AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His eyes moved from me to Lupe and back again. I felt her grip my hand in preparation for us to make a run for it.
“We must keep you safe,Princesa. Señor López would never forgive me if something happened to you.”
When she released her grip on my hand, I knew that our cover hadn’t been blown. We were okay. For the moment, anyway.
“You must trust us to keep you out of harm’s way.”
Out of my peripheral, I saw her nod once, twice, three times. We had a choice to make. And it wasn’t an easy one. Option one: go with them and take a chance, but keep our covers intact. Option two: make a run for it and ruin all the work she’d done and give up on the hopes we had of taking them all out.
“Come,” he said, taking my hand. Lupe’s was still in mine as we silently followed where they led.
I memorized the steps we took, how many steps, and in what direction, all while trying to get eyes on my team.
The fire alarm sounded as he punched in a code on the wall. The noise blasted my eardrums, and I covered my ears against the screeching blare. A panel in the wall moved, reminding me of Tyler’s bat cave. This wasn’t a room though. It was a secret corridor.
My usually clear thinking and sharp mind were a wreck. My brain went blank. Speechless, I could only gape in utter astonishment at the fact that we were about to enter a hidden passage. It was like a fucking Nancy Drew mystery book. Who knew this was here? There was no indication of any passageway on any of the blueprints we’d pulled and studied.
My eyes snapped to Lupe. Her movements were only a tiny shake of her head. Her eyes were wide. It was evident she had no idea about this place either.
There were four armed men behind us. There was no way we’d be able to fight all of them off and make it out of here alive.
Before I could stop her, Lupe asked, “Are we in trouble?”
Jorge’s eyebrows lifted. “Are you in trouble?”
She nodded. “Is that why you have to take us away?”
He shook his head and sighed. Was he confused or annoyed? Or did he simply not know? Or was he planning something devious that we could never have imagined? “No,Princesa.”
His words washed over me with an immediate sense of relief. His eyes locked onto mine. “No one is in trouble . . . yet.”
And before either of us could react, we were being dragged through the opening.
* * *
There were seven thugs with us. Five I hadn’t seen, and Jorge and Daniel.
Jorge had Lupe by the elbow, leading her down the dimmed passage, lit only by sporadic low-lit orange glowing bulbs. Daniel was on his left side. It was eerily quiet down here. After descending an elongated staircase, I knew we were below street level.
“Hurry!Rapido, rapido!”one voice boomed. I felt a hand on my back practically shoving me forward into the abyss.
We were moving quickly. It wasn’t long before footsteps behind us were heard. I knew it was my team.
“Policia! Hurry, they’re catching up!”
“SDPD! Stop! Stop!” came shouts from my team behind us.
The twoidiotaswith me started shooting back at my team. Jorge and Daniel hurried forward with Lupe. I pretended to trip and fell to the floor.
A series of shots came toward us from my team. One of the guys was hit and immediately killed. “Give me a gun!Dame la pistola!” The guy closest to me tossed me a gun. I proceeded to shoot two of them—just flesh wounds. But they were down. Another shot took out another thug.
Four down, one to go. The last one was still standing six feet in front of me as my guys came into view. He tried to take a shot, missed, and was taken out. I emptied the last of my bullets into the air and sent my guys a signal before running the other way to where Lupe was. I had to get her out. We needed her and her intel. This case would fall apart without her. I had no other choice. Picking up another gun, I rushed ahead into the tunnel, armed and ready to get Lupe out.
