I wondered how long I had before someone discovered Damien’s body.
They would sound the alarm and lock the hatch. Then I would be stuck down here until they found me.
Micah would torture me until he killed me.
I waited for the guard to round the corner, and I thought about my little girl. I had to make it back to her no matter what. My daughter shouldn’t grow up without a mother. I’d lost my mother in adulthood, and I would never recover from it. She was the light of my life, my best friend. Martina needed me…and so did Cato.
I had to make it out of here.
A guard rounded the corner and reacted quickly when he noticed me. His eyebrows almost jumped off his face, he opened his mouth to yell, and he reached for his gun.
I punched him in the face, kicked him in the balls, and then stabbed him in the throat.
He crumpled to the ground—dead instantly.
There was nowhere for me to hide his body, so now I had to hurry. I took his pistol and moved faster, taking less caution at being noticed because I was running out of time. There were probably cameras around here, and now that the guard’s corpse lay in the middle of the hallway, I only had a few minutes to get out of there. The pistol wouldn’t be enough to keep me safe.
I finally made it to the big stairwell. It had taken us fifteen minutes to come down it earlier, so it would take me just as long to make it back to the surface. I put the pistol in the back of my jeans and started to run, knowing I was racing against the clock. There was probably a system override they could use to lock me inside. Then I would be trapped at the top of the stairwell with nowhere to run.
I ran as fast as I could, as quickly as my heart would allow. I’d been working out every day, but I was seriously out of shape. I gripped the rail to pull myself up as I moved, and within five minutes, I was panting hard and slick with sweat.
But I didn’t stop—because I had a little girl waiting for me.
I started to hear a commotion down below, an echo of voices that carried all the way to my position. “Shit.” I sprinted faster, running in spirals as I moved to the surface. I passed two lights at every interval, and I glanced up to see how close I was to the top. “Just a little more.” I kicked it into overdrive, knowing Cato would be furious with me if I got this close but didn’t cross the finish line.
I got to the keypad and stared at it blankly.
Shit, what was the password?
That ten-minute run had knocked me out, and I could barely think straight. Memorizing the path had been my priority, so I had shoved this to the back burner. I couldn’t randomly hit numbers because that would probably initiate a lockdown sequence.
Think.
Thirty seconds later, it finally came to me.
34892
I typed the numbers into the keypad, and then the door started to slide open.
Thank god.
Slowly, it moved, revealing the ground above. Once a crack opened wide enough for me to fit through, I climbed up and got to my feet.
There was a guard standing there, staring at me like he couldn’t figure out if I was supposed to be there or not. He finally made the right call and drew his weapon.
I shot first.
He fell to the floor with a thud.
The gunshot was loud in the enclosure, so the other men must have heard it.
I didn’t have time to creep around.
I sprinted like hell, moving through the main room and back to the secret doorway. I knew the way because I’d been there before. But now the trick was not getting shot. Men chased me with their weapons drawn.
If I didn’t stay ahead of them, I would be pumped full of bullets.
I made it to the front door and shot both men before they could react, each in the head. Then I pushed through the double doors and made it outside. It was still dark, but it was nearly dawn.
I sprinted to the meeting place where Bates would be sitting in the old car.
His eyes widened in shock when he saw me, like he’d never actually expected me to get out of there alive.
“Go!”
He started the engine and pushed the passenger door open.
Before I even made it all the way inside, he hit the gas.
I jumped in and shut the door as we took off at full speed.
Men poured out of the building and onto the sidewalk with their guns raised. A lot of them fired at us, breaking the back windows and destroying the taillights, but once there was enough distance between us, we were finally out of firing range.