Page 49 of To Curse A Knight

Whether it was the panic in my tone or the deranged killer in my eyes, Lucky didn’t ask questions, just yanked on his own clothes and followed me down the stairs and out into the driveway.

I would call Winter later and make up some bogus emergency. I had no time to waste.

I tossed Lucky the keys and jumped into the passenger seat; him taking the wheel as I frantically called Aaron on my phone.

“What do you need,Mi Reina?” he answered calmly, as if he hadn’t been in a deep sleep and was just waiting for an opportunity to serve. A short dose of relief flooded through my racing mind before panic took up once more.

“I’m going to send you a series of codes to get out of the apartment. I don’t have time to explain, but there are two people who were being held captive upstairs that just escaped. I need you to grab a gun from the bedroom closet and try to lock them down. I’ll explain everything later, but we’re on our way.”

This was the very last way I’d want to explain my vigilante vendetta, but I didn’t have time to think about that right now. Not when my prisoners were out in the wild, risking my entire operation.

“Done.” A muffled rustling of fabric came through the line. Then the racing of feet on the tiled floor told me he was already moving towards the closet.

“I have to call Kellan—I’m sending him as backup. We’ll be there as soon as possible. Be careful,mi caballero oscuro.”

I hung up the phone and frantically dialed Kellan, who answered on the second ring.

“The Palace is compromised.”

I quickly summarized what I had told Aaron, with no need to explain. Kellan knew the purpose behind the building, and while he didn’t know who I had in there, he’d known I’d intended to use the cells for this very purpose. I didn’t need to tell him what the stakes were.

“On my way. Rodriguez and I will catch them, Killer. Dead or alive?”

“Whatever way you can get them.”

I wasn’t willing to risk everything I’d built to keep up Alec’s lifelong torture. And Sandra was going to end up dead, anyway.

I hung up and immediately brought up the camera footage to review on the drive. I needed to figure out just how inthe fuck one of the most secure facilities in America got compromised.

Lauchlan didn’t question, didn’t even make jokes as he broke every speed limit in the county on back country roads to get us home as quickly as possible.

These three men were going to help me fix this. We were going to fix this. We had to fix this.

If not, I was unbelievably, undeniably, inextricablyfucked.

Istumbled through the apartment, as familiar to me in the darkness as my previous home. Pulling on pants and a sweatshirt on my way to the front entrance alcove, I clutched the burner phone Kellan had supplied me with in my right fist.

The gun hung heavy in the pocket of my pants, its weight thwacking against my thigh with every movement. Sweatpants were not designed to hold weapons.

I deftly buttoned my jacket and pulled on my boots before I punched in the code Hillary had sent into the keypad on the wall. The door swung open ominously into the cavernous bunkerbeyond.

When my phone rang again, I answered without thought. My footsteps echoed against the concrete walls as I rushed through the shelving to the staircase at the opposite end of the hall.

Two people had this number. My Queen and the Cartel King. I would need both to help me with this mission tonight.

“Yes?” I answered succinctly, almost at the stairs.

“I’m ten minutes away,” Kellan growled. “The prisoners are unarmed and will be weak, but don’t take any chances. Shoot on sight if you need to.”

“It is done.” I hung up the phone and pocketed it, replacing it with the gun between my palms. The weight of the weapon was comforting as I quietly made my way up the stairs, listening for any sounds on the other side.

Hearing nothing, I rounded the corner where the stairwell met a long corridor and squinted in the inky black. I abruptly turned left when I saw no shadows. The large metal entry door had been left ajar.

The night was cool, but the universe smiled down upon me. The full moon overhead lit up the snow, giving me full sight into the stillness.

Two sets of footprints marked snowy paths headed in opposing directions. By the size of them, the prisoners were escaping on bare feet; it wasn’t cold enough for immediate frostbite, but they would not last long without proper clothing.

Which to follow?

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