AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“T,” he called. “Try to get William to stop the bomb going off or find another way to disable the timer. Chad, Derek, I need you!”
Malik ran back toward the house. Chad shoved the guard he was holding at Ned, and Derek was hot on his heels.
He heard a cry for help. A female cry. Was that Sophie?
“Sophie, I’m coming!” he hollered back as loud as he could.
Please, please let us save Sophie and Levi, he begged heaven above.
If they lived, he would have to spend a lot of time thanking his Heavenly Father and developing a better relationship with Him.
The past twenty-four hours had taught him he couldn’t survive without heaven’s help, and now that he’d reconnected with Sophie, he couldn’t lose her again.
No. He’d already known he couldn’t survive without Sophie. He’d merely been existing. A life without her was no life.
Please don’t let her die.
Chapter Thirteen
Sophie grasped one of Levi’s ankles as he stood on the edge of the balcony railing and sought valiantly to find a handhold or a foothold or any possible way to cross the open space between the balconies. She had no clue if she could hold on to him if he fell or if he’d simply take her with him down the cliff. She had to try to help somehow, but an ominous and chilly wind swirled up the space as if determined to sweep them both off the balcony.
“Monkey boy,” Levi kept muttering, referring to Mason scrambling across the space so quickly it had looked like magic. Malik’s twin brother Derek was a champion from American Ninja Warrior. He could probably follow Mason’s path, but Levi wasn’t having any luck. “There’s a heat vent I can almost reach, but it looks slick. I’m afraid it’d be no kind of finger hold.”
Sophie was certain Mason had used the stone façade, but Levi had tried that to no avail.
The gunfire suddenly ceased, and Sophie cocked her head. What did the silence mean? Had Malik won, or had William’s men killed them all?
“Help!” she called into the night air, but she feared they wouldn’t hear her. “Help!”
Levi glanced down at her, his face filled with frustration. “I can’t see a way across.”
“Do you want me to try?”
“Your reach is less than mine.” He pushed out a frustrated breath and climbed down. “I’m going to try to break through the door again.” He sounded so discouraged and beaten. Were they going to die? The house hadn’t blown yet, but three-forty was fast approaching.
She followed him back into the room and glanced at the alarm clock.
Three-twenty-four.
Ah, no. A sick knot formed in her gut. At least her parents and Sunny and Mason were out of the house. Right? If they’d escaped, why hadn’t they come for them? Sent Malik for them? Malik would come for her.
Unless he was dead.
Despair coated her throat and made it hard to swallow.
Please help, she begged as she watched Levi beating at the door handle, the hinges, the door, and then the wall with a metal rod from the closet. He kicked the door in frustration. Everything about it was solid.
“You’re going to break your leg.”
“Better than being blown up.”
There was no answer for that. Her stomach churned and churned. She didn’t want to die. She’d finally told Malik the truth and had been reunited with him. She hadn’t been able to tell him that she might’ve stolen his heart the first time he saw her, but he’d always owned hers. All she wanted was to hold him and Sunny close and have a chance at a life with the prince who’d always believed in her.
Sophie wandered back toward the patio. If the battle was done, she was going to scream until somebody heard her.
There was no sound of shooting, so she tried calling, “Help!”
Suddenly she heard a faint, “Sophie! I’m coming!”
