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“She needs to get out. Why didn’t she follow me?”
“Because she was making sure you left the building. We don’t know what’s going on inside or what kind of bomb there is, or even where. That’s why I need you to leave,” Ben urged once again.
I took in a deep breath. “I’m not leaving here, and that’s not up for discussion. If more people are coming, I can stay back with one of them, but this is my family, and I deserve to be around.”
“Izzie—”
“One of my best friends chose to stay behind, in the eye of the storm, to keep me safe. I’ll stay right here until she gets out.” I held his face in my hands. “Because I know you’ll get her out.”
He nodded, and a new sense of purpose filled his features right before he gave me a hard kiss. It felt like a promise, and I held on to it.
We heard people approaching us, and I looked back to see Aaron and several unknown uniformed men following him. “Are you okay, darling?” I nodded, not trusting my voice. Then the stoic agent cut right to the chase. “What’s the situation?”
“She’s hidden,” Danny announced. He was in his tactical gear and watching something on his computer. We all got closer as he explained. “After she knocked down the shelves, they started looking for her, but they followed the wrong paths. She ran to the bathroom, but we don’t have cameras there.”
“How come they didn’t find her?”
“I don’t know,” Danny answered Zach. “They kept looking in the wrong place, so she sneaked inside the bathroom. She must have distracted them somehow.”
“My explosive specialist is coming,” Aaron informed us. “Until then, you’re on your own, Zach.”
At my puzzled expression, Ben explained, “He was an explosive specialist back in our days.”
“I’ll start perusing one side of the building. As soon as your guy gets here, he can get the other. We need to coordinate with her, so Danny, keep trying to contact her and watch the cameras. Keep us informed on what they’re doing and where she is.” Zach took charge like a leader, even struggling to control his emotions.
“Start with the truck entrance. We can assemble a trap there if the men try to run away,” Ben instructed Zach.
“Why not the conference room where they were?” Danny’s question was legit.
“Mia and Izzie could’ve run away from there, it was the easiest way out. But Mia chose to lead Izzie through the back of the storage, and then to the bunker. That means the main door to the room is most likely compromised. I don’t think she’ll try to seek refuge there. She also advised Izzie to get inside the bunker, and not get out from the front door—”
“She believes there’s an explosive there,” Danny summarized.
“She can’t stay in the bathroom forever, they’ll find her.” My heartbeat was speeding up again. “We need to contact her.”
Ben’s brow furrowed in thought before he stopped Danny. “Don’t call her on the company phone! She must have climbed into the vents. If you call her, even a vibration could echo. Just text her. If she could at least read us, we could guide her out.”
“The vents?”
“You were right, Izzie. If she stays in the bathroom, they’ll find her. But she didn’t go there to stay hidden. She’s planning an attack.”
I was almost out of office supplies. I threw them left and right to keep them looking in the wrong direction until I could get inside the bathroom and ease the door closed behind me.
My knee was burning, and my ribs were killing me. If I could get out of that alive, I’d spend a whole month lying down and eating junk food. I deserved it.
Climbing on the sink, I prayed the thing wouldn’t break under me. I balanced myself over the appliance and took off the vent grid. Climbing into the air vent proved to be more challenging than I expected. Pain engulfed me, and if I wasn’t so pissed at the whole situation, and so focused on killing Michael, I’d have given up, curled up on the floor, and waited for my imminent ending.
I got inside and eased the grid back into place as silently as I could, then headed left to the gym. I crawled inside the dirty vent, hoping my allergies wouldn’t betray my position. I fought every instinct I had not to shoot any of them just yet. I didn’t have many openings, so I had to make good on my meager opportunities.
I crawled over the gym until I reached the side of the elevated platform. I needed to cross it until the corner to get inside the vault. We had more guns in there, so if I could reach the place, I might have a chance. The problem was, even if I had more guns, I was realistic enough to admit it’d be hard to handle alone a handful of armed men. I’d be really grateful to the Universe, though, if I could take down one or two of them before getting to the vault.
The whole Michael thing had taken long enough, and I’d be damned if I wouldn’t put an end to it.
Lying down on the vent, I watched one of them looking for me on the platform. He was alone, which meant the others were downstairs—I was mostly sure the one under the shelves hadn’t gotten out yet, if ever. When the man on the platform also got down, I waited a bit and then opened the grid.
I fished out of my waistband the gun I picked up from under the conference table and the small one I stole from Michael and tiptoed around the platform. Just like downstairs, it was filled with shelves. I tried to be smart and meandered around it without being seen.
My saving grace and big risk were that its floor was made of sheets of metal, with a gap of about an inch between each one. Not only did I need to be extra quiet, I also needed to walk around looking for them, being careful not to let my shadow rat me out. I knew the space well enough to know which sheet of metal was loose and noisier, but I wasn’t in the position to take chances.
