He stepped in and his boots bumped something on the floor. Looking down, he found a pair of dark sneakers with a smooth bottom. Not for running. Hard to say if they belonged to a man or a tall woman. The senator had been in a suit when he was taken.
What were those shoes doing here?
Taking in every inch of the room, he found a thin strip of light squeezing through the gaps at the bottom of the second door. If he had not taken his time looking, he would have missed it.
Would that be a hidden room?
He froze at the muffled sound of voices. His pulse went into overdrive.
Could this be where they kept the senator? Sam would have to confirm first before knowing his next step.
Palming his knife, he slid it into a gap on the side of the door and pried it away from the frame without making a sound.
No squeaking. There was a bit of luck.
Weapon in hand, Sam slowly opened the door wider and heard a sexy female voice challenging, “If you don’t grow a pair of cojones and do something soon, your amigos will know you didn’t touch me. They’re watching all this on video. They’ll wonder if you even like girls or if your dick was too short to reach.”
What. The. Hell?
Sam flipped up his NVG because of light glaring from above that scene. He saw the attractive backside of a naked female strung up by her wrists.
An insane naked female taunting her captor.
The single lightbulb hung above her cast a harsh glow over her smooth skin. She looked to be five-nine or five-ten and muscles in her back and legs had come from serious weight work.
She had likely worn the shoes he found.
This place could be an ancient dungeon. It didn’t belong to the opulent structure viewed outside the room.
Sam needed a clear shot to take down her captor.
No chance.
The male, blocked by her body, flicked into view for a second when he stepped back and tossed aside wire leads from a battery. Her feet were in a full tub of water.
He’d been about to torture her. Or maybe this was just continuing with a new round of torture.
Challenging him to rape her would only make her situation worse. Was she trying to die quickly?
Fuck that.
Ugly bastard had one good eye and a thick black mustache. He started for her, snarling, “You will pay for your mouth, puta. I will hurt you in ways you ...”
“Blah, blah, blah,” she scoffed at him.
Sam had entered the dark top of the stairs and started moving down slowly. If she’d shut the hell up and give him a chance to get closer, he could take out the male with a shot that wouldn’t put her at risk. Moving as fast as he could but silently down the stairs, he hung close to the wall, hoping not to announce his presence.
Not yet.
This place had to be thirty feet down from the ballroom.
Four more steps and ...
One-eye reached for the naked woman.
Two seconds dragged by as Sam’s heart power-punched his chest. He lunged down the steps to reach her faster.
Her hands twisted and her fingers gripped each side of the rope tying her to the chain. Blood ran from her wrists. Every muscle in her back and legs flexed when she snatched her feet from the water, drawing those long limbs up together fast.
