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As she spiraled into her mind, I felt so alone. I wanted to feel Ben’s arms around me. I wanted to see my baby grow. I needed to tell them how much I loved them. I hadn’t said enough. Why hadn’t I said enough? I had no idea how, and it seemed like crazy and stupid thinking on my part, but I would get out of that hellhole. I would do that for my family.
She tensed at my side, and I froze. Mia gazed at me, her eyes a little too rounder. Instead of sharing her conclusion, though, she promised, “I’m getting you out of here.”
I wanted to believe her. “I need to see them again,” I stressed. “It’s not fair to them. It’s not fair to us.” I’d never worked so hard to control my emotions.
“We’ll find a way. I swear you’re leaving this place.”
“I love them so much.”
“I know. They love you, too.” She stared at me with a longing expression I couldn’t comprehend. “I’m glad I got to see Benny finding his person. I’m grateful I had the chance to meet you and love your boy. Love you.” Her smile seemed sad, yet her eyes were determined.
Before I could question her, we heard a sound of a door slamming on the storage. Even though the two doors from the conference were open, we couldn’t quite see the activity; we just watched them going back and forth.
“The mirrors,” I whispered.
At her confused expression, I motioned my head to the two mirrors facing each other in the conference room. We were sitting with our backs to one of them, while the other was hanging on the opposite wall. They reflected on each other, and I realized we could see a lot more than we first noticed.
“Great call!” Mia shifted to the side so she could get a better angle. “That door is unlocked. The one across the storage. That leads to the entrance hall.”
Her gaze bounced between the two doors, and her brows furrowed. She mumbled to herself, counting the apparel she hid.
“You need to get to that door. Get out in the hall, butdon’t open the front door,” she stressed. “Go behind Haley’s desk. There’s a handle hidden under the carpet. Pull it up to find a bunker. Get inside and close it after you. I pressed the panic button, so the guys should be here any minute.” Her words were hurried, and I was having a hard time keeping up. “Wait for them inside. When they get to you,don’t let them come in. Say to them, ‘Code Black.’ They’ll know what it means.”
“We can’t cross the whole storage without them noticing.”
“Youcan. When the time comes, you run and do as I told you. Remember: close the bunker after you and tell the guys, ‘Code Black.’ Donotlet them come in without saying that first.”
“Wait. What about you?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll be right behind you.”
“I can’t go without you.”
“You have to go first. Don’t worry about me. Don’t look back. Just do it.”
“But how can you—”
“Damn it, Izzie. Don’t push me on this. Ineedyou to do as I told you to.” Despite her words, she didn’t seem mad. She was worried. Tense. “Don’t worry about me.”
In the distance, we heard the sound of tires crunching gravel, and my hopes spiked up. The guys had arrived. Between them and Mia’s crazy idea about running away, I started to believe we could pull that off.
What a fool.
“They’re not answering.” Zach’s panicked voice reflected our mood.
“If there’s someone at the company, they probably took their phones.” I hated Aaron for bringing that up. But their being taken hostage was the most likely scenario.
I was driving like a lunatic, while Zach was sitting beside me on a call with Aaron and Danny and using my phone to call the girls.
“What about the phones we keep hidden? Maybe they could get one of them.”
“Danny’s right. Try those numbers,” I urged Zach. I was torn between cursing myself for getting them there alone and trying to keep my head in the game.
As soon as we saw the message from the panic button, we contacted Danny, who’d already reached Aaron. He’d sent a detail to Zach’s parents to keep our family safe, while the four of us headed to Bryants & Walker.
“I’m almost there. What’s your ETA?” Danny questioned.
“Five minutes,” I answered. Less than that if I could push the gas a little harder.
