Chapter 227: Grace
Tears streamed down my face as someone walked toward me. I couldn’t turn my head to see, but fear filled me from head to toe. Oh goddess, I was screwed. If this person was anything like Adrian, he wasn’t going to stop.
“No!” I cried as his shadow fell on me, “Please, please don’t do this. Please.”
“Gracie,” A gentle voice pleaded with me to calm down. "It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. It’s me, Leon.”
I sucked in a breath as he leaned in front of me so I could see him. I didn’t like that he was so close to me, but I also knew that he wouldn’t hurt me. The panic in my chest just wouldn’t cease.
“Breathe.” He whispered kindly, “It’s okay. We’re going to get you out of here, okay? I’m going to work on these restraints, you just breathe.”
I tried to nod, forgetting that my head was locked firmly in place causing Leon to chuckle slightly.
He tugged at the restraints, and grunted when they didn’t budge.
“I’m going to look around the room to see if there’s anything to cut them with. None of the keys are working.” He told me.
Keys... Keys. Did that mean that they were following the plan?
“The others?” I asked eagerly. Anything to stop me from thinking about what just almost happened. Anything to keep my mind from spiraling.
“They’re with Caleb.” Leon answered, sounding farther away. “He was leading them through the passage we talked about. At least that was the plan. I didn’t wait around to find out. I came straight here to get you once everyone was out of their cells.”
“Thank you for coming for me.” I whispered. I had so badly wanted them to follow the plan even without me, but I was even more grateful that they did that AND still found a way to make sure I had a chance to escape too.
“You think I could go back to Rhys without you?” Leon laughed. “Not a chance. I might be his best friend, but I would be a dead man. No thank you. Plus, without you, none of this would have been possibly. There was no way in hell I was leaving you behind.”
I smiled slightly at his kind words. I didn’t think Rhys would kill him, but then again, the Rhys I got was often not the same Rhys the rest of the world got.
Leon’s shadow fell over me again, and he carefully cut the white restraints off me, starting with my head, then my middle, then my hands and feet. I moved, flexing the muscles that I hadn’t been able to in longer than I could remember. I might have been healing quickly, but my wrists still hurt where the chains had cut into them back in my cell.
“Are you okay?” Leon asked as he gripped my elbow because I wobbled when I tried to stand.
“I will be.” I answered, carefully pulling the IV out of my arm. “Right now though, I just want to get out of here.”
Leon nodded and I knew he had the same sentiment. This place was brutal. It always had been. I just hadn’t seen it that way before. I had always thought that everyone lived like this, but the truth was, it didn’t have to be like this. Rhys had created a life out there that only used violence when threatened. He didn’t burn villages for fun. He didn’t torture people because they shared a different opinion or had a lower status than him. No. He ran a tight ship, but it was built off respect, and that was the difference here.
Leon and I slowly walked toward the door as I tried to get my bearings. I knew that I was disconnected from my abilities this time, the Lycan side of me, and that filled me with anxiety. Who knew what we were going to face when we walked out that door, so I needed to have my shit together. Come on, Grace.
Leon grabbed the door handle and gave me a look, asking if I was ready, and the truth was, I wasn’t sure, but I nodded anyways. Leon turned the door knob, but the door didn’t budge.
“Fuck!” He growled angrily, yanking it so hard the handle actually came off.
Anxiety flooded my system, and it took all I had not to start spiraling. I gripped at the wall to stay upright as the world spun around me. We were stuck here. We weren’t going to get our chance to escape. We were never going to get another chance. Not when everyone else got out. They better freaking get out, or else this would all be for nothing.
“Okay, okay, think,” Leon took a step back into the center of the room and began scanning it. “The door isn’t an option, but there’s got to be another option. Maybe the vents... or the... The window!” He exclaimed in excitement, and I turned to see what he was looking at. Yea, there was a window, but it wouldn’t open. None of the windows in the packhouse did, causing it to always be so stuffy.
“The glass is at least 3 inches thick. They always said it was unbreakable.” I told him.
To my surprise, he just smirked, and grabbed the chair that was in the corner.
“What are you doing?” I asked, my frown deepening.
“What does it look like? Breaking a window.” He answered as though that was obvious.
He ripped the leg off of the chair and then began to feel the window.
“I just told you, it’s unbreakable.”
“And I’m telling you, it’s a fire hazard for sure, but I’ve broken windows thicker than this before. I just need to find the right spot.”
His fingers skimmed along the glass, tapping every so often before he finally found what he was looking for.
“Aha!” He exclaimed, tapping the same spot a few times for good measure. “Okay Grace, stand back.”
I took two steps back, and gestured for him to do whatever he was about to.
Leon marked the spot with a little smudge and then with all of his might slammed the chair leg into the window. To my surprise, the glass cracked a little.
I started to say, “What the-“ But I didn’t even finish it because Leon was right back to ramming the chair leg into the window a second and third time. On the fourth try, the window shattered. Or at least a part of it did.
“Hey! What was that noise?!” Someone down the hall shouted.
Leon quickly swept the edges so there was a small and only slightly lethal hole for us to climb through before he jumped through it. He then held his hand out to me and I took it gratefully as the door handle jiggled behind me and the door swung open.
The second my feet hit the ground, we took off running.
“Hey! They’re escaping!” Someone shouted, but I didn’t dare look back. It was all up to fate now, and all we could do was run.