Page 122 of Creep

Fire spread throughout the building. The explosion wasn’t big enough to catch anything but the building, at least not yet. But it was enough to kill some of the fuckers and prevent a good portion of them from escaping.

Footsteps crunched nearby, and I looked up to see Theo standing there, wearing his usual expressionless face. We stared at each other for a beat before he held out his hand for me. I took it without hesitation and let him pull me up.

“Are you hurt?” I asked.

He shook his head nonchalantly.

I shot him a look.

He let out a small sigh. “I’m not lying. I’m not hurt. We ran into a few guards on the way, but nothing I couldn’t deal with.”

“And the women?”

I didn’t fucking care where they were, but if I went through all this shit to get them out, they better be safe.

“In the back of a mini truck.”

“A mini truck?”

“A gift from one of the Italian fuckers.”

I nodded. So he caught on that they weren’t Americans.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.”

We walked about half a mile from the building, coming to a stop at a white mini truck hidden among the trees. The women were all sitting in the back. I didn’t need a clear light to know they were looking at us warily.

I would let Theo deal with where to put them after this.

“Don’t cause trouble,” I said to the women before climbing into the passenger side of the truck. My eyes met the girl for a brief moment. She hadn’t been captured for long. None of these women had. But I was sure the short amount of time they spent in those cages was enough to traumatize them. And I didn’t know why my mind drifted back to the girl. Perhaps because I was about her age when I finally managed to escape from Leo’s grasp. She would deal with this better than I had. And that was all I could hope for.

I looked in the side mirror to see Theo saying something to the women before walking to the driver’s side and getting in.

We didn’t talk as he drove out of there. I leaned back against my seat. This had been one big fucking disappointment.

“I’m sorry we didn’t find her,” Theo said about fifteen minutes into the drive. I didn’t respond to him. I didn’t fucking feel like talking.

Theo let out a small sigh. “We’ll find her. You know we will.”

There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I would find her. I would find her no matter what, but when I eventually did, what would she have been through already?

I still didn’t fucking know why Leo was so obsessed with her in the first place, only that he was, and now he had her.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

Not my phone.

The phone was from the man Leo had put on her.

The messages had stopped coming since the moment she was with him, but now…

I pulled it out and quickly read the text.

Theo glanced over at me. “What?” he asked when he noticed I was smiling.

“Briggs just texted. He wants the men he hired back on Lia. And to make sure she doesn’t leave her new location.”

“No shit?” Theo said with a chuckle.

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