King of the Cage: A Dark Irish Mafia Romance (Devil’s Own)
King of the Cage: Chapter 15

When I stepped back into the hallway, the loud gong sounded again. I sprinted away from Aldo, searching for the staircase I’d found earlier. Before, there had been guards standing by it. Now, it was unwatched. I needed up there.

I started up the hall toward it. Two white-masked guys turned the end of the corridor and saw me.

“Hey! There she is. We’ve been looking all over for you,” one called to me.

They both came closer.

Alarm filled me. I had no idea who they were, and the voice was unfamiliar.

I took a step back; one of them circled around my side and the other stopped in front of me.

“Hey, don’t be spooked. We’re new, too… just looking for an Offering to take from the Hunt, you know?” The first guy spoke conversationally, like this was a remotely normal discussion to be having.

“Yeah, it’s tough. I heard there’s usually less Offerings than Hunters, but tonight takes it to the extreme… you’re the only one we’ve found,” the second guy said.

I took another step, and they cocked their masked heads, sending fear skittering down my spine.

“Too bad I don’t plan on going anywhere with you, or being anyone’s Offering,” I said stiffly.

They turned their identical white masks toward each other and shrugged. Then, they lunged. I stumbled back. One of them grabbed my cloak. I scrambled for a weapon on the console table near me and got hold of one of those heavy candlesticks I’d seen in the storage room. I swung it at the guy coming toward me as hard as I could.

His mask flew across the room, and he lurched toward it. I tried to run but found the other guy holding my cloak.

“Where do you think you’re going, bitch?” he breathed in my ear, dragging me back against him.

I fumbled with the cloak clasp for a few seconds before it came free.

I slipped out of the garment, leaving the guy holding it, and ran. I’d dropped my candlestick, so I had nothing to defend myself with.

I ran down the hall and leaped up the stairs, two at a time.

I found myself in a long hallway with doors dotted along it. I had no idea what was in those rooms, and given the history of the hotel, I could guess that every floor was the same. Hadn’t the suicides been women jumping of one of the top floors? I hadn’t paid attention to the dates the suicides had happened. What if it was the same tradition that I was now a part of?

I ran down the hall, trying the doors. Aldo had stashed Sol somewhere, and I was willing to bet it wouldn’t be that far from the action.

The guys who had attacked me climbed the stairs noisily behind me, muttering all kinds of promised violence. Finally, a door opened under my hand, and I fell into a room.

It was dark, but the curtains were open, and I could just make out a figure on the bed. All the movies I’d watched as a child that had given me sleepless nights threatened to return. I stared at the dark figure lying on a bed in a creepy abandoned hotel and questioned all my life choices. Every single one. I’d really done it this time.

Then a soft moan filled the room, and my fear fled. Locking the door quickly, I ran to the bed and pulled the gag off Sol. She was handcuffed to the headboard by her wrists. I immediately pulled a hairpin from my hair and got to work on the lock.

“Jesus, what’s going on?” she cried as soon as she recovered from being gagged.

“Shh, keep it down,” I murmured, casting a quick glance behind me.

The two guys who were following me were probably working their way down the hall, trying all the doors like I had. We couldn’t let them replace us.

“What’s happening is that Aldo Sepriano is an even bigger piece of shit than his brother, and I should have made sure you went home,” I muttered, furious at myself all over again.

Tears filled Sol’s eyes. “It’s not your fault. I shouldn’t have just gone with him… it’s pathetic. After what happened with Enrico, I thought maybe hooking up with his older brother would be a real ‘fuck you’ moment. Pathetic, like I said,” she whispered.

I shook my head vehemently. “You’re not pathetic, they’re insane. I didn’t tell you how bad Enrico was because there didn’t seem like a need for it. I had no idea Aldo would pull this shit. None of this is your fault, got it?”

Sol shrugged, clearly unconvinced. “What do we do now?”

I set the handcuffs aside and went to the window, staring downward. We were two floors up. It wasn’t that far. There was a very nice tree pretty close to the window, as well.

“We’re getting out of here,” I told her firmly.

“Um, how? It doesn’t seem like the kind of situation where we can just walk out the door.”

“It definitely isn’t, but we can’t let that stop us.” I pushed at the window, and to my relief, it moved up. Not much, but enough to get Sol’s slender body out.

I gestured her toward the window. “You know how you were always great at climbing things, and gymnastics, while I was always falling on my face?”

She nodded, eyeing the tree outside the window doubtfully.

“Well, you need to dig up those skills, because this is the way out.” I patted the window ledge. “Jump on up.”

She stared at me, aghast. I tapped my lip.

“Oh, wait,” I said and quickly crossed to the bed and tugged the sheet off. I tied the end of it around Sol’s waist.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“In case you fall.” I stood at the window, wrapped the sheet around my arms, and nodded to her. “Go on now.”

“This is nuts,” she said slowly.

I nodded again. “Yeah, but it’s the only way right now. I’ve got you.”

She hesitated in the opening. “But who has you?”

Good question.

“Let’s worry about that in a minute. If you don’t go now, neither of us will have a chance to get out.”

That prompted her into action. She lowered herself out of the window, and with the same agility I remembered from our youth, used the wide tree branches to work her way to ground level. She dropped to the ground and looked up.

“Come on! Start climbing. I’ll catch you!”

“Yeah right, more like I’ll flatten you,” I hissed back.

The doorknob to the room turned.

I froze, staring at the door. It rattled again, and then came a hard clanking sound.

The handle fell inward, like someone had broken it from outside.

The door swung open, and a man in a cloak filled the doorway.

Time was up.

He stood there in silence, white mask in place. He was even bigger and more terrifying than Aldo had been. One hundred times more. Maybe jumping out of the window was a safer bet than letting this huge brute get his hands on me for whatever the Hunt was going to turn out to be.

Then he spoke.

“I’m trying to decide what to do with you… I told you to stay out of trouble, wee one, so why are you here?” Bran’s familiar voice sent relief cascading through me.

“Close the door,” I hissed at him. My relief felt like a palpable thing, a balloon in my chest, making me weightless.

“What are you doing?” Bran asked, shutting the door behind him, though the lock was a goner.

“Getting Sol out of here.” I turned around and peered down.

Sol stood below me. “You need to go!”

She blinked up at me. “Not without you.”

“I’m fine. I’ll replace a way out of here with Bran.”

“Bran’s there?” Sol’s excitement was visible. “Did he come for you?” she called.

“Of course not,” I said at the same time as Bran spoke.

“Yes.”

I turned to Bran. My heart felt strange, like it had skipped a beat with his answer. He’d shoved his mask back on his forehead and pulled a cell phone from under his cloak.

“Dec. Come around the back of the hotel. We’re coming out of the window,” he said shortly and hung up. He jerked his head toward the open window. “Out you go, selkie. I’ll lower you down.”

“What about you?”

“I’m okay, I’m the Lost Boy, remember? I’m good at climbing trees.”

“Of course you are.” I moved toward the window and lifted my arms so Bran could tie the sheet around my middle. Then I bent sharply and carefully stepped out, putting a foot onto the window ledge.

Bran gripped the sheet, taking my weight and making me feel like I was flying.

I walked backward slowly, reaching for the nearest tree branch.

“Wait,” I paused, something obvious occurring to me. “You can’t get out of the window, can you?”

There was no way. The gap was too small.

He stared at me a beat and then shrugged. “Don’t worry about it, just get down. Declan will take you home.”

“Bran—” I started but never got further.

The door to the room burst inward, and then there were men with flashlights, wearing those security outfits from the front. Their blank white masks turned in my direction.

The gong sounded through the hotel.

“The Hunt is ended. All potential acolytes must present their prizes.”

“I don’t have one,” Bran said, completely ignoring the fact that he was gripping a taut line of bedsheet, and I was clearly visible, standing on the outside window ledge.

One of the men stepped forward and raised a stick toward Bran.

“Don’t make this difficult, acolyte.”

Electricity sparked from the end of the stick. A cattle prod. Lovely.

“Maybe I like difficult,” Bran was saying, a shit-eating grin on his handsome face.

That crazy motherfucker was going to fight a roomful of security guards over bringing me back inside and completing the ritual.

I couldn’t let him do that. I had no idea why exactly, except for the knowledge that this guy had come here for me. I’d been in trouble, scared, alone… and he’d shown up.

The head security guy stared at Bran, his mask tilted sideways. “Who the fuck are you? You weren’t on the list tonight. You have an invitation?”

Bran sighed. “I guess mine got lost in the mail,” he started.

The cattle prod crackled.

“I’ve got it,” I blurted quickly, scrambling back through the window.

I nearly fell flat on my face as soon as I got in, but Bran reached out and steadied me.

I felt in my pocket for Sol’s invite. I’d taken them both earlier, hoping to make sure Sol wouldn’t be able to come to this nightmare, even if she’d changed her mind. I hadn’t counted on the fact that Aldo would escort her personally. I’d underestimated him and was paying the price.

I handed the spare invite to the guy with the cattle prod. He stared at it and then nodded.

“Okay, acolyte, bring your prize downstairs. It’s time for the Offering.”

“Oh, goodie, there I was, worried I’d missed it,” Bran murmured against my temple.

We walked out of the room, the security guards in a ring around us. The chance to run was gone. Now, there was no escaping whatever these psychos had in mind.

But at least I wasn’t alone. Bran was with me. It was more comforting than I’d have expected.