Two To Go: Bayou Heat (Pantera Security League Book 2) by Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright

insisted.
    There was a long string of curses before Victor managed to regain his composure. “What about the woman?”
    “Gone,” the guard admitted.
    Another spat of swearing as Victor paced back and forth, allowing Elyon fleeting glimpses of his florid face. He was clearly pissed off.
    “Benson is going to slit my throat when he finds out I let Max escape. He might have let me have an extra week to make some money on the bastard, but when he realizes I didn’t complete the elimination process exactly as he demanded…” his words trailed off with a violent shiver before he was giving a loud clap of his hands. On cue the muscle-bound guards hurried to stand in front of him. Like a pack of well-trained dogs. Pant, pant, pant. “They can’t have gone far,” Victor said in a loud voice. “Check the security tapes and then spread out and look for them.”
    So maybe Victor was an enemy of the Pantera after all.
    Elyon could already taste his ancient blood.
    One of the nearest guards had pulled out a handgun. “Lethal force?” he demanded, a hint of anticipation in his voice.
    Max grunted. Clearly the two men weren’t BFFs.
    “You can kill the woman,” Victor said. “I need Max alive. At least until we can take him to the meeting place.”
    Well! How rude. But even as she thought the quip, Elyon tucked away the information. The message Xavier had intercepted back in the Wildlands had ordered the test subjects to be destroyed, but it seemed that Victor had received another message with specific details on exactly how Max was to be killed.
    So why was Max different?
    Was it because a dead body in the building owned by Benson might cause unwanted questions? That made sense. It wasn’t like anyone here had the brains to come up with a suitable reason there was a dead man in their gym.
    Or maybe they just worried about the fights being shut down by the authorities.
    Whatever the reason, she had to get them out of there.
    Now.
    Elyon watched as the men exchanged glances, clearly not super excited about the thought of trying to capture Max “The Hammer” without being able to put a bullet through his brains.
    Maybe they weren’t as stupid as they looked.
    “But—” One of them started to protest only to snap his lips shut as Victor pointed a stubby finger in his direction.
    “Did I ask for your opinion?”
    “No, sir.”
    “Then go. And don’t come back to me without him.”
     
    ***
     
    Max waited until the guards had scurried away, and Victor had stormed back to his office before he eased open the door to the storage room.
    Most of the security guys would head downstairs, assuming that they’d already left the gym and were trying to get out of the building.
    Which meant that the only way would be to go up.
    He bent his head, speaking directly in Elyon’s ear. “We’ll go out the fire escape.”
    She nodded, stepping back and waving for him to go out of the closet first. He smiled, knowing just how much trust it took for her to allow him to take the lead. But she was also smart enough to know he knew every inch of this place.
    In silence, they hugged the shadows of the back edge of the gym. It was eerily silent. Usually by this hour the fighters were crowding into the locker room while a steady stream of paying customers were filing up the stairs. Obviously Victor had shut the place down for the night.
    They managed to reach the doors leading to the cage room, and were headed toward a heavily barred window at the far end when their luck ran out.
    There was the squeak of the old floorboards before a bald-headed guard stepped out of a side door. The man looked momentarily startled, as if he was shocked that he’d actually managed to locate Max and Elyon. Had he chosen to remain up here because he didn’t want to risk a fight? Maybe. But the moment he caught sight of them, his sense of duty overcame any reluctance and he pointed a finger in their direction.
    “Hey. Stop right there,” he commanded.
    Max