Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
“Hey, I’m headed to the john,” the man volunteered generously.
After jumping silently down from the rafters, Kestrel beat the fucker to the bathroom and waited just inside. The man never saw it coming. As soon as he stepped into the room, Kestrel took him out with a quick twist of his neck.
Less than a minute passed before Kestrel rejoined Magnus and Hawking.
The two at the door were their next targets. Phoenix and Caesar would come up with some way to eliminate them without alerting those inside. Kestrel trusted his team with his life. Closing his eyes to shake his head, he realized he was also trusting them to save his Little girl.
Sure enough, Kestrel watched as Phoenix and Hawking silently slit the throats of both men at the door simultaneously and with only a whisper of sound.
They moved quickly and efficiently. The man in charge was wrapped up in the bids coming in and didn’t notice the quiet until the internet went down. He called for two of his minions to get it back up fast. When no one answered, he drew his knife and headed into the room where Zara sat crumpled against the wall, trying to shield her breasts and face from the camera focused on her.
“No,” she shouted as the man appeared. “I won’t let this happen.”
“Unfortunately, that’s out of your control.” He sliced through the cloth binding her wrists to the piping and dragged her toward the door.
“Not happening,” Kestrel said as he filled the doorway, feeling Magnus’s and Hawking’s presence behind him.
“I guess you’re her big tough boyfriend?” the man holding her sneered. “Here’s your decision. I can slice her throat, letting her bleed out in a few minutes, or you can let both of us walk out of here. Dead is dead. You might find her alive somewhere.”
“Neither of those options are going to happen,” Kestrel assured him. “You’re going to die, and she’s going to be free.”
“Someone else will just come after her. She’s a rare prize.” He allowed his knife to prick into the thin skin of her neck.
Kestrel drew in a breath as Phoenix slid down the piping behind the man holding Zara. “Lift your feet, Zara.”
He was pleased that she didn’t hesitate. Not expecting her weight to shift, the man scraped her skin with the knife as she dropped to the floor. Phoenix eliminated the threat with a quick twist of the trafficker’s head. He crumpled to the floor as Kestrel ran forward to scoop Zara into his arms.
“Close your eyes, Little Swan. You don’t want to see this,” he ordered as he carried her from the building. Bodies were scattered along their path. He counted silently to make sure all the assailants were eliminated.
“Is it over?” she asked in a shaking tone that was difficult to understand.
“It’s over.”
“Someone else will just come get me,” she wailed as Kestrel entered the SUV and held her on his lap. He quickly pulled his black jacket off and wrapped it around her bare torso.
The other men piled in silently, and they were on their way immediately. Kestrel tried to console his Little but knew her beauty risked another attempt to take her.
Distracting himself, he looked around the van at his teammates. “I can’t even begin to thank you.”
“You could scar me up. Make me ugly. I could do it,” Zara offered.
“You are not going to hurt yourself, Little Swan,” Kestrel said, squashing that idea.
“So, it turns out that I’m as good at prosthetic disguises as Magnus is at electronics,” Caesar volunteered. “It would be very easy to create a disguise that Zara can wear when she wants to leave the protected areas of Danger Bluffs. When she’s at home, she can be her natural self.”
Even Phoenix, who was driving, twisted in his seat to look at Caesar.
“Hey, I’ve been thinking about saying something but didn’t want to overstep. Prosthetics are a pain to wear. They itch and are hot. It wouldn’t take much to change the symmetry of Zara’s face. Wearing them once in a while would be bearable.”
“Could I wear it when I’m up in the helicopter with Kestrel or going to the store?” Zara asked.
The hope in her voice made Kestrel’s heart skip a beat. He couldn’t imagine living like this for years, unable to do all the things other people enjoyed and took for granted.
“We’re ordering the materials you’ll need tomorrow,” Kestrel declared. “You’ll show me how to put the prosthetic on?” he asked Caesar. “The changes would have to remain the same every time she wore them.”
“Of course. I’ll contour them to fit only one way,” Caesar promised.
“That skill could come in handy for our operations,” Magnus commented, tipping up his baseball cap to meet Caesar’s eyes directly.
“Definitely,” Caesar affirmed.
“Does anyone else have some super power we should know about?” Hawking asked.