“And don’t even get me started on how he promoted my cousin above me,” O’Brien continued, fully dedicating to his insane rant.
“Do you think West has any idea where we are?” Serenity continued to whisper, and at the sound of his name, I nearly began to cry.
I shook my head on a sniffle. “I don’t think so. He was already gone when O’Brien called me.” That couldn’t have been the last time I saw him. We hadn’t even gone out on our first date. This couldn’t be the end of us.
Instead of panicking like I was close to doing, Serenity’s expression grew determined. “Then we’ll have to get ourselves out of this.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” I squeaked as O’Brien continued to rage in the background, talking now about how his cousins always picked on him for being so small. This dude had some serious issues he needed to work through with a therapist.
“Remember that move we used to use to take Spencer down when we were growing up?” I thought back to the method we used on our big brother when we wanted to teach him a lesson. It basically consisted of me coming at him from the right and going for his legs as Serenity came from the left and threw herself at his upper body. Yes, we might have accidentally broken a couple of our brother’s bones, but it was a highly effective maneuver.
“Are you serious right now?” I hissed. “You’re tied to a chair.”
“I’ve been working on the tape at my wrists, and I think I have it loose enough to get free. I can untie my feet once we get him down.”
“This is insane,” I whisper-yelled.
“Well I don’t see you coming up with any brilliant ideas to get us out of this mess,” she clapped back. “It’s all we’ve got. If we don’t try, he’s going to kill us. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to die just yet. I still haven’t had the chance to meet Chris Evans and make him fall madly in love with me. That’s number one on my bucket list!”
She had a point. It was either sit here, do nothing, and die, or try and maybe get out of this alive.
“All right. I’m in.”
“Good. Now, get him close enough that I can jump at him.”
I bugged my eyes out wide. “Me? Why me?”
She blew out a raspberry and rolled her eyes like she was dealing with amateurs. Which wasn’t too far off. “Because I’m tied to a chair, dummy.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” I continued to panic.
“I don’t know. Be creative. I have to get this tape off my wrists.”
I turned back to O’Brien who was now going on about some dog that had run away when he was five. Jesus, this guy really was a fuck-up.
“Um, excuse me. Mr. Bad Guy?”
He stopped mid-pace and whipped back around to my sister and me. “What?”
“I have to pee.”
He looked at me like I was the insane one. Sorry buddy, only one person is this room is cracked, and it’s not me. “Then pee.”
I curled my lip in disgust. “Gross! I can’t pee here. I need to go to the bathroom. You have one of those in this hellhole, don’t you?”
“Almost got it,” Serenity murmured under her breath.
“I mean, we’re going to die, right? At least let me have a little dignity and do it with clean drawers.”
He let out a sigh and rolled his eyes like he was the one being put out, but he started toward us, anyway. “Fine, but as soon as you’re done, I’m putting a bullet in—”
“Now!” Serenity shouted, and I didn’t give myself a chance to think, I just dove, slamming into O’Brien’s legs from one side while she launched herself at him from the other. With a shrill scream, the man’s body bent in a way no human was supposed to bend, and the three of us went down in a tangle of limbs.
“Get your feet,” I shouted and I pulled myself up to straddle the boney man’s chest and battered his face with punch after punch—and I could throw a mean one thanks to my big brother’s teachings. “We need to get the hell out of here!”
I didn’t let up as Serenity worked on the tape at her ankles, and by the time she was standing, the piece of shit beneath me had started to cry and scream for help.
My big sister kicked him in the balls a few times before pulling me up. “Come, on. Let’s go, Stell!” Together, we started for the exit just as gun shots began to ring out from outside. With her hand in mine, we skidded to a halt and began searching frantically for another way out, away from the gunfire.
Before we could find one, the door burst open. “Serenity, run!” I shouted, pushing my sister in the opposite direction. If I couldn’t make it out of here, I wanted to give her a fighting chance by putting myself between her and whatever danger was coming through that door.
But it wasn’t one of O’Brien’s goons that burst into the warehouse. “Stella!”
At the sound of West’s voice, my knees gave out, and I fell to the floor just a second before he could reach me. “Oh my God,” I cried through tears. “You found us. Thank God you found us,” I sobbed uncontrollably, clutching him tight as he joined me on the ground and pulled me into his lap. “You’re really here. This isn’t a dream, is it? That would be so epically fucked up if it was a dream.”
“It’s not a dream, baby,” he assured me, squeezing me so tight my ribs creaked, but I didn’t care. “I’m really here. And as soon as the relief that you’re okay wears off, I’m going to tell you how incredibly pissed I am that you ran into danger all by yourself,” he finished on a growl.
I sniffled, looking up at him through tears and a wobbly smile. “I love you, West. With all my heart. I love you so much.”
He brushed the hair out of my face, giving me one of those tender looks that melted my heart. “About damn time you admitted it.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” I snapped. “My life was just in danger. You rushed in here like a freaking action hero, I professed my love for the first time after thinking I was going to die without ever getting to tell you, and that’s what you have to say about it? God, you suck!”
He chuckled softly. “I love you too, grift. More than you can imagine. But don’t think for a second that this is going to get you out of one hell of a silent treatment.”
I’d take whatever he wanted to dish out, just as long as I could have him again when he was ready to talk to me.
“I accept those terms.”
“Jeez, Stell Bell. You weren’t joking about these guys.” At the fascination in my sister’s voice, I looked up as the rest of the guys from Alpha Omega came funneling into the warehouse with Hayes and Trick behind them. “It’s like the men featured on the World’s Sexiest Heroes calendar came busting in.” She eyed Hunter with a look of appreciation. “Well hey there. I’m a damsel in distress, and you look just like my knight in shining armor.”
On that, I dropped my head against West’s chest and burst into laughter as the feeling of everything being right in my world settled around me.
A sharp whistle pulled my attention, and we all turn to look at Marco standing over a weeping O’Brien who was curled into the fetal position, holding his balls as his nose gushed blood all over the floor. “What are we doing with this piece of shit?”