Read Online Seduce Me in Flames by Jacquelyn Frank - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jacquelyn Frank
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need you to keep quiet for a moment,” he instructed her as the elevator slowed to a stop on the lowest level. “And if you could just take a little step backward.” He nudged her toward the wall on the right, and her back touched the cold metal planking just as the doors hissed open.
“Freeze!”
The command was followed with the cock and whineof what seemed like a half-dozen stunners at once, all of them pointing into the elevator.
Of course
, she realized. The guards on the lower levels had been alerted by the cameras to their unauthorized access to the elevator. All the guards had to do was sit and wait for them to come to them. Dismay and dread sank deep into her gut. What had she been thinking? She’d been out of her mind to attempt the impossible and to trust a total stranger. She had just thrown away her entire life.
And then he was bull-rushing the entire lot of them, yanking two of them into the elevator by the muzzles of their guns so hard that they were pulled right off their feet. They passed so close to Ambrea that one of the gaoler’s gun belts snagged the skirt of her gown for an instant. And then both guards were planted face-first into the metal planking at the rear of the elevator so hard that the distressed pinging of the metal echoed loudly all around them. Blood streaked the shiny surface as the men collapsed unconscious at Suna’s and Ambrea’s feet.
Meanwhile the Tarian had toppled three other men outside the lift, and before they had finished hitting the ground he had disarmed another and used that gaoler’s stunner on the final standing guard. Then he methodically cranked up the stunner to its most painful setting and shot every guard left conscious. The setting was brutally painful, but it was also the most expedient way of robbing them of consciousness without doing them further lasting physical harm. The memory of the pain would last only about as long as the pain itself before they were completely out.
Ambrea was speechless at his efficiency and speed, but also grateful that he was not going to subject the gaolers to undue violence. After the way he’d been stunned, she might have thought he would extract some kind of revenge. But perhaps, she thought as she read his enigmaticsmile, stunning them back at such a high level was its own satisfaction.
“My lady,” he said politely as he reached into the elevator to help her pick her way over the carpet of fallen men. He had hooked the stunner’s strap over his shoulder and kept it aimed down the corridor. “How much are you willing to bet they sent every last guard on the floor here at once?”
“I wouldn’t take that bet,” she hedged.
“Neither would I,” he agreed cheerfully. He made sure that she and Suna were both out of the elevator and heading down the right-hand tunnel. Then he paused to yank the unconscious men, two at a time, several feet down the corridor to the left. He pulled at another stripe on his pant leg, bent to slap it onto the floor of the lift, and then strung it over the saddle of the elevator door and all the way across to the opposite wall. He straightened and then herded them ahead of himself and quickly to the right.
The explosion followed immediately after, but they were already around the next bend in the tunnel. Still, it was easy for Ambrea to imagine the elevator being blown out of use and perhaps the tunnel collapsing at their backs. If that were the case, they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone coming up behind them.
Clearly that was the Tarian’s intention, because he kept all of his focus straight ahead of them, moving from one side of the corridor to the other like a pacing Hutha lion, a gigantic wilderness cat from Ebbany that easily outweighed and out-bulked the man in question. It wasn’t lost on her that he was keeping his big body between her and any potential dangers that might pop up.
They were truly in the worst section of the wet rooms now. The lighting down on this level
“Freeze!”
The command was followed with the cock and whineof what seemed like a half-dozen stunners at once, all of them pointing into the elevator.
Of course
, she realized. The guards on the lower levels had been alerted by the cameras to their unauthorized access to the elevator. All the guards had to do was sit and wait for them to come to them. Dismay and dread sank deep into her gut. What had she been thinking? She’d been out of her mind to attempt the impossible and to trust a total stranger. She had just thrown away her entire life.
And then he was bull-rushing the entire lot of them, yanking two of them into the elevator by the muzzles of their guns so hard that they were pulled right off their feet. They passed so close to Ambrea that one of the gaoler’s gun belts snagged the skirt of her gown for an instant. And then both guards were planted face-first into the metal planking at the rear of the elevator so hard that the distressed pinging of the metal echoed loudly all around them. Blood streaked the shiny surface as the men collapsed unconscious at Suna’s and Ambrea’s feet.
Meanwhile the Tarian had toppled three other men outside the lift, and before they had finished hitting the ground he had disarmed another and used that gaoler’s stunner on the final standing guard. Then he methodically cranked up the stunner to its most painful setting and shot every guard left conscious. The setting was brutally painful, but it was also the most expedient way of robbing them of consciousness without doing them further lasting physical harm. The memory of the pain would last only about as long as the pain itself before they were completely out.
Ambrea was speechless at his efficiency and speed, but also grateful that he was not going to subject the gaolers to undue violence. After the way he’d been stunned, she might have thought he would extract some kind of revenge. But perhaps, she thought as she read his enigmaticsmile, stunning them back at such a high level was its own satisfaction.
“My lady,” he said politely as he reached into the elevator to help her pick her way over the carpet of fallen men. He had hooked the stunner’s strap over his shoulder and kept it aimed down the corridor. “How much are you willing to bet they sent every last guard on the floor here at once?”
“I wouldn’t take that bet,” she hedged.
“Neither would I,” he agreed cheerfully. He made sure that she and Suna were both out of the elevator and heading down the right-hand tunnel. Then he paused to yank the unconscious men, two at a time, several feet down the corridor to the left. He pulled at another stripe on his pant leg, bent to slap it onto the floor of the lift, and then strung it over the saddle of the elevator door and all the way across to the opposite wall. He straightened and then herded them ahead of himself and quickly to the right.
The explosion followed immediately after, but they were already around the next bend in the tunnel. Still, it was easy for Ambrea to imagine the elevator being blown out of use and perhaps the tunnel collapsing at their backs. If that were the case, they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone coming up behind them.
Clearly that was the Tarian’s intention, because he kept all of his focus straight ahead of them, moving from one side of the corridor to the other like a pacing Hutha lion, a gigantic wilderness cat from Ebbany that easily outweighed and out-bulked the man in question. It wasn’t lost on her that he was keeping his big body between her and any potential dangers that might pop up.
They were truly in the worst section of the wet rooms now. The lighting down on this level
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