pissed him off in any way, he might be swayed to strip me of the reason I’m here. The problem was, my temper didn’t usually hold well underpressure.

“I must say…” he said by way of opening, glancing at me only momentarily en route to stand beside the windows. “I am both impressed and taken aback by your earlyappearance.”

“So, you were expecting me?” I asked, watching the way he shoved his hands into his pockets as he beheld the darkness below with pride. He was taller than I imagined. Not quite as tall as me, but pretty built too, his hair slightly tinged with graying flecks. Electric green eyes slithered to where I stood as he nodded with agrin.

“Oh yes, very muchso.”

“How do you know who Iam?”

“You know how you did research on me?” He swiveled back toward me. “Well, I did the same when you decided to make it difficult to reclaim my wife; which, by the way, was also very unexpected. Well put together, too, if I must say. Most people would have just run scared. I guess that’s how I knew you’d come for her, huh? Though still, I am very intrigued to know how you got here soquickly.”

“I was already on a plane to Miami when you decided to take what's mine,” I grittedout.

“Yours?” Dimitri chuckled, shaking his head. “I believe only one of them is yours. The other is mine, as I just reminded her not too longago.”

Maya...

“What did you do toher?”

“That is none of your concern and not why you are here at this moment. Shall we get onto to that?” he questioned, tilting his head to one side, his casualty toward the entire situation dripping unease through myveins.

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