The man before me cocks his head both ways, each time cracking the bones in his neck. "I'm supposed to take you and her alive." He reaches to grab his gun from his hip holster.
I lunge myself forward, using the brute weight of my body to tackle him to the ground. The elevator dings as the doors try to close but with both of our bodies lying on the floor between the elevator doors, they won't close.
The elevator starts ringing, that sound piercing through my ears. From behind me I hear a pair of shoes collide with the floor of the elevator.
It's Anna.
She lunges forward, slipping past me and out of the elevator. She twists on her feet to face me. And though I have the situation handled, she leaps into action. She pulls back her foot and then launches it forward, her shoe connecting with the back of the man's head.
He tries to throw his hands over his head so that he can shield against the next attack. That gives me the perfect opportunity to deliver a knockout blow squarely on his cheek. My eyes rise to meet Anna's.
And in those dark beautiful eyes, I see a warrior. A fighter. I see someone who is blooming into her own strong person right before my eyes, and I can't help but to feel proud of her. I can't help but to feel even more attracted to her right now that I have ever felt in my life.
And that's saying something, because I have had my eyes set on her since the day I first saw her. Maybe when this is all over, we can go on a real date. Maybe we could actually be something together.
Now is not the time to think about that.
I jump to my feet, race out of the elevator, and grab Anna by the hand. There's a part of my head telling me that we should have stayed in the elevator. It's saying that we could have taken the elevator back to the ground floor and got the hell out of this building. But I also know that there is a more than good chance that Mitch would be there waiting for us.
I will work to find a different way out of here. Weighing the options in my head, I feel like it is the better decision to take these men out one by one. And then we will escape this place, go back to the factory, get the team together and go finally end this Seth Grimm bullshit once and for all.
As we are racing down the hallway, I hear commotion from just around a sharp corner. Next, I see the shadows of men running down the same hallway. I come to a dead stop, causing Anna to also do the same. She almost loses her footing before I am dragging her backwards and away from the adjacent hallway. My eyes search for an escape route.
But the only option I can come up with is to take a hard right into what looks like a conference room. I drop my hand around the door knob, but it doesn't budge. I crane my head over my shoulder to see that the shadows and the flashlights are approaching quicker and quicker, closer and closer.
I throw the weight of my body against the door, causing it to pop open. I rush inside with Anna following right behind and close the door as quietly as I can. There's a lock on the door, but when I spin it, it doesn't click into place. I take a few measured steps back before pushing Anna gently to the side and out of the way from the door window.
She crouches down in the corner next to the door and I join her, taking a knee in front of her as flashlights light the hallway outside. Through the long rectangular window on the door, I can see a group of at least six or seven men running by. They know that we are either on this floor or in a stairwell somewhere. Most likely they will start searching this floor room by room and once they get to this room in particular, we need to either have a solid game plan or we need to be gone.
After I'm sure the last of the men have passed us by, I rise to my feet and my eyes search around the room. There's a long conference table with at least twelve chairs on either side of the wooden table.
There are no other doors inside this room, with the only door being the one we came in. I don't want to risk going out that door in case the men are already on their way back. Or they could still be waiting outside. Either way it's too much of a gamble. The worst thing that could happen right now is for the both of us to be apprehended because I'm pretty sure these people aren't going to play nice when they finally deliver me to whomever I'm supposed to be delivered to.
Like I said, I always knew this would come back to bite me in the ass. I should have just stayed away, should have just stayed in the Caribbean.
Anna drags the back of her palm against the top of her forehead, wiping away a thin layer of sweat that has dampened the edge of her hairline. I move forward to comfort her, but she takes a measured step back.
“What's wrong?” I questioned her, taken aback.
"Nothing." She shakes her head and bites into her lip, her eyes shift around the room like she's looking for something in particular. "I think I know a way out of here."
"Have you been here before?"
"No," she says, her teeth chewing harder into her lip. "But I've read about this property and the property listings before. It's been on the market for over a year and I don't know why. I'm starting to gather suspicion that the reason it hasn't sold is because the entire thing is a facade, like it's not even for sale at all.”
I'm not following the logic or what she's trying to say.
She continues, “Which I know might not seem important right now. But I have read about this property many times. I even talked to Dom once about maybe renting out one of the floors for a proper office."
"Look, while I appreciate your trivia smarts, you're being long winded and we don't have a lot of time.”
She scoffs lightly. Shakes her head and wets her lips. “I do that sometimes. The point I'm trying to get at is that I read that there are numerous panic rooms in this building."
My eyes widen, knowing that if we could find one of those before the power is cut, it could be our ticket out of here. "Do you know where they are?”
"I'm hoping there's one in this room." She brushes past me, the friction of her body against me more than welcome. She begins shuffling her hands along the wall, feeling for any cracks or grooves that might indicates that there is a hidden passageway somewhere in here. "I know there's at least one in one of the conference rooms, but in a building this big, there are probably close to 100 conference rooms."
I pace to the opposite wall that she is checking and start running my hands along the wall. Just as I start assisting, I hear her yelp from behind me. I twist around on my feet, my heart racing. But instead of seeing something I don't want to see, for example a man with his hands around her throat once more, she is standing beside an open passageway on the far wall.
“God must be watching after us or something.” She laughs nervously. “Let's go.”
I stand there for a good minute, just looking at her and taking notice of how amazing she is. She is the entire package. Flashlights light up the sidewall of the conference room. The men are coming back.
I rush forward, slipping past her and leading the way. The door closes behind us, hopefully obfuscating the fact that there's a secret door there.
The passageway is low and narrow. I'm too tall to stand up comfortably and have to hunch over so that I don't hit my head. The height of the ceiling seems to be perfect for Anna who traverses down the short passageway with ease.
It is completely silent in this hall, where the only thing we can here is our own shoes patting against the floor. Pale dim lights light up the hallway. They're not very bright but they do the trick, highlighting the door at the end of the hallway.
Once we arrive at the door, I'm expecting the panic room to require a passcode or something, but it doesn't. I place my hand into the latch and pull it open. The thick steel door opens with a loud creak before the both of us rush inside.
I twist on my feet and pull the door closed. There is a digital panel beside the door. There's an alert flashing on the screen, Engage Security Systems?
There are two options beneath the question.
Yes or no.
I swipe my thumb against the yes option and from within the walls, I can hear whirring and then t
he sound of locks latching into place. From all around the room, I can hear the walls screaming. It's like the actual walls that surround the panic room are moving in place.
I look back to Anna to see her looking at me in a way that makes my cock twitch against my denim jeans.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ANNA
After what seems like forever running, it's refreshing to be able to take a break. I lock my eyes with Zane in front of me. And he's looking at me in a way that makes me believe he wants to devour me.
I would be okay with that.
But right now I just need to rest and clear my head. I drop a hand to hold steady at my waist as I turn and take stock of the room. It's bigger than my apartment. There is a full-scale kitchen, a small dining area with a table big enough for six, and a living room with a large flat screen TV. On the right wall, there are three doors.
If I didn't know any better, I would say someone has been living here. While the room itself is clean and tidy, there are a few things out of place. Namely, there are dishes in the sink. I step over into the kitchen to get a better look. There is water inside two bowls that sit in the sink. I step to the refrigerator next and peel open the door. I’m hit with a quick burst of cold air and revel in the way it breezes against my hot skin.
My eyes bulge with excitement.
A six-pack of beer and a bottle of whiskey.
With my hand held sturdy at the top of the refrigerator door, I crane my head over my shoulder with a smile and question Zane, “Beer or whiskey?”
“Who says I want either?” He crosses his arms over each other and steps forward. "I'm on the job."
"Well, this job might kill you." I shrug and reach for a bottle of beer to set it on the counter. "You need to relax, take a breather." I reach back into the refrigerator and grab the bottle of whiskey before grabbing a rum glass from the cabinet to my left.
Zane steps to the counter and palms the bottle of beer in his hand. I cast him a knowing grin while I search through the freezer for some ice. It dampens my mood just a little bit to know that I will be drinking whiskey without ice. But I'm a big girl, and this won't be the first time or the last I've ever drank whiskey without the rocks.
I fill the glass to the brim and then jump backwards so that my ass lands on the counter with my legs swaying, kicking against the cabinet doors beneath me. Zane pops the cap off the top of the bottle, using the ledge of the counter as a makeshift bottle opener. Beer fizzles out the top of the bottle before he tilts it to his mouth and takes a long gulp.
For some reason, maybe because I’m weird, I watch his throat tense as the beer slides down his throat. He drops his head and sets the bottle on the counter and lets out a quiet burp.
"That's cute."
"Sorry about that," he says lowly, embarrassed even. "How is the whiskey?"
I look down at the glass of whiskey. So far, it's remained untouched. My mouth is literally watering to taste it, but for some reason I can't bring myself to do it. I think it's because I know it will lower my inhibitions and right now, I need to be alert.
“Come on," he says, elbowing me playfully. “You're the one who said I needed to take a breather." He shrugs with a grin. "So go on, take a breather."
"Are you trying to get me drunk, Zane?”
I finally take a short sip of whiskey. The alcohol burns against the back of my throat, and I more than welcome the feeling. I shift my gaze back to Zane. "Trying to take advantage of me?”
“Seriously?" He frowns. "I'd like to think you know me better than that."
"I do." I drop from the counter and land on my feet, placing the glass of whiskey onto the granite surface. “I know that more than anyone.” I step towards him and place a hand softly against his muscular chest. I tilt my head upwards and stare into those deep, dark, stormy emerald eyes. A half-hitched grin wrinkles across my lips. "I was only joking.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured.” He scratches nervously at the back of his head and chews into his lip. “This is a nice setup.” His eyes search the room as if he's taking it in for the first time.
I take the opportunity to look around the room once more, and I can't believe that a panic room is this big. I can't believe that a panic room is this nice, to be honest. The only experience I have with these rooms is from that Jodie Foster movie. And that thing was relatively small, certainly nowhere near as gargantuan as this space.
If these things are as safe as I've heard, then we should be able to hide out here long enough for the men downstairs to give up. That's probably asking too much, though. These people are too dead set on whatever it is that they have going on. I don't see a scenario where they simply give up. That realization sinks in, causing my stomach to drop deep into my gut.
Just then, it's like a light bulb goes off in my head. My eyes search frantically around the room, looking for a phone. But to my eyes, there is no landline in the room. And even if we could get the cell phone unlocked that Zane stole from the man in the elevator, I imagine with the steel walls, that there would be no reception.
I glance at the digital monitor beside the door and race forward to check it out. Flashing on the screen, it says, System Alarmed.
I slide my finger across the screen causing the warning to go away. The screen lights up with four different squares. They are listed as Alarm, Music, Connect, and Security.
It seems odd to me that there is a dedicated space on the main menu to play music. I mean, is that even something people think about when they are forced to use a panic room? But then again, this isn't just any other panic room. It's basically a full-scale luxurious apartment and, to be honest, I could probably live here.
I press the Connect button, hoping to be able to access a phone so I can dial out. A warning flashes on the screen, Communication Systems Down.
“Shit,” I sigh heavily. “We’re going to die in here.”
One of Zane’s palms falls upon my shoulder, caressing me softly and comforting me. I lean back into his touch because he makes me feel safe even when I feel like my world is about to end. Even when I feel like I'm not going to survive the day. There's something about the way he touches me and the way he looks at me. Something about the way he can just make me feel safe in any given circumstance.
He reaches over my shoulder and presses the Security button.
A grid-like menu of surveillance cameras pops up on the screen. Each of them is focused on a different part of the building. To the left, there is a menu so that we can sort through the individual cameras. Zane steps past me and began searching through the menu. He selects the 27th floor and then selects the button for conference room 27A, which is the room that we found the panic room in.
I take a measured step back. On the display is four men with semi-automatic rifles searching through the room. One of the men is Mitch and he steps towards the wall with the secret door. He brushes his hand against the wall causing the secret door to slide out of the way. With a smile, he cocks his head over his shoulder and gestures for his men to follow him.
"What are we going to do?" I question nervously to Zane.
He exhales harshly and shakes his head. “I don't know."
I reach to him and guide my hand down his back. “Let's just hope that they can't get inside. I mean, isn't that the whole point of these rooms?"
He takes two steps backwards and his eyes switch between watching the monitors and watching the door ahead of us. I can practically hear the pounding of his heart against his chest as Mitch approaches the outside door.
There is no sound on the security systems, which is a little baffling to me. I would think that would be a key feature. What kind of security system doesn't have sound, especially in the modern age? I swallow a gulp and wait with bated breath as Mitch begins knocking on the door. The steel between us and him is too thick so I can't hear him knocking, I can only see it.
On the screen, he takes a step back and smiles up at the camera. He knows about this room. I begin to wonder if may
be this isn't his apartment of sorts. My eyes switch back to look at the dishes in the sink, and my earlier line of thinking that maybe someone had recently stayed here is now seeming more possible.
On the screen, Mitch and his cronies drop down to the floor as if they are going to wait outside until we come out. But that's not going to happen. Not while they are still there.
It's become a standoff, and I'm just hoping that Zane and I possess enough stamina to win this war of attrition.
# # #
An hour has passed since Mitch first showed up outside the door. Zane and I are situated on the comfortable red leather couch. It's been a mostly quiet hour and I can see the wheels turning in his head. He draws his thumb to his mouth and chews on his fingernail.
My stomach growls even though I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to tolerate food right now without puking it up. My nerves are on fire and it's almost like I could vomit from the nausea. I push my tongue against the inside of my cheek and contemplate my options.
Earlier, I took inventory of the food and drinks in the refrigerator. There is only beer, whiskey, and cola as far as drinks go. And as for food, there are only a few cans of beans and some waffles in the freezer. If Mitch really does live in the space, or at least visits it occasionally, then he must not have much of an appetite.
I can't sit still much longer.
My mind is racing while my body is still, creating an uneasy feeling in my soul. I need to move, so I climb to my feet and begin pacing back and forth along the length of the room. I comb one hand through my hair as I try to think of a way out of this. The only thing I can think of is to try negotiating with Mitch, but I know that would be a hard sell and the only way to negotiate with him would be to open the door since we can't talk to each other. Neither Zane nor I are willing to take that risk.
Ford Security Page 39