Chapter 65 WHEN THE WALLS SPEAK
Cold night air hit Lea like a slap.
The door clanged shut behind them, sealing the echo of gunfire inside the stairwell. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. The world felt too open, too bright after the choking darkness of the tunnel.
George kept his grip on her hand as they stumbled onto cracked pavement behind an old industrial building. Weeds forced their way through broken asphalt, and the street ahead was dim except for a single flickering lamp. The city loomed somewhere beyond the rusted chain-link fence, but here, everything felt forgotten.
“Keep moving,” George said, voice urgent but controlled.
Lea forced her shaky legs to follow. Her heart hadn’t caught up yet; it still beat at the frantic pace the tunnel had carved into her. George’s stride was long and fast, but he slowed just enough to keep her with him.
Behind them, a deep metallic thud echoed from inside the stairwell, someone hitting the sealed door.
Lea flinched. “They’re coming.”
“I know.” George’s voice didn’t waver. “But they won’t reach us before we’re gone.”
He pulled her around the corner of the building, where shadows pooled thick along the brick wall. Only then did they stop, not to rest, but to listen.
Lea pressed her back to the cold bricks, chest still rising too fast. Her palms stung. She looked down and saw scrapes she hadn’t noticed, blood mixing with dust.
George noticed. He thumbed her wrist gently. “You hurt?”
She shook her head. “Just… scared.”
His eyes softened for half a heartbeat. “Good. Fear keeps you alert. Panic gets you killed.”
“I’m trying,” she whispered.
“You’re doing fine.”
She sucked in air, steadying herself. “What about Billy? We left him”
“He knew what he was doing.” George peered around the corner. “If he’s alive, he’ll find us. If he’s not…”
Lea’s stomach twisted. “He ran into gunfire for us.”
“For you,” George corrected quietly.
She didn’t know what to say to that. Not now.
George motioned for her to follow. “We can’t stay in the open.”
They moved quickly, sticking close to the building until they reached a metal gate hanging crooked on one hinge. George pushed it aside, and they slipped into a narrow alley littered with broken pallets and rusted barrels.
A siren wailed faintly in the distance, unrelated, too far to matter. The city felt indifferent to their nightmare.
Lea tugged at George’s sleeve. “He said you’d lose me again.”
George didn’t look at her. “Corin talks to get in your head.”
“But he knew things. About you. About us.”
George stopped suddenly, turning to face her. His eyes were dark, fierce, alive in the dimness. “Listen to me. You are not losing me, and I am not letting him anywhere near you. End of story.”
“But…”
“No.” He stepped closer, cupping her jaw with one hand. “Lea, he’s manipulating you. He always has a hook. He digs until he finds it and pulls. That’s how he operates.”
She swallowed hard. “And what’s my hook?”
George didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
She saw it in his eyes, the truth he didn’t want to say out loud.
You.
She was the hook. The weak point. The thing he still cared about more than anything.
Before she could respond, a distant clang echoed down the alley. Not loud, but clear.
Metal hitting metal.
Lea tensed. George grabbed her hand again. “We need height.”
“Height?”
“They’ll search the ground first. We move up.”
He led her toward a fire escape ladder rusted along the side of a warehouse. George jumped to grab it, but it stayed stubbornly high.
He jumped again, catching the bottom rung and hauling it down with a grunt. The ladder screeched, metal screaming as it slid low enough to climb.
“Hurry,” he said, boosting Lea upward.
She scrambled onto the rungs, her fingers slipping on the wet metal. She climbed fast, adrenaline burning through her muscles. George followed right behind her.
Halfway up, she heard it, the stairwell door from below slamming open.
Footsteps spilled out.
Voices.
George whispered sharply, “Don’t look back. Keep climbing.”
She obeyed.
When she reached the rooftop, she pulled herself over the ledge, landing on rough gravel. The air was colder here, thinner. George joined her seconds later.
He crouched low, scanning the rooftops around them. From up here, the city lights blinked like scattered embers beyond the industrial block.
Lea crawled beside him. “What now?”
“We stay above them. Until we can disappear.”
He moved to the far edge of the building and peered down. Lea followed, her breath catching when she saw three men spill into the alley below, all armed. One of them lifted a flashlight, sweeping the area.
Corin wasn’t with them.
George watched the group with a soldier’s calm detachment, his hand resting on the gun at his hip but not drawing it.
“They’ll guess we went up,” he murmured. “They always do.”
“Then why did we?”
“Because they’ll assume that too. Which means they’ll split up. And that buys us time to get off their grid.”
Lea rubbed her arms. The cold seeped into her skin. “We can’t keep running forever.”
“No,” George agreed. “We just need to run long enough.”
“Long enough for what?”
George’s jaw worked. “For me to end this.”
A shiver ran through her that had nothing to do with the night air.
A gunshot cracked suddenly, somewhere farther down the alley. One of Corin’s men swore and sprinted toward the sound. Another followed.
Billy.
Had to be.
George rose into a low crouch. “This is our chance. Move.”
They crossed the rooftop silently, staying below the line of old ventilation units. At the far side, George crouched near a pipe-laden ledge.
“Down here,” he whispered.
“What is that?”
“A maintenance conduit. It runs behind the rooftop structures and leads to the next building. It’s covered, so we’re hidden until the end.”
Lea hesitated. The narrow metal shaft looked barely big enough for her, let alone both of them.
George touched her back. “I’ll be right behind you.”
She nodded and slid inside, crawling forward through the dim, echoing metal space, her breath loud in the confined dark. The conduit stretched longer than she expected, twisting once before opening to another rooftop.
She slid out, gulping fresh air. George followed, metal groaning under his weight.
He stood and exhaled. “Good. We’re ahead of them now.”
Lea hugged her arms. “You knew this place.”
“Not this place,” George said. “But places like it.”
She stared at him, wanting to ask the question she’d been choking on since Corin spoke in the tunnel.
But before she could, George suddenly stiffened.
Voices. Closer this time. Coming from the door leading onto the rooftop they’d just crossed.
George swore under his breath. “They’re spreading faster than expected.”
Lea tried not to panic. “What do we do?”
George pointed across the rooftop. “There. The service crane.”
A massive construction crane towered above the next building, its base connected by a short platform worn and rusted.
“You want us to cross that?” she asked, heart jumping.
George took her hand. “I won’t let you fall.”
She nodded, trusting him before she could think otherwise.
They crossed the crane’s base, a narrow walkway lined with cables and metal grates, moving fast but careful. Below them, three stories dropped into darkness.
Halfway across, something echoed behind them, a door slamming open. A man shouted, “There!”
Lea gasped.
George didn’t turn around. “Keep going.”
Footsteps pounded across the rooftop behind them.
Another shout: “Don’t let them reach the crane!”
George tightened his grip on her. “Faster, Lea.”
She ran, feet clanging on the metal grating. The crane’s base shook as someone jumped onto it behind them.
Lea nearly tripped, but George caught her, hauling her forward until they reached the other building. He pushed her onto the rooftop and turned sharply, firing one precise shot.
A man screamed, falling backward off the crane’s base.
George grabbed Lea again. “We have to get off this block.”
“Where?” Lea panted.
George looked toward the skyline, toward the city lights. “To someone who hates Corin even more than I do.”
Lea blinked. “That’s possible?”
“Oh, yes.” George’s jaw tightened. “He has his own reasons.”
They moved quickly across the rooftop, keeping low behind rusted vents. Footsteps behind them grew faint as Corin’s men spread out in the wrong direction, drawn by the crane and the gunshot.
Lea swallowed, struggling to keep pace. “So your brother… he’s on our side?”
George paused at the edge of the roof, checking the drop, the fire escape below, the street beyond.
“He’s not on anyone’s side,” he said. “But he’ll help us because helping us hurts Corin. And because…” He glanced at her. “Because he owes me.”
“For what?”
George didn’t meet her eyes. “For being alive.”
Lea didn’t know what to say to that. The cold wind whipped around them, carrying the city’s distant sounds, traffic, sirens, faint music from somewhere below, everyday noises that felt surreal after the tunnel.
George started down the fire escape ladder, then looked up at her.
“Lea,” he said softly, as if the night might be listening. “You asked earlier what your hook was.”
Her breath caught.
His expression didn’t change, not outwardly, but something in his voice did.
“It isn’t you,” he said. “It’s me.”
She stared at him, stunned.
George held her gaze for a second longer, then motioned for her to climb.
“Come on. If Corin’s this close, my brother won’t be far.”