Consciousness returns slowly, and at first, I can’t work out what it is that has woken me. It could have been any number of things, from the uncomfortable floor I’m lying on, to the ache in my neck and shoulders from the position I fell asleep in, to the pain shooting through my scalp from crying myself to sleep. But as I lay here, eyes still closed, fighting the reality that comes with being awake, I know it’s none of those things that woke me.
A loud bang outside forces me to sit up and my eyes to spring open. I look around the dark room frantically just in time to hear another series of bangs.
Gunshots.
I push myself up and tug the door open, sprinting up the hallway until I almost run straight into Snow. “Panic room, now!” I shout. The noise is getting closer and I have to get my sisters to safety.
“Emerson.” Snow’s voice shakes, her eyes as wide as saucers.
“I’m going to get her now. Watch on the camera and open the door when we get there,” I tell her but by the time the last few words leave my mouth, I’m running as fast as I can toward the other wing of the house. When we started staying here, we decided to give Rayne and Emerson a room in our parents’ wing, to give them privacy, but I’m now regretting that decision.
My eyes cast over the banister just in time to see the front door explode. The force of the blast knocks me into the wall, the sound causing my ears to ring painfully, but I don’t stop running. I run as fast as my legs will carry me, thanking every god that my parents had the foresight to have multiple entrances to the panic room because there’s no way we’re getting back the way I’ve come.
Shouts fill the house and I keep running. Footsteps on the stairs behind me make my heart jump into my throat and my chest constrict painfully. I have to get to Emerson. Rayne won’t survive without her. She’s the air he breathes, the beat of his heart, his entire world. I can’t let him lose her.
There’s a niggling thought trying to break through my focused mind. This is Everett. He did this. He’s been playing us this whole time. For years we trusted him with our secrets, and now he’s using them to tear us apart.
I don’t allow the thought to drag me under though. I can fall apart once my sisters are safe and not a moment sooner.
I burst into the bedroom Emerson shares with my brother and look from one side of the dark room to the other. “Emerson?” I whisper. I don’t know why I’m bothering. The men that have infiltrated our home know we’re here, but I don’t want to tip them off as to where we are until I can get her to safety.
“Wynter?” Her head pops up from the other side of the room and I allow a sigh of relief to slip from my lips.
“We need to go right now,” I say in a rush, glancing over my shoulder to make sure no one has followed me. If they’re smart, and if Everett is the one calling the shots on this operation, they would have gone to the other wing first looking for Snow and me. Anyone who knows anything about my sister-in-law knows she’ll go to the end of the earth to help the people she loves, and if they were to capture Snow and I, she’d come right out to save us, even if Rayne would lose his fucking mind.
When I’m sure they haven’t ventured to this side of the house yet, I usher her out of the room and into the bedroom my parents used to have. Their combined scent hits me the moment I open the door and I stop dead in the doorway. All I see as I look around the room is them, their smiles, their laughs, they happiness. The emotions beg to be set free, but I don’t have time to feel right now. If I want to live, and I want my sisters to live, I need to put everything back into that little box and hide it as far away as I possibly can until we’re safe.
“This way.” I step toward the wardrobe but stop in my tracks again when I hear voices coming up the way we’ve just come. “Quickly!” I whisper and throw the door open, quietly closing it behind us.
I pull the chest of drawers forward and reveal the door to the panic room, praying Snow is watching all the cameras and not just the door she went through. The quiet hum of the sliding door allows me to let out a breath, relief filling me. We’re safe. We can ride out the attack in the bunker and deal with whatever is left once this is all over.
“Where are these bitches?” a voice on the other side of the door asks.
“Are you sure they’re here?” another man asks.
“Get in right now,” I whisper shout at Emerson. There’s not enough time for us both to get in and pull the drawers back. Even though the panic room is virtually impenetrable, Everett does have the override code and I’m not willing to risk all of our lives on him not using it. At least if the drawers cover the door, it will give us enough time to close it again before anyone could get in.
“What about you?” Her green eyes flash with fear and I long to take it away, but she knows what it’s like to be a prisoner of these men. Men so ruthless she still has nightmares about the time she spent with them.
“I’ll be fine. You and Snow stay in there no matter what. No matter what you see on the cameras, no matter what you hear. You stay put, okay?”
For a moment Emerson looks like she’s going to argue, but when Snow’s head pops out and holds her hand out for her, she relents and drops to her knees, crawling through the door quickly.
“Be careful,” Snow whispers.
I press my eyes closed to ward off the tears pooling in them as I listen to the door slide shut. I should have gone in with them. Surely Everett isn’t so involved in this that he would put me at risk. Surely some of what he said he felt was real. But it’s too late now, the voices are growing closer, and I quickly slide the drawers back into place and duck down behind them. I have to have been in here for a reason and hiding seems like as good a reason as any.
The moment the lock clicks shut, I allow the breath I’ve been holding from the moment I heard the first gunshots out. At least they’re safe. That’s all that matters.
The relief is short-lived when the wardrobe door swings open and I curl up as small as I can behind the drawers, holding my breath to avoid making any noise. The sound of my own heartbeat feels too loud in the small space, and if I could stop it, even for a few moments, I would to keep myself safe.
“Why hello there, little thing,” one of the men says, his voice velvet honey.
My eyes dart up and I’m faced with a sick smile looming above me, a gun aimed at my face. Perhaps the sight should scare me, it would most women, but for some reason the gun almost puts a barrier between us, at least for now. “Please,” I whisper, my eyes wide and filled with tears. It’s a tactic Rayne taught me when he was first teaching me how to protect myself. Lure them into a false sense of security that I’m not a threat, and then there’s a better chance of escaping because they’ll underestimate me.
“Sorry, sweetheart, gotta do our job.” The taller man pushes past and pulls me to my feet.
“It’s okay though, little doll. I’ll take real good care of you once this is all said and done,” the first man says and my skin immediately pebbles with a revolted shiver. His yellowing teeth are barely visible in the dim light, his crazed brown eyes enough to make me stumble over my own feet.
Okay, so maybe I don’t need to pretend to be scared. Maybe I am scared.
“Shut the fuck up, Simon. Boss didn’t pay us to creep the poor girl out,” the tall man snaps. His large hand wraps around my bicep and he tugs me out of the bedroom and down the hallway. The thought of struggling crosses my mind, but what would be the sense in that? I’m not strong enough to take down both men, and not willing to risk it while they’re both holding guns. The best thing I can do right now is play along until I can find an opportunity to strike.
“Where are the other two girls?” he asks.
“They’re not here,” I lie. “They both snuck out a couple of hours ago when my brother left.”
“Snuck out?” He raises his eyebrows, scanning my face for the telltale signs of lying.
I nod. “Yeah. We’ve been cooped up in this house for weeks, and my sister Snow is a bit of a wild child,” I explain.
“Why didn’t you go with them then?” the other man asks from behind us.
“Cramps,” I reply immediately.
They don’t ask any questions after that, instead leading me down the stairs in silence. At least I’ve won one battle tonight. Now it’s just time to win the war.
