Kairo’s head whipped around to stare at him with wide eyes as if he thought Isidore was making this up. He didn’t blame the poor man. He was shocked the kidnappers had stolen Joey as well when they grabbed his sister. She’d been traveling with Joey so she could hand him over to a friend, who was supposed to take care of the wiggly rodent until Athena was properly settled in California.
“She has a ferret here?” he demanded, utter disbelief weaving its way through every word.
Isidore nodded. “Joey. I guess that’s what they’ve been shooting at. He’s really quite sweet. He wouldn’t—”
“Hey!” shouted a loud voice.
They both turned to find that one of the guards was now pointing at them. Now nearly every eye in the room was on them rather than searching for the loose ferret. This was probably not what Kairo had wanted to happen.
“What are you doing here?” the guard demanded.
“The guard upstairs sent us to help capture the ferret,” Isidore quickly replied and then repeated it softly in Kairo’s ear in English.
Kairo nodded and smiled broadly while moving the gun behind his body so that it was pressed between them.
“Izzie! They are trying to kill Joey!” Athena cried. She released the man she’d been fighting with and stormed into the center of the room. She looked as if she were ready to decimate all of the guards and leave their corpses for the old gods to sort out.
Isidore hurried around to Athena, meeting her in the center of the room. If he could just get to her, bring her within his safe grasp, maybe Kairo could work some crazy mercenary magic. He didn’t know. It was a long shot, but he felt better with Athena at his side rather than her fighting one of Vanko’s goons.
As soon as he touched her, he wrapped her in a tight hug, resting his chin on the top of her head. He breathed a brief sigh of relief and a hand squeezed his shoulder as Kairo murmured, “Run for the door.”
Gunfire exploded behind him and his heart stopped. He shoved Athena into a crouch while at the same time tucking her close to his larger frame. The scent of gunpowder filled the air mixing with cries of pain and surprise. He glanced over his shoulder to see Kairo efficiently gunning down one man after another as they went for their own weapons.
“Run!” Izzie shouted at his sister, urging her forward.
“But—”
“Go!” He wouldn’t allow her to argue. It sucked to leave her beloved pet behind, but Kairo was risking his life to get them free right that second. He was not willing to waste any time that might put Kairo in more danger.
A hand grabbed the back of Isidore’s shirt and tugged hard enough for buttons to pop and seams to tear. In his panic, Isidore pushed Athena toward the front doors while he twisted to the guard trying to stop him. The man’s face was splattered with blood with more pouring from a bullet hole in his chest. An ugly gurgle rose from his throat while dark-red blood spilled over his fat bottom lip.
With another hard tug, Isidore pulled free and the man collapsed in a heap on the shining wood floor. He was about to leave when he recalled Kairo’s order to search for car keys. They needed a car if they were going to escape. Kneeling, Isidore shoved trembling fingers into the left front pocket of the man’s jeans but came up empty. However, the right one had a small ring with a car key fob and a couple of other keys. Yes! For good measure, he pulled out the man’s wallet from his pocket.
“Isidore!” Kairo shouted.
His head snapped up to see Kairo fighting three men in wild hand-to-hand combat. Were they out of bullets?
“Get the fuck out of here!” Kairo screamed.
“I’m going!” Isidore shouted. Part of him wanted to remain behind and help, but he was of zero use in a fistfight. He’d taken some self-defense classes and even some martial arts training when he was younger, but he’d never been in a real fight. No, he was more help to Kairo by getting out of the way.
He climbed to his feet and took a few stumbling steps before gaining enough of his balance to run. He exploded out the front door into the warm summer sunlight. Athena was standing several meters away, bobbing on the balls of her feet as if she were trying to decide whether to keep running or to go back into the house.
“Kairo?” she demanded when she saw him.
“Coming!” He had to be coming. There was no way in hell the mercenary wasn’t going to escape too. Right?
Isidore shoved the terrifying thought aside and held up the key fob. “We need to find the car.” There were three cars and an SUV parked along the driveway in front of the house. The key just had to be one of them. Standing next to his sister, Isidore pressed the unlock button on the fob and then the lock button, trying to get one of the cars to flash its lights or to sound a horn. Something to indicate which car the keys belonged to.
“There! That one! The white one!” Athena shouted. Her fingers dug into his arm, pulling him in the direction of the white sedan that looked to be only a few years old. The perfect car to blend in with everything else on the road.
With his sister at his side, he hurried to the car and slid behind the wheel while Athena jumped into the back seat. Good. Kairo could jump into the front passenger seat and give him directions when he finally escaped.
He pushed the ignition button and the electric engine instantly woke up while the various displays flickered on. He glanced at the battery reading and breathed a sigh of relief—full charge. He pulled out of the parking spot and whipped the car around so that it was ready to barrel down the driveway the moment Kairo joined them.
But seconds ticked by and there was no Kairo. Anxiety coiled tighter and tighter in his stomach while he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. He was still alive. He was safe. He would escape.
Unless they’d captured him…