Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War by Michelle Hardin Page B

Carter stuffed it in the side pocket of her backpack and grabbed Gabe’s hand, not even looking back at him. She stormed down the hallway with her brother.
    “Now I’ll put the gun away and be good,” she said.
    Gabe surprised her and burst into laughter. Carter couldn’t help it, she joined in. She was happy to see that although Gabe didn’t share her homicidal side, he did have a dark sense of humor like her.
    ~*~
    “I didn’t see anything but the black doors. I don’t understand what Aziz was talking about.”
    Carter continued to look through the huge chain of keys, searching for the key that opened the south basement. They’d searched the whole castle and came up with nothing. Neither of them had any idea what Aziz was talking about when he’d mentioned Carter might find ‘something else’ that she wasn’t supposed to.
    “I don’t know either,” Gabe said. “Let’s just go, Carter. I don’t want to be in this castle anymore.”
    Carter nodded in reply, and smiled when she finally found the key. She was ready to get out, too. They needed to get to Rashid, so that he could help them get anywhere other than here.
    When Carter opened the door, she was met with darkness.
    “Be careful on these stairs, Carter. There are a ton of them. Slowly feel for each one. I remember that they are easy to fall down, and it’s a long drop,” Gabe whispered. “The south basement is a narrow tunnel. There are cells holding some of Silas’s prisoners down here, not slaves. This is where he keeps members of his family when he punishes them.”
    “Punishes them?”
    “Yes. He does this to make them fear him. How do you think he stays in power?”
    Snorting in disgust, Carter felt for the first step. “This Silas guy has a weird way of thinking. It’s like he doesn’t function in reality.”
    “He doesn’t, but he lives in luxury and he offers it to all that follow him. The Steeles are like some kind of twisted cult. I didn’t fit in at all. Sometimes Silas looked at me like I was such a horrible disappointment, like it hurt him to look at me. It didn’t make me feel too good about myself.”
    Carter frowned. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”
    “It doesn’t matter anymore, though. I’m out of this bitch and I’m not coming back. There are a few things I want to do when I get out of here, too. Like eat McDonalds, buy a cell phone, meet people to call on the cell phone …”
    Carter laughed.
    “And I can’t forget sex. It’s been so damn long since I’ve had sex … with anybody other than myself that is.”
    “Ewww! TMI,” Carter laughed. “And here I was thinking you were a virgin.”
    “I haven’t been a virgin since I was fourteen, Carter.”
    Carter continued to move slowly down the stairs into the dark basement. “But you were so young,” she said.
    “Young and incredibly horny. I’m still young and horny. I haven’t had sex in three years.”
    Frowning, Carter stopped walking. “But you’d been down there for eight,” she said, turning to face him.
    He chuckled. “Silas sent servants down to clean three times a week. He’d lock them down there with me for about four hours. For a while there was one, his name was Johan. He was taken from London, which is where I used to live as a young boy. I moved here with Silas when I was nine and he was ready to teach me how to run this … bullshit. Anyway, Johan and I became friends, and it just sort of … became something more.”
    Carter nodded and began walking down the stairs again. “What happened to him?”
    “I have no idea. After our amazing six month love affair he just kind of disappeared. A new servant took his place, a woman. She and I hit it off quick and became lovers a few days after she started.”
    “Damn,” Carter chuckled. “Casanova.”
    Gabriel shrugged. “What can I say, I’ve never had any issues getting ass.”
    Carter laughed at the nonchalant way he spoke. “You’re funny. Why the hell are you so funny?”
    “So