A Whole New Crowd(101)

Looking around his cell, I saw that there was one mattress on the floor alongside two silver pans. My stomach rolled over on itself as I saw one had water and the other had crumbs. They were feeding him like a dog. A third pan was in the corner. That was his bathroom.

I took his hand. “We have to go.”

He shook his head. “We can’t. The door is locked again.”

“No.” I took my pins out again. “I got my way in. I can get our way out. I think we can make it. There’s a tunnel.”

His eyebrows arched high. “The mile tunnel they were talking about?”

We were still whispering, but his last whisper lifted in volume. I shushed him quietly and he nodded, lowering his voice again, standing close to me. My nose twitched. The stench from him was foul so I began breathing through my mouth instead.

As I knelt and began working at the lock from the inside, I murmured, “I think the guards use it to change shifts. The other guards said it’d be four hours. We can make it.”

“If we don’t?” He shook his head. “No, Taryn. They’ll find us and kill us. I was looking for Brian. I didn’t believe he was dead,” he said, his voice growing hoarse.

“I know.” My hand dropped to his on the floor, and I squeezed it.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve told you right away that I was looking for him.”

I frowned. “Dee said you were looking for Jace.”

“I was, but I didn’t tell her that I thought Brian was still alive. He’s not.”

He sounded so sure and my heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”

“I saw his body.”

“You saw it?”

He nodded. His forehead fell to rest on my shoulder. He mumbled, “Jace showed me the video. It was Brian in the morgue. I think Jace took the video.”

A shiver went down my spine. I didn’t want to think about that. “You talked to Jace?”

“I was in another room and he had me moved here. He said it’s more secure.” A bitter laugh escaped him. “Not that it matters. My friend is gone. We’re probably going to die too.”

I frowned. He was defeated, but I wasn’t. I kept working on the lock. The guard was right. I had messed it up, but gritting my teeth, I felt the second opening with my pin and turned my wrist, pulling it back to the slot.

Then I heard a click and the door opened.

Gray’s forehead was still on my shoulder, and I nudged him with my elbow. “Gray.”

He started shaking his head. “I can’t, Taryn.”

“We have to go.”

“I can’t. I won’t be able to walk that far.”

I stood up. I hadn’t come this far for it to end in failure. Grabbing his arm, I hauled him up with me and then leaned close to his ear. “You will walk or I will carry your ass.”

His eyes were still closed. “I’m too weak.”

“Then find something inside of you because we’re going.” I swung the door wider.

I jerked him behind me, and looked at the other doors. They couldn’t see us. I twisted around and looked up at the corners. They should’ve had a camera and there, in the top right corner, I saw one.

It was turned towards the ceiling.

Gray saw where I was looking and whispered in my ear, “They moved it when they shot someone. They didn’t want evidence.”

I went cold at that. “We are going. Now.” I pulled his door shut, then we headed back where I had come from. The alarm was going to go off. I didn’t have enough time to figure out how to disarm it. That meant one of two things would happen. They would figure it was a mistake and not bother to check the rooms again or they would break down Gray’s door and find him gone. Either way, I made sure I had a cement hold on his arm as I pushed him forward. As we went through the door, I began lightly jogging. I dragged Gray behind me. I wasn’t leaving him behind.

We hadn’t gone far when I heard the first door open roughly. Then a voice bellowed through it, “WE HAVE A RUNNER!”

The lights in our tunnel flipped on and I looked up. Right there, pointed right at us, was a camera.

They had spotted us.

“RUN!” I yelled at Gray and took off in a sprint.





CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


We got through the second door and the tunnel was dark again, but we took off. If something was in the way, we were going through it. I glanced back to make sure Gray was behind me. He was. A fierce expression was on his face, and I knew he wasn’t going to die. Neither of us were. As we soared down the tunnel, I began to think ahead. They would have men coming behind us, who would be weighed down by guns, vests, and anything else they had to wear for a uniform. We had a slight advantage, but they would radio ahead. Men would probably be waiting at the opening where I came in. They would try to cut us off.