Page 1 of One Way Out

ChapterOne

Saylor

Iblink at McCabe as my brain tries to process what he just said.

He’s on this morning’s schedule. They’re going to put him down.

That isnothappening.

“No way,” I hiss, shaking my head so violently that my hair whips over my face.

The action doesn’t help force away the horrible thoughts.

Valor is aperson, not a dog with rabies.

This is insanity.

He’s a good man. He might have made some mistakes in life, which led to him getting tangled up with the wrong crowd, but no one is perfect. He’s been nothing short of respectful and kind to me. He even looks out for the omegas who can’t protect themselves. It’s not his fault this place is awful.

What would losing Valor do to Omen?

No.

I’m not even letting my head go there, because it’s not fucking happening.

“Take me to him,” I say as firmly as I can muster.

The British intelligence agent studies my face. “You understand he’s not the man you know. Not right now.”

A shiver runs down my spine, and not because of his words.

The concerned look on Omen’s face replays in my head. He said not to go to Valor…that I wouldn’t recognize him. That part scares me more than anything.

Where did your fake-it-until-you-make-it energy disappear to?

Huh, Saylor?

Rolling my shoulders back, I tilt my chin in the air. “I don’t think he would truly hurt me, and neither do you, or you wouldn’t have come to get me.”

Okay, maybe that’s a leap, but it seems rational.

McCabe’s blue eyes narrow as he studies me even more intently. “Fair enough. You’re braver than I gave you credit for.” He takes off down the hallway, and I have no choice but to jog to keep up. “Or dumber.”

That’s not foreboding or anything.

* * *

We follow the hallways until we reach a set of large double doors.

McCabe uses his key card to get through them, and on the other side is another nondescript corridor that looks the same as all the others.

Halfway down, we reach another door with a lock. It opens to a set of steep stairs that have what feels like a strip of sandpaper across them. There are also weird pokey triangles where the concrete pops up in strange rivets. It wouldn’t be noticeable if I wasn’t barefoot, but it’s annoying as hell. The drop in temperature is also majorly inconvenient, considering I’m already freezing.

The bottom of the stairs opens into a long corridor lined with black doors.

Fluorescent bulbs dot the ceiling, flickering as we make our way down the hallway. It feels a lot like a horror movie set in an abandoned asylum that I watched in high school and never quite recovered from.

No, it reminds me of my first day here, and the memories come cascading back. The way the man dragged me down a hallway that looked exactly like this. How terrified I was not knowing what was happening. My body even helpfully replays the nausea and confusion.

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