Page 120 of Believe it or Knot

They murmur their agreement, and I go back to searching Sadie’s shoes for weapons. “It might have been nice,” I say when I nick my hand for the fourth time as I extract a third knife. “If he had shown you where all the blades were.”

“I might have, um… jumped him after he gave them to me,” Sadie mutters. I glare up at her, while Sylvie chuckles and shakes her head. “What? I like gifts!”

“Most omegas do,” Vee agrees easily as I slither back up their bodies, hair sticking to my skin with sweat.

“I got one for each of us,” I say under my breath. “I’m sure there are more in your boots, but my hands are all cut to shit.”

The next few minutes are full of us maneuvering so I can pass a knife to each of them and then wincing as we conceal the blades under the rope and duct tape on our wrists.

“Once we’re in,” Vee whispers as the van slows down once again. “Start cutting the ropes as best as you can. Hopefully, we can be free before they separate us.”

Sadie nods. “If they get us into an actual exam room, they’ll use a more advanced way to tie us down, so we need to be free before then.”

I nod my agreement and all of us tense when we come to a complete stop. The engine revs for a second and the van backs up. “This must be it,” Sadie whispers, making my stomach roil with nerves and nausea.

“Alphas first,” I say, hating the words, but knowing they need to be said. “We have to take them out or we’ll never get away.”

Sadie grunts in confirmation while Vee repeats, “alphas first.”

“Hey,” Vee says in her steady way, even as her scent turns bitter with fear. “We’re going to get out of this.” I nod again, even though I’m not entirely sure I believe it. But I’m sure as shit going to try. I refuse to let my friends suffer any more than they already have. They deserve for this to end, to be happy.

I’ll do everything in my power to see that happen.

The doors open and rough hands reach for Sadie first, pulling her out and setting her on her feet. She struggles a bit, but not enough to actually get away, because that’s not our plan any longer.

As I’m pulled from the van, I look up, trying to see where we are again, to catch my bearings, but it’s impossible. I only see a large gray building, a set of metal double doors. It only takes me a moment to realize it’s a loading dock. Like we’re supplies that have been purchased and are now being delivered.

I guess that’s not far off.

As soon as I’m shoved through the doors, I begin working at my ropes, sliding the tiny blade back and forth over the bindings and hoping like hell I’ll be able to get them free, hoping Sadie and Vee will be able to as well.

Six guards usher us into the bowels of the building, two next to each of us. I watch Sadie’s hands in front of me, the blood from the cuts on her fingers, making me wince. But a few scratches are worth getting out of this.

The guards don’t seem to notice that she’s bleeding, or that I am, for that matter. Or maybe they do, but they don’t care. They’re completely at ease as they guide us further into the building, no doubt sure that the guns on their hips and the threat of an alpha bark are enough to keep us under control.

Two of the men with us are alphas.

And they are a danger. The danger.

All it would take is one alpha bark and the three of us would be putty in their hands.

I feel my ropes give around the time I notice Sadie’s loosen on her wrists. Awareness tingles on my skin, and I wait for a beat, two, just in case Sylvie doesn’t have hers undone.

But then she shouts, “Now!” and my muscles move without thinking, yanking my arms forward as I barrel into the alpha behind me, next to Vee. My only thought is to keep him from talking, from saying anything. I thrust my little knife up under his jaw as he roars, but don’t give myself or him time to really feel the moment. I yank the knife out and stab him again, this time in the neck. One of his gigantic hands comes up and clutches at the wound as blood bubbles from his lips.

The whole attack probably only takes about nine seconds, but it feels like it takes forever. An eternity.

I spin, searching for the next alpha, ready to take him down, but he’s already down, bleeding from a similar wound as the one I gave. The betas are gaping at us in shock, but it won’t take long for them to get over it and draw their weapons. “Run!” I shout at my two best friends.

I watch as Sadie punches a guy in the throat, holding her little knife between her fingers and Vee knees, one of them in the nuts, before they take off. I’m right on their heels, ignoring the roared demand for us to stop.

My heart thunders in my chest. What the hell was I thinking, suggesting this? Why the hell did they go along with this?

There’s no way we’re going to get away. No way we’ll survive. Every instinct tells me to run back the way we came, to leave the building and get as far away as we can, instead we run deeper into the maze of hallways.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Vee chants under her breath as we run. I’m right there with her but needing to save my breath for the burst of exercise and exertion.

Sadie draws up short at a door, using the swipe card on the lock I hadn’t even realized she stole from one of our guards. The light flashes red and she swears before trying again, this time slower, more deliberate. It flashes green, and she lets out a hoot of triumph before she yanks open the door and we all tumble inside.

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