Page 70 of Fearless
“Bingo,” I whispered, all the pieces clicking into place.
Had we rode up any closer, they would have been alerted to the sounds of our motorcycles. But from what I could see, the guards were at ease, if even bored.
I turned to Horus. “You know exactly where they are, huh?”
A screech and a few head bobs were my answer.
“And if Hades doesn’t already know, I bet he can smell them.” A plan began forming in my head.
I stayed up there at least ten more minutes, trying to memorize the layout of the rock formation and the guards’ movement. By then, the bleeding of my palms had slowed considerably. I shrugged off my cut and pulled my T-shirt over my head, tearing open the jagged holes Horus’s talons had made. When my shirt was nothing but strips, I wrapped them around my hands and tied them securely.
Mari would be fretting about infection and nerve damage probably, but they would have to do for now. Despite the new hand protection, my white T-shirt bandages were stained dark red by the time I made it back to the bottom.
“So?” Jandro wasted no time when my feet touched down. “What’d you see?”
“I can see where they’ve got them.” I pressed my thumbs into each of my aching palms. “We’ve got to go on foot, a small team of us. Everyone else wait here for a signal.”
“And the animals?”
I grinned, stretching my fingers out. “They’re going in first.”
Twenty-Nine
MARIPOSA
Iwinced as the needle jabbed cruelly in Gunner’s arm and quickly filled the attached tube with blood.
“What are you doing with that?” I demanded through gritted teeth.
It was beyond infuriating what Corinne was doing to him. Touching him, poking, prodding, and now taking his blood without permission. She hadn’t done anything extreme yet, considering the world we lived in, but she was still taking away his agency. Not giving him the option to consent or refuse. She was violating him and I never hated anyone so much.
“Running tests,” she answered snippily. “For diseases.”
“Hope you find a whole cocktail of ‘em,” Gunner hissed at her. “Everything under the sun, ‘cause God knows I’ve been everywhere.”
“I doubt that very much, Demon,” she purred. “Any idiot can see how you touch and look at this woman.” Her head snapped over to me. “You treat her like no other woman exists, but my men tell me you haven’t slept with her. You’re holding out for some reason, waiting for her.”
His jaw tensed, Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. The clever-tongued Demon was speechless for once.
“It’s a fascinating love story, I’m sure,” Corinne sighed. “But I have no time for it, as I have profits to make. Still,” she ran a finger along his jaw, her men restraining him against leaning away from her, “I’m not above petty victories. Maybe I’ll let the little female watch when I tie you to my bed tonight.”
“Fuck you,” he spat. “You’ll never have this.”
“I already do,” she chuckled. “Once your blood tests come back clear, you are mine to do with as I please. There is another test I must conduct however, and you’ll see I’m not completely heartless.”
She turned to me, smirking gleefully.
“You can have him first. It’s the one and only time you’ll get with him, so make it count.”
I stared at her in complete disbelief. “What?”
“You two are going to fuck. Right here. Right now.” She waved away her men holding us and stepped off the flat slab of rock we were chained to. Someone brought out a metal folding chair and she took a seat less than ten feet away from us.
Without anyone to hold us apart, Gunner and I found each other again. He pulled me into his chest and my finger immediately went to apply pressure to the puncture wound in his elbow from the needle.
“What’s taking them so long?” I whispered, hiding my face in his hair.
He squeezed my nape, lowering his forehead to mine. “I don’t know, baby girl. Maybe something happened.”
