Page 49 of Stormhold

“Get to the end of it,” he demanded sharply. “Fast.” The call cut off, the last ring echoing inside my brain like the screech of a tire.

I squeezed my eyes, my knuckles burning as I gripped my phone, curbing every urge in my body not to break my fingers by punching a hole in the wall.

My father and I had the kind of relationship that no father should ever have with his son. It was purely a transaction of duties.

My eyes left the windows and swept around the room. It was too fucking crowded for my liking.

“Anything?” I asked Mikhail, who was busy scouring through the traffic cameras.

He shook his head, already on his feet. “It’s no use looking through these. I’ll go have a look myself and start with the restaurant. Whatever happened, it must have started there.”

I nodded.

“I’ll call if I find something.” Mikhail gave me one last look before he left.

“Let me and Gray go have a look as well,” Jon voiced, eyeing the closing door behind Mikhail’s back. “Maybe we’ll find something.”

“I can’t have anything happening to you both.” I didn’t like how we were sitting ducks, but I planned to get out of here soon. I already had a chopper on its way. It was the only safe way for us to get out of the Lowers and whatever Timothy fucking Walters had planned for us.

A sudden loud thud of the door hitting the wall made us all still.

How many fucking people were going to barge into this room…

“Arkane,” Bella shouted, hurrying over to me, breathing so hard that I almost didn’t hear her. Panic gripped my chest as my eyes searched every inch of her, thinking the worst. But she was fine—although mostly calm, there was a certain urgency in her wide eyes.

She clutched my hand, pulling me hard toward the door. “We must all get out now; this building is going to collapse at any moment.”

What? That was the last thing I expected her to say.

“Now, Arkane.” Her wide brown eyes beckoned me to come with her. To trust her.

I had all of a fraction of a second to think. I either trusted her, and it could be my demise, or I didn’t, and it would still be my demise. The chopper would be here in minutes. Rationally, I could wait it out and confirm the situation, but something in her eyes said there wasn’t any time.

Although my brain told me otherwise, my heart decided to follow her.

“Everyone out,” I shouted, closing my hand around Bella’s instead. I tugged her behind me, rushing out of the room.

For once, Jon and Grayson didn’t question and followed me. Through the corner of my eye, I saw Killian jerk up to his feet, and our eyes met for a second. I didn’t know what ran through his mind, but he snapped into action, getting his men and Alanna out as well.

“Fast. We need to be fast, Arkane,” Bella hushed to me as we sprinted through the hallway. “It’s best if we use the stairs.”

I nodded, heading straight to the stairway. The echoes of our footsteps thudded louder than our heartbeats. Jon and Grayson shadowed close behind us, followed by Killian and Alanna and the two Surman agents.

Just as we reached the second-floor landing, a slow tremble raked through the building, one that felt too abnormal to be real. In the next second, it intensified, shaking the walls.

Fuck, she was right. This was bad. Really fucking bad.

No one spoke a word as we hurried down, except for Alanna, who wouldn’t fucking stop screaming that she didn’t want to die.

“Fucking conserve your energy and run faster,” Killian spat at her, which made her shut her fucking mouth. We had just reached the lobby floor when a loud thud sounded off behind us. It was so loud that it caused the entire floor to tremble.

With a single glance behind me, I could see a part of the roof on the far end take everything in its path as it crushed to the floor. It was followed by the one adjacent to it, and then the next, as they all fell like dominoes, one after the other. The two Surmans who couldn’t keep up with us were crushed like flies in an instant as the roof fell on them. They didn’t even have the time to fucking scream.

We only had seconds if we wanted to make it out alive.

“Fuck,” Grayson cursed in panic, and Jon had a scathingly terrifying look in his eyes. We all sped up, running for our lives.

The main entrance finally came into view, where a panicked Mikhail, Simon, and Eric stood, shouting for us to hurry up. The situation was so out of hand that they couldn’t even find a way to help us.