I finally sat back down when they took off toward the barn, and now, there was nothing but silence, and I didn’t know what was happening or if I should—
I let out a small scream when I heard the explosion.
I looked out the window and saw a part of the barn on fire and men scrambling to get out.
I didn’t know which man was on our side and which was the enemy. There were just so many men out there.
It was chaos.
I climbed over the seat, opened the door on the side that wasn’t facing the barn, and hid by the side of the car.
Damien was in there somewhere.
I just needed to get to him with no one noticing.
I pulled the hood up over my head, partially covering my face, and took out the gun.
At most, I would look like a really small man. And I knew everyone on our side was dressed in black.
I looked up, and when there was no one around, I ran to the side of the barn.
There, I found a door, and as luck would have it, it wasn’t locked.
I came into complete and utter disarray.
Bodies fluttered to the ground, mostly of men I didn’t recognize. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I opened them again.
The bodies were easier to ignore if I didn’t think about them in the sense that they had been living, breathing human beings just moments before.
It sounded cruel, even in my own mind.
I shook my head and kept moving forward, keeping close to the wall.
I didn’t dare stop or look around for Nikolay or Mikhail. A body landed by my foot. I bit my tongue to hold in the scream and jumped back. The man looked up at me as blood dripped down from his forehead. I could only stare at him with wide eyes before moving around his—body.
Damien.
I just needed to find Damien.
I came inside a long and narrow room.
On one end of the room held chains attached to the wall. A dead body lay there in a huge pool of fresh blood. I glanced away. On the other side was—
My heart pounded.
The smiling tiger on his back looked at me while I stood frozen and watched as Damien fought against another man.
Damien was here.
He was alive.
My hands moved to my mouth to keep from making any noise as tears streamed down my face. Had it only been a week since he was taken? It felt like years since I’d seen him. His beard had grown out, and he had lost some weight. There were new marks on his body.
New scars to add once those healed.
He was alive, but he wasn’t whole.
I didn’t even want to imagine what he had been through.