Page 34 of Trapped

Sophia felt like razor wire was twisting in her guts. Last night it had seemed like Cash believed her. But she didn’t know what false information Montgomery had fed him during the day. Or what else had happened. All she knew was that Cash had figured out she’d bugged him. Or he assumed it was her.

She glanced at the screen and saw that he was still in his room.

Good!

But just as she’d breathed out a sigh, everything changed.

He stepped out of his room. He was on the move. Headed for God knew where.

Because she’d thought she was going to meet him in his quarters, she’d plotted a course through the maze of tunnels that made up the bunker. All at once, she was in unknown territory.

She studied the GPS, trying to determine which way would be safest. She knew the guard schedule along the route she’d intended to take. But she didn’t know who might be in the other corridors.

After reading the schematic, she slipped the device into her pocket and hurried along the hallway.

When she came to a cross corridor, she stopped and slid her face just an inch around the corner of the wall. Good thing, because a guard was coming toward her.

She hurried back the way she’d come, opened a door, and closed herself into an empty room. With her pulse pounding in her throat, she waited for footsteps to pass her.

It seemed to take forever, but finally she opened the door a crack and found the hallway empty again.

She didn’t want to waste any time. But while she’d been hiding, Cash could have changed directions. She glanced at the screen again and saw she was right. And this time he was heading toward her. Finally, she’d lucked out.

She kept moving on a collision course with him, so intent on the screen, that she didn’t see another guard until he was almost on top of her.

“Hold it right there,” he said in a hard voice.

She froze.

Now what? If she ran, she could get shot. And if she stayed where she was, she could end up in Doctor Montgomery’s clutches.

“Who the hell are you?”

She didn’t answer, only waited for the guard to approach her. When he was close enough to touch, she lashed out a leg, trying to disable him with a kick in the crotch.

But he must have been ready for her to try something because he dodged to the side and grabbed her.

As his arm brushed her hat, it fell off, and he made a low exclamation when he saw her blond hair.

“A chick! How the hell did you get in here?”

“Special assignment.”

“We’d better ask Doctor Montgomery about that.”

“Of course.”

She pretended that she had every right to be there. But when he got out a pair of handcuffs, she panicked and flailed out with her arm.

In response, he landed a flat handed blow on her face that stunned her.

Staggering back, she saw him go for the microphone on his collar. As he reached the button that opened the communications line, a blur of movement made him whip his head to the side. But it was too late. Someone crashed into him, knocking him to the ground and knocking down Sophia along with him.

Blinking, she saw that the attacker was Cash.

When the guard went for his gun, she twisted to the side and bit down on his wrist. He screamed and slashed toward her face with his spread fingers.

While the man was attacking her, Cash unsnapped the catch at the top of the man’s holster, pulled out his gun and brought the butt down on the guy’s head.

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