Maria clutched my shirt as I began to turn toward the living area I’d entered. Brow furrowed in question, I glanced over my shoulder at her.
She pointed in the opposite direction. When I looked that way, I remembered nothing but bedrooms. When I shook my head, she angrily pointed to the door at the end of the hall.
“Down there!” she forcefully whispered.
I had no clue why I believed her, but she seemed adamant, and I knew there were likely three or more people in the living area.
We rushed as silently as we could to what I hoped was an exit.
She pointed at the door again to ensure I knew we were at the right one. We walked into what had to be a master bedroom but had been turned into a kinky one.
Anxiety hit me when there were no exterior doors. But before I could lose my shit, Maria grabbed my arm and dragged me toward what I guessed was a closet or the bathroom.
As I reached for the knob, the door opened and a dude looking straight out of an eighties porn was staring at me. He immediately scrambled for a pistol sitting on the marble bathroom counter, but I was quicker.
A bullet between his dark eyes, and we were stepping over his crumpled form.
Maria spit on him as we did, and the rest of the girls did the same.
Not that I held guilt for what I’d done, but I was relieved to know I’d been able to give them some sort of vengeance.
The bathroom was damn near as big as the bedroom, and on one wall, there were floor-to-ceiling windows with French doors in the center.
“Nice,” I murmured as I unlocked the handle and we hurried out onto the deck. Maria gave me a smug grin, which caused me to shake my head.
There was a set of stairs that led down to the beach at the side of the house. We hurried down, and I reached out to Hawk on the comms.
“Coming around from the side stairs,” I said.
“Copy that,” Hawk replied.
How I made it safely out of the house with four half-dressed women was a miracle. There was no explanation other than that. In our wake was only one guy with a bullet between his eyes, and I counted that a success.
The look on Hawk’s face as we came around the corner of the house would’ve been comical in any other situation.
“This was not the plan,” he softly growled.
“We don’t have time. We need to move,” I said, and he gave me a narrow-eyed stare. He was right because it was a matter of short time before what we’d done was discovered.
Phoenix, Hawk, and I hustled the four women across the plush lawn and through the bordering brush. I was worried about their bare feet, but not a one of them complained as we hurried as fast as we could with them.
We reached the drop-off knowing we had mere minutes to spare. Hawk called Winchester on the comms and explained the situation. Winchester cursed but agreed.
“We’re going to have to lower one down, then the other three will go down with us,” Hawk said, and four sets of eyes widened.
“Lower me first,” Maria said as she stepped forward.
Hawk nodded, and we fastened the harness around her as Phoenix gave her a quiet crash course in rappelling. We tied the rope off to a palm tree. Her feet were likely going to be torn the fuck up by the time she got to the boat, but I hoped it wouldn’t be too bad.
It seemed to take forever. Finally, Winchester was helping her into the boat and out of the harness so we could retrieve it.
“What about that guy?” I asked, motioning over my shoulder toward where the guard was in the trees.
“Leave him.” Hawk shook his head, and I swallowed hard. I still didn’t regret taking the women with me. In fact, I wished I could’ve grabbed them all.
Next, Phoenix went down with Inessa strapped tightly to him.
Once they were safely in and I had the harness secured, I went down with Eliska. Halfway down, the rope seemed to slip, and we dropped quickly until I was able to get a grip. Eliska let out a squeak, but to her credit, she didn’t scream. Even through the gloves, my hands burned.