“Is anyone else down here?” she whispered. I didn’t understand why she was whispering. She’d made enough noise hitting Aedan over the head with the vase.
“Jake’s in the kitchen.”
Panic slashed across her face, but it was gone as fast as it happened. “Follow me.” She grabbed my arm, and we headed back up the stairs.
“Why are we going upstairs?” I asked at the same time Jake spoke.
“Where are you two going?”
We both turned to see him standing at the bottom of the stairs, his face composed, but his eyes gleaming with excitement. My body stiffened from his intense stare. We were just a few steps away from the top.
“I’m taking Mia back to her room,” Aileen said. She started to walk back up the rest of the stairs.
“Stop,” Jake said. She and I both looked down at Jake, who had made his way up to us so quietly that neither of us had heard him move. He grabbed my other arm. “Why don’t I bring her up?”
“I can do it,” she said.
“You should take care of Father,” Jake said, pulling me roughly toward him. “He seems to have hit his head on a vase and is lying unconscious on the floor.”
“Oh dear,” Aileen said, her voice dripping with false surprise. “He really shouldn’t drink so much.”
“Mother,” Jake said. “Go help Father.”
She cringed at his tone and looked my way. Her nostrils flared, and I could see a sheet of sweat gleaming on her forehead. I wasn’t sure what or who she was so terrified of, but it sent cold chills down my body. She slowly let go of my arm. “Mia, never be afraid of the dark; the dark will be your savior when you least expect it.” With that, she walked down the stairs. I watched her retreat, thinking over her words. What dark?
Jake pulled me painfully up the rest of the way and into the room. As he slammed the door shut, he threw me across the room and I didn’t have time to catch myself before I fell firmly onto the floor. My right shoulder slammed into the hardwood floor, and I cried out in pain. Jake kept the light off, but I could see him pull something out of his pocket, punch something in, and lift it to his ear. He turned around to face the door, giving me an opportunity to try to get out of reach. I made my way silently to the bed and slid underneath it, squeezing my eyes shut as the bed frame pinched against the exposed skin on my back. I let out a breath as I scooted all the way to very back of the bed. But when I tried to roll on my side I didn’t fit, so I stayed on my stomach. It would have been smart if I'd taken my backpack off and got a weapon out before I slid under the bed, but I hadn't thought of that. Now I had no way of getting to one. I was stuck—pretty tightly—under the bed.
“It’s time,” Jake said. I wasn’t sure who he was talking to, but I didn’t want to find out. I could only see his feet walk around, closer to the bed. “Mia, where are you?” he asked tauntingly.
I tried slowing my breathing down so I wouldn’t be so loud. My heart wanted out of my body—I wanted out of my body. Well, way to get yourself cornered. I, once again, ignored myself.
“Oh, Mia, where are you?” he asked at the same time I could hear a loud scream come from somewhere in the house. “Come out come out, wherever you are.” More screaming started up, along with thumping. I started to shake. What the hell was going on? “Come on, Mia, do you really want me to find you? Because no one’s coming to save you, and if I have to come get you, you’re not going to like it.” I could see his feet as he walked around the bed. I fisted my hands, my nails biting into my skin. “Alright, I guess I’ll just leave and come find you later. I think my help is needed downstairs, anyway.” I watched as his feet moved away from the bed. The door squeaked open, screaming floating into the room, and then silence as the door shut.
For a few minutes, I didn't move a muscle. When I couldn't hear anything, I started moving out from under the bed. My legs were the first to come out, and when I finally pushed the rest of myself out, I sighed. As I started to get up, something solid slammed into the side of my head, knocking me off my knees. My head slammed into the floor, and stars danced in my dark vision.
“I really can’t believe you fell for that.” Jake laughed. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me up toward him until we were face-to-face. “Kieran will be so proud of me.” I fisted my hand and slammed it into his right ear. He yelped and let go of my collar. I kicked at him, heard him grunt, and crawled away from him on all fours. Jake tackled me to the floor, knocking the breath right out of me. He shoved me over until he was straddling my hips.
“Stop!” I screamed, shoving my hands into his face.
He grabbed both of my wrists and pulled them over my head, pinning them to the ground. “Do you really think you could take me?” He bent his head, and his nose hit my neck, making me jump. He started to sniff my neck. “You smell fucking amazing. Luckily for me, Kieran said I could have a taste once I got you.”
Fear pierced through me. I lifted my right leg and kneed him in the groin. He grunted and fell to the side. “Get off of me!” I screamed. I tried to push myself away from him, but he got back in the same position.
“You bitch.” He grunted, taking my head between his hands and slamming it into the ground. I screamed from the needles of pain puncturing my head. I kicked at him, but he had slid down my legs to pin them. One of his hands went back to pinning my wrists while his other started to roam up my shirt. “I’m going to take what I want.” He slammed his lips against mine. I opened my mouth and bit down on his lip until I could taste the metallic, warm blood dripping into my mouth from his lip. He bit back harder, and I felt him draw blood. I kicked with my whole body, trying to get him off of me, but his hand reached under my bra, grabbing on to my breast. Tears formed in my eyes; I wasn’t strong enough to get him off, and he wasn’t going to stop. I tried to push again, and this time he finally flew off. I heard him grunt and yell, “What the hell,” then saw his body fall on the ground. A large body came into my view, but I couldn’t tell who it was in the dark. I tried to scoot my body back, waiting for the person to attack me.
“Mia?” His voice broke the silence, and I cried out in relief.
“Gregory?” My voice wobbled.
“I’m here.” He bent down and picked me up, cradling my body in his arms. He moved over to the bed, still holding me. “Are you okay?” I shook my head and buried myself further into him. I had been so close to losing my innocence in the most horrible way, I didn’t think I’d ever recover. His arms tightened around my body.
“What’s going on?” I mumbled. I could still hear screaming and commotion coming from other parts of the house.
“Jake's working for Kieran,” Gregory said. “I was supposed to be here at midnight to get you, but Kieran’s men were all over the place.”
“You’re the person who Aileen said was coming for me?”
“Yes.” He started to set me down on the bed. I didn’t want to let go, but I did so grudgingly. “You have to believe I didn’t want to leave you, but I had no choice. I met her yesterday. She told me it was important for you to come here and that, no matter what, I had to make sure you did. So I thought the best way to do it was be a dick and push you away. And will you look at that?” He smiled. “It worked.”
I rolled my eyes. “Was part of your plan to leave me here?”
“Actually, no.”
“Then why did you leave?”
“Mr. Wibert threatened to hurt you if I stayed.” Gregory cupped my face. “I couldn’t let him hurt you, so I agreed to leave. But what he didn’t know was that I was already making plans to break in and get you.” He moved his hand over my bloody lip, wiping away some of the blood. Anger bloomed in his eyes.
“How did you and Aileen meet up about our escape plan?”
“She saw me before I left and told me the plan. I agreed with her and told her I would do anything to get you out of here,” he said. “What I didn’t know, until around midnight, was that Jake was one of the rebels.”
“How
did you find out?”
“I overheard some of the men talking about Jake being Kieran’s lap dog. Once I knew that, I knew you would be in greater danger. I’ve been trying to sneak in all night without anyone noticing, but it hasn’t been easy. It wasn’t until Kieran’s men came in that I was able to sneak up here to get you,” he said.
“Maybe next time you could warn me ahead of a time, and you wouldn’t have to be a dick.” I crossed my arms together to stop the shaking.
I could see him roll his eyes. “Like you would ever go with it.”
We both turned toward Jake, hearing him stir. “We should probably get going,” Gregory said. His thumb swiped once more at my mouth before he grabbed my hand, and walked us to the door. Jake’s voice stopped us in our tracks.
“You’re not getting out alive,” Jake said. “Kieran always gets what he wants.”
Gregory shrugged his shoulders, but I stopped him. “Jake has something that communicates with the people downstairs.” Gregory let go of my hand and went to Jake. I heard another grunt as Gregory smashed something.
Gregory walked back over, grabbed my hand, and opened the door. “Let’s go.”
The hallway was completely darkened when Gregory opened the door. “Why is it dark?” I whispered as we made our way out of the room and Gregory shutting the door behind us.
“I cut the power,” Gregory said. “I figured it would be easier this way.” I nodded my head, doubting he could see me.
Screams traveled up from downstairs, along with bangs and groans. Aedan’s men must have gotten here and were fighting back. We slowly made our way down the stairs, keeping our backs to the wall. My hand started to sweat in Gregory’s as my fingers dug into it, helping me keep my hold on him. “How are we getting out of here? The front door?” I asked, peering down the stairs. The door stood wide open. With all the chaos around us, no one would even notice us slipping out.
“No,” Gregory said. As we got to the last step, he turned us into the room closest to the stairs and shut the door. “It’s too dangerous for us to walk out the front door. There might be fights going on in here, but I bet there are still men set up outside.”
“Oh,” I said. I never thought of that. “So how are we getting out of here?”
“We are still going with the plan Mrs. Wibert set up.” Gregory moved across the room, pulling me with him.
As a thought occurred to me, I tugged on Gregory’s hand, stopping him. He glimpsed over at me, his eyes roaming my face. “Are you okay?”
“Aedan keeps cameras up to watch the comings and goings of the house.” I looked up at the ceilings, trying to find the small black devices, but with the room being so dark, I couldn’t find any.
“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “When I cut the power, the cameras stopped working.”
“Are you sure?” I didn’t want to go so far only to find out we were being followed.
“I’m positive. Now let’s go before anyone decides they want to come in here.” He moved us to the bookcase and let go of my hand. I quickly wiped my hand on my pants, trying to get as much sweat off as possible before he touched it again.
Gregory tore through books until finally stopping when five flipped out sideways like a flap. I tried to peek over his shoulder, but I could barely see anything. Gregory skated his hand inside the bookshelf. After a few moments, Gregory pushed on one of the sections of books, and a secret passageway opened up to us. I beamed up at him. If we weren’t on the run for our lives, I would be truly amazed. This must have been the tunnel Mrs. Wibert had talked about. Gregory motioned for me to go first, so I stepped in. A blast of cold, musty air hit me in the face, and I almost smiled. Almost. I stepped further in and looked behind to watch Gregory pulling the shelf back to conceal us.
“Is there any light?” I squinted around, barely able to distinguish anything.
“In a sec.” He shut the shelf completely, came toward me, and grabbed my hand. “We have to go through another door before we can have any light.”
“Why?” I asked, trying to keep up with his long strides. “How far do we have to go?”
“Mrs. Wibert said it was a little ways down.” Gregory started to pick up his pace. “She said it wouldn’t be safe if we had a light on in this part of the tunnel.”
“Oh,” I said. We both walked in silence for a little bit. Well, he walked—I jogged. “So, where did you go?”
“Huh?”
“Yesterday morning when you left,” I said. “Where did you go?”
Gregory raked his hand through his hair. “Mrs. Wibert had me hide out at one of her maids’ house. The maid was happy to do it. She was planning on leaving tomorrow as it was. She fed me and gave me a bed to sleep in. I was lucky.”
“Oh,” I said. I wanted to feel terrible that he had to hide while I stayed behind feeling betrayed. If he had let me in on any details of the plan, I may have a felt a twinge of guilt. But I didn’t. I still felt a little peeved by the secrecy and the way he acted.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“When can we slow down?”
“Once we get to the other door, we can slow down.” He gripped my hand tighter. “We have to put as much distance between us and them as possible.”
“But I thought Aileen said no one knew about this tunnel.” I could hear myself whine. Very mature, Mia.
“She thinks no one knows, but we can’t really rely on what she thinks,” he said. “I have a feeling Mr. Wibert knows more about this place and just pretends he doesn’t. But once we get to the other door, I’ll be able to block it.”
“How?”
“You’ll see,” he said.
I shook my head and kept up with him. Twenty minutes later, we made it to the other door. I wanted to hug the floor and never get back up. Putting my hands on my legs, I tried taking deep breaths. Gregory opened the door and ushered me through and then shut it behind him. Pulling down the lamp that was hanging next to the door, he lit it and handed it over to me while he locked a bunch of locks and finally moved a metal cabinet in front of it. He grabbed the lamp, and we started walking forward at a much slower pace. We began speaking at the same time.
“How far will we be walking?” I asked.
“Are you going to tell me what you were thinking about back there?” he asked.
We looked over at each other, and I raised my brow. Gregory spoke first. “Mrs. Wibert said it’s about a day’s walk down here. It'll take us straight out of the city and right to the station. It should be about nightfall by the time we get there, so we should be able to catch the last train without any notice.”
“Okay,” I said.
“So,” he said, looking at me. “Are you going to tell me what you were thinking about back there? Or are you going to ignore my question?”
I kept my head down. Did I really want to start a fight between us? “What are we?”
“Huh?” he asked, clearly confused.
“We bicker and only get along half the time,” I pointed out. “I know only very little about you, and you know very little about me. So my question is, what are we? Are we friends? Acquaintances? Because it would really be helpful to know before we continue on.”
“Does it matter?” He growled.
“Yes,” I said, matter-of-fact. “It does matter. I don’t know if I trust you. I don’t think I ever fully trusted you. If we’re in this together, there should be trust. And lately, we’ve really only been living day by day. So once again, what are we?”
Gregory shook his head, clearly annoyed. He didn’t say anything, but I kept my mouth shut, waiting for him to talk. It was ten long, silent minutes before he finally opened his mouth. “I don’t know what we are. But seeing how Kieran knows both of us, I’d say we are both in deep shit. So, it would be best to stick together. Help each other out.”
He had a point. Kieran now knew who he was. And Gregory did save my life three times, so it looked like kicking him out of my life would be a bad
idea. “I agree. And I think we should start all over.”
Gregory scrunched his brows. “What do you mean?”
“Let’s start over,” I said. “Let’s pretend we never met and this is our first time. Let’s forget about what happened in the past and just look forward.”
“That’s a stupid idea.”
I sighed loudly. “Why is it a stupid idea?”
Gregory smirked. “Because no matter how much you want to start over, we’d never be able to. Plus, I like remembering all of the times you’ve fallen flat on your face. It’s quite comical to see.” Gregory laughed, and I turned my glare toward him, pelting him with invisible knives. “You know, you’re quite cute when you get angry. It’s almost fun to get you to this point.”
I ignored the lone butterfly fluttering in my stomach. “You’re such a jackass,” I said, but I couldn’t help but smile.
Gregory reached over and pinched my cheeks. “What is that? Is that a smile? I don’t think I’ve seen one on that face before.”
I shoved him away from me and shook my head, trying to fight the smile.
After a few hours of walking, Gregory finally let us rest. I sat down and leaned up against the wall.
“Here.” Gregory handed me a bottle of water.
I took a long gulp and drank the rest in the matter of seconds; I was so parched. I drank the water greedily without realizing that we might be sharing. I looked up to see him drinking his own bottle. My stomach growled. It wasn’t a quiet growl—it was a wake-my-neighbors growl. Gregory looked down at me and smirked, handing me half a loaf of bread.
“Where did you get the water and bread?” I asked. I bit into the bread, moaning in delight. Wishing I hadn't drunk all of my water so I could have something to wash the bread down, I took another bite. It was like Gregory read my thoughts, because he tossed me another filled bottle.
“Take it easy on that bottle,” Gregory said as he opened his new one. “There are only a couple left. Mrs. Wibert had left a backpack of food and water for us at the second door.”
The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) Page 20