Page 98 of Bad Seed
With the hot gun in my arms, I admit, “I was aiming at his crotch.”
?
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
?
AUBRY
This is all going according to plan.
“Aubry…”
Sneak in via a few old contacts in the kitchen.
“Aubry?”
Get them to take me right to her room and…
“Aubry!”
“What?”
My long gait slows as I face the next turn to the elevator. If that’s clear, then all we have to do is take the ramp into the garage, and we’re home free.
Sadie shifts in my arms. With both hands clinging to the gun, she shouts, “What the hell is going on?”
“That is…” I turn the corner.
Shit!Two black suits stand before the elevator. Could be high rollers or businessmen slumming it after losing their shirt, but just as likely they work for the boss. Hefting Sadie up, I twist in place and run for the stairs. Not ideal as we’re on the twelfth floor, but down is easier than up.
“Ah!” An elderly couple step out of a room just as we go running past.
“Sorry,” I call back.
“Ethel! Don’t look!”
Bursting through the fire door and onto cement, cold burns up my feet. I pay it almost no attention and hoof it down the stairs. Sadie starts to bounce in my arms, her voice hopping with every stair. “I was at home then suddenly a man grabs me. Next thing I know, I’m in a van with people who listen to podcasts about vegetables.”
“The Bells,” I think aloud. They consider it sophisticated to listen to podcasts and default to anything they think will destroy their enemies. I rather doubt the perfect broccoli gratin casserole will put the fear of god into the Brassicas.
“You know them?” Sadie gasps.
I lock my jaw in on default. My instincts tell me to deny, but what’s the point? She’s already been kidnapped, threatened…or worse.
“What did they do to you?”
“Who?”
“The Bells! Your…! Your kidnappers.”
Our voices echo off the cement while I scrape my hip on the metal banister. I hope no one in the cheap hotel can hear us.
Sadie’s gone quiet. Is she protecting them? How long does Stockholm syndrome take? “No,” she says with a quiver.
“Then why are you covered in blood?”
“Because one of them tried to get me to drink his pee.”
