Wheeler appeared out of nowhere and clamped his hand around the throat of the man holding me. I wriggled free just as Mark leapt to his feet, wiping his bloody nose with the back of his arm.

I lowered my eyes to his crotch and giggled out of control. It made him look, and when his own pride distracted him for two seconds, I scratched him in the face with my nails. Pain exploded in my eye when he swung his arm around and struck me, causing my panther to snarl. I tempered that fury and channeled it into my attack.

I’d never been in a fight like this, and I hadn’t known a punch could hurt so much. I grabbed a small statue from a glass table and struck Mark over the head with it. Spatters of blood painted the walls like a Pollock work of art. Before he could rise up, I struck him again.

The other guy was at a disadvantage with his pants wrapped around his ankles, and it took only moments before Wheeler incapacitated him as well.

I gulped down a breath and placed a hand over my racing heart as I looked around the house. It was large enough that no one upstairs would have heard us.

“Where’s Reno?” I asked.

He snatched my wrist and we rushed through the room, analyzing the layout of the house. When we hit the kitchen, we backtracked into an open area with a massive crystal chandelier above our heads and a circle of gold rings beneath our feet.

We rushed up a flight of stairs and I hurried my pace when I heard a commotion. A voice shouted, something crashed, and Wheeler climbed two steps at a time until he was out of sight.

“Wait!” I shouted. I reached the top of the stairs, panting and holding on to a stone lion as I focused my attention on the noise coming from a wall straight ahead. The banister looped around in a semicircle to my left with an open lounge. The carpeting up here was chocolate brown, and the furniture white.

Doors didn’t line the hall, but rather entranceways. On the right, I glanced into a sitting area with a door. There were two brown chairs and a plant between them that reminded me of a doctor’s office. I moved farther down toward the noise until the hall curved left, revealing a row of doors.

My legs propelled me forward at breakneck speed when a woman shrieked. “Skye!” I shouted. “Skye!”

Fists were flying and a mirror crashed to the floor as Reno fought a guard. Inside an open doorway, Wheeler was sitting on a man’s chest with his hands wrapped around his throat.

Skye was on the bed with her knees pulled up. I rushed to her side and pulled her into my arms. “Let’s go!”

Something held her back, and then I noticed the handcuff attached to a thick slat of wood in the headboard. “Wheeler! I need a key for handcuffs.”