"Can you handle this?" I asked Marcus as I gestured to Jared’s body, which was now leaking blood onto the floor and a screaming Jessica who he had managed to silence and handcuff to the leg of the desk.

"Yeah," he told me quickly with a wave of his hand. "Go find her."

I gave Marcus a pat on the back in thanks and spared Jessica and Jared one final look before rushing out of the room.

Not needing any more permission from Marcus, I flew from the room in a hurry as I scoured the entirety of the warehouse I had now found myself in. I checked in the rooms on the first floor, which yielded to contain nothing but empty boxes and dusted furniture.

I made my way back to the second floor where the main entertainment area and bar lounge seemed to be. It was as dusty as the rest of the place. It told me they definitely didn’t plan on hosting the auction here.

My mind was reminded of the conversation Marcus and I had overheard from the two guards about them wanting to move as quickly and efficiently as possible because of their boss being angry at the delay. I figured they were talking about Jared, but what did they mean when they said there had been a delay?

Was it because of Hannah?

A chill ran down my spine as I turned right and passed a locked door. Giving up and not having the time to try and pry it open, I moved on. I took as many new lefts and rights as I could possibly remember taking before I eventually came upon a large steel door.

The door gave a heavy creaking sound as I opened it. When I peered inside cautiously to have a look at what was happening inside or what was being held there, I came face to face with the top of a staircase.

The light from outside and where I stood was the only light shining down into the otherwise pitch-black room. I really did not want to go down there.

Swallowing my nerves, I steeled them before stepping down one step at a time, careful not to fall down, and made my way inside. Once I was inside and allowed my eyes to adjust, the breath nearly left me body.

Lined up against the wall in an incomplete circle were seven cages. Each of them, from what I could tell, hosted women who I figured were intended to be sold for auction. Their whimpering and sobbing reached my ears. Before I knew it, I was unlocking all the cages as fast as I could.

It was hard to do with little to no light to aid me, but I started with the ones closest to the light first. I unlocked the first three on my left and then moved to the outer layer and started unlocking those.

"What is your name?" I asked one of the girls through the bars. When she didn’t reply, I tried again.

"I’m not here to hurt you," I promised her, "I’m here to help. Have you seen a woman here recently? She has red hair and green eyes."

The woman slowly nodded at me as she tried to assess whether I was a danger or not, but I didn’t have time for that and quickly added, "She’s my wife. She was taken from me, and I’m trying to find her. Do you know where they may have taken her?"

I asked these questions as my hands began to busy themselves unlocking the seventh and final cage at the center of the room. My eyes went wide as I turned around at the women’s anguished cries.

"Not that one!" They all cried out. Before I could ask them why or what was wrong, I was tackled to the ground by a heavy body. A huff of air left my throat. Quickly twisting my body, I turned whoever it was on top of me over me and kicked them off. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

I rushed to stand up quickly and placed myself between the girls and whoever had attacked me.

I turned to them for a brief moment as I yelled, "Go! Get out to safety! There is a man named Marcus here! Find him, and he will help you!"

The women didn’t seem to waste any time in fleeing from the scene as I faced off in a one-on-one with my attacker. I moved myself to stand closer and closer to the light of the staircase. A breath left me when I realized who had attacked me.

His face was swollen and red now, and there was ugly red marking all around and across his throat, but there was no denying that it was Bernard.

"It’s been a long time, old friend." Bernard must have taken note of my shocked expression and relished in it. Quickly, I tried to wipe my face of any emotion so that he was unable to read me as easily.

"Not long enough it seems. I see you’re looking a lot worse for wear Bernard." I wouldn’t lie and say I wasn’t happy to see him all beat up and bruised as he was. The truth was that I was happy. Hell, I would go so far as to say I was ecstatic even.

"Yes, well," Bernard motioned to his red and swollen face, "you can give thanks to that whore of a wife of yours for making me look like this. The b*tch nearly killed me."

I let out a huff of laughter at his admission of the truth. "Remind me to give her a kiss for that when I see her. On second thought, you won’t be around much longer to say anything."

We were then charging at each other. Bernard tried to land the first hit on me. I ducked back against his swinging fist and brought my leg up to kick him in his stomach. He coughed up a bit before recovering. I realized the damage Hannah had done to him was a lot worse than it looked.

A swell of pride grew within me as I realized that she was so much more capable of looking after herself than I had originally given her credit for.

The brief moment of distraction cost me as Bernard landed a punch to my face, but I had managed to move his body in my favor as I tripped him. Bernard now stood where I had been moments before with his back to the wall and the light shining on him.

Our eyes looked at each other for a moment as we tried to read the other person’s next moves. Bernard’s eyes flickered to the weapon, a large knife, that had been sat on the bar counter nearest to the door.

I swore under my breath and made a move toward the shadows, trying to use the darkest parts of the room to my advantage.

"You know she really is more trouble than she’s worth," Bernard called out as I hid between the cages. "She wasn’t at all she was cracked up to be when she was grinding down on my lap."

My body froze for a moment, and my jaw tightened. He was lying. He had to be.

"If you think I’m lying and making this up... Am I also making up the fact that she lets out the most delicious little noise when you grind up against–" I could hear the smirk in Bernard’s voice.

Before he was able to finish his sentence, I leaped from the spot I had been hiding in and pushed him to the ground. A gasp escaped him as he quickly turned around and grabbed me in a chokehold and held the knife to my throat.

I breathed out heavily through my nose as I held his arms in place and kept them from strangling my throat. The knife in his hands, on the other hand, was quick to fall to the sensitive skin of my throat. Before I could think, I was lifting Bernard onto my back and over my shoulder.

The action caused a sharp pain to ring down throughout my entire body. All the pain seemed to gather at my stomach where the bullet wound seemed to be. It was like I heard the tearing of the stitches through the loud yells and cries of pain from Bernard.

The man had refused to let the knife in his hand go as I flipped him over. To his detriment, he had fallen onto the harsh metal object that had meant to kill me.

I blinked harshly down at his wide-open eyes and tried to fight the fatigue that washed over me. I heard blood dripping down onto the floor. When I moved my hand to my side and pulled it away, I noticed the harsh red liquid of my blood staring back at me.

Damn.