Page 76 of Never Tamed
Carrigan and I had both taken sips from the broken bottle and one gulp sent her straight to the bathroom. She’d come back with tears in her eyes and a flush.
“Damn, Rudy, you’re nasty,” she’d chastised in her familiar twang.
My gut twists. I miss Carrigan like a phantom limb. She’s one of the casualties of Andras and his war, although I hadn’t known it when I first got involved. How could I?
When we take down our enemy the first thing I’ll do is get her back on a plane and home again. If Torin is telling the truth and he actually did send her off to Guam instead of killing her.
I’ve always wondered.
The drive passes in a blink and my heart steadily crawls up to the back of my throat. Mathis parks several blocks away, but Noble grabs him by the shirt before we get out of the car.
“Look.” He gestures with his nose. “Cameras.”
Unease triples. “Can you…” I break off.
“Baby, who are you talking to?” Noble has his phone in his hand.
It didn’t take long for him to tap into the system and blank out the road cameras topping the stoplights, looping the feed so we pass like phantoms.
We want to make as small an entrance as possible. Let our actions once we were inside do the talking.
The building is three stories of warped steel and broken glass. Looping lines of blue and vibrant green decorate the empty spaces between windows. The kids have been busy.
Graffiti paints the sagging exterior in garish colors and swirled expletives. And I've got to say, it makes the place look a little cheerier. If Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory had been shut down for gross negligence and health code violations, they’d have this place.
“I’m surprised they needed this much space for their product,” Torin murmurs, standing shoulder to shoulder with me and Noble.
“They clearly didn’t, if the place shut down.” Mathis growls and slides his hands into his pockets.
Dax paces in front of us, scouting the entrance. He stops and zeros in on a direction with a long inhale. “They’ve got the front entrance blocked but there’s a sewer grate to the left and a clear path directly to it. There are still some lingering scents. Animal and human.”
His facial hair bristles and his lips peel back from his canines.
The closer we get to the building, the stronger the stench of the old liquor is combined with oil and gas belching out of the grate.
Andras certainly did a good job of covering his tracks. Anyone with even half a nose as good as mine, or Dax, wouldn’t be able to pick him out over those combined smells of stale liquor and rust. They’re too pungent to look beyond.
Who would want to?
We make it to the entrance and Dax steps in front of Torin and Mathis, cutting them off. He pries the edges of the access grate aside and holds it aloft, jerking his head.Go.
The sewers aren’t the kind of place you want to head for a happy jaunt on a Sunday. Not when the heat smoke billows out from the rectangular entrance reeks like roadkill. I glance back at the warehouse, then the sun. My gut clenches. My heart picks up the pace, frantic, traumatized.
Hopefully it’s not the last time I see either.
Noble presses his fingers to the small of my back.Are you sure you want to do this?
You don’t have to if you’d rather wait in the car, Torin adds, his voice hard.
I bristle.I’m not backing down from this fight. If the others are down there, then I’m going to help get them out.
How could they even think I’d stay behind?
Sometimes men are ridiculous.
Mathis waits for me at the bottom and reaches out to catch me before my feet hit the ground. His large hands fall on my waist. Dax follows with a low growl, muttering something under his breath.
His body curved, he stalks off, pacing the walls, sniffing uncontrollably.
