What was Lost and Found in the Fire

Ch. 26 Captive Audience

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Kay'ari's/Kayli's POV

Location: Diana Tower

Date: October

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We caught up with the other's quicker than I thought we would. Still, we were too late.

 I was running around a corner, and something wrapped around my waist. I flailed, hands reaching back to claw at the person's ears and legs reaching for something to gain traction from. Dakota kept rushing forward, unaware that I'd been grabbed.

He, Dakota, had told me his name earlier, asking if Cyan had ever talked about a Kota, or Silas, or Nathan, or Mister Blackbourne. She hadn't, and I'd told him that. He'd gone quiet after that.

I opened my mouth, to shout and get his attention and stop him, but a huge hand dropped over my mask and swatted over my mouth piece. A gesture no one else but my friends knew for me to keep my mouth shut. It was too late for Dakota.

I look up- and up and up- and met the big brutes angry glare. Sonny. 

"You're louder than a bull in a china shop." he growls at me, his teeth flashing down at me in a scowl. 

I ignore his comment and peek around the corner he has us sequestered in. I see a crowd of bodies, more than just the ones I'd left with Sonny. Some have their hands halfheartedly raised in submission, others are slumped over each other, being herded down further into the hallway. Dakota runs right into one of the guards, and is almost immediately subdued into the line of captives. 

The poor guys that Cy and I had just helped are being held at gunpoint. 

"The men wouldn't listen to me. They wanted to keep going forward, to get their friends." Sonny whispers into my ear, "The one I was carrying freaked out when he woke up. He was too loud, and then suddenly another group of their friends joined them. It was too many people, they were being too loud. It got the attention of some of the guards and now they're shit up a creek." 

"You didn't stay with them?" I accuse. "Or help them fight back?"

Sonny shrugs, unrepentant in his actions. "They're too tired. It would have been defending a pile of ducks. It was a tactical retreat."

I roll my eyes, annoyed with him, and not really sure why. "Okay then. Let's tactically follow them and quickly. We need to get upstairs. Cy seemed pretty serious about something happening to Maria."

Sonny's face turns to stone. His biggest no-no is people beating up on kids, almost to a fervently dark pitch of destruction at a hint of it. These past years haven't dulled his anger toward it either.

The group ahead moves further and further away, until the sound of a door being opened sounds. Echo's reach us, the sound of them going up the metal stairs, and we wait for the door to close again before following them in.

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Sonny and I follow the crowd as they move up. The guards are rushing them along. They seem hyper-aware of their charges but not so much their surroundings. With someone as big as Sonny that only works in our favor.

Up stairs and down hallways, we follow them, silently stalking our quarry as they lead us right to a penthouse suite.

The door is open, and from it sounds of muffled shouting and piercing feminine screams can be heard. The guards push and shove their captives forward, though they don't need to, the men rush forward on their own. Doubtlessly the girl's cries have their full focus.