I’m about to demand more information, when the car takes off so fast I’m flung backwards into my seat. Scarlett grips my arm and pretends to fall against me, tipping her head into my neck. She speaks fast, her voice low but clear. "They grabbed us before we made it far from Sanctuary. They killed everyone except me."
"Why didn’t they kill you too?" I demand in a suspicious whisper.
Her eyes grow dim and haunted and I realize why they kept her alive. My stomach churns and I blink away the burning tears of fury. I nod my head, telling her I understand.
"I t-told them I could help them find you, so they let me come along." Her eyes fill with tears and I pat her arm. There was no way for her to help me. Scarlett is a lover, not a fighter. She learned to fight when she had to but she’s never had the killer instinct that runs through my veins.
"Why do they want me?" I ask.
She opens her mouth to answer, but the leader answers instead, looking at me through the mirror with his dead gaze. "You are the Blood Saviour. You will buy us anything we could possibly desire when we find a buyer willing to pay."
I narrow my eyes in a glare. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
He lets out a bark of humourless laughter. "You are Skye, the woman whose blood will cure the world. Every Sanctuary across the continent is talking about you. It was only a matter of time before we picked up your trail."
I’m stunned by his words, but the more I think about it, the more he makes sense. It was inevitable that Sanctuaries who are allied with each other would share the knowledge of a woman and her team of warriors, travelling from Sanctuary to Sanctuary, distributing a vaccine. I just hadn’t realized anyone would care enough to come hunting for me.
Their mistake.
We travel across the landscape at speeds so fast I feel positive the junker of a car we’re in will fall apart beneath us, but we somehow manage to make it to the mountains. The Outsiders must have set up some kind of home base.
We follow the twists and turns of an old, cracked, overgrown road until we reach an encampment. I count men as we pull up. Twelve total, with another six in the cars behind us. Wolfe and I must’ve made a dent in their population when they attacked us on the mountainside.
Before we can exit the car, I bend over, clutching at my head, pretending dizziness from the punch I took from Denny. I quickly pull a knife from inside my shoe where they forgot to look for a weapon. As I straighten, crying out in pain for added effect, I shove it into my shirt, where the cold steel presses comfortingly against my skin. Scarlett is staring at me with wide eyes, having seen my action. I squeeze her hand reassuringly.
As we’re pulled from the car, I turn to face our host, the leader of the Outsiders. I allow him to see my fury, but I carefully calculate my words. "My husband the Warlord will find you, and when he does, he’ll kill you all."
He laughs and shoves me so hard that I trip and fall to the dirt at his feet. I curl into a ball, concealing the gun I’d pulled off his belt. I have no idea if it’s loaded, but I have no choice but to assume it is.
"Your husband will be a dead man if he shows up here. We’ve learned since our last run-in with you two. We’ll be ready."
I roll my eyes. He clearly hasn’t learned a damn thing if he thinks I’m going to wait for Wolfe before I turn this party into a bloodbath.
I crawl to my knees, groaning in pain and curling my arms into my stomach. Scarlett drops next to me, her face creased in concern. I pull her against me in a hug and growl in her ear, "You need to run as fast as you can."
I pull back and look at her face. She looks worried, but not surprised. She knows what I’m all about. She makes a show of sliding her hand against my waist and helping me to my feet. She blocks me from view as I plunge a hand into my shirt and drag the knife from the folds.
I nod at her and whisper, "Now, run."
She gives me a desperate look. "They’ll kill you!"
"No, they won’t. I’m too valuable."
She bites her lip and finally nods, releasing me and turning away.
I shove her and shout, "Run!"
She doesn’t pause, but streaks through the mountain clearing into the trees. Shouts rise up around us, as confusion sets in. I turn to the man who orchestrated my kidnapping and grin at him as he swings his gaze from Scarlett’s retreating back to me.
"What the fuck are you – ?"
His words are cut off as I slam my knife into his belly and swing the gun up. His eyes widen as I pull the trigger.
To be continued…
Coming soon…
Conclude Skye and Wolfe’s story in Skye’s Sanctuary!
Skye’s Sanctuary, coming June 29th, 2021.
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Sanctuary Series
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Excerpt: Scarred Queen
Ignacio Hernandez had never before brought a woman to a meet. Then, they’d never met at a club before. The entire scene was unprecedented. Reyes didn’t do unprecedented, but he was willing to make an exception because he was curious. He could sever the Miami connection if he had to. It would cause some shockwaves, but it wasn’t out of the question. Ignacio was beginning to annoy him anyway. His poor decisions were beginning to affect the Bolivian. Such as bringing a woman like her to a meet with a man like him. Something that was meant to show off Ignacio’s power and wealth would become a big mistake.
His gaze flickered over the woman, calmly drinking her champagne and orange juice as though she weren’t sitting at a table with four of the most dangerous men on the continental East coast. Two kingpins and their right hands. Only Reyes didn’t think she was as calm as she appeared. Her wrist trembled slightly, giving her away. She had enough presence to make sure that tiny shake ceased by the time it got to her slim fingers where they clenched the crystal of her glass. It wasn’t the fingers or her ability to remain coolly poised while the men around her talked business that captured his curiosity. It was the mark on the back of her delicate hand, permanent slash lines, viciously marring her porcelain skin.
Anger burned deep in his gut, surprising him. Reyes rarely felt anything. Ever. Certainly not for a woman. This was how he made effective decisions. How he moved trade across borders with ease and cool logic. Emotion had been removed from him. First by a ruthless father, then by a vicious military stint in his home country and finally by an unrelenting, merciless prison sentence that had systematically broken him before he had, in turn, broken down the prison itself and owned it from the inside out. By the time he was released it was into a world of his own making; a world shaped by him on the inside and ruled by him on the outside.
Yet the sight of this cool, blond beauty, so broken yet utterly resilient was doing something to him, forcing him to feel. He shifted in his seat, sliding his arm across the back of the leather, his eyes never leaving her while he listened to the other men speak. Negotiate terms. He didn’t need to add his voice. Alejandro, his right hand, knew the terms. Knew not to fuck up while in pursuit of new deals for the boss.