Page 58 of Hard Game

The footsteps come in pairs; one is heavy, the other light. I close my fingers around my gun, pissed that I’m yet to torture one of these bastards, but they’re crawling around this place like cockroaches. You kill one; another pops up; it’s maddening. My eye twitches, and I feel the detective bracing herself beside me, thinking she’s going to fight.

Not a fucking prayer, Little Fox.

I’ve already failed her once, and it isn’t going to happen a second time. A face appears from around the corner, and I press my gun to his temple, not saying a word as I blow his brains out. The blood splatters over his friend, whose mouth has a chance to gape open before I’ve slid my gun into it, emptying a bullet into his useless fucking brain. The two bodies slump to the floor, a pool of crimson soon surrounding them. Brain matter and blood decorate the once-white walls to our right, but I turn to the detective, my finger on my lips. To her credit, she nods shakily, her eyes on me as she leans down to check the pulse of the scum closest to her, doing the same to the other before looking up at me.

She mouths the word ‘dead’ and I resist the urge to roll my eyes at her. I just shot them both point-blank in their heads—of course, they are fucking dead. But that’s her instinct—once a cop, always a cop, in every situation.

There’s no other sound coming from the hallway, so I take the corner with my gun in front of me, ready to kill any fucker that gets in my way.

“This way,” I say gruffly and turn to see her right behind me, her gun raised, too. I smile. It’s like she’s my partner, except we’re on the opposite side of the law. A scream pierces the air, and we both freeze, turning to meet each other’s eyes silently.

“Go,” Detective Diess rasps, her eyes wide.

I’ve never seen a woman so fearless, not even Tassa. She’s just been raped, for fucks sake, and she’s ready to go into the belly of the beast to face more of the sadistic bastards just to save someone else. My heart aches for her, but more than that, I fucking want her in the way a man wants a woman. I want to fuck the memory of that cunt out of her, kiss away his touch, erase every memory he made, but my detective won’t let me. She’s got a look in her eyes that tells me she isn’t afraid, and she’s not leaving until she’s got every innocent out of here. I can only hope she’s prepared for what lies ahead because this building is enormous. The screams get louder as we move further down the hallway, and the Detective frowns at the lock on the door. It’s padlocked, with a thick chain that screams impenetrable, but that’s from her perspective, from her side of the law.

Not mine.

I drop my backpack to the ground and rummage through it for my bolt cutters, holding them up with a grin. “You should get some of these,” I tell her, lifting the padlock into my hand and examining it. Luckily, it doesn’t have a shackle cover, meaning I can easily get the bolt cutter’s jaws around the metal, slicing through it easily.

“Or we could have used these?” Detective Diess holds up a set of keys, lifting her brows at me.

I chuckle and shake my head. “When did you grab those?”

She shrugs and slides them into her pocket. “From those two meatheads back there. When I checked their pulses.”

My little thief. My body hums its attraction to her as I slide the padlock free, grabbing the handle. I turn to her, and she nods—she knows already to be quiet but doesn’t know what to expect.

I do.

“You see something you can’t handle, you close your eyes. Don’t leave me, do you understand? Back to back, if we have to be. This is gonna be hard, Detective.”

She stares back at me, her eyes glittering. “I understand, Moreno. Now open the fucking door.”

31

LAUREN

Maddox nods at me, but his eyes tell a different story. He’s worried I can’t handle what lies ahead of us, the women who have been abused and beaten to within an inch of their lives. Some may even be dead, and I am prepared for that. I may not be a hardened criminal like Maddox Moreno, but I’ve seen enough in my career to give me a stomach and nerves of steel. My training kicks in, and my senses heighten, my ears pricked for every noise, my eyes wide and ready to drink in the scene. My gun is steady in my hands, and I prepare myself to cover Maddox’s back as he opens that door.

I know I won’t ever be the same again because even though I know what’s coming, you can never quite brace yourself for true evil.

The stench hits me first, and I gag. It’s the undeniable smell of rot and garbage, of piss and feces. Of old man sweat and the unclean, the metallic tang of blood in the air. My stomach revolts, but I focus on our surroundings, trying not to retch.

We’re standing on a solid metal grated platform, and stairs to our left lead the way to hell. My heart stutters in my chest when Maddox moves, allowing me to see the horror of his body blocked from my vision. Lines and lines of cages, more than I can count, line the ground, leaving no available space. Moans and screams fill the air from women sobbing and pleading to be released. Overhead, spotlights flood the room, a horrible stark white light that meant the women probably never got a respite from the leers and perverts that could walk above them. My eyes flicker to the right, and I want to cry. Bodies hang from the ceiling on meat hooks, blood dripping onto the unfortunates below. Some are still dripping, their blood warm, their death recent. Others were rotting, pieces of them hanging from their bodies and no doubt falling into the cages below.

“Maddox,” I whisper, gripping his arm so hard he grunts.

He whips his head to me and tracks my gaze, shaking his head and grabbing my hand. He squeezes it tightly, but even though it comforts me, I’ll never forget these women.

I count them with a sob, vowing to get them justice. Forty-two bodies are hanging from the air.

Forty-two.

Maddox moves toward the stairs like a cat, barely making any sound despite his size and weight. I follow behind him, my gaze trained behind us in case someone tries to ambush us, but eerily, there’s no one here.

“Help me!” A woman screams, “Hey! You! Help me!”

I freeze as Maddox curses beneath his breath, the whole room silent before a cacophony of cries fills it.

---