Chapter 121 Down the hole
Serena's POV
I gasped, choking on my own breath.
The sound hadn't come from a far off distance, rather I heard it just a few feet behind me.
I held up the gun, ready to shoot down the first thing that came in view.
I slowly rose to my feet, pressing my back against the tree as I stood and held the gun straight with my two cuffed hands.
I balanced myself, trying my best to peep at what or who was behind me without turning or making a sound.
I was panicking as I feared that one of the men had found me, I knew it would be near to impossible to fend them off hand to hand.
Few seconds later, I heard soft footsteps approaching the tree so I pressed the gun against my chest and took a deep breath in.
The steps grew nearer till I heard them just behind me, I nearly gasped as even the change in the air around me hit me.
I breath out thinly before turning to face the direction of the noise with the gun pointed first.
Whoever it was first pushed my gun up and I instantly fired a shot into the tips of the trees.
Before I could get hold of what was happening, he grabbed my two hands up and pressed my back against the tree with my hands pointed painfully to the side.
He pinned me back, slightly pressing his weight against me. I couldn't see his face as it was fully dark now, but the roughness of his hands told me what kind of person I was dealing with.
At least it was one person, I had a bit of hope then.
He leaned closer to my ears and whispered softly. “Relax, let's not attract them, I'm with Dante.”
The sound of Dante's name kicked my heartbeat slightly. But no, he could be lying.
“How can I trust you?” I asked with my hands in an uncomfortable position and a few angry men after me.
“You don't have to, but I'm the only chance you've got to leave here alive,” he replied calmly.
I hated to admit how true he was, but it was the painful truth. I didn't have many choices here and this was probably the best I'd get.
“Where's Dante?” I asked.
“That, I'm still working on. But we need to move, your shot would pull them in, are you coming or not?” He asked, dropping the ultimatum.
I thought for a full second before coming up with an idea.
“Get the cuffs off and I'd believe you,” I muttered, pretending like I had a choice.
He pulled back, setting my hands free and I brought them down between us.
He began working on the cuffs with whatever it was he had brought out from his pocket, certainly not a key. Too small to be one.
It didn't take five minutes before I felt a certain freedom between my hands and I heard the small metal drop to the floor.
“Can we go now?” He asked as he had already stepped back, getting into position.
I rubbed my spot on my wrist where the cuffs had been, honestly surprised as to how he did that.
Then after a brief moment, again, like I had a choice in the first place, I nodded.
“Let's go,” muttered, stepping after him.
“Good,” he muttered and placed a hand gently on the small behind my back, leading me forward.
“Hey! There she is!” I heard the familiar voice of the one who'd been singing, the driver.
I couldn't tell what was worse, the fact that I could remember his voice, or the fact that I couldn't get the memory of him singing out of my head.
“Run,” he said behind me and that was way easier to say than do at this point. It was pitch black and running could lead me into anything.
I was already scared as I skipped by the trees, what would be my fate if I ran?
I didn't know the answer to that, but I knew the answer to what would be my fate if I didn't run, so I picked up the pace slightly.
“Where are we going?!” I asked as I grew nervous again.
“Just keep going straight, I'll fend them off,” he replied and I turned quickly to find him shooting back at them.
“Shit, she's got help!” I heard one of the men say and his voice was slightly farther away. At least we were putting some space between us.
I turned around and kept running, nearly tripping again but just about holding myself up.
My legs grew weak again and I turned round a tree, ducking behind it to catch my breath.
Whoever this guy was, he barely looked pressured. Through the small moonlight that seeped through the trees, I watched as he stood and took aim at the attackers.
He would shoot thrice, then continue running again. None of his shots hit the attackers though, mainly because they took to hiding more than chasing.
Probably the reason they grew so far away.
By the time he reached where I was, the men were barely following.
I was tempted to let him run on, but a part of me felt guilty for trying to leave him and the bigger part was just scared of what would happen if they ended up finding me.
So I reached out and tapped his legs while he was skipping past me.
“Here,” I called out and he paused.
“Come on, I've got somewhere we can hide just up ahead,” he muttered and pulled me up.
Against the heavy feeling of tiredness through me, I rose to my feet and followed him.
I felt I was slowing him down cause I could hardly as much as run at this point. Even jogging wasn't working for me.
But good thing we had some good distance between us and Luca's men, I barely noticed their presence again.
“It's just up ahead,” he urged as he gently pushed me to move faster.
I tried as hard as I could, moving with my last bit of energy. He moved ahead of me, stopping in front of a tree and directing me to turn.
I followed his directions and turned the little bend to come face to face with more trees.
But he pulled me back at some point and pointed down at the root of a particular tree.
Oh shit. Don't tell me…
“Down there,” he instructed, pointing down at the root after pushing away some shrubs.
That's just great.
“Are you sure about this?” I muttered as I had second thoughts at this point.
“Trust me,” he just said firmly and waited.
I looked back at where Luca's men were coming from and heard a bit of a rushing sound, they hadn't given up.
So I took a deep breath, here goes nothing…