He shook his head. “We opened every damn door in that entire place. If there was a basement, we would have found the stairs.”
“Not necessarily,” I remarked, darting around the side of the house.
Maccon was hot on my trail as I sprinted around until I found the cellar entrance on the outside of the house, well hidden under thick, thorny bushes. I ripped them straight out of the ground, tossing them to the side.
“Well, look at you being all detective-like,” Maccon goaded as he pulled the bolt cutters out of the duffle he was carrying. “Want to do the honors?”
I gladly took the tool from his hand, cutting the padlock off of the wooden door.
Taking a deep breath, I descended the stairs slowly. The basement eerily resembled Jett’s except for a locked metal door on the far side of the space.
I pointed over to it. “She has to be in there.”
Maccon demolished the lock and ripped open the door while I held my breath.
A woman was lying down in the tiny room, chained to the bed and motionless. Her long hair was matted into a frenzied mess, her fair skin covered in dirt, scars and bruises.
“Katherine?” I called out as I rushed to her side.
She didn’t move.
“Katherine,” I yelled louder as my fingers instinctively went to her neck to check for a pulse.
As soon as my skin touched hers, she started to scream and thrash around.
“Help! Stop! Get away!” she howled, cowering away from me as much as she could.
“Katherine, we’re here to rescue you,” I explained as Maccon went to work on her shackle.
“He’ll kill you. You need to leave before he gets mad and uses the device again.” Katherine started to hysterically cry. “Get out!”
I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Once her leg was free from the chain, I scooped her frail body into my arms and started to run for my truck. The entire time she was fighting, screaming, scratching, biting.
I shoved her into the back seat of my pickup, climbing in behind her. Maccon hopped in the front, grabbing the keys from me. As he sped away, I wrapped the scared, panic-stricken woman in a blanket I kept under the seat and hugged her to my chest. I didn’t care that she was calling me every name in the book, didn’t care that she was trying to fend me off—none of it mattered. We had rescued her, and sooner or later she was going to realize it.
Maccon flew off down the highway toward the safe house Bear and King had set up for us.
“We got her and are on our way to you,” Maccon roared quickly into his phone before throwing it into the passenger’s seat.
“I don’t know why you’re doing this,” Katherine cried out as she tried for the hundredth time to push me away.
“Your brother sent me to find you. He’s been looking for you for a long time,” I explained, completely at a loss as to how to calm her down.
“My brother?” she asked, bewilderment filling her pale, filthy face.
“Jett,” I offered, hoping the sound of his name would register and finally give her a little comfort.
She pulled the blanket tighter around her. “I don’t remember having a brother. I don’t have anyone other than Alastor. Please take me back before he gets mad. It’s bad when he’s angry.”
Her light green eyes pleaded with me as it sank in how much the years of captivity had truly fucked her up.
“I don’t know how, but I will get you to remember, Katherine. I promise.” I tried to hug her again, but she started to freak out even more.
“Dude, what are we going to do?” Maccon glanced back at me through the rearview mirror.
“Fuck if I know, man. This is my first rescue-slash-kidnapping,” I seethed through gritted teeth.
“I knew you were lying to me!” Katherine wailed. “Let me out!”