One.

  Two.

  Three.

  He pulled the trigger three times, his hands never wavered for even a moment, and the gunfire on the other side of the bunker momentarily fell silent.

  “Turns out that new witness, Sam, was a rat working for the bell ringers,” Sebastian said as he used the opportunity to reload his gun. “As soon as he was alone, he slipped back up to the main house and unlocked all the security. There must have been people lying in wait nearby, because we were overrun in minutes.”

  Jordy was still pressed against my side, safely tucked under my arm where I could clearly feel him shaking against me. Most of the furniture in the lounge had been knocked over in the commotion, but a few chairs remained upright, and I led Jordy over to the nearest one.

  “Here, Jordy, sit down for a minute while we figure out what to do.” Despite saying that, I was reluctant to let him go. My hands practically felt fused to his skin, as if separating from him would be the same as cutting off a piece of myself.

  He must have shared the sentiment, because after he sat down, he continued to cling to the hem of my shirt with one hand while cradling my briefcase with the other. Blue eyes looked around the lounge area, their pupils blown wide like he was struggling to understand what he was seeing, until his gaze landed on one of the other witnesses nearby.

  “Clay? You okay?”

  A few feet away, Clay sat slumped in a chair, elbows braced on his knees. There was a smudge of dirt on his cheek, and his hair was a frizzy mess, but he otherwise looked all right.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, confirming my initial observation. “But Maria wasn’t so lucky.”

  He nodded over his shoulder at the twin girls huddled in a corner. One of them, presumably Maria, sat curled up in a ball, blood staining the side of her shirt while her sister pressed a cloth over a wound on her side.

  “It’s just a graze,” Maria said through clenched teeth. “I’ll be fine. Let’s just get out of here.”

  “Fuck!” Sebastian shouted as he ducked down below the windowsill after a bullet came precariously close to his head. “I second the idea of getting out of here. Where’s Thomas? Has anyone seen him?”

  Jordy pressed closer to me, and I wrapped my arm tighter around his shoulder.

  “Thomas isn’t coming.”

  Thankfully, no one needed me to explain more than that.

  The plan to leave ended up being relatively simple. With only one way in and out of the underground bunker, we didn’t have many options. The only real question was how to create a big enough distraction that would let us get up the only staircase that was currently being blocked by an untold number of gunmen.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Sebastian said as he tossed Logan his gun. “But I’ll need you to buy me two minutes.”

  Logan never lowered his own gun from the window as he shoved Sebastian’s weapon in the back of his belt for safekeeping. “All right. But I can’t hold them back on my own. They’ll push forward in that time, and we’re running out of ammo. I hope your plan’s a good one.”

  “I don’t know if it’s a good one,” Sebastian called back over his shoulder as he headed off toward the lounge’s kitchen. “But it’ll give us a chance at least.”

  With that vote of confidence, he disappeared into the kitchen, and Logan returned to standing guard at the window. He was more conservative with his bullets than he had been a minute ago, only firing when he was certain he had a shot.

  Although I couldn’t see what was happening outside the walls of our hideout, I could practically feel our enemies creeping closer. It was enough to raise the hair on the back of my neck.

  I hated to separate from Jordy, but I hated the feeling of being hunted even more. If there was something I could do to help, I had to try. After leaving him sitting with Clay so that the two could at least take some comfort in each other, I joined Logan by the window.

  “I’m no trained marksman, but I’m also no stranger with a gun. Can I help?”

  Logan’s whole body looked as if he were carved from a stone statue, completely unmoving, as he lined up the sight of his gun. Yet, he didn’t pull the trigger.

  “Unless you’re certain you can hit the target every time, we’d be better off conserving the ammo right now. We might need it later.”

  At some point while we’d been hiding, our attackers must have found the control panel for the bunkers artificial light and switched it from daytime mode to nighttime. The painted ceiling now resembled a sky of stars, and everything was covered in the cool shadows of midnight. It was the perfect cover for our attackers to sneak up on us. In the distance, I could see the vague shape of people moving around, but nothing distinct enough that I could shoot with a hundred percent accuracy.

  I reluctantly had to admit my own limitations.

  Two minutes on the dot later, Sebastian returned from the kitchen, carrying what looked like several aerosol cans that had been tampered with. He handed most of them to Logan, though he also gave me one as well.

  “These should work like smoke bombs to give you some cover. Just twist off the spray nozzle and throw it. If you toss a couple into the stairwell, it should confuse whoever is guarding it enough for you to make up back up to the surface.”

  Crude, but simple.

  I’d have preferred something a bit more sophisticated, but we weren’t in a position to be picky.

  “Okay,” I said as I stored my rigged can in the inner pocket of my suit jacket. “But that doesn’t explain how we’re going to get to the stairwell in the first place. Jordy and I nearly lost our heads just trying to run ten feet, and the stairwell is at least fifty feet from here.”

  It didn’t escape my notice that Sebastian hadn’t kept any of the rigged cans for himself, nor did he take back his gun from Logan.

  Instead, he merely picked up the cane that he always carried and tapped the handle resolutely against his palm.

  “Leave that to me. Logan, when you see your opportunity, you lead everyone out of here. Don’t wait for me.”

  “Maybe, I should,” Logan started to argue, but Sebastian cut him off.

  “No. You’re faster and better suited for taking point. I’ll only slow you down. You get them out of here while I buy you time. Don’t wait for me. Got it?”

  He didn’t wait for an answer. Before anyone could say a word, or try to argue again, he slipped out the door and into the darkness of the fake night.

  Logan and I both waited by the window, holding our breath in anticipation of what would happen.

  I couldn’t get the image of Sebastian’s cane out of my mind. The man had been a skilled fighter and investigator before his injuries, but he walked with a permanent limp. I would never call the man helpless. His skills were certainly still sharp, but his handicap must slow him down.

  Could we really leave him to take on an entire attack force on his own?

  A gunshot echoed through the bunker, accompanied by the muzzle flash from a gun, but no bullet hit the side of our shelter. Someone screamed into the dark, and I was relieved to recognize that it wasn’t Sebastian’s voice.

  I still couldn’t tell what the man was doing, but whatever it was, it seemed to be working. The gunfire had stopped for now.

  Logan grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the window.

  “Get everyone rounded up and ready to run.”

  My first instinct was to check on Jordy, but I had to leave him alone. He was actually the most stable of all the witnesses and needed my attention the least. Clay was a mess of nerves worrying over every bullet that came a little too close to Logan, and the injured girl needed her sister’s support to walk. Her injury had stopped bleeding, but it still pained her and slowed her down.

  I felt like a mother duck herding ducklings as I gathered them all near the door. These were grown adults. People who were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. Yet, there was also an air of vulnerability to them that triggered my protective instincts and made me want to shelter them under my metaphorical wings.

  When I returned to the window, I cursed at what I saw.

  Sebastian stood in the middle of the plastic lawn, surrounded by three masked assailants. None of his attackers had their guns anymore, but even in hand to hand it was still three against one, and he was leaning heavily on his cane.

  “Can you take any of them out?” I asked.

  Logan aimed his gun and scowled.

  “Possibly, but with how close together they are I could accidentally shoot Sebastian instead.”

  It was too late for us to do anything anyway. One of the attackers lunged at Sebastian, and in the glint of moonlight, I could see that they’d pulled a knife. For a moment, it seemed certain that we were about to witness Sebastian’s death, but at the last second, he spun on his good leg, circling around behind his attacker with a surprisingly amount of agility. He brought his cane up across his attacker’s throat, using it to lock the masked man into a painful looking chokehold.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he shouted as he struggled to keep his grip against the man’s thrashing. “Get going.”

  Oh, right. That was our signal. The shooting had stopped, and we were clear to make a break for the stairs.

  Yet, it felt wrong to just take off running and leave Sebastian behind while the man was still under attack.

  Logan led the way, with all the witnesses following him in a rough single-file fashion while I brought up the rear. Because of that, I had a perfect view of Sebastian’s fight.

  His cane slid free from its position across his attacker’s neck, and he spun again to face the man directly. Then, grasping the handle of his cane, he twisted it to pull it apart, revealing a long thin sword that had been hidden inside. His attacker didn’t even have time to react to the sudden appearance of the new weapon before it was slicing across his neck.

  The man’s body dropped, and Sebastian stepped over it with surprisingly sturdy steps as he approached the next nearest attacker.

  A sword cane.

  Of course, Sebastian was secretly carrying something like that and obviously trained to handle it. I felt bad for ever doubting the man.

  When the rest of us reached the staircase, Logan paused just long enough to activate one of the makeshift smoke bombs and toss it into the stairwell. With the hiss of an angry snake, the stairwell filled with opaque vapor that smelled suspiciously of cooking spray. Logan fired a few shots blindly into the cloud, just to clear out anyone that might be lying in wait for us, but if he hit anything it was impossible to tell.

  I knew exactly how long the staircase was. If I thought about it for a moment, I could probably recall exactly how many steps stretched between the bunker and the surface. Yet, as we ran through the thick cloud, bouncing off the narrow walls in our haste, it felt like the staircase lasted for miles. At one point, I tripped over something that might have been a body lying motionless on the steps, but I didn’t stop to check. It wasn’t Jordy or any of the witnesses, and that was all that mattered.

  Once above the surface, we headed for the house’s garage. The refurbished bunker wasn’t the only part of the house that was over the top. Even the garage was an example of luxury. It was massive, but most importantly, it was well lit. There were no shadows here for someone to lurk in and ambush us from. With the garage door closed behind us, we were able to stop and catch our breath for a moment.

  Maria’s injury had started bleeding again while we ran, and her sister helped her sit down on a bench near the door. Clay and Logan naturally gravitated to each other, and I couldn’t help wrapping an arm around Jordy’s shoulders.

  Huddled together, we waited in silence for Sebastian to catch up with us.

  Yet he never came through the door.

  “We can’t wait around much longer,” I reminded Logan. “More people could be coming.”

  “I know. I know.” Growling in frustration, Logan slammed his fist against the wall. “Damn it, Sebastian. You better be okay. I’m not telling your brother or Newt that you didn’t make it. They’ll kill me.”

  The garage could easily hold over a dozen vehicles, but at the moment most of its parking spots were empty. Only the van that we’d originally brought the witnesses in, along with a couple of old sedans, waited for us. We decided to take the van so that the injured girl could have space to lie down, along with one of the cars, while leaving one car behind for Sebastian to use when he caught up.

  We were so close to being free. My hand was on the door handle to the van when I noticed movement inside the open window.

  “Get down!” I shouted, diving for Jordy, who was standing next to me, just as a gunshot rang out.

  We both hit the pavement, pain shooting up my arm, while above us the door to the van opened.

  Sam, the rat that had pretended to be a fellow victim, stepped out of the van, with a gun in his hand and a smile on his face.

  The bell ringers really had chosen their infiltrator well. Sam looked like he could have been cast off the same mold as Jordy. So, it was even more terrifying to watch this man pointing a gun at me with such lethal efficiency. There was no hesitation. No uncertainty. He had a job to do, and he was determined to do it.

  Metal echoed against metal as a bullet from Logan’s gun ricocheted off the van.

  “Get away from them, you bastard.”

  Sam didn’t seem the least bit scared despite being in Logan’s crosshairs, though he at least had enough sense to raise his hands in the air in surrender.

  “Are you really going to hurt a poor little victim like me,” he said, pouting as he put on an over-exaggerated baby voice.

  Logan just scoffed. “Please. We may have fallen for your act before, but you’re no victim. You’re a monster, just like the people you work for. But you’re also not a strong enough fighter to take us all on by yourself. So, step aside before I kill you as well.”

  While Logan and Sam were busy staring each other down, I pulled Jordy off the floor with me and out of the way. Our access to the van was blocked, but the cars were still out in the open. If I could get Jordy inside one of them, there was still a chance for him to escape.

  Sam’s gun fell from his hand and hit the floor, but the smile remained firmly fixed to his face.

  “Oh, I know you could kill me. I’m a conman, not a hitman. But I don’t need to fight you. All I need to do is stall you.”

  The door to the garage burst open just as I managed to shove Jordy into the passenger seat of one of the cars. Several more gunmen spilled into the room, bringing with them more weapons and more firepower.

  Logan and I looked at each other. I could practically see his thoughts in his eyes, for they were the same as mine. The twins were on the other side of the room, and with one of them injured, they’d never be able to outrun their attackers and make it to the cars in time to get away. Clay, also, would never agree to just leave Logan behind.

  I took a step away from the car, back toward the inevitable fight.

  “Go!” Logan shouted as he pulled another of the makeshift smoke bombs from his pocket.

  “But...” I hovered with my hand on the door to the car, unable to decide what to do.

  Logan twisted off the cap of the aerosol can. “Just go while you can. We’ll catch up.”

  He threw the canister at his own feet, and a second later the air in the garage filled with an opaque cloud of billowing gas, blocking off everyone’s vision.

  I couldn’t help hesitating for one more moment, watching the vague shapes of humans moving through the smoke. Then I heard the sound of a fist meeting flesh, and an unrecognizable voice shouting in pain, and knew the fight had begun.

  Every instinct I had begged me to go back and help the others, but then I looked over at Jordy, huddled in the passenger seat of the car with my briefcase still clutched to his chest.

  “Damn it.”

  Biting my lip and clenching my fists, I shoved myself behind the wheel of the car. The keys were waiting for me right on the dashboard, in such easy reach it was as if this whole desperate escape had been planned. Starting up the car, I peeled out of the garage, barely remembering to hit the button for the outer garage door in time to keep from driving right through it. Within a matter of seconds, we were out on the open road, the two of us quickly leaving all the chaos behind.

  After days of living in the artificial environment of the underground bunker, the sight of real sky and plant life was a shock to my eyes. The bunker’s lighting system had been set to night, but out in the real world, it was only late afternoon. The sun hadn’t fully set yet, but gray clouds covered the sky in a bleak atmosphere. A light rain pelted the car, just enough to make the windshield wipers necessary, but not enough to impede visibility on the road.

  Neither Jordy, nor I, said anything as I kept driving. I didn’t even know where I was going. I just picked a random direction and didn’t stop, turning only when the road gave me no other choice.

  An hour passed in silence. The light rain turned into a heavy downpour that even the windshield wipers struggled to keep up with. We were completely alone on a nameless back road that I couldn’t have found on a map to save my life and there wasn’t another single pair of headlights in sight.

  Figuring we’d driven far enough, and there was no point risking our safety driving though the rain, I pulled the car to a stop under the shelter of a small bridge.

  Even after the rumble of the car’s engine died, I continued to grip the steering wheel hard enough that I could feel the stitches holding the old leather together.

  “Jordy, I...”

  Whatever useless words of comfort I’d been about to offer died on my tongue when I looked over at the other man. He was curled up on the seat, knees pressed to his chest and arms wrapped around his legs, making him look even smaller than usual. The sight would have been pathetic enough, but he was also shivering so badly that he seemed in danger of biting his tongue.

  While the weather wasn’t very cold, it also wasn’t that warm, either, and he was wearing very little. Not even shoes. The skimpy boxers and tank top he’d chosen to wear earlier were certainly eye catching, but he was paying for that choice now.