Hot Revenge Box Set 2

James

Michael looks me up and down. “You fit to walk?”

“I’ll manage.”

He gives a short jerk of his head and turns to Charlotte, arms outstretched. “You walk. I’ll carry Cara for you.”

She retreats, clutching Cara to herself, shrieking. “No!”

Michael steps back, holding up his palms. “Whoa… Calm down. It’s me. What do you think I’m going to do?”

She bursts into tears. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”

He takes a step closer, moving carefully. “Charlotte, we have to leave. I’m not sure you can carry Cara and walk too.”

“No.” She swings her head in denial, tries to step out, then totters, Cara still tight to her chest.

Michael exchanges a look with me, shaking his head, then he moves in… “Hold on to Cara.” …. sweeping her up. His voice changes to a kind of fake yokel accent. “Come, Mr Frodo!” he says. “I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you.”

She gives him a watery smile. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying that. You’ll be fine when we’ve got you home and rested up for a few days.”

Klempner shoves a knife into his belt. Another into the top of his boot. A handgun into a pocket. Then, picking up his SMG, “We need to get moving. I'll go to the front. Michael, you with Jenny in between. James, cover our backs.”

*****

Michael

My arms full of Charlotte, we clear the first flight of stairs to the corridor of ‘cells’. “Klempner, we should release the other women.”

the passage

time for that. Once we're out, you can

Baxter could have murdered all the witnesses.

cells represents his working stock. His property. He’ll not be eager to get

panicking women, running around the place,

pauses, shoots me a calculating look. “Sold to the man with the highest bid. Get on with it then. You got those

But I do have my axe. James, can you

to his Cara with one hand, waving a gun in

my shoulders, I aim… swing… and strike at the first padlock. The angle’s a little wrong. The blade bites in, but the

my aim, this time striking

lock springs open and after a brief struggle with the bolt, I open the

babbling something at me. Dark-haired and eyed, fair-skinned, she would

her, “Quick,

sees James with Charlotte and Cara. Wide-eyed, tearful, she jabbers at

pokes his head around the door. “Você quer partir? Venha conosco.” He throws

scrabbling up, dashes out, joining us,

her. “Nós estamos indo embora. Você quer ajudar?” He jabs a finger to me… “Ajudem-no.”

she darts inside, gesturing me on to the next. Half a minute later, she exits,

taps me on the shoulder. “Keep at it. I’ll see if I can find those keys. Back in a

crowd of women grows; black-skinned, white-skinned, coffee-skinned. Asian, Caucasian, Afro. Few seem to share a language, but all come bursting from their grim prisons, flooding down the cells. A couple of boys emerge from one cell, ten, maybe eleven years old. Another, with eyes like blue ice and hair of Scandinavian platinum,

thrusting them into the hands of the first woman

at his

sei. Em toda parte. Eles não

“What are you saying?”

scatter. Finchby can’t catch all of them and Baxter probably won’t

door opens,

Gunshots…

and shouting, chaotically, the women scatter. Splitting and flowing one way and the other; maybe

“Suba

have been exhausted as he arrived at the cell and he’d taken a beating. He may not want to admit

her to me. Klempner needs you with a gun in your hand. Charlotte, give James yours.

me a dry