Page 128 of Torment Me Knot
Chapter Forty-One
Espie
Ipull the gag out of her mouth as I reach her. “Espie. It's a trap. He wanted you here, all of you, you have to go—”
“I'm not leaving you in this tunnel.” I grab her face in both hands and make her look at me. “I am not leaving you.”
“You have to. I'm stuck.” She looks up at the cuffs. I take in her ravaged skin. Fresh blood trickles from the wounds. “I can't get out.”
Voices boom behind me. I swing around to see a stream of modified betas swarm through the archway. My heart seizes. Kev is already charging the nearest one, his shoulder down, driving the beta back into the wall. Ezra is right behind him, fists up, throwing himself into it with everything he has. Lex has Aubrey by the back of his jacket and is hauling him away from the fight, putting his body between Aubrey and the betas, and Aubrey's face is white and his feet are barely finding the ground and I cannot breathe.
“Go.” Sera's voice drops. “Please. Espie, please, just go, get Aubrey out, come back with—”
“I'm not going anywhere without you,” I scream.
I step back and look at the cuffs. Metal bolted directly into the tile, one on each wrist, each with a heavy padlock through the ring. The kind with a thick shackle you'd need bolt cutters for, but the gravel between the rails is right there, chunks of it the size of my fist. I grab the biggest piece I can find and swing it at the padlock.
The impact goes up my arm to my shoulder. The padlock doesn't break but it shifts in the cuff ring. I hit it again. Metal shrieks against tile. Sera flinches.
A shot fires, the crack of it enormous in the enclosed space, and my ears ring and I keep swinging the rock.
The left padlock breaks on the fourth hit. Sera drops her arm, rotating her shoulder fast like she's been holding that position for hours. Maybe she has.
“Give me a rock.” I shove one into her hand and she goes to work on her other wrist while I smash the lock at her ankle.
More shots on the platform. Not one or two. A volley, then another, overlapping, and underneath it the low guttural soundsof a fight at close quarters. Levi's voice, hard and clipped, calling out for help. I don't turn around. I hit the padlock again and it cracks open. Sera has her hands free and she slams the last lock, smashing it open with a crack.
Sera wraps her arms around my shoulders and grips hard, digging her fingers in, and I lean into her weight. Then I get my arm under hers and pull her upright and we face the platform.
One of the SWAT officers is holding his own against a male three times his size. Levi has one pinned against the far wall—
“Not that way. It's not safe. Not yet,” Sera says. We lean on each other as we head deeper into the darkness of the tunnel.
“But—”
“I'll get you out, then I'll go back,” she says.
She's going to go back to fight in her condition? One look at her face tells me that's exactly what she intends to do. I let her take me into the darkness. We stumble over the rails when a maintenance door ahead opens in the tunnel wall and Wallace steps out, two beta guards flanking him.
“Ms. Durant.” Like we've run into each other somewhere pleasant. “How fortunate.”
Behind me, more modified betas flood onto the platform. Too many. The sound changes immediately, heavier footsteps, shouting, bodies moving fast. Levi yells something and Ronan booms his reply from further down the platform.
Sera tightens her arm around me and pulls me back a step. She takes in Wallace, his men, the distance to the archway.
“Espie! Sera!” I turn to see Ezra standing at the platform edge, his face wide with terror. He raises his gun and jumps off the platform, charging toward us.
“Ezra, stop!” I cry out, but he doesn't stop.
A modified beta comes in fast, bringing his arm down in a hard sweep. The gun spins out of Ezra's grip and skitters across the ground. The beta drives his shoulder into Ezra's chest and theygo down hard together. Ezra's head cracks against the rocks and he goes limp.
The gun stops three feet from where I'm standing. I'm already moving.
“Stop her!” Wallace screams.
The second modified beta cuts across my path. I drop my shoulder and go under his reach and grab the gun. I spin with the gun raised.
The modified beta is right there and I put the barrel into his chest and he goes very still. His weight shifts back, one slow inch, then another, his gaze moving from the gun to my face and back, working out whether I'll use it.
