Shit. She knew exactly how her friend felt. Finally finding Gidget bordered on the unreal. For a moment, neither of them moved, and then everything was a blur as they ran to each other. Bianca wrapped her arms around Gidget’s shaking shoulders and squeezed her tight. She clamped her jaw tight, but dammit, the tears were coming anyway. There was nothing to be done about it, and frankly she didn’t give a shit. They’d found her. They’d finally found her.
Glancing back at Taz, she gave him a shaky smile. This had never been his quest, but that hadn’t stopped him from being with her every step of the way. She mouthed “thank you” over Gidget’s shoulder, but didn’t—couldn’t—let her friend go.
After one last squeeze, Gidget stepped out of Bianca’s arms. Her eyes were bright with tears. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“Of course I did,” Bianca said, practically floating on the high of finding Gidget. “We’re all here, Vivi, Lexie and Elisa. We’d never give up on you.”
Gidget gulped, her face pinched up as if in pain, and her gaze flickered to the left for a split second.
Damn. Whatever Walsh had done to her with Genie’s Wish, it had totally wrecked the brash woman with a knife-sharp wit.
“Don’t worry.” She brushed back a strand of red hair from Gidget’s face and then reached out for her hand. “They can’t hurt you anymore. Come on, we’ve got to get you out of here. Does Walsh know you’re missing?”
“No,” her voice squeaked as she looked around her as if predators were closing in. “Neither of them do.”
Gidget pulled her hand from Bianca’s and stepped back.
An icy unease trickled through Bianca’s veins as she glanced around. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and a line of goose bumps popped up on her forearms. Every nerve in her body went on alert.
“Neither of them?” Taz asked, stepping next to Bianca.
There was a sudden movement to the left. Bianca spun around, fists ready. Two shadows broke away from behind the large concrete statue reproduction of “Leda and the Swan.”
Two people. Arms loose at their sides, hands open. The fact that they were apparently unarmed didn’t do anything to lessen the fight-or-flight response sharpening her senses and sending a jolt of adrenaline though her body.
&n
bsp; “I believe she means us,” a petite woman said, stepping into the clearing lit by the lights along the path.
The second shadow joined her. Sterling Walsh. Not exactly a shock, but not who Bianca wanted to see right now. The woman though, recognition tugged at her memory but refused to break free.
“It’s been a long time, Bianca.”
That voice. She knew that voice, if not the person it came out of. Yasmin Romanow. She’d been a student with them at St. B’s—and judging by the way Walsh stayed a step or two behind her, was the one actually in charge.
“Why?” Bianca voiced the question clanging in her head.
“Does it matter?” Yasmin asked dismissively. “Gidget, we’ve got to work on your lying. That wasn’t convincing at all.” She looked behind Taz and Bianca. “But you still managed to lead at least one of the St. B’s bitches here. I expected more of a challenge from the B-Squad after all the research I’d done on your little group. Oh well, I’ve always been a fan of taking the easy win.”
She pressed a dog-training clicker and five burly men strutted out of a toolshed. Large and muscular, they were the kind of goons who’d be perfect for a Bond villain. That wasn’t what sent ice down Bianca’s spine though.
“Taz.” She readied her stance. “Look at their eyes.”
They were totally blank. It was as if they hadn’t had a thought of their own in decades.
“Fuck me, Genie’s Wish.”
“Ding. Ding. Give that man a prize,” Yasmin said. “But these fellas aren’t juiced up for love, like everyone else on the island. I’ve given them orders of a different kind.”
She pressed the clicker again and the whole world went to hell.
Taz…
Just like they’d practiced in drills at Devil’s Dip Gym, he and Bianca instantly took positions next to each other, guards up and fists ready. He’d smashed faces for a living for too long to be worried by a gang of thugs who, even as big as they were, wouldn’t make it thirty seconds in shitass neighborhood he’d grown up in.
“Grab Gidget and get out of here.” A feral grin transformed his face as the men approached. “I got these five.”
“I don’t think so.” Using her thumb, she cracked each knuckle on her right hand, her eyes never leaving the duo splitting off from the others and come around to her side. “We’ll clean up this mess faster together. You heard Yasmin, she’s not going anywhere without me, and I’m not leaving you to face down these guys yourself.”