He glanced over his shoulder. “I’m a little busy.”

“Can you stop choking him for two seconds? I need a key.”

“If you wait two more seconds, I’ll have that key.”

I cursed and hurried around the bed, shoving Wheeler off-balance. The man gasped, struggling to pull in air. I flipped him over and felt in his pockets until I found what I needed.

“Now you can finish,” I said with annoyance.

After removing Skye’s cuffs, I cupped her face. She looked dreadful. “Honey, are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“I want to go home. Please take me home.” Her arms were shaking and she tried to grip my shoulders. I couldn’t tell if she had been hurt since there were no marks, but she appeared weak and exhausted. I helped her up and we moved toward the hall.

By then, Reno had knocked out the guard he’d been fighting.

“Take her,” I said.

He hooked his arm around Skye’s narrow waist. “I got you.”

“I have something I need to do,” I said, jingling a set of keys in my hand. “If there’s anyone else in here, I’m not leaving them behind.”

“That could be problematic if Delgado comes home early. Wheeler, get your ass out here! Pull the car around; we’re done!” Then he turned his dark brown eyes to mine. “Let’s go. We don’t have time.”

“I’m right behind you,” I lied.

Reno picked Skye up and ran down the hall. Ran.

I went through several keys before finding the one that opened the door across from us. Empty.

I tried a second door. “Hello?” Another empty room. When I hit the third room, a voice yelled out from inside.

This room looked nothing like Skye’s. It was barren of furniture, and Delgado had shackled and chained a young man to a metal ring in the cement floor. This sweet boy didn’t look older than twenty, although in Shifter years he could have been ancient. The youthful glimmer in his eyes tipped me off—the one that showed me a boy scared witless.

I fumbled through the keys until I found an odd-looking one.

“I’m here to help you,” I said. “Don’t hurt me.”

“I won’t, I won’t,” he promised. “Just get me out. Hurry! Hurry! He’ll come back. He always comes back.”

“Why are you in here?”

“This is where he keeps his personal pets,” he said under his breath.

I brushed my hand over the short curls of blond hair. “It’s not your fault. Nothing that’s happened is your fault, including whatever you’ve done to survive.”

It dawned on me that I was looking at a man who could have easily been Wheeler all those years ago. Maybe if someone had said those words to him just once, it would have made a difference.

The young man sobbed, holding his wrists up and looking at them as if they were marked, which they weren’t. He grimaced, and the torment he had endured played across his features like a silent film. That’s when I knew Delgado had been using this boy for more than just fighting.