Claimed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 3 (23 page)

They reached the door, then Stefan picked the lock with a set of tools he fished out of his suit pocket. Nicki remained quiet—not nervously so, however. She didn’t look around the rooftop, panicked, but focused on the door, moving up to the balls of her feet when he opened it.

“Me first,” he said. “You stay with me until I tell you to stop. Not too fast. Hand on my waist to gauge my direction.”

She nodded and then he was through the door, confirming that it locked again behind them. He hadn’t been overstating his concern about the gutter. The rungs would not hold them a second time, not without noisy protest. They’d leave by the front door—or whatever passed as the front door of this place.

The landing they were on shunted down two sets of narrow stairs, but a door opened to their right, with more stairs beneath. A window was cut out of the door, and the stenciled markings indicated only “warehouse,” in Turkish.

Stefan sidled up to the door and peaked through it. There was an open platform, then another room—more of a perch than anything. He couldn’t see much from the angle through the window, and he eased the door open slightly.

He’d been right. There was a short open space along the metal platform, and then an enclosed structure with a windowed door. Through it, he could see a guard staring fixedly at the control panel, paying attention to it and the scene below him, visible through a large window.

Stefan eased the door shut again.

“One more.” Stefan went down another flight, and this felt more right to him. The doorway above might lead to a catwalk system or overseers rooms, but this was the main floor. He turned, and Nicki was right behind him, her breathing tight, though her gaze was steady.

“Alarm?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“Too much hassle I suspect.” He leaned back and glanced through the window cut into this door. There was a large open space in the center of the room, with junk piled against the walls. At the front of the massive room were two intake garage doors, gleaming in the shadows.

But it was the center of the room that held Stefan’s fascination.

There were twenty cells lined up in one long row, each separate from the other. Cell wasn’t even appropriate—they were more like kennels. Tall enough for a man to stand in—if he was short. Long enough for a man to stretch out in. Opposite the kennel was a long, narrow utilitarian table and a trash can. At the far end, there looked to be a latrine of some sort, but he got the impression they didn’t place too high a regard on cleanliness. The place smelled of fried meat and sweat and urine even through the door. No wonder the guard had referred to them as filthy animals.

Worse, not all the men were asleep. Some muttered to themselves, some rocked, and some had hunched into tight balls, as if to will themselves away. The noise would cover Stefan’s approach to the cages, but not do much more.

There were no visible guards on the first floor. Chances were good there was only the guard on the second floor, safely tucked in his overseers room.

He turned to Nicki and smiled. “I have an idea.”

Chapter Nineteen

At that moment Nicki would have done anything Stefan asked, as long as it meant she could stay near him. Now that they were here, on site, her tension was ratcheting up to ever increasing levels. She was fine. She knew she’d be fine. But that didn’t stop the tension winding tighter.

Relax, relax, relax
, she chanted to herself. She focused on Stefan. “Name it.”

“These men are being held against their will, the guard is up top. He has all the guns, presumably. There’s no way out without him electrically opening the door. So, there needs to be a distraction while I get that process started.”

She brightened. Distraction, she could do. She was an excellent distractor. “Any kind of distraction in particular?”

“Loud, ideally.” He frowned at the ceiling, as if trying to determine what might work best with the guard. “You’re not big, and you’re dressed in black. You’ll need to get directly under those lights, on top of the table. Movement and sound. I doubt there will be anything easy at hand to pick up, but that would be ideal. Failing that, if you can incite the men into being louder than usual, that might pull his attention to you, assuming he’s not already focused squarely on the men. That would be the best scenario, but I’m not expecting it.”

She smiled. “Yeah. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he didn’t seem too enamored with his job.”

“That he did not,” Stefan said. “So anything you can do to improvise, short of taking off your clothes, would be certainly advisable. With any luck you’ll be able to see when I am in the room. Or hear me, which is my intention.” He pointed through the window. “Those double garage doors aren’t padlocked shut. If a single button will open them, so much the better. Fastest egress and closest to the road. The gate will probably be padlocked, but…”

“But climbing a fence, we can do.” She looked out the window, then back to him. “How long do you need?”

He gestured to the window cut into the door. “How long will it take you to get into the center of the room?”

She peeked through the window. “Thirty—make it sixty seconds. I’ll count off as I walk.”

He nodded. “That’s enough time. You distract, I disable the guard and hit the doors, I go down and make a quick perusal of the pens, and out.”

“Are you going to let all the men go free?”

He glanced back out to the pens. There really was no purpose in doing so, but he would be damned if he’d leave them trapped like animals. “If I can, I will. With the guard out, I should have access to keys and his gun. The moment that door opens, though, you need to run for it. I won’t let them free until you’re clear of the building. Run and keep running toward the city. Tamas and his team are in the park. They’ll find you but don’t wait for them to call me. Do that as soon as you get into the shadows, away from people. Do you understand?”

“Loud and clear.” Her heart kicked up with excitement, but trepidation too. “What if you can’t get the door open? All the men will still be losing their minds but there won’t be a clear way for them to get out.”

“If the door won’t open remotely, there will be a box at the units themselves, activated by the guard’s key. Failing that, the key definitely opens the exterior push doors—we know that because the guard used it on his trash run. So if the garage door doesn’t open, run to the first exterior door you can find, and hunker down there. I don’t know how far off reinforcements are for the guards here, but we can’t run the risk. I’ll find you and we’ll get out. That’s most important.”

“Sounds good.” She put her hand on the door. “You ready?”

“Almost.”

She looked up at him expectantly, and Stefan leaned down, kissing her hard. He seemed like he would break it off as quickly, but he didn’t. Instead he slid his arms around her, pulling her close. Then he moved to pull away and it was Nicki’s turn to grab at him, deepening the kiss a moment more, as if she could take his very strength into her veins, her muscles, her rapidly beating heart.

She pulled away and his eyes were alight with a sea of conflicting emotions. “You’re okay?” he rumbled quietly, and she silently cursed herself. She shouldn’t have shown weakness—not here, not so close. Nodding quickly, she gave him a fierce smile.

“Yup, but admit it. Bringing Tamas along wouldn’t have been nearly so interesting.”

He coughed a short laugh. “Go.”

Nicki slipped through the door and into the wide space, her eyes adjusting to the variance of light. A harsh set of fluorescent bulbs hung down in a row above the distant cages, causing most of the men to hunker into a ball, trying to avoid the glare. A few used their pillows or their shirts over their heads, while some didn’t seem to be bothered by the lights at all, instead rocking in a corner or lying against the bars of the cage, staring into the darkness.

None of them were facing her, which was a blessing. Nevertheless, she had to force herself to count as she moved along the perimeter of the room. She didn’t want to move too slowly or start her show too suddenly, but she didn’t want to leave Stefan hanging, either. Then there was the question of the distraction, as well. It needed to be loud and boisterous, which she could do, but the room was larger than she’d originally thought. If the guard was asleep or listening to music, she could scream her lungs out and it wouldn’t make faze him.

She slid her gaze to the men. They would be able to help out, if she caught their attention first. Some of them already seemed a lost cause, but if she approached from the other side of the table and stood on top of the thing…maybe. It would be her best bet.

It would also take longer than sixty seconds.

Shit, shit, shit.
Nicki picked up her pace, trotting at the edge of the shadows, quietly enough that most of the men didn’t notice her. One did, though. The third from the end, a shaggy-haired bearded man who didn’t rock but who wasn’t trying to sleep, either. He peered up as she padded forward, his face tilting at the sound, like a dog scenting an unfamiliar smell. He didn’t cry out though, but simply put his hands on the bars.

“Aiggghhh!” A man suddenly wailed from the center of the cages, the yelp so unexpected that Nicki almost jumped out of her skin. His companions seemed to be used to it. The one on the right curled more tightly into a ball, the one on the left said something harsh in return. The man kept yelping, but it was clearly a common occurrence, and Nicki used the distraction to get into position.

She stopped as her toes hit something thick and metal—chains, but far too heavy to lift. Beside her on the table was a cattle prod, and her lip curled to see it. Barbarians.

But there was nothing to cause noise, like cymbals or aluminum cans. She was going to have to cowgirl up and do her best work…and she had to do it now.

Drawing in a deep breath, she ran forward and started shouting.

Stefan had eased through the doorway on the second floor when he heard Nicki’s cries. He was on an open catwalk that led to an enclosed overseers room, and though the door to that room was closed, it had a window as well. He saw the guard jerk up his head from a drowse and lean on the counter, distracted by the chaos below.

Then Stefan burst through the door.

The man half-turned as Stefan smashed into him, but the room was so tight that the guard couldn’t get his gun around in time. Stefan sent the weapon skittering across the small space with a fast, jabbing punch. The man wasn’t completely without protection though—Stefan’s first strike grazed his shoulder and he realized that the thick material overlaid even thicker muscle. The guard had a padded vest and steel-toed boots, and his hands were thick and beefy as he whirled.

He snarled in rage and rushed Stefan.

Stefan dodged his first attack and dived for the control board, rapidly scanning the buttons with the Turkish inscribed beneath them. Unfortunately complete words had all been worn off long since, leaving bare scraps. He hit a few buttons and nothing reacted in the room beyond.

The guard reacted though. With a snarl he picked up a thick baton and instead of running with it at Stefan he flung it. It arced in a deadly rush and Stefan ducked, the beam crashing through the window and dropping a story to the floor below.

That’s when Stefan heard the howls.

His momentary distraction gave the guard an opening. He attacked, his thick, meaty hands clawing up Stefan’s clothing and locking around his neck. Stefan flung himself back onto the console and braced himself against it, but he couldn’t get enough purchase to dislodge the ox. The man dragged him over the controls and then Stefan saw it—a separate panel with newer buttons and levers. The doors were new too—that’s where the correct buttons would be.

He didn’t waste any more time. He caught the man in a round house punch that knocked him off balance long enough to allow Stefan to flip around. In rapid succession he hit the buttons on the top and bottom level, everything he could find, then risked a glance out at Nicki again. She’d dashed off the table, yes, but she wasn’t alone.

The cages had all sprung open as well.