Chapter 137 Chapter One hundred and thirty-six
ARA
“You shouldn’t have let them go alone,” the driver muttered as we moved quickly between the towering shelves, scanning every aisle.
Now? Now he wanted to say that? My thoughts were spiraling too fast to argue. One question kept repeating in my head like a broken alarm. Did someone leak our location?
But we had just gotten here! Plus the driver had ensured everyone submitted their phones or left. So there was no chance of anyone posting our pictures.
So how?
“ARA!”
My name ripped through the library. It was a loud, terrified and familiar scream.
Oh God. No.
The driver and I snapped in the same direction at the exact same time.
He didn’t hesitate, he broke into a jog, knocking a chair aside, sending a stack of books crashing to the floor.
People gasped as he shoved past desks, barely slowing down.
“Hey!” he roared at someone ahead of him.
I couldn’t see who.
He vaulted over a desk, actually vaulted, and papers scattered everywhere. Then I heard it again. Mollie’s scream.
It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t staged. It was raw fear.
I started moving as fast as my body would allow, one hand gripping my stomach, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it might rupture something inside me.
Shelf after shelf blurred past. And in that moment, the truth settled like a curse:
No matter how far we ran. No matter how carefully we hid. They always found us.
“Have you seen her?” I asked the driver.
He didn’t answer.
My lungs burned. I stopped short, bracing my hands on my knees as I tried to drag air back into my body. I felt a sharp kick in my abdomen and I gasped.
One of the twins was choosing now to kick? Seriously? T.
The driver halted finally, his fingers rising to his earpiece. Then his posture changed.
He turned sharply, his eyes flaring with shock.
“Get down!” He barked.
Before I could ask why, the library erupted. Shelves crashed over in a deafening domino effect. Books rained down. Chairs screeched against tiled floors as people screamed and scattered, abandoning their bags and their laptops, everything.
I went into pure panic, still trying to catch my breath from the kungfu champions inside my stomach.
My ears rang from all the commotion and noise. I saw a girl leap over a fallen shelf.
Everyone else was trying to get away, simply because the driver had screamed GET DOWN.
But, where’s the gunshot? Where’s the shooter?
There wasn’t one.
No crack of a rifle. No echo. Nothing!
“Wait—” I wheezed, grabbing his sleeve as he pulled me behind a fallen shelf. “Where was the shot?”
There hadn’t been one. Realization hit me hard, and I tightened my hold on his sleeve.
“Did you even see anyone?” I snapped, breathless, furious. “You just caused a stampede!”
He shot me an unapologetic frown. “Ma’am, that was the point.”
I froze.
“They didn’t fire because they weren’t here to kill,” he continued calmly, scanning the room. “Their objective was to stop us. Create chaos. Keep us pinned while their other unit moved.”
Cold dread crept up my spine. “…My sisters,” I whispered.
He nodded once. “Likely already extracted.”
My legs went weak. I tried to be optimistic, to hope that they were hiding somewhere.
“They need you alive,” he added in a low voice. “Which is why you’re not bleeding on the floor right now.”
I swallowed hard. “And Thayne? How is he? I shouldn't even be asking you, you don't know.”
He waved his hand. “That pompous military dog gave me the summary of the lady five minutes. He's in active engagement. Gunfire. He’s actually holding them off.”
The driver pressed a hand gently but firmly against my back.
“Stuart’s orders are clear. He said I should move you first.”
My chest felt like it was splitting open. “You’re saying we leave them? After Thayne found them barely two hours ago?” Was he insane?
“No,” he said immediately. “I’m saying we survive long enough to get them back.”
Sirens wailed in the distance now. Security was finally responding. But it was too late.
He steered me toward a service exit, keeping his body between me and the open space.
“We’ll find your sisters,” he promised quietly.
“But right now, you are the target.”
We reached the exit, and just when I lifted my leg to join the driver outside, a voice inside asked me to go search the restrooms.
I didn't even tell the driver. I turned my back and headed back where we'd just come from.
People were still trying to get out of the library, some even went as far as bringing out their phones to record, announcing that there was a gunman in the building.
“Hey, isn't that Mr. Slade's wife?” Someone shouted behind me.
I didn't look back. My priority was the restroom, and when I found it, I tried to bend to check for legs. If someone was inside one of the toilets, I'd see their legs, right?
I was already nearing the remaining three doors and still, no legs.
Then I heard a soft, female voice whispering, “They won't find us. I promise, they won't find us.”
Millie? Millie was in there!
I threw my weight against the second to the last door and asked them to open up.
They literally threw themselves at me when I stepped inside, wrapping their hands around my neck and not letting go.
“Come out, come out,” a voice crooned from the corridor, playful in the worst possible way. “We know you’re in there.”
My blood ran cold. I pressed a finger to my lips. My sisters nodded frantically, clamping their hands over their mouths, breathing through their noses like they’d been trained for this moment their whole lives.
The footsteps drew closer.
“I won’t hurt you,” the man continued, his voice lilting, mock-gentle. “I just want to play.”
He stopped right outside the restroom. I could almost hear him smile, but it was his loud breathing that caused the hairs to rise on my skin.
The handle on the restroom door twitched. I pulled my sisters closer, shielding them with my body, my back to the stall door, my hands shaking but ready.
Please, I prayed silently, let someone come. Let him get distracted. Let me be enough.
The handle rattled again.
“Hey, they found them!” Someone yelled.
Wasn't that the driver's voice?
“No, they're right here, and I'm going to break down this door.” The first man said gruffly.
“No! No one's in that stall! The twins are in the convoy. C'mon, let's get out of here.” The second person urged him.
There was an exchange of inaudible words, then the earsplitting echo of a gunshot. My sisters whimpered, the fear in their eyes bleeding all over.
One minute later, there was absolute silence.
“Mrs. Slade, it's time for you and your sisters to leave.”
The driver.