Shoving herself to her feet, Melanie strodetoward the door with a confidence she didn’t feel. She opened itand poked her head into the hall. Every afternoon, between one andfour o’clock, her father and Delilah retreated to their offices onthe third floor. There, they would look over their data and notesbefore going to dinner.
Their schedules were like clockwork and asregimented as the military. As long as she’d known them, they’dnever deviated. They would be in their offices now and going overtheir notes.
However, there would be others meandering thehalls. Usually, most people were on the third floor at this time,but she occasionally ran into another in the halls.
Melanie tried to act casual as she walked tothe elevators. If anyone attempted to stop her, she would tell themshe was going to the cafeteria for a late lunch, but she doubtedanybody would try to stop her on any of these floors.
When she got to the fifth floor, it would bean entirely different story. But she had to return there; sheneeded to distract the guards, or at least one of them, while Lucyset Kyle free.
Melanie gulped and pushed the button for theelevator. She held her breath as the buttons lit up and it ascendedtoward her. If Lucy had failed and the cameras still worked, theywould come for her as soon as the doors opened on the fifth floor.Trusting her friend, she stepped onto the elevator and hit thebutton for the prison below.
***
Lucy smiled at Billy as she slipped into thecontrol room. He grinned back at her as he closed the door andlocked it.
“Hey, sexy,” he greeted.
She smiled as she rose on her toes to kisshim. He was ten years older than her but cute, and even if hehadn’t been her access to the control room, she would have sleptwith him. However, access to this room was a bonus as it was theironly chance at freedom.
If this failed, he’d hate her forever, butthat was a sacrifice she was willing to make.
“Hey,” she greeted as she walked over to siton the edge of the massive bank of controls, buttons, and screensrunning this mess. Every time she saw all the computers andcontrollers, it took everything she had not to bash her fists intothem.
This place had been the bane of her existencesince childhood. She loathed it, and she wasnotgoing todie here. She didn’t care what it took to make sure that neverhappened.
Billy sauntered toward her. “Are you readyfor a good time?”
“Always,” she said.
She glanced over her shoulder at the thickglass looking down on the cells below. She spotted Kyle in his newcage in the middle of the glass cages. The red marks and stitchescrisscrossing his body made him look like a patched-together voodoodoll made out of real human parts.
He paced like a caged tiger as he glared atthe other vampires and guards. He looked like he was ready to killanyone who approached him, but there was also a slight awkwardnessto his step. Despite looking strong and ready to kill, the drugswere still affecting him. However, they were now pumping more intohis cage than any of the others.
He was better at covering it than the othersor better at suppressing its effects. She suspected the latter wasmost likely true, which made him so much more powerful than any ofthese other vamps, but then, he’d proven that when he cracked theglass.
Lucy gulped; she hoped putting her faith inhim was the right thing to do, but they didn’t have any otheroptions. And even if he was a vicious, bloodthirsty monster, hislove for Melanie was obvious.
She’d seen the video; his love for Melaniehad propelled him to feats no one in this place had believedpossible. He may slaughter anyone who tried to stop him, but shehad no doubt he would do everything he could to save Melanie, andMelanie wouldn’t let him leave withouther.
Besides, there had to be at least some truthto his story about being able to withstand the sun. He may becapable of killing, but he wasn’t a killer. And though everyone inhere had done their damnedest to convince her everything sheremembered was a lie, she didn’t believe it.
She hoped he wasn’t too drugged to help themget out of here. And if he could crack that thick glass, he couldget them free. She had to believe that.
Maybe she was putting her trust in the wrongvampire, but she didn’t know where else to put it.
“It’s quiet down there today,” sheremarked.
Billy stopped in front of her and rested hishands on either side of her waist. “They’re starting to learn tobehave.”
Her ass was only an inch from the controls,as were his fingers. During one of her previous visits here, she’dasked him if he knew what all the controls did. She, of course,knew he did, but eager to show how important he was, he revealedall.
He’d been endearing and cute as he babbled onabout all the knobs, switches, and devices. She almost felt bad forwhat she was about to do, but he fully believed in what they weredoing here and was helping to keep her a prisoner.
His belief in this place was so entrenchedshe would never sway him into helping her break out. If she evertried, he’d report her. She did not doubt it.
When she started sleeping with him, Lucydidn’t have an escape plan in mind; she was just determined tolearn everything about this place. And the thing she needed tolearn the most was its brain; this control room was that brain.
A plan had come to her more slowly. Well, no,it hadn’t, considering there still wasn’t much of a plan other thanset Kyle free and running.
