“Not yet, anyway; come on,” Mac said, reaching up to open the door. It was dark and cold on the other side; the damp scent would have deterred Delilah any other day. But she’d walked through worse; in fact, right now she would escape through a sewer if it meant having the chance to kill Carson Royal herself.
Mac stood up and moved into the narrow passageway.
“Ladies first.” Carson’s breath was hot on her neck as he spoke.
Delilah refused to be affected as she followed Mac into the passage.
8
Carson stretched as soon as he closed the door behind them. He knew time was of the essence, but his legs and back were sore from crouching behind the planter. The woman in front of him fascinated him; not only her gold dress and locks of wavy red hair, but her eyes. The gold around her irises drew her him, almost as if he could seek safety there.
“Come on,” Mac whispered fervently, leading them through another doorway and into another passage before opening a door and slipping inside. “We’ll b-b-b-be safe here for a few seconds while an old man catches his breath.”
“Thank you,” the redhead said in that voice that reminded Carson of sex. What the hell was going on with him? He had just been shot at point-blank range, hadn’t even escaped yet, and he was already thinking of sex.
The old man blushed at her genuinely grateful look. “Glad to be of service to you, ma’am.”
“Who are you?” Carson heard himself ask even though he knew now wasn’t the time for pleasantries.
She turned to him with a hard look, waiting a moment before she answered. “Avery. And don’t bother, I know who you are.”
Carson was surprised at the steel beneath her whiskey voice as he started to button his shirt again, with nothing better to do.
“I saw you get s-s-shot,” Mac said, shaking his head. Thought you survived a bullet to the chest, but now I see why. That’s an impressive vest you’ve got there. No one would know if you didn’t tell them. Not as bulky as those cop things.”
Carson couldn’t help but smile at Mac. “Yes. It’s a new type of material, thinner and lighter to wear, but just as effective. Too expensive for police issue.”
Avery huffed beside him. “Can we get a move on, or would you like to compliment his shoes as well?” she drawled sarcastically.
Mac laughed, glancing down at Carson’s shoes. “They’re fancy shoes.” He ground out the words without a single stutter.
Just to irritate Avery, Carson replied, “They’re Italian.”
They heard another round of gunfire in the distance and everyone held their breath, wondering if they had realized they had escaped. After a few seconds, Carson was the first to speak. Even though she tried to hide it, he could see the fear in Avery’s eyes. “They’re probably fighting over who’s in charge. Those first guys were completely out of control. The clown is probably just whipping them back into place.”
“How would you know?” Avery demanded.
Carson shrugged with a smile, surprised by its appearance. “Just guessing.”
They listened carefully as it quieted down again. “Where to?” Avery asked Mac after a moment.
Mac pulled a keycard out of his pocket and a set of keys out of another. “This is the master keycard and these are the master set. With these, we can go anywhere we want.”
“The exits are blocked. I can guarantee you that; otherwise, the police would’ve been in by now. We’ve got to remain invisible for now.”
“I can do that,” Mac said with a promising smile. “B-b-b-b-b-being invisible is my job.”
Carson opened the door and scanned the passageway before letting first Mac, then Avery step out of the room. They followed Mac as he briskly led them through a maze of passages. As they walked, Carson couldn’t help but appreciate the curves of Avery’s body. She had a small frame, but her shoulders were evidence of a physical or athletic background. Her waist would fit between his hands before it widened into a sexy pair of hips. She smelled like sin and mystery wrapped together, waiting to be unwrapped by him.
They heard another round of gunfire and shouts off in the distance and, as one, all fell to the floor. Holding his breath again, Carson’s gaze found Delilah’s. There was strength there, he determined; underneath the scared, there was a shitload of strength.
From the sounds, it appeared things were starting to get worse in the ballroom. They heard another round of shots fired, and this time Mac sighed before he spoke. “That’s coming from downstairs. You were right; they’ve probably blocked the lobby as well.”
“Where to, Mac?” Carson urged the old man. He could see Mac wasn’t the fittest middle-aged man, but he hoped he would keep up enough to get them to safety before having a heart attack.
“This way.” Mac got up and glanced in both directions of the passage before opening the door to a linen room. He allowed Carson and Avery to step inside before closing the door.
Before he could say something, Avery shook her head with a cocked brow. “Let me guess; we’re safe in here until you catch your breath.”
Mac laughed. “I’m sorry, all those doughnuts and beers are finally catching up with me.” He slapped his belly.
Carson could see the old man was frightened for his life. His cheeks were red with anguish; his breath was coming in labored drags, and yet he didn’t climb into a linen closet; he was determined to help them.
Carson didn’t care about his money. If it was money the clown and the pilot were after, he’d give it to them in a heartbeat, but he knew they wouldn’t let him live after. Besides, the thought of giving those scumbags a fucking dime made his temper snap and sizzle. He forced back the anger and focused on the calm. He remembered the vault and the amount of cash he’d seen there and wondered if they were going for the cash while distracting everyone with what was going on in the ballroom. Why else would they hold an entire ballroom hostage? It had to be for ransom. They couldn’t even ransom him because he had no one they could call.
If he was going to get out of here alive tonight, he was going to have to do it for himself.
9
Razorback shoved aside the guy the Rabble had assigned to guard the entrance to the ballroom. The fucking dimwit didn’t even know who he was trying to block. Beside him, Devilbunny checked her nails as he kicked open the doors.
It was just beginning, he thought with a smug grin as he stepped into the ballroom. The take had been much more than they had hoped for, and the first part of the evening had been a major success; now it was time to make sure the second part was just as successful.
He glanced around the ballroom, noticing the Clown in the center of the room, glaring at the table. “Where the fuck is he?”
A guy in a skull mask shrugged. “I don’t know. None of them left; we secured all the exits. I fucking swear, man.”
Razorback approached them as the Clown took a stepper closer to the skull-masked man. “Where was he when you arrived?”
“Over there in the front. He got shot.”
“You fucking shot him?” the Clown roared, the sound emanating from his chest sounding like it came straight from a horror film. “Then where the fuck is the body?”
“I, um … I …”
The Clown slammed his gun against his head. “Think harder.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Razorback asked, intercepting the argument.
“This little asshole tells me they shot Carson Royal, but strange enough, there isn’t a body. Don’t you find that a little too much like the fairytales your mother used to tell you?”
“Is it just him, or is anyone else missing?” Razorback ground out. Carson Royal was supposed to be the biggest target. The rest of the socialites and important guests were just a bonus.
“I don’t know,” the man shrugged, rubbing the side of his head with his gloved hand. It took all Razorback’s self-control not to crack his skull. He turned to Devilbunny. “Check the guest list; see who else is missing.”
Devilbunny nodded, h
er smile making her calavera makeup look even more evil. She walked over to a table, picked up a glass of champagne, and sipped as if she were a guest herself as she opened her laptop. A few seconds later, she pulled up the guest list.
“I’m going to call your name. Put up your hand when I do. Don’t try and pretend you’re not here; we’ve got images to go with the names. I find you dicking me around, you’re dead,” Razorback shouted to the hostages before looking to Devilbunny for the first name.
It took about fifteen minutes to confirm that Carson Royal and Avery Lake were the only guests missing from the ballroom. Razorback walked towards the curtains that the Clown had indicated earlier. After using the muzzle of his gun to shift the curtains aside, he found it.
The service door was nondescript, well hidden, and unlocked. “Fuck!” He opened the door and saw a dark passage leading into the depths of the building.
“Oh shit. I swear we didn’t know about that door,” the skull-masked man said with a quivering voice.
“Devilbunny, check the blueprints,” Razorback called over his shoulder as he moved closer to the man.
After her fingers flicked over the keys a few times, she finally sighed. “It’s not on the blueprint.”
“Shit!” Furious that his main victim had escaped, Razorback could feel the anger surge in his blood. He punched the guy in the face, earning a groan before he collapsed on the ground. As soon as he was down, he followed up the punch with a kick to the stomach. “Get the fuck up and find them.”
The man crawled; he half dragged himself towards the door, coughing as he moved, before finally getting up to his feet.
“You find them and I might not fucking kill you for losing them,” Razorback ground out before the skull-masked Rabble disappeared down the passageway.
Razorback hated feeling like he had lost control, and knowing that the entire hostage situation had almost gone to shit while he was in the vault, he needed to find his pride again, find his control. He walked through the room, making sure every single hostage knew who he was.
“My name is Razorback. I am the person that determines whether you’re going to walk out of here tonight or whether you’re going to leave in a body bag.” A woman whimpered to one side of him, making the corners of his mouth tug into a smile. “That’s right, you should be afraid. If you don’t do exactly what you’re told, you’re not going to make it through the night.”
He turned to the leader of the Rabble. “Have you collected the phones yet?”
“No, but we made damn sure they don’t use them.”
“Good.” Razorback smiled underneath his mask. “You’ll wait until one of us is next to you before taking out your phone. You’re going to call the person that has access to your money. The bounty is two million apiece. As soon as your two million is transferred to my account in the Caymans, we’ll let you go.”
He quickly scanned the room and guessed there were about seventy to eighty people present. They didn’t need to know that they were leaving as soon as a few bounties were paid.
He moved towards the first person and told them to make their call. He thrived on the tears and the fear in their eyes as they begged for the money to be delivered as soon as possible.
He moved towards a window and glanced down at the street. Outside, the Mardi Gras parade was in full swing. The cheers of the crowd and the loud music drowned out what was going on inside the Pearl Plaza. Just like he had known it would. There was no sign of police, exactly like he had hoped.
Razorback checked his watch, estimating he had about another hour before they needed to get out. An hour to find Carson Royal and Avery Lake and make them pay for leaving the party.
He had an hour to make sure he never had to work another day in his life. A smile spread across his face; this wasn’t work—it was the most fun he’d had in ages. In a few months, it would be carnival time in Rio; perhaps they could have a repeat performance there.
Devilbunny was still sitting at the table with her laptop. Razorback moved towards her as the Clown, the Pilot, and the Rabble supervised the ransom calls. “What’re you doing?”
She shrugged, chewing on her bubblegum. “Keeping tabs on police activity. They’re busy with a barfight on the other side of town. No word’s reached them about us.”
“Good, let me know if anything changes.”
She smiled sweetly. “Promise you’ll reward me if I’m good.”
Razorback laughed, feeling his dick twitch again. “Promise you’ll keep that makeup on and I’ll fucking rock your world, baby.”
He walked away, wondering how much longer he was going to keep her to himself. He liked her good enough; she was so goddamn desperate to be loved, she didn’t even know he was using her. It made him feel powerful to know he had that control over her. But he was getting tired of her needy personality. The constant nagging for affection, the need to cuddle after fucking. He’d keep her around a little longer, then it was time to find himself a little more fire, a little more of a challenge.
10
Carson kept listening for any sound indicating they were being followed as they followed Mac through the winding passageways. After a while, he heard a sound coming from the passageway they had escaped through.
“Someone’s coming,” he whispered to Mac and Avery.
Mac’s eyes widened, but Avery held his gaze. “Do you think it’s them, or that someone else escaped?”
Carson shook his head. “I don’t know, there’s only one way to be sure. We should go back.”
“No way,” Mac said, shaking his head violently. “I have no intention of being captured again. If we go back and it’s them, we’re dead for sure. They have guns!”
Avery met Carson’s gaze and he could see the reticence in her eyes. “Avery?”
“I don’t think we should go back, Carson. Like Mac says, if it isn’t a guest, it’s them.”
“Then we wait …” Carson started as he heard footsteps rushing towards them.
“It’s them!” Mac yelled and started running. “Follow me.”
Carson caught sight of the man in the skull mask. “Shit! Avery, run!”
With Mac in the lead and Carson in the back, they rushed through the narrow hallways. The whole time, Carson hoped Mac wouldn’t need to catch his breath; they needed to make sure they weren’t caught again.
“No,” Mac said from the front as he came to a stop. “We should’ve turned into the previous closet. This is a dead end.”
“What’s through that door?” Avery asked, indicating the door behind Mac.
“It’s a utility closet. We could hide there, but he’d find us,” Mac said nervously.
Carson tried to formulate another plan, a way to get past the skull-masked man without being seen, but before he could think of something, the man was rushing towards them. He glanced at Avery, trying to move in front of her to protect her. Instead, she shoved him aside.
She hiked up her dress to reveal a smooth thigh and some type of holster. Before Carson knew what was happening, she had the gun aimed at the man rushing towards them. The man didn’t even slow down at the sight of the gun, confident with his own armory. He lifted his gun, aiming at Avery, but before Carson could shove her out of harm’s way, she fired.
The bullet hit him between the eyes, making him fall immediately. Carson turned to Avery, shock and surprise clear in his gaze. Mac’s mouth hung open in surprise.
Avery quickly turned on the safety before lowering her gun. “What?”
“You want to explain why you have a gun?” Carson asked, shaking his head. Never in a million years would he have guessed the attractive woman beside him was carrying a gun. Never would he have guessed she would shoot without hesitancy. She was like a sexier version of a Bond girl.
Avery shrugged. “My employer was shot in the ballroom. I’m a security guard.”
A frown creased Carson’s brow. He found that hard to believe, especially since there were no guests dead. The only people sho
t had been the security officers and a few gangsters.
Mac sighed gratefully. “Well, I’m darn grateful you came with us then.”
Avery offered Mac a smile before moving towards the body. What she was saying didn’t make sense; in fact, it made no sense at all. But now was not the time to ask questions; she’d just saved his life. He followed her, his blood heating a little more. A man had just been killed, but he was intrigued by the woman who had done it. A woman who seemed soft and gentle but had steel in her voice and knew how to use a gun. Not just any gun either. It was a polymer gun, Carson deduced. He had considered upgrading his security to polymer guns a few weeks ago.
Avery took the gun and the radio from the body while Carson pulled off the man’s mask. Even though he was dressed as a trick or treater, it was clear he was well armed and equipped with enough ammo to start a revolution of his own.
This wasn’t just an ordinary gang, Carson realized. They were organized, heavily armed, and knew what they were doing. The worst part was noticing how young the man was. He was barely twenty. Not even old enough to legally drink, but he was already dead. For a moment, sorrow washed over him until he realized if Avery hadn’t killed him, they would all be dead or back in that ballroom.
Once they had taken all the man’s equipment, including the mask, they carefully stepped over the body and started following Mac towards another passageway.
“Security, you say. You’ve got good aim for someone who rarely shoots,” Carson commented as they followed Mac.
Avery shrugged, flashing him a dazzling smile that made his cock twitch. “I might not shoot on the job, but I do whenever I’m not working.”
“Shooting range?” Carson asked curiously.
“You could call it that.” Avery smiled before moving ahead.
Carson found himself intrigued by her even more. There was something about her that didn’t add up, but that didn’t diminish the fierce desire he felt for her.
Billionaire's Killer Page 4
