We lay there until the sun went down, our arms and legs tangled together, touching everywhere. But it was more about comfort. We had gotten up to throw our clothes in the wash, so we pulled them out of the dryer and dressed.

I was jittery, ready to go get Omari back. Hoping nothing had happened to him while we'd had to wait. It was like stepping back into reality as we closed the door to the apartment behind us. And it was a harsh one.

"This way," Ashur directed, turning and jogging down the street.

I followed at the easy pace he set.

The building we went to was a few blocks away, not that far from where I had been held. They probably wanted to keep their human merchandise conveniently close. My jaw tightened at that thought. The slave trade was technically illegal, but everyone knew it existed. There were just too many people willing to take a payout to look the other way. The people who were captured were usually like me—from different city domes. So nobody would report us missing in the place we actually ended up.

The block where they were keeping Omari was a little better than the one they'd taken me to, but not by much. There were a few more-normal stores littered among the liquor and pawnshops. And I didn't see as many obvious drug deals going on. I guess that was a pretty low bar to pass.

Ashur took us to a shadowy doorway down the street, where we could see the place but were hidden enough not to be noticed. He scanned the street once we were out of sight.

"Okay, good," he muttered, his eyes on the entrance to the tall, narrow building that had seen better days. Boarded-up windows on the first floor and peeling paint seemed to be the norm here. "There are only two guards here now. I don't know what floor they took Omari to, but I'm guessing they control the whole building or the guards wouldn't be near the entrance door."

That made sense.

"So...have a plan?" I asked hopefully.

He shook his head. "Bash their heads in and grab Omari?"

I nodded. "Looks like we're going to have to just wing it," I commented, my eyes on the two men smoking and chatting to each other.

"Good thing I can sprout two," Ashur said in a low voice.

I rolled my eyes and he grinned. Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the guards. I didn't recognize them, which was a plus. Hopefully they wouldn't recognize me either. They didn't look like the sharpest sentries either. They glanced as people walked by, but they were more distracted than they should have been by their conversation. Still, they would definitely notice us walking up to them.

"Four between the two of us."

"Just stop," I said, smiling despite myself.

We watched for a bit longer to lower the chances of being surprised by something. The street wasn't filled with people here, but neither was it deserted.

"They aren't expecting us," I said after a few minutes. "Just step into the crowd and split them?"

Ashur nodded, his smile sharp. Predatory. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that smile.

"Works for me," he said.

We crossed the street and fell into step behind a trio, two men and a woman. We stayed close enough so that it looked like we might be with them.

"I'll take Beanie," Ashur said when we were only a few yards away, referring to the larger of the two, a tight cap squeezed onto his head. It had the unfortunate effect of making his disproportionately small head look even smaller. That meant I had the thinner guy with the bloodshot eyes.

"Got it."

The two men were still smoking as we came level with them, their eyes passing over us without recognition, though they both lingered on Ashur. When you were that big, it was difficult to blend or look in any way nonthreatening. Though with Ashur, it was more than his height or his muscle that made him look like a threat.

He was a predator through and through and it showed.

So I went first.

"Hey," I said with a smile, walking up to the skinny guy as Ashur continued to move forward, drawing even with the other one. They both turned their attention to me. The thin one started to smile, his eyes scanning me.

"Hey there—"

My fist to his mouth interrupted what I was sure was going to be a riveting come-on.

I extended the baton with a flick to the side and followed the punch up with a hard hit to his temple, the crunch of bone unmistakable. He went down hard. He wasn't coming up any time soon, if ever. I didn't waste even a little regret on him. Not when I knew what they were up to here.

Ashur had the other man already on the ground. He was in even worse shape than my guy. Ashur nodded at me and we moved forward in tandem to the door leading in.

But the metal door was locked, both with a keypad and a print scanner. This would take some time to get open. Time that we didn't have.

"How are we—"

"Don't worry, I just need a second," Ashur reassured me, putting a hand on the doorknob.

What was he doing?

I watched as the metal under his hand slowly turned red and then started melting. I knew intellectually that dragons were excellent metalworkers. The undisputed best, really. But knowing it and seeing why were two very different things. Less than a minute later, there was a hole in the door and Ashur was sliding it open.

"Piece of cake," he said with a wink. "I'm great at barbecues."

"I bet," I said faintly, staring at the still-glowing door. That was impressive. And more than a little scary. I shook it off. I'd have plenty of time to pepper him with questions later. We didn't have a lot of time right now. If whoever was in charge didn't notice the guards were down, the state of the door would give us away, if security cameras hadn't already caught us.

The door opened into a narrow hall that extended towards the back of the building with a set of steep stairs to the left. Ashur moved forward down the hall but then hesitated and turned back.

"What is it?" I asked in a low voice.

"I think I could scent Omari here," he said, moving back to the door. "But not farther down the hall."

We started climbing up the concrete steps, Ashur taking in deeper breaths, frowning as he tried to tease the scents apart. We stopped on the first floor and Ashur opened the door leading from the flight of stairs. But then he stopped, shook his head, and turned back. We kept going like that, with Ashur checking and then coming back.

It wasn't a lightning-fast method, but it was definitely much faster than having to physically check each room. The fact that there weren't any guards on those floors was also a dead giveaway

He caught Omari's scent again on the fifth floor.

Unfortunately, as soon as he opened the battered door, a guard turned around to look at us. It was the man with one eye. His good eye fell on me and recognition washed over his face.

"You—" he started, taking a step forward as he pulled his large, dirty knife. I didn't want to know what was caked on it.

Ashur stepped in front of me and grabbed the guy by the wrist, pulling him forward and swinging him around to slam against the wall.

I drew my knife to slit his throat. Fast and clean. It was better than he deserved, though I didn't enjoy doing it. He slid down, his hands grabbing at his throat as he bled out.

We turned away and kept going. At the end, the hall formed a T-intersection. Ashur hesitated. But then I thought I heard a sound.

"Left, I think," I said.

He nodded, and we jogged down that way to another door. This one opened up into what could only be called a prison. One entire side of the hall was lined with cells, the metal bars leaving no doubt as to what the intention was here.

Ashur's face was grim as we walked inside. The first cell held a little girl, maybe seven. She was curled up on the bed. The next one held a boy, close to twelve. He glared out at us sullenly.

And it continued.

One after the other.

All ten cells were occupied with boys and girls of various ages.

We walked down the entire length, my eyes searching for Omari. But still nothing. My hope was starting to wane as we approached the last one. What if they took him somewhere else? What if they--

"Mia!"

My heart skipped a beat as Omari rushed over to the bars.

"Hey," I replied, trying to speak around the knot in my throat as I ran to his cell, reaching through the bars to take his hands. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm okay," he said, his hands tight on mine, his eyes big. "But can we leave now?"

I choked on a laugh. "Yes, we can leave now."

"Step back so I can open this up," Ashur ordered.

"Step back, Omari," I repeated. "We'll have you out in a second."

He let go of my hands reluctantly and took a few steps back, watching Ashur with interested eyes. Ashur lifted his hand, and the heat from it was much more noticeable now in closed quarters. He melted the old-school lock right off. It didn't stand a chance.

Omari shot out as soon as the door slid open. I grabbed him and picked him up, relief making my knees weak as I held him close. He was alive and in one piece. The tightly wound part inside of me finally relaxed. But we didn't have time to waste here.

"What about the rest of them?" I asked Ashur, looking down the line of cells.

Most of the kids had gotten up to look out at us. Some of them had the wariness that came with being on the street too long. Others still had some hope in their eyes.

Ashur nodded. "Step back," he ordered the boy in the cell next to ours.

He complied immediately. We didn't have a lot of time, but we couldn't just leave them there. It took maybe an extra ten minutes to get them all out.

"What do we do with them?" I wondered, staring at the nine kids.

Ashur grabbed the three oldest.

"Take everyone to this address," he said, showing them his watch. "Here." He took it off and gave it to the girl who was on the verge of becoming a woman, her pretty face holding the promise of beauty that was probably the reason she was here in the first place. "Can you get there?"

She nodded, looking over at the boy who had stared at us when we'd walked in.

He nodded too. "What do we do when we're there?" he asked, his eyes too old for his face.

"Give me the watch." The girl handed it back to Ashur. "A lady I know will come to that same address and help you, okay?"

"All right," the girl said, her intelligent eyes direct, but still wary.

"Good. Follow us out. There isn't much time."

Ashur made a call as we strode out. The woman on the other end took the directions and agreed to meet the children without asking questions. The older kids paired up with the younger ones and followed us down, back to the first floor. Out on the street, I hesitated with Omari's hand in mine.

"Shouldn't we go with them?" I asked, worried about sending them out alone.

"They'll attract less attention without us. And those are kids who know the streets. They'll be fine."

"But..."

I knew firsthand what kind of trouble kids could get into out there alone. I turned to look for them. They'd already disappeared. I hoped they made it safely.

"Come on," Ashur said, taking my free hand. "There's a garage around the corner where I keep a car. We'll take it out."

We didn't bother trying to blend in this time. We ran, trying to get as far as we could as fast as we could. When Omari got tired, Ashur swept him onto his back and we kept going. We finally turned into a garage that was in a much better part of town and got into an equally high-end car. It looked shiny and new.

"Just how much money do you have?" I asked suspiciously as I helped Omari buckle up in the back.

"Enough," Ashur replied as I slid in to the front seat. "Why? Trying to figure out if it would be worth it to be with me?" He turned to look at me as he slid out onto the street.

I snorted. "I'm not worried about the size of your wallet."

He smiled as he faced forward, merging smoothly into traffic. "You shouldn't be." He paused. "It's huge. Just like the rest of me." He winked.

"You're insufferable," I said, shaking my head.

"I'm rich, handsome, and I really like you." He glanced over at me as we reached the line leading out of the dome. "You should really be more open to this."

"And so humble too," I muttered.

"Does Ashur want to be your boyfriend?" Omari piped up from the back.

"No," I said firmly.

"Yes," Ashur said at the same time, looking back at Omari. "Maybe you can convince her I'm not so bad."

"That's low," I said, shaking my head.

"I fight to win," he replied, completely unrepentant.

"I don't know if you should be Mia's boyfriend," Omari said thoughtfully. "You have a lot going on in your life. You wouldn't have enough time for her."

I let out a surprised laugh as Ashur shook his head wryly.

"Blocked by a six-year-old," he muttered.

"Serves you right."

We reached the security booth leading out of the dome and the guard stepped out. He bent down to take a look at me and then Omari.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you aren't authorized to leave," he said.

"I've already deposited the money," Ashur said calmly.

Of course he bribed the guards. That was exactly what the slave traders did. The guard swallowed and looked away.

"The traders here could make life really hard for me," he said, his upper lip already sweating.

Ah. They knew we'd escaped and were willing to pay to keep us.

"So could I," Ashur said quietly. "And who says they have to know you let us out?"

The guard hesitated.

"Get rid of today's footage. I'll double the amount."

That had him nodding and stepping back. I didn't know if it was the money or the path to cover his ass, and at that point I didn't care. I let out a relieved sigh as we pulled forward into the first chamber.

"Those slave traders need to be taken care of," Ashur said in a low voice. "The police force here is a joke."

There was no way to argue against that. The only way I could see to do it would be to take them out. That was only a short-term solution. Another group would just spring up in their place.

I breathed a sigh of relief as we drove back out into the desert, under the cover of darkness. Things had really changed if leaving a city dome made everything safer.

"Can we go back to the car?" I asked as Ashur continued to drive with a confident ease.

"Why?" he asked. "We'll make better time if we continue straight to the phoenix territory."

"The rest of my weapons are there. And if we don't get it back now, I doubt it'll be there on the way back." I thought about it. "Assuming it's still there."

Without it, I'd have no transportation of my own.

Ashur nodded. "Car it is."

We drove back to the rock formation where we'd first been taken. I gave Ashur directions.

"Wait here," Ashur said as he parked some distance away. "I'll go make sure there aren't any nasty surprises."

"Why don't you wait here—I know exactly where to go," I argued.

Ashur glared at me. "Stay," he said firmly, stepping out of the car and striding away.

I shook my head. Men. I kept an eye out, but Ashur reappeared less than five minutes later. Nobody was lying in wait. And the car was still there.

Ashur parked his in another small, out-of-the-way section of the rock formations and got in the car with us.

"What if someone takes your car?" I said as I started up the mini tank.

Ashur shrugged. "Then they take it."

I shook my head. "Must be nice to have that much money," I commented.

Ashur nodded. "It has its uses." He was quiet for a moment. "I'd treat you like a queen, Mia," he said quietly, cognizant of the fact that Omari had fallen asleep in the back.

"I'm no queen," I countered. "And I bet the crown would chafe."

He chuckled, shaking his head. "You're a hard woman to please."

I gave him a sidelong glance. "You're welcome to stop trying." A part of me held its breath, worried he would actually stop, that he would call my bluff. Stupid.

But he didn't.

"I wasn't complaining," he murmured.

He reached out to cover my hand with his.

Oh, man.

This was getting complicated.