Page 166 of Oathbreaker

“I-I don’t know.” I bite my lip until I taste blood. “We have to get to safety, Ella,” I say haltingly.

She cries, bent over and clutching her stomach, but she struggles to stand upright at my words and nods her head. I start running and they follow.

The baby lets out little grunts of displeasure, and I pray that Hunter’s promise about this area being soundproof is true. In a few minutes, I slap my hand onto the palm reader and usher them inside the safe room.

“What the actual goddamn fuck is happening, Winter?” Veronica takes the baby and paces, and I move around to take inventory of our supplies. I didn’t do that before, never expecting to need to use the space.

I head to the computer next to the television and boot it up.

I hope this is set up for surveillance and not just for watching episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

Once the computer whirrs to life, I exhale when the black-and-white CCTV populates twelve separate squares.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I ran across a dead body in the hallway. It was… It was Rex,” I say.

“Oh, no,” Veronica says, her voice choked.

“I heard two voices, and I recognized one.” I turn to Ella. “Rodrigo?”

She’s stopped crying but stares at the floor with a vacant, haunted expression.

I scan the screens frantically, trying to maintain my composure at the dead guards on the front porch and the other dead bodies strewn across the foyer and kitchen.

How the fuck didn’t we hear anything?

In the bottom right corner, there’s movement from the camera looking over the rose garden. A moment later, August’s messy mop of hair appears in the frame, held by two hulking guards. They each take one of his arms, and his head flops to the side.

Oh, God.

Two obscured figures come into the other side of the frame, and I squint to make out their features. I stop analyzing them when August stands drunkenly.

I move back to the kitchen area and hand Veronica the can of shelf-stable milk. “There are bottles in here, I checked.”

Veronica doesn’t say anything. I think she’s heading into the same shock that Ella is in.

I turn to her, intending to soothe her, when a quick, urgent pounding rings from the metal door. I push Veronica and Summer toward the back of the safe room and head to the weapons closet on the opposite wall.

Ella whimpers, but she doesn’t move.

“Leo,” she whispers. Her normally tan skin is pure white with terror.

The banging starts up again, and I rack the chamber, lifting the Glock level with my chest like Hunter taught me.

“Mrs.Brigham? It’s Rio. Shit. Please let me in.” A speaker embedded in the wall rattles as Rio’s voice pierces the thick air of the safe room.

That shakes Ella out of her stupor, and she jumps up and rushes to the door.

“Stop,” I hiss at her, pulling her back into my body.

“But it’s Rio,” she sobs.

“I also just overheard people who used to work here talking about killing us all, so yeah.”

“Winter, please,” Rio says, his voice more urgent.

I walk toward the door after pushing Ella in the same direction as Veronica and Summer.

“How do I know you aren’t here to kill us?” I say into the microphone.

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