Guillermo’s laugh burrowed deep into her mind. His breath was hot in her ear. “That’s right. Not so brave now, are you? Can you guess what I’m going to do to you now?” He jammed his hand up higher inside her body, bruising her inside and out. “I’m going to fuck this cunt until it bleeds. Then I’m going to fuck your ass. Tear it up so raw you’ll scream for mercy. Then, I’m going to fuck your mouth, and as I come down your throat, I’m going to blow your fucking brains out for your precious lover boy to find. Broken, bleeding, and full of my cum. Used like theputayou are.”
His words were no sooner out of his mouth when she heard the grinding of the panel gears begin, and the wall she was pressed against began to turn toward Guillermo. He didn’t react fast enough, and Cesar wasn’t prepared to catch her body, soshe fell between the two panels. As soon as she hit the floor, she instinctively pulled her legs close to her body and rolled toward the inside of the now-opened corridor. Before either man could lunge at her, the panels turned and closed behind her.
Glennon indulged in a single sobbing gasp for air. Pulling her knees up tight to her chest, she was able to stretch her bound hands around her ass, over her feet, and bring them in front of her. She rose to her feet. After she pulled her pants up around her waist, she took off down the passage to her left, hopefully away from Guillermo and Cesar.
Unfortunately, luck was not with her, and the moment she’d taken to put herself back together cost her valuable time. Immediately, the walls shifted again, allowing the men to pass into the same corridor as her. The end of the hall she was in suddenly slammed shut as the panel in front of her sealed the hallway closed.
She was stuck in the box from the other night. In sixty seconds, the walls would move again, but by then, it wouldn’t matter. Sixty seconds was an eternity.
PANEL 118
Triumph
As Glennon beganher final desperate run to the arcade, Triumph’s motorcycle came screaming down the street toward the main entrance of Elysium. Two men stood at the entrance, drew their weapons, and fired at him. Had he not been wearing his leather jacket, the graze that tore his sleeve would likely have ripped open his arm.
Making a split-second decision, he dumped his bike, making sure to keep himself behind it. Wes and his fellow ranger, Dax, were right behind him in their vehicle, with TJ Rockwell hanging out the back passenger-side window, his rifle up to his shoulder. Two rounds roared from the weapon, taking out both men where they stood.
The car wasn’t even at a standstill before Wes was out his door and racing toward Triumph. “You okay?”
Triumph gave him a thumbs-up, then tore his helmet from his head and chucked it to the ground next to the bike. Quickly, he began thumbing buttons on his phone. “Fuck! I need to get to the arcade!”
He held up his phone to the man. Dax and TJ ran up to look over his shoulder at what was showing there. He had pulled up the video cameras from inside the club just in time to see Glennon running into the Hall of Mirrors.
“What the hell?” Dax uttered.
“I don’t have time to explain, but she’s given herself the best chance she has of shaking them. If I can get to her, I know the patterns of their movement.”
“Cruz is on his way with the cavalry. Dax will stay with the bodies. I’ll check the back entrance. Take TJ with you.”
Quickly, he scanned his new cuff against the panel, then punched in his code. The door opened. Inside, he took three seconds to code the door so it would remain unlocked. They would need law enforcement to be able to get inside.
He glanced at his phone again, and his heart sank. Guillermo and Cesar had caught up with her in the maze.
“Fuck! They found her.”
TJ slapped his shoulder. “Keep it cool. I’ve got you, and I’ve got her, but I need higher ground.”
With effort, he reset himself. “Go to the lobby. Fire exit on the right, one flight up. That landing goes to all the mechanics. The entire space is catwalks. You can see the whole club from up there.”
With a clap to Triumph’s shoulder, he raced back to the lobby.
Triumph took another look at his phone, his eyes widening in fear. Cesar and Guillermo had Glennon pinned to one of the mirrored walls and were in the process of binding her hands.
Their next action of beginning to undress her made his blood boil with rage.
Moving faster than he’d ever thought possible, he took off, dashing left and right unerringly through the maze to get to the arcade. Once there, he didn’t hesitate to approach the Hall ofMirrors. However, as soon as he did, he heard the grinding of the walls against the floor and watched the panels shift.
Panic coursed through him as he took another look at his phone. Glennon had managed, by sheer luck, to have been pressed up against a wall that spun one hundred and eighty degrees during the last shift, allowing her to fall behind it when the men weren’t prepared for the change. The problem was that the same wall was about to shift another one hundred and eighty degrees in about five seconds, leaving her open to the men pursuing her. Unless she’d gotten up and run immediately, and given the state of undress she’d been in, she was about to be caught again, since the men hadn’t moved.
One glance at his phone showed him that she hadn’t had time to escape, and now she was literally boxed in for the next sixty seconds before the panel at the far end of the “closet” she was now stuck in would open. She had no way out. Even once that doorway opened, Guillermo and Cesar were still between her and the next possible exit option. They’d be on her before that happened, and by then, the damage would already be done.
While his heart was screaming at him to get moving, to save her, he wasn’t so far gone that he didn’t recognize the need to be smart about getting to her. If he didn’t pause to gain control and remember the paths and patterns, he’d get lost himself. While he knew she was tough, the best way to help her was to make sure he actually got to her. They caught her again. They would attack her again. But she was strong. She’d survive being assaulted. She would not survive a direct shot to the head.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath to center himself, and imagined the view of the Hall of Mirrors from the control booth. Then his brain segmented—one part imagining the current paths, the other part running at rapid speed through the panel movements.
Panel 118. He had never checked it the other night because Glennon had distracted him.
His eyes shot open wide, and he took off toward the southwest corner of the room. They were in the northeast corner, but right now, the tunnel directly to his right was a straight shot around the outside of the space, with no distracting alleyways, and it stayed that way for approximately fifteen more seconds. It would get him into the alleyway next to where she was trapped, as long as he beat the shifting panels. If he didn’t make it before the next change, he’d be cut off from her, with no way to go but back the way he came. Then he’d definitely be too late.
