Page 142 of Into the Woods

His eyes hardened. “Cami’s gone.”

Panic unlike anything I’d ever known exploded in my chest. Suddenly not being able to breathe had absolutely zero to do with the guy on top of me. “No.”

Alex got up and reluctantly offered me a hand. “We need to get out of here while they’re fighting out back. They blew up the dock and half the cars in the lot, but I know for a fact my little brother keeps a spare car half a mile from here. The key’s in the wheel well.”

“Why would you help me?” I got up by myself, ignoring his hand.

He looked down. “Because I couldn’t help Cami, but she’d want me to help you.”

I watched him, studied the self-loathing and regret in his eyes. “You brought her here.”

“I didn’t have a choice.” His words were bitter. “Eric—”

“Save it,” I snapped, over men and their excuses. And they claimed women were the weaker sex?

I was calling bull-fucking-shit.

Alex glared at me, his hands balling into fists at his sides.

“I’m going after my cousin,” I told him, leaving zero room for arguing.

He sucked in a breath and shook his head. “Fine. Let’s go.”

My brows flew up. “You’re coming?”

“Believe it or not, I care about Cami,” he muttered, turning to go back into the room where the women had been chained.

“I don’t believe it,” I retorted. “You let your brother sell her off to some sleazy perv.”

He winced, jaw tight, and then followed me through the foyer.

I took a deep breath before darting across the open space and pushing aside the partition to see into the room that had been set up like a preview for the buyers. Less than thirty minutes earlier, this room had been full of people. Women and kids, chained to the floors and walls.

Now it was empty.

The sirens were closer, likely out front by now, but none of that mattered if they were gone.

“Where are they?” I whispered.

Alex snorted before tapping my shoulder and pointing toward the curtained-off area where Cami had been. “The door behind that curtain leads to a hallway. There’s a staircase at the end they’ll use to access a series of tunnels connecting all the buildings on this pier. When this place was operational, they used them to move different goods and shipments. That’s how they’ll get everyone out. None of the tunnels are on the public schematics—they’ll just pop up in one of the other buildings.” Alex shrugged.

“You know a lot about this place,” I remarked.

He winced. “We played here as kids before… Well, before.”

“Okay, let’s go.” I took a deep breath and readied myself to rip back the curtain. My hand brushed the black fabric a second before an arm wound around my chest, hauling me back against a wall of unmovable muscle.

A gun cocked, the barrel flashing silver as it was aimed over my shoulder at Alex’s head.

Oh, shit. We’d waited too long.

CHAPTER 44

COURT

I couldn’t wait any longer.

“I’m going in,” I said in a clipped tone, the earpieces that Ash had outfitted us with communicating my plan to the rest of the team. We were split up, but Ash was keeping us straight. I glanced up, spying the blinking red dot of the drone recording everything. It was how Ash was protecting us all.

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