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Twenty minutes—not a lot of time. She’d need to move fast and quietly. Twenty minutes to get to Mason and get him out of this hell hole. She turned, shoving down her desire to run back to the elevators that would take her to the lower level. She knew the cameras weren’t recording, but if she encountered someone or someone saw her, she didn’t want to bring attention to herself.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
Each door she passed was an opportunity for someone to open it and catch her in the act. But in the act of what? How would they tell that she was planning to snatch someone from their lab and make a bid for freedom? The answer was, there was no way. But in this instance, reality and fear had little to do with one another.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
It wasn’t that Emery knew at best their odds were fifty/fifty of pulling this off, but as bad as those odds were, if they stayed, the odds were one hundred percent that they would die… or worse.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
She reached the elevator and realized it, too, was blinking red, which meant there would be no record of her using her security access to get where she needed to go. She entered the elevator car and pushed the button for Lower Level Three. The elevator was also voice activated, but she’d never felt comfortable using that. Kam had explained that was the reason they’d left the buttons. She called Emery’s preference for using the buttons ‘quaint.’ Kam was a bitch.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
The elevator started to move and even though her actual destination was the first of the subterranean levels, she pushed the button for Lower Level Three where her office was located. It was a precaution in case somehow someone could tell where she was going. The ride seemed interminable.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
Once the doors opened, she raced to the end of the hall where the stairwell was located, opened the doors, and took the stairs two at a time. Reaching the landing outside Lower Level One, she cracked open the door, straining to listen. She wasn’t sure, but it sounded as if a door was opening. What she was sure of was the sound of that gurney with the wonky wheel. She peeked out and her heart sank. Mason was strapped to the table and was being wheeled into the elevator.
She could feel the seconds and minutes ticking away. She needed to move. Faster! Faster!
Tick! Tick! Tick!
“Lower Level Three,” said one of the orderlies as the door closed.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
Shit! What the hell was she going to do? The window of opportunity was closing. Twenty minutes; she glanced at her watch and saw half of them gone. It truly was now or never. As she leaned out to confirm what she’d heard, her lab coat swung forward and quietly clanked against the door. She thanked whatever powers ruled the universe that no one had heard.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
She could feel him down the link. He was struggling against the sedation, clawing his way back to consciousness without alerting the two men wheeling the gurney towards what she suspected was a one-way trip to hell.
* * *
Mason
Mason had never felt so helpless in his life—and it wasn’t a feeling he liked. He could feel Emery as soon as they reached the lowest level. She was close. He’d tried to block her from some of his emotions. She didn’t need to know the level of danger he was in. He had to shield her as much as possible.
He didn’t want to lose her. He would fight with everything he had, but if it came down to it, he needed to know she would survive. She would live on. His brother, his mate, and their friends would take care of her and see that she was happy.
The medications they’d given him swirled in his veins, leaving a burning sensation in their wake. It was important to note that it wasn’t as bad as it had been before. Apparently, his cave lion didn’t like being sedated.
They rolled him into a darkened room. The lights were on a sensor and came on automatically as they entered. He forced himself to lie still and portray a deeper level of sedation than he actually felt.
They slapped him awake as they none-too-gently removed the IVs and the feeding tube. He winced as the latter was removed. The two goons removed him from the gurney, half-carrying, half-dragging him to an iron wall, shackling his arms and legs so he was all but suspended and made to stand straight.
“Bet that makes that old hospital bed feel downright comfy, now, doesn’t it?” cackled one of the goons as he handed the key to Kam Perkins.
Perkins walked to a pegboard behind a bank of computer desks with monitors and several laptops and hung the key among several others—so close and yet so far away. He was quite sure part of the torture she wanted to inflict was being able to see the literal key to his escape. Perkins might suspect that there was something between him and Emery, but she had no way of knowing the depth of Emery’s feelings, her courage, or the strength of her heart.
Perkins returned and patted his chest. “Don’t fret, lover, I’ll be back shortly. We just want to make sure the sedation has worn off completely. I feel my subjects reveal more in my testing if they can feel everything.”
Mason growled, and Perkins laughed—the sound like nails raking down a chalkboard. She spun on her Louboutins and left, her goons trailing behind her. In what seemed like an instant, Emery slipped into the room. Relief and anxiety flooded his system in equal measure.
“You need to leave. It’s too dangerous.”
