Page 87 of Harmless
“Yeah.” I just sat there for a bewildered few seconds, in complete shock that I was being freed by a friend who I thought had long forgotten about me.
“How about run? You got shoes?” Santos took a peek out of the small, high window. “We’re going to be running for a bit.”
“Just some sandals.” I slid down to the edge of the bed, let my feet touch the floor, and stood up. The cuffs still attached to my arms and legs jangled, but holy shit, I was fucking free.
“That’ll have to do. Oh hey, here.” He shrugged out of a jacket that sounded like leather from how the material squeaked and held it out to me. “It’s chilly out there.”
“I’m good, don’t worry.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even perceived temperature on my skin. Coldness, heat. I was numb to it all.
“Just take it,” Santos insisted. “You’re skin and bone, man.”
I accepted the jacket and put it on. The garment felt strange and heavy, although I caught a whiff of a pleasant smell. Something soapy and floral in the lining.
“Let’s go. Follow me.” Santos moved toward the door, holding his pistol with its silencer at shoulder height.
I stuck my feet in the sandals next to the bed and trailed behind him. We went up the short flight of stairs to the main floor of the house, where more windows let in the gray, pre-dawn light.
Now I could really see Santos and the muscle mass he’d packed on in the last four years. When he glanced at me over his shoulder, his face looked older than I remembered and his eyes were sharper, the honed gaze of a predator.
Someone else was on guard next to the window, a tall Asian man with dark hair tied up on his head. He was wiping the blade of a small knife on his sleeve when he looked up at me, a familiar smile pulling at his lips.
“Hey, Hudson.”
“Devin?”
Santos immediately shushed me, moving silently to the door. “You take care of ‘em?”
Devin nodded, sheathing the knife in his chest holster. “Put ‘em in the bathtub before they could bleed out too much.”
“You killed them?” I remembered to whisper this time. “The ones who lived here?”
Devin nodded. “Hope you weren’t too attached,” he said dryly.
If I didn’t have to be silent, I would have been screaming for joy. Finally, someone was killing these monsters! I would have preferred it to have been me, but they were dead either way.
“I’m so fucking glad to see you guys.” It was hitting me with full force now. I was being rescued. By friends! I wasn’t a breeding stud anymore. And those who had made me into one were paying with their lives.
“Us too, man.” Santos clapped me on the shoulder before addressing Devin. “Is the coast clear?”
“I think so, I’m just trying to get Rori’s attention so she can give me the signal.” Devin pressed against the wall, then made two sharp taps on the windowpane. “Damn it, bitch. Turn around.”
“Don’t call her that,” Santos chided.
I felt like I must have misunderstood something. There was no way these two would conspire with a woman to get me out. They knew better than anyone not to trust them.
“What’s she doing?” Santos demanded.
“She’s walking all slowly up toward the gazebo thing, not even checking her surroundings.” Devin continued staring out the window with a frown. “We gotta move out. Something must be up, ‘cause she’s not sticking to the plan.”
“Anyone else out there?”
“Just her and our people, as far as I can see.”
“Okay, we head out and split up,” Santos decided. “You and Hudson head for the rendezvous point. I’ll get Rori.”
“Look at you being all bossy.” Devin smirked. “Sounds good.”
Santos cracked the door and poked his head out, looking all around before he signaled for us to come out. As Devin and I filed out beside him, Santos looked west, down the lane toward the sacrificial altar, where a woman with short blonde hair stood in the middle of the packed dirt path.
