Page 100 of Sweet Deception
When I reach her, I shove my palm over her mouth and whisper, “Shh. It’s me. Quiet.”
Quickly, I retrieve a second pair of goggles from the satchel and affix them to her head before the others behind us can get their bearings.
Together, we ease our way down the hallway, staying as silent as possible.
We dart left around the corner toward the emergency stairwell entrance. We need to return to the basement, get through the grate, and crawl down into the drainage pipe.
I shove through the stairwell door, but just as we reach the landing, the lights flicker back to life. Nika and I both halt, sharing a wild glance before we hear the pounding of footsteps coming from both above and below us.Shit.
After yanking the goggles down so that they’re hanging around my neck, I rip open the door that leads back to the main floor only to find Troy and his idiots in pursuit.
“Fan-fucking-tastic.” I slam the emergency door in their faces and jam it with a collapsible telescope baton from my satchel. It’s two feet long extended. Perfect. Then I basically throw Nika up the flight of stairs on our right. The pounding boots coming from above are still several floors up. We’ll have to escape onto an in-between floor if we don’t want to confront them.
Grunts, shouts, and weapons being cocked echo through the stairwell as we dash up the next two flights of steps. I throw open the first door we come to and drag Nika inside. Sprinting for the elevator, I jab my thumb at the call button as fast as I can.
The thing is slow as a fucking snail on benzos. My stomach sinks when I realize it’s not going to get here in time.
“Over there!” Nika points to a ventilation shaft set into the wall. “I think all these shafts lead to the basement.”
She’s right.
I rip the ventilation grate open and shove my head inside. Just as I’d hoped, I find a built-in ladder for repairs inside.
Praise God. We’re in luck.
“Ladies first.” I give Nika a lift, and she climbs in before I maneuver myself behind her. I ram the grate shut as we descend into the darkness below, hearts flying and the noise of our would-be captors thundering all around us.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Adrenaline pumps through my body with enough intensity to shift the rest of our escape into freeze frames.
Reaching the basement. Slipping through the drainage grate. Jogging hunched over through the dark, empty pipe toward the putrid pond. Navigating carefully back up the iron staircase to the tube that leads to the dock. Someone shouting from the building. Darren detonating the charges he set and bringing down the house on several of our assailants. Us hoofing it uphill through tall grass on our way back toward our caravan, the popcorn noise of bullets flying at our shadows.
Ten paces ahead of us, Rory throws the passenger side door open for Darren, then slides the main door open and gestures for me to dive into the back.
No complaints here.
We haul ass and hurl ourselves in, doors slamming shut behind us. When Cian drops his foot on the gas pedal, the world starts moving at hyper speed.
From the floor in the back of the van, I can’t see where we’re going. I tug off the earpiece, and the steady pounding of my heart drowns out every other sound.
And I thought sneaking into a mafia wedding reception was the most dangerous thing I could ever do…
Bozhe moy, that was close.
When I finally sit up and orient myself, I find Rory on the seat above me with an impressed sort of half-smile on his face. “How’d it go?”
I realize Darren’s focused on me too. And Cian, though driving like a maniac, keeps stealing glimpses in the rearview mirror. I’m the only one who knows this mission was a total success. With a still-shaking hand, I retrieve the tablet from the tech sling attached to my chest and hold it up like my firstborn child. Cue theLion Kingsoundtrack.
“I got it.” Still breathless and coming down from the intensity of what just happened, I glance at Darren. “We did it.”
“You two make a good team, I see.” Rory slides the tablet from my hands to examine my work. “Now we can find out what Troy-boy’s been up to.”
The rest of the drive back to the estate feels short, our time eaten up by the energy and exhaustion of victory. Darren recounts the whole event to Cian with this chaotic grin, tossing his eyes my way every so often, while I lie back down on the floor, drifting from one delirious thought to another.
Darren sacrificing himself like that, then leading us through the dark without a hint of fear? The explosions he set off in the wake of our daring escape, bullets raining like we fell out of the sky and into some kind of action movie…
That’s what my memories are right now.
