Chapter 138 Chapter One hundred and thirty seven
ARA
"Quick, we need to leave before the others realize I'm not a part of their crew. We're going to climb to the roof." The driver explained vaguely as he steered us down the quiet corridor.
If he hadn't come back for us, who knew what would have happened?
I tried not to look back at the man's dead body as we walked away, and I heard my sisters trying not to gag after seeing so much blood.
"Your husband is furious with me. I hope I don't lose my job. You disrespected his and my orders." He chided me as we reached what looked like an abandoned storage room. Or a place for dumping outdated books.
He pointed to the trapdoor above.
"We're going to climb, but it will be difficult for you, Mrs Slade. It requires hanging upside down and hooking your legs over to place your upper half up there." He said, scratching his head.
"I can't climb up there, it's unsafe and risky. I prefer to stay down here until I find an alternative." I said strongly.
The driver shook his head. "You don't understand, Mr. Slade has ordered that I will lose my job if I don't get you three out safely. I am to get you out by all means."
"Have you been pregnant before?" I hurled the question.
He winced. "That's not-"
I cut him off. "I thought as much. You will get my sisters up and out of here, while I wait for an alternative escape route. It's an order." I made sure to use the hardest voice in my arsenal in order to sound intimidating.
The driver stared at me for a long second, his eyes flicking to my stomach and then away again. He looked like a man trapped between two disasters, trying to decide which one would kill him slower.
“Mrs. Slade—” he began.
“I said it’s an order.” My voice didn’t shake, even though my knees felt like water. “Get them out first.”
Millie grabbed my hand. “Ara, no. We’re not leaving you.” Her first words to me since they'd both left the hotel without warning.
“You are,” I said softly, cupping her cheek. “Because if anything happens to me, Thayne will still have you. If anything happens to you…” I swallowed. “I won’t survive it.”
Mollie was crying silently now, shaking her head over and over.
The driver exhaled hard, scrubbing a hand down his face. “I swear, you people will be the death of me.”
He moved fast then, boosting Millie up first. She climbed awkwardly, fear making her clumsy, but desperation giving her strength.
Mollie followed, sobbing as she went, looking down at me like she was afraid this was the last time she’d ever see my face.
“I’ll be right behind you,” I lied.
They disappeared through the opening, their hands reaching down as if they could pull me with them by will alone.
“Go,” I urged. “Don’t look back.”
The trapdoor slid shut. Silence slammed into the room.
The driver turned to me, his eyes sharp now and alert.
“You have maybe ninety seconds before someone comes looking. We need to move.”
“Where?” I asked.
He scanned the room quickly, then crossed to the far wall, shoving aside a rusted shelf. Behind it was a narrow service door I hadn’t noticed before.
“Maintenance corridor. I'm assuming it leads to sub-level parking.” He paused, then met my gaze. “But it’s not clear. And, oh, it’s not safe.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “Join the list.”
We stepped into the corridor just as shouting erupted somewhere above us, loud voices, boots pounding hard on the floor, someone yelling orders in a wheezy voice that made me cringe
“They’ve realized,” the driver muttered. “Stay close to me, ma'am.”
We moved as fast as my body would allow, my breath coming in shallow bursts, my back aching, my stomach growing heavier and tighter.
Every step sent a warning flare through my spine, but adrenaline shoved it aside.
Then I heard the voices getting closer. Oh, my God.
The driver cursed under his breath and shoved me into a recessed doorway just as two men ran past, guns drawn, eyes wild.
I held my breath so hard my chest burned. When they were gone, the driver looked at me, something like respect flickering in his eyes.
“You’re tougher than you look.”
“I don’t have a choice,” I said. “None of us do.”
We reached the stairwell leading down when his earpiece crackled.
“—roof secured. Two targets extracted.”
My heart leapt with joy. My sisters were safe.
Then another voice cut in, colder. “Primary asset still unaccounted for. Jimmy wants her alive.”
The driver stiffened. I already knew what that meant.
He turned to me slowly. “They’re coming for you now.”
I squared my shoulders, fear coiling tight in my chest, but beneath it, something harder, sharper. I was going to get out of this library. Because I needed to be the woman my mother didn't get the chance to be.
I needed to find out Nick's identity.
“Then don’t slow down,” I said. “Because I’m not dying in a library basement.”
And for the first time since this nightmare be
gan, the driver smiled grimly.
“We will get out safely.” He assured me.
I summoned the courage and strength to continue even though I just wanted to collapse and fall asleep right away.
After minutes of hiding, tiptoeing like Ninjas and dodging invisible shadows that only the driver seemed to see, we found the very main exit door.
It looked like a door that led straight to the underworld. It was painted in red and black, probably to scare people away.
“Only firefighters use this door. In cases of fire, it survives the damage.” The driver explained.
“I'm not sure I care about that bit, now. Open it so we can get out of here.” I urged him.
He yanked on the knob, but it was stiff from not being used in a long time. And we had no key to pick the lock.
I was hearing footsteps now, and I thought I'd deliver right there and then because I could swear I felt and heard more than just my heart beating.
“Pull it harder,” I whispered shakily.
“It's stuck!” He whispered back.
Something black and shiny was poking out of his waistband, and I smiled.
I snatched it quickly and pushed him to the side.
“Hey, what are you-?! Drop that, you're going to kill-”
The shot hit the mark, and the knob turned down, the door cracking open.
I wasted no time in leaving the driver behind. I was outside, staring at the backyard of what seemed to be an art studio.
A car nosed down the space between the library and the art studio, the back door opening like an invitation.
“Mrs. Slade, please do not–”
“Get in!” A voice ordered from the backseat, drowning out the driver's warning.
It was like something possessed me at that moment. I jogged the distance and helped myself into the backseat. Escape was escape, even if it was jumping in the backseat of an unknown car.
The door slammed shut after me, and someone coughed beside me, startling me.
“I should have known my stepdaughter was a pregnant badass,” a warm, male voice spoke.
My whole body stiffened as I realised who I was sitting next to.
Nick. I just knew it. I saw Millie's eyes and Mollie's nose, and their warm smile.
Finally, I was meeting my stepfather, the one who had actually loved my mother.