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“He’ll be there. And he’ll have a way out,” Callum said.
I looked at Saint. “Find the detonator. Underground is a dead zone, and I’ll lose communication. I won’t know if you’ve found it.” It had been built that way so no one had access to the outside when they were at the fights. I looked at Callum. “Give me fifteen.”
He nodded.
I strode toward the far end of the stable to the thick mahogany door. There were stone steps on the other side that spiralled down to the underground. I’d been down here countless times before. It was where I’d killed my demons after my brother died.
My hand curled around the iron latch.
“Vic,” Ethan said.
He didn’t have to say anything more. I looked at him and nodded. “I’ll bring her home.”
Home. I never thought I’d have a home, but Macayla and Jackson were mine. They were my home, and I wasn’t giving them up.
I opened the door and stepped inside the cold, dank stairwell.
The door closed behind me, and I heard a faint click.
I dove forward, hitting the far wall as the ceiling collapsed, a huge wooden beam narrowly missing me.
I glanced back at the blocked doorway. Only two more exits.
I unholstered my gun and headed down the stairs, the damp air tainted with gasoline.
Macayla
I kicked at the rat poking his head through the fence and it fell off the platform. The chain link was stained with my blood, and the scent was drawing them closer.
I’d only managed to untwist six links from the pole. I had at least a dozen more left. Ignoring the cuts on my fingers, I worked faster.
I was not dying here. Jackson needed me. I needed him. I wasn’t going to take my last breath—
I froze as the smell of gasoline hit me. I scuttled around on my ass and saw a bouncing beam of light coming from a tunnel.
Vic? Did he find me? I opened my mouth to scream when I heard whistling.
It was like a small flicker of hope being ripped from my insides and stomped on. Aiden. What was he doing? Where was the gasoline coming from?
My eyes skidded to the movement over the ground. Rats. They were scurrying from the tunnel to escape the gasoline, their feet sounding like thousands of fingertips tapping on a keyboard.
Oh my God. Was he going to set this place on fire?
I jerked on the chains, kicking at the fence as hard as I could. No. No.
I frantically tried to force my hands through the manacles again. Scraping my skin, my blood dripping onto the mat.
“Fuck,” I screamed. “No. Please.” I kicked and kicked at the bottom rail of the fence, the steel bar bending but refusing to break. “Please,” I cried. I didn’t want to die. Not like this.
The whistling grew louder.
I stopped kicking as Aiden strolled out of the tunnel, carrying a large red gasoline can. He walked toward me, letting the clear amber liquid spill from the spout. There was a bounce to his step as if he was on the way to the local fair.
He cocked his head and smiled at me as he slowly circled the platform. “I apologize. The game will have to end sooner than I anticipated. I got too excited hearing you scream and had to call him so he’d hear you.”
The smell of gasoline penetrated my nostrils. “You won’t get away with this.”
He laughed. “Of course I will. Once they are all dead, no one will come after me. No one even knows I’m here. Well, Carlos did, so I had to kill him. It was quick though. He’d always been nice to me.
