Page 44 of Bulletproof Love

Movement from the corner of my eye sets my senses on alert. “Shh,” I whisper to Falin as I point in the direction of the disturbance. Then I hear it—a shuffling across the room.

“We won’t hurt you.” I raise my voice over the still trilling alarms. I wish I had her name. It kills me to have to call her by a number those animals gave her. “The bad people are gone.”

“Please come out,” Falin adds. “I promise we’ll get you home.”

A mattress against the wall shifts a few inches and like an optical illusion, a girl looking no older than sixteen pulls herself from beneath it. Somehow she wedged herself under the mattress, using the corner of the room to hide. So fucking smart.

Falin rushes to her as she stumbles on her slippered feet, catching her in her arms before she falls. “I’ve got you.” The young woman clutches Falin, sobbing and mumbling incoherently. “It’s okay. We’re here to help.”

All at once the alarms stop and the contrasting silence is menacing. Falin and I lock eyes, and I scoop up the young woman in my arms. “We gotta go.”

“Wait,” Falin says. She takes off my tux jacket that I gave her earlier and drapes it over the frightened girl’s chilled, bare arms.

We take off running, but instead of going back toward the chamber, I lead the way further down the unexplored corridor. It’s brisk as hell down here, the stone walls and floor not helping the situation. I know there’s a goddamn door somewhere. It must be some Nancy Drew secret hidden door bullshit because this place is built like a maze. I’m about to get Leon on the com when Falin stops.

“Wait. I feel a draft.” She jogs over to the last door we passed, which ends up being another study, much less decorated and furnished than the one upstairs. This one is clinical, more like a cubicle someone would occupy for a week while temping at an office. “In here.”

I feel it too. This room is colder than the others, like it’s only an extension of the outdoors. The sobbing girl has calmed some, but she clutches at my neck for dear life, almost choking me out. “Hey, it’s alright. What’s your name?” I ask gently.

“Kay—la,” she barely manages. “Please… I can’t.”

Falin crosses the room, shoving a rolling desk chair so hard it topples over. With strength that’s equal parts terrifying and arousing, she pushes the utility desk, letting loose a groan that I may or may not ask her to recreate at a later time. With it moved enough for her, she turns on her side, squeezes between it and the wall and pushes hard. A fucking door opens. These pricks set up a secret door in the wall and blocked it with a desk. Smart… but mostly evil.

“Come on, Kayla, let’s get the hell out of here,” I say, hoisting the poor thing up higher. We climb a set of crude stairs, the cold leeching into my bones with each step, until we reach a cellar door. Falin shoves it open, the wind immediately blowing her hair in her face.

“Leon? Damon? We’re out back. No time to find Ray’s van. We’ll meet you at the car.”

As soon as my head peeks out the door, I see what made her say that. Two firefighters are coming forward, with an unmasked Harrison Fairfax.

Our eyes lock—Fairfax’s shine with malice. A promise in them that he knows who we are, and he’ll hunt us down.

We don’t linger, this may be our only chance of getting Kayla out of here. With a final glance at Fairfax, I follow Falin into the night, toward safety.

Frozen and exhausted, we meet up with Ray and the others about a half mile away. Ray’s van sits in a dark driveway; he mentions the homeowners are away for the holidays. I don’t ask how he knows that, there’s far more important shit on my mind.

I carry Kayla to the warm van, easing her onto the seat. “We’re taking you to get checked out. You’re safe now.”

Leaving her with Falin, I update the guys and Ray. I give them a shortened version of how the night went. They let me know that despite searching for the runner and the other victims, they came up empty. The consensus is that the victims were moved somewhere else while we were busy figuring out a plan. I wish I could punch something… or better yet, someone. As we take a moment to digest how everything went down, Leon breaks the silence.

“I’ll come with you to bring Kayla to get looked at,” he says to Ray. “It’s the least I can do to help.”

I shoot Leon a grateful look. Ray’s not the type of guy I’d want to leave alone with a woman in my care. Not that I think he, or his team of medics would harm her, but he’s not exactly the most empathetic guy either.

“Yeah, alright. We should head out. I’ll call you with updates.” Ray pulls a cigarette from a pack in his pocket and lights up. He looks as dejected as I feel.

A keening wail comes from the van, snapping our attention towards it. “No, please! I can’t!”

I rush over to find Kayla clinging to Falin, both dissolved in tears while Ray’s medic stands there, eyes wide.

“All I did was say it’s time to go,” he says with a shrug.

I ease into the van beside Falin. Kayla flinches at my touch but relaxes when she recognizes me. “Hey,” I croon. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s terrified,” Falin says, wiping her own tears away. “When he said it was time to go, she just broke down.”

Kayla pulls Falin closer, her body rocking in the seat. “Can you give her something?” I ask the medic.

“Absolutely not,” Falin cuts in. “She’s already been stripped of every shred of dignity, drugged, and God knows what else. Drug her again and she’ll never trust us.”

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