My Genius Mate

Chapter Twenty One

My body jolted awake as I came to and realized I had fallen asleep in the crate. I cursed myself and slapped my face, needing to stay at attention. Luckily the sun was still down so I knew i wasn't out for very long. I peeked through the crate when I heard multiple sets of footsteps heading their way. Gus hurried into the room with a handful of other rogues behind him. He aggressively looked through the boxes available to him and the ones behind him. He groaned heavily when they were empty. He turned back to the crowd. "Alright, listen up! Christa wants that bitch alive ok? There is more to her plan, but she needs the fucking rat alive ok?"

The crowd in front of him cheered and tried to look for something with him. The boy from the tower raised his hand. "Where do we need to look?"

Gus groaned and put his hands on his hips. "I honestly don't know. She's moving around, so we can't pinpoint her location. First, she was in the tower, then near the dungeons again, then back up here, and someone this morning said they saw her running across the courtyard. She's good, but we are better!"

He made a fist and earned a cheer from the crowd.  "Yeah!"

"We just need to search this place from th-" Gus stopped talking, and I heard him sniffing the air. He walked around the room and opened the closet door I was in before. He smacked the clothes around and acted like he was looking for something. Then he moved closer and closer to me.

"What are you-"

"Shut up!" Gus cut someone off. He leaned over the wall he had made before me and sniffed the air. He smiled devilishly and backed back up. "Move these fucking boxes. I don't remember them being like this yesterday when I was here."

A few people helped move the boxes and crates out of the way. He busted open a few and rummaged through them, getting angrier to find I wasn't in them. He approached my crate and quickly lifted the lid. I popped out and began shooting the crowd he brought in with him, not going down without a fight. I shot over his shoulders, missing him and aiming away from the boy from before. Gus lifted his arm and grabbed my wrist, ripping the gun from it as well. He wrapped an arm around my neck, pulling me from the box. A random rogue shouted at me and came running at us. The rogue stabbed my thigh and plunged it down into my leg. They gave me a considerable six-inch gash that opened my leg entirely.

"Fuck!" I shouted as I held my leg. I don't think Gus meant for that to happen, as he loosened his grip on me to see it.

He gave me a glance in my eyes, checking on me before grabbing the back of my neck. As we were leaving the room, he looked at the rogue who stabbed me. "You're a moron. Did I not just say we needed her alive? Let's fucking go."

His crowd seemed pleased to see me in pain as they followed us to the communication tower, where I saw Christa waiting for me inside. She looked pissed and even more of a mess than before. When she saw me being dragged towards her, her face lit up. "Perfect! Oh, Gus, you did an amazing job!"

He pushed me down on the ground in front of her like I was a prize. She smiled down at me, and I stared up at her. Her eyes held such intensity and rage. My gaze moved across the room to Bean. He looked pissed off as I smirked at his condition. His neck was severely bruised and cut in several places from the chain.

"Aww, a little reunion! Surprised to see him? My boy pulled through." She said happily. "Brucie, did you miss your mate?"

He smiled and nodded his head. I assumed he wasn't able to talk because of me. "Oh, I love him this way."

I smirked but was interrupted by Gus' fist connecting with my gut. It took me by surprise and hurt, taking all the air out of the system. I gasped, trying to breathe again as I clung to Gus, but he shook me off to look tougher in front of Christa, who smiled proudly at him. Bean approached me and lifted me up by my upper arm. He breathed a disgusting smell of his breath and cigarettes into my face before opening his mouth and licking the side of my face as he did before. My stomach wrenched at the memory of him doing it as Ronan watched. My heart ached at the thought of Ronan seeing that.