Page 95 of Five

My hand goes inside my dress and flicks my phone screen to life. I took the lock off. There’s no way punching in a code to activate your phone is a good idea when timing is everything. I know where that little icon is, because I rearranged the icons on purpose, just in case.

“What are you doing?” Franks asks. I’m still looking at him as I press the Love Notes icon.

“Calling for backup.” I laugh. And then I puke again. Frank gets my phone, smashes it on the hard tile of the bathroom floor, and then pulls me to my feet as I’m wiping my mouth.

“He won’t save you, Aurora—”

But I’m already on my feet, my shoes kicked off, and my bare foot hits him smack in the balls. He doubles over, clutching at his groin. I grab his hair with both hands, swallow down the next episode of vomit that so desperately wants to come up, and bring his face down on my knee.

His nose and mouth spurt blood, all over my pretty dress that is already ruined from leaning over the toilet.

I do it again, and again, and again, until he falls off to the side, moaning in pain. Curled up in a fetal position like the weak fuck that he is.

“That’s for killing my friend,” I say. And then I spit on him. “And I warned you, asshole. My name is Rory.”

A slow clap erupts behind me.

I whirl and find the blonde woman smiling at me. “Well done, Aurora. Well done.”

“Who the fuck are you?” I seethe.

“Doesn’t matter,” she says, snapping her fingers. A big man—and I’m talking big man—appears behind her. “Take her downstairs. She’s going first.”

Chapter Thirty-One - Five

I’m still looking through the scope, my gaze trained on the front door of Palladium House, when my phone dings in my pocket.

“What the fuck is that?” Chen growls.

I ignore him and look at the screen. “Love Notes,” I say. I’m on my feet and running across the roof before Chen even knows what’s happening, the rifle forgotten.

“Five!” he yells. “Five! Get back here!”

I don’t even bother looking back at him. Just jump down to the balcony we used to get up here and disappear into the classroom.

Two minutes later I’m making my way around the back of Palladium House. Chen was good for one thing—house plans. So I know there’s a small basement window on the west side of the house, and that’s my access point.

I kick it in, not even caring that people are yelling and telling me to stop. The only thing I care about is that my princess just sent me an SOS signal and nothing and no one will stop me from reaching her inside this fucked-up fun house.

I scramble in, rush towards the utility room door, and collide with Cliff Middleton when he opens it just before I reach for the knob.

We both go down like a fucking couple of stooges. Someone shoots through the window behind me. I caught their guards by surprise, but that didn’t last long.

“You got it?” I ask Cliff.

“Yeah,” he says, both of us dropping to the ground and taking cover behind a water heater. A bullet hits the heater and boiling water starts spurting out and filling the room up with steam.

“Give it to me,” I say.

Cliff reaches into his pocket as another barrage of bullets hits the tank. Water burns my arms and legs, even through my clothes, and makes me wince. But then… there it is. The flash drive I need to make all this bullshit go away. I reach for it, but Cliff’s body goes flying backwards as the bullets hit him instead of the tank. Blood comes pouring out as he gasps for breath on the floor.

I grab the drive, stuff it into my pocket, and then Cliff groans out a word.

God, he’s not gonna make it. “Rory,” he croaks. “Basement,” he manages.

And then his eyes go blank as death comes to take him.

Chapter Thirty-Two - Rory