Page 43 of Shattered Home

“Five o'clock. We need to move, Alessia.” Warner reached out to grab my hand, taking off in a run through the tents.

Like it was second nature, he kept us hidden behind most of the tents, not drawing any attention to our rushed movements. Quickly glancing behind me, I saw the uproar of flames at our backs, wondering how long before others noticed.

“Holy shit, there’s a fire!” A faraway voice called, and I smiled.

Footsteps began pounding on the ground and Warner pulled us behind a tent as we watched dozens of uniformed men and women rush toward the flames. It was working. Breaking out into a run once again, Warner put more distance between us and the fire.

My eyes were trained on the back of the camp, hoping Aiden and the twins were already making their escape, when my attention drew toward the main building. All the guards that usually surrounded it were long gone, chasing down my fire, and to my surprise, the locked door was wide open.

My mind spun with a plan. A reckless, idiotic plan. But something itched at the back of my brain, telling me that we needed answers before we left. That something important was in those rooms downstairs.

Knowing this may be the worst decision I ever made, I untangled my hand from Warner’s, shifting in the other direction. My body was already screaming at me to stop moving, to give up and rest, but I pushed past it, jogging toward the building.

“Alessia, what the fuck are you doing?” Warner seethed from behind me, but I didn’t turn to answer, knowing time was of the essence.

Running into the building, dozens of heads popped up at the noise of my feet against the wooden floors. These weren’t guards, they were desk lackeys, and yet in my harebrained plan, I hadn’t anticipated they would be here. I thought they would have gone to the fire with everyone else.

As all their eyes stared me down, one injured woman against way too many, I realized I was well and truly fucked.

Chapter Twenty-Six

My heart pounded an unsteady rhythm against my chest as I struggled to decide what to do. Part of my brain screamed at me to turn tail and run. But I had already risked it to come here and I wasn’t leaving until I saw what was inside those locked rooms.

Taking a shaky step forward, I stopped when a hard chest pressed against my back. I recognized Warner’s presence before he even spoke.

“Nothing to see here, folks. Everyone get back to work.”

To my surprise, everyone listened, quickly tilting their heads until they were staring back at their screens. Rushing forward toward the door at the back of the room, Warner’s steps sounded behind me. The two of us raced down the stairs, and I was happy to see no one in the area.

Finally glancing at Warner, I saw the pistol in his hand and my eyes gaped. “You’ve had that this entire time?”

“No time for questions, babe. Get whatever you came in here for.” He nudged my body forward and my eyes fell to my room on their own accord.

Memories from last night came flashing back, my body tightening, until Warner ran a warm hand down my arm, caressing the bandaged skin.

“Ignore it for now. You can fall apart later.”

Shaking my head, I broke the trance, jogging toward the nearest door with a padlock. And then I realized I didn’t have a fucking key and this entire plan had been useless. Thankfully, I had a better prepared man at my side.

“Cover your ears.”

Doing as he said, I placed my hands tightly over my ears, the sound of the gun echoing in the small area. Warner repeated the process on the other two locks, all three doors now available to us. Without waiting another second, I pushed inside the first door and everything seemed worth it when I spotted the stacks of files. I knew there was information in here. Unfortunately, there was definitely not enough time to sort through any of it.

“Grab as much as you can and let’s get the hell out of here,” I tossed over my shoulder, striding into the room and grabbing as many files as I could. I shoved numerous papers into the bag I held, crushing the flowers Stephanie and Lucas had gathered, but hopefully they’d forgive me once they saw their parents.

Once the bag was full, I grabbed a few more stacks in my arms, running back out of the room to see Warner laden down with his own stack. He raised a brow, asking if I was ready, and I nodded. We raced up the stairs, Warner holding the papers under one arm while he held the gun in his other.

No one bothered to stop us as we raced back out, the threat of the weapon enough to keep them seated. A head of blonde hair caught my attention and I noticed the doctor who had stitched me up from last night. She nodded as our eyes met, a silent display of encouragement, and my feet pounded faster as I followed Warner out of the building.

The fire was still blazing throughout the camp, much larger than I anticipated, flames licking up toward the sky. I prepared to turn toward the back of the camp, but Warner continued to stride forward, toward the front of the camp.

“What are you doing? We need to sneak out the back,” I shouted, forgoing any sense of keeping our movements a secret.

“There isn’t enough time. We’re going to have to fight our way out of this one, Alessia.”

Charging forward, we reached the front gate, where three armed guards stood. Obviously, whoever was in charge of controlling the fire had instructed them to stay. Their heads turned in unison at the sound of our thudding feet, but before any of them could blink, three bullets sprang from Warner’s gun, meeting their intended marks.

All three of them fell to the ground instantly, blood pooling around their heads. The sight was strange, reminding me of the bodies in our clearing in the woods. But when I had seen those bodies, I had been sick. Now, all I felt was relief.

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