AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Run through the fields. We passed another house about three miles before this one. You can make it there.” She squeezed my hand. “Please let me do this. I know it won’t make up for what happened to Jensen, but if it saves you, that’s still something. Please.”
Misery was still stabbing at my soul, but at the same time, my mind was finally beginning to process things again. Piper’s plan could actually work, and I knew I owed it to Jensen to try after everything he’d done to keep me safe and alive. I had to go.
The hatch opened wider, and a faint voice said something unintelligible from above.
“I have to go now,” Piper whispered. “Wait for the signal.”
She darted over to the ladder and began to climb upward. “Please don’t shoot me!” she called out. “It’s just me!”
The cellar door opened all the way, and I saw two muscular arms reach down to pull Piper all the way out of the hole. I lay down and covered myself with the blanket again, heart pounding.
With the door wide open, I could hear a lot more from above. Still, it wasn’t enough to get any idea of what was actually happening. Just faint voices and footsteps thudding all over the place. I waited for Piper’s stomping signal with bated breath, but it never came.
More footsteps clunked down the hall, stopping short at the hatch. Then came the telltale sound of someone climbing down the rickety wooden ladder. Another wave of fear washed over me, and I curled up into a tight ball under the blanket.
“Amerie?”
A soft feminine voice spoke my name, but I didn’t move a muscle. It was Zara. It had to be.
Footsteps padded across the floor, getting closer to my spot behind the boxes. “Amerie. It’s okay.” The voice was louder this time. “Piper told me you’re here.”
I slowly peeled the top of the blanket back. It wasn’t Zara’s voice calling out to me after all. It was—
“It’s Addy,” the voice went on. “Amerie, it’s me. You can come out.”
I slowly sat up straight, hardly daring to believe my ears.
Addy spotted me and rushed over, throwing her arms around me in a bear hug. “Oh my god, you’re okay!” she said, voice thickening with emotion. “I was so worried.”
“I don’t understand,” I murmured. “How are you here right now?”
“After you guys posted the undercover footage online, I went to the police and gave them the burner phone number that you called me from earlier. I told them it was an emergency based on the post and got them to track the location,” she said. “I know you didn’t want that because you didn’t know which cops could actually be trusted, but I had to risk it. I had to help you. I was so worried.”
“So the police are here now?”
“Yes. But don’t worry. They’re the good ones,” she said. “They’re speaking to Piper now. I said I’d come down here and get you. I knew you’d be too scared to come out otherwise.”
I swallowed hard. “So… the Rosmerta people are gone?”
She drew back, looking at me with a quizzical expression. “They were here?”
“Yes. Not long ago.” My face crumpled, and the tears finally came, flooding my eyes and cascading down my face. “They… they shot Jensen.”
“Holy shit,” she muttered, whipping her head around the dim cellar. “Is he okay? Where is he?”
I stared at her, disbelieving. “What do you mean? Didn’t you see his body up there?”
“No. The place was empty when we came in.” She bit her bottom lip and cast her eyes to the floor. “But…”
My teary eyes widened. “What?”
“I saw some blood on the floor when we walked inside.”
My heart froze all over again, sending chills through every inch of my body. “How much blood?” I asked in a hollow voice.
“Not a lot. Just a small pool. So I thought…” She bit her bottom lip and went on. “Well, I knew someone was hurt, but I had no idea someone had been shot.”
“I definitely heard a gunshot, Addy. Right above us. Piper heard it too.”
