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“Eve,” Beckett murmured to me. “We need to get out of here. There’s no way this ends well.”
We were behind everyone else, out of sight, for the most part, from the armed men. Slowly, Beckett pulled my arm, and we dropped to a crouch.
“What should we do?” I whispered, panicking. It was terrifying to see guns in real life, especially pointed toward someone’s temple, just like in the movies.
Behind us, the door that was marked ‘Staff Only’ opened. Someone coming in.
The guy coming in had on an employee vest and headphones in his ears. He was staring down at his phone, with no idea what he was walking into.
Beckett was on him before he could make a sound. He caught hold of the guy’s arm and eased into the open doorway. He clamped his hand over the man’s mouth, tugged out his headphones, and whispered in his ear. The employee’s eyes widened, and he nodded.
Beckett and the employee backed up through the doorway into the employee-only section. I followed them and stopped at the threshold. Beckett looked back at me, and for a moment, I thought he might let the door swing shut, locking me in the store with the gunmen. It would certainly be revenge for the drugs thing. Our eyes met and held. I saw his indecision.
He stilled a moment and then jerked out an arm to catch the door just before it closed, pushing it wide enough for me to crawl through.
The door shut nearly soundlessly behind me, and we collapsed on our asses on the other side, staring at each other.
“I have to call the police. With the alarm triggered, all the external doors are locked down, so no one can leave.” The employee’s name tag read Eli. He was sweating and pale.
“Okay, you do that, Eli. We’ll hide. Call the police and we wait it out somewhere in here,” Beckett said and turned to glance down the corridor. There were several doors in the hallway.
Just then, the handle above my head jiggled.
“Shit. They’re checking for other staff members. Hide!” Eli whispered harshly and got up, running down the hall.
I was paralyzed with fear for a long moment, and then Beckett’s hand wrapped around mine. “Come on!”
He tugged me to my feet, and then we were running. If the gunmen wanted in here, they just had to take a staff key card off someone and open the door. It wouldn’t delay them for long.
We ran down the hall and dipped randomly into a room. It was a changing room, with lockers all around, and another room branching off with toilet stalls and a row of shower cubicles. The room curved around oddly, and I didn’t notice until I’d walked the entire length of the place that there was another area. A disabled bathroom was tucked around the side, invisible from the main entrance.
“In here!” I hissed.
We headed toward it. At the last minute, Beckett grabbed a yellow sign that had been sitting on a broken sink and put it on the disabled bathroom door handle.
Out of use.
We entered the bathroom and shut the door, turning the lock with a decisively loud click. There was one window, high up. It was very narrow. There was no way Beckett would be able to fit his shoulders through it. I had a slim chance, but that didn’t seem to matter, because it had some kind of safety lock against opening it too wide.
The bathroom was quiet. Not so much as a drip interrupted the silence. Only our ragged breathing filled the space. It was clean and smelled like floral soap. It clearly didn’t get much use. We both stood frozen in place, listening as a sound from the distance reached us. Someone was shouting, and footsteps were echoing. The gunmen were searching for other people in the staff area.
Fear clutched my heart, making it hard to breathe. I was terrified. I’d never been so scared. There was a loud rasping noise.
“Get a fucking grip, Martino. Shut it,” Beckett muttered.
The sound was me. I hadn’t even realized.
I backed away from the door, my head light and my knees weak.
“They’re going to find us.” I panted and closed my eyes, leaning on the wall. I knew it without a doubt. This was it. They were going to bust in here and drag us out at gunpoint.
“Piss your pants in silence. If you get us found, I’m using you as a human shield,” Beckett snapped at me.
Right. He was still furious at me. He hated me more than ever. The reason he’d tracked me down here was still very much valid. We weren’t friends. Just reluctant allies in not getting killed.
“I’d expect nothing less from you.” My voice rose involuntarily, too loud.
Outside, there was the sound of cubicles banging open. They had reached the bathroom. Fear made everything else fade away.
