Page 101 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

“Zac? He’s head of security.”

“Hang on guys, I’ll create a diversion,” Duncan says.

Shuffling feet sounds even closer. The last thing we need is Zac here. He would sniff us out in a heartbeat.

“Get ready,” Duncan mutters.

A whaling alarm blasts through the room. Fire?

The guard runs from the room. “It’s the front door alarm,” Duncan informs us.

“Go. He’s in the lift now, turn left, past the elevator.”

We run out of the room and follow Duncan’s directions into the stairwell. I stare at the concrete journey and resist groaning.

“Come on, Natia, last one up buys the first round at that club you promised.”

I roll my eyes and traipse after Zee. For a stocky guy, he’s fast. We make floor forty before he allows me a minute’s rest. He buzzes in place like a live electrical wire.

“You’re enjoying this,” I say, leaning against the wall.

He grins, bouncing on his toes. “Can’t say I hate it.”

I roll my eyes. “I still maintain the best way would have been to scale the building.”

He grabs my arm to tug me off the wall. “Come on, we need to get there, grab us some god blades and get out.”

I keep a steady pace behind him. We hit floor sixty five, and the stairs stop.

“Now what?” I ask.

“Now you need to cross the floor to get access to the other elevator,” Duncan replies. The heavy door beeps and releases, I tug it open and follow Duncan’s instructions to navigate across the floor. Zee and I stare at the hole where the private elevator would be, had it not been sixty-five floors below us.

I eye the call button. “We can get the elevator here, but we can’t get it to open, or get to Archan’s apartments.”

“I have a plan,” Duncan says.

“Okay, hit me.”

“You both have your magnetic hooks?”

We glance at each other with a grin. “Yes,” Zee says, taking out his two hooks from one of the many pockets on his combat trousers. I unclip mine from my belt loop.

The wires in front of us move as Duncan outlines the plan.

“Floor fifty, get ready,” Duncan says.

Zee and I brace ourselves, I glance down to see it racing towards us. We need to time this to the exact second, otherwise we are about to become pancakes.

The glass box flies past, Zee leaps a split second before me, I reach out with my hook; the metal missing the underneath of the elevator by millimeters. My stomach dips, then Zee’s hand grabs mine, my shoulder snapping out of place. I grunt in pain before I’m being thrown into a hallway, my fall uncoordinated and messy. Zee follows me, sliding across the floor like a badass. He lurches to his feet.

“Shit, sorry, Natia.”

I shake my head. “It’s fine, I missed. Better a dislocated shoulder than a pancake.”

He chuckles as he helps me up and leans my good shoulder against the wall. He grabs my arm. “Ready?”

“Ye – ” White lightning flashes in my vision before my body floods with endorphins to help dull the pain.

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