Chapter 90 Chapter Eighty-nine
ARA
Thayne didn’t loosen his grip on me, even as the room shifted again.
Sirens wailed overhead now, a deep, mechanical and furious sound that pierced the already noise-filled air.
Red lights strobed faster, washing the blood-smeared walls in violent pulses. God. All of this was just too much for me to handle.
My head was spinning. Or was it the room? I wanted to puke, but there was nothing in my stomach to heave up.
My father’s men regrouped, and guns were lifted from different angles.
Thayne moved first. I'd never seen him this mad before. He pivoted, dragging me with him, putting his body between mine and the barrels aimed our way.
A shot rang out, and I gasped when I saw that it'd been really close. Concrete shattered inches from my head.
“Stay behind me,” Thayne ordered in a voice ironed flat by calculation and concentration.
Another man rushed him with a blade. Thayne released me just long enough to meet him head-on.
It was brutal and fast, bone on bone. He ducked the knife, slammed his elbow into the man’s throat, then snapped his wrist and drove the blade back into its owner.
I screamed as blood sprayed warm across the floor.
I gagged but didn’t look away. I couldn’t, because this was Thayne in his raw and unrestrained form, fighting like something ancient had finally been unleashed.
“MOVE!” my father screamed. “And kill him!”
Three men charged at once. Thayne grabbed the fallen gun and fired twice without hesitation.
Two men dropped like sacks of oats. The third barely had time to scream before Thayne used the chain still hanging from his wrist to yank him forward and crush his skull against the wall.
Silence fell again, but only for a second.
Then Slade Senior laughed, clapping his hands together like he was watching a movie.
“Well done,” he drawled. “I almost forgot what a monster I created.”
Thayne didn’t look at him. He looked at me.
“Ara, are you hurt?” he asked, breathless.
I shook my head, clutching his shirt. “No. But there's a cramp in my lower belly, I need to —”
“They’re fine,” he said instantly, his hand pressing over my stomach and rubbing it tenderly even when we were in right in the middle of chaos. “I’ve got you, I promise.”
He then leaned in to kiss me like this was the last time he was going to see me.
My father snarled. “Touching. But pointless.”
He lifted his hand, and the floor shook. A section of the wall behind us detonated inward, dust and debris blasting through the chamber. Men poured in from the breach, more armed, more prepared.
How did things keep escalating?
Thayne cursed softly. “This way,” he said, pulling me toward a narrow corridor hidden behind the torture rig.
“How did you know this was here? Where does that lead?” I cried.
“Out,” he said. “Or somewhere close enough.”
We ran. Gunfire chased us down the corridor, bullets ricocheting off steel. Thayne shoved me ahead of him, never letting go, never slowing even when he stumbled.
A bullet grazed his shoulder,but he didn’t make a sound. The corridor split.
“Left!” he barked, dragging me with him just as the right passage collapsed in a loud roar of flame.
We burst through a service door into the open night.
Cold air slammed into my lungs. The compound sprawled below us, lights blazing with men shouting.
Alarms were wailing, but Thayne didn’t stop. He hauled me across the yard, straight toward the cliff edge.
“Thayne!” Panic seized me. “There’s nothing there!”
He didn’t answer..Instead, he slammed his palm against a metal panel embedded in the rock, and I watched in confusion and wonder as the ground shifted.
A hidden platform rose up from the darkness below. It was sleek and black, and when I squinted, I saw it was a boat.
The moment our feet hit it, Thayne shoved me down behind the reinforced railing and turned back.
Men flooded the ledge. My father stepped forward last, his eyes wild, furious, triumphant all at once.
“You can’t run forever,” he shouted over the noise. “You belong to me!”
Thayne straightened slowly. Blood soaked his shirt, and his breathing was heavy. But his eyes, dear Lord, his eyes were lethal.
“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” he said clearly. “Get that into your thick skull!”
Two things happened in one second. The platform dropped, and the world lurched.
Gunfire exploded overhead as we plunged down the cliffside, water roaring up to swallow us whole.
The impact was violent. I screamed as the boat hit the waves hard, pain rattling through my bones.
Thayne was on me instantly, shielding my body as water drenched us.
The engine roared to life, and we shot forward into the dark.
I clung to him, shaking, sobbing, alive. Behind us, the compound burned against the night sky.
Thayne rested his forehead against mine, his beautiful eyes closing for just one second.
“I told you,” he whispered hoarsely. “I would never let them take you. I'll fight till the end for you, Ara.”
I pressed my face into his chest, my tears soaking his bloodied shirt.
“We’re not safe,” I whispered.
“No,” he agreed. His arm tightened around me.
“But now they know something important.”
“What?” I asked.
His jaw clenched as he stared into the darkness ahead.
“That you’re not their leverage,” he said.“You’re my war.”
Maybe he would never say I love you.aybe he would only bleed it. Maybe this was as close to I love you as he would ever say.
“Where are we going?” I asked after a a full minute of arguing in my head whether he'd wanted to say he loved me back when we were still in chains.
“We're going to the one place they won't expect us.”
“Why would they be expecting us at all?”
“Because Munroe is with your father, and he can predict my every move. He helped build my defenses,” Thayne replied. “Which means he knows exactly how to dismantle them.”
The implication hit me hard. When would this come to an end?
“So wherever you’d normally run,” I whispered, “he’ll already be waiting.”
“It's why we're going off the map to have our wedding.” Thayne said.
My pulse roared in my ears.