Page 32 of Truth Revealed

Betrayal was gone too, Hope noticed upon another sweep of his studious gaze, and ducked down behind the window. “Betrayal was just a distraction while Misery figured out where we were. We gotta go!”

“Aw, fuck,” Death grumbled, and pointed behind Hope’s head.

In slow motion, as if in a bad horror film, he cranked his head around to find Misery standing in front of Hope’s emergency exit. Confidence oozed from his frame as the smirk on his face only grew, his gun pointed at them ominously.

“Gotcha,” he said, and fired his laser gun at them. Both their vests went off with a screech of noise and a flash of light.

“Well, shit,” Hope muttered, while Misery cackled away.

“You could run if you wanted, but your only choice is the stairs, and guess who’s waiting down there?”

Glaring at the cocky little shit across the room, Hope stood and stalked over to the hole they’d crawled through on the ladder. Slowly, as if awaiting a jump scare, he peeked over the edge. “Betrayal’s not there,” he said with a frown.

Misery’s expression turned down and his gun fell to his side. “What do you mean? That was the plan. Of course he’s down there.”

Suddenly, a gruff shout of pain echoed through the area, and all three of them stiffened.

“Is that part of the plan too?” Death asked with a scowl.

Misery shook his head, turned, and ran the way he came. Hope followed, but it was impressive, his lithe frame practically gliding down the ramp and pausing atop the building. Hope paused on the ramp, halfway to Misery, when his expression changed. He shook his head and made a cutting motion across his throat before he bounced his palm parallel to the ground—the signal to get down.

Following his directions, Hope barely popped his head over the lip of the ramp and tried to glance in the same direction as Misery. When he found what had put that fear in his gaze, Hope swallowed, hard.

In the middle of the arena, four figures were centered in an open space surrounded by obstacle walls. Betrayal was in the middle, surrounded by three figures covered head to toe in black. His hands were up in the air in the universal sign of surrender, but the expression on his face was murderous. Hope ducked back down and was startled to find Death so close. “What’d you see?”

“Betrayal’s surrounded by three guys, but I can’t get a good look at their faces.”

Misery rejoined them only a moment later and shook his head. “I think it’s some of Pandora’s demons. One of them looks like Deceit, and another like that young guy from the warehouse.”

A curse tumbled out before Hope could stop it, but he shook his head to rid himself of any negative thoughts.

No time for that here.

In hushed voices, they quickly made a game plan and parted ways. Time was of the essence, but they had to remain quiet so they didn’t tip off the assailants. The three of them went back down the ladder as quietly as possible and stripped their vests and guns off. Then they separated, planning to advance on the group from three different directions. Thankfully, the obstacle course would help them instead of hinder.

Weaving in and out of plywood walls and fake buildings, Hope finally stopped when he heard voices loud and clear.

“—that wasn’t part of the plan!” an alarmed voice called out.

“No, it just wasn’t part of your plan,” a gruff one scoffed. Hope recognized it as Deceit.

“But why wouldn’t she have told me?” the other one cried out, distressed.

A struggle sounded, and Hope risked glancing around the wall he hid behind. Deceit was pressing a young blond guy up against a nearby wall, two hands fisted in the guy’s shirt. “Because you’re too innocent for this and she knows it. Now, go to the car like I said and wait for us.”

A whimper fell from the smaller guy’s lips, but he had the bravado to hiss, “I’m not innocent.”

Hope turned back around, catching only glimpses of the rest of the conversation, and took a deep breath. Suddenly, the voices went quiet, and Hope waited for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was probably only a few seconds.

Peeking around the wall again, he wanted to cheer. Only two of them remained—Deceit and someone unfamiliar with his arm wrapped around Betrayal’s neck, a wicked looking knife poised over his throat.

A knife that was easily capable of doing deep, irreparable damage.

Heart in his throat, Hope turned back around and spied Death and Misery, flanking two other walls on either side of him. Making sure they were all on the same page, Hope caught their gazes and held up three fingers.

He tried to ignore the sounds of the struggle on the other side of the wall as he brought his ring finger down. A grunt echoed through the arena by the time his middle finger met his palm, and when his index finger came down, they moved.

It all happened so fast. Too fast.