Steve stood right behind her, his breath right on top of her. “It was going to be a panic room of sorts. We didn’t get a chance to finish it, but it will do for our purposes.”
“Now it will be the place where you die.” Phil leaned on the door looking satisfied with his plan.
She waited for the shots to come. Instead, the brothers stood there, staring at her.
“Don’t you want to know how?” Phil asked.
“I’m sure I’ll figure it out in a few seconds.”
Steve tapped on the small computer screen just inside the door. “From here you can watch us walk down the hall. We’re going to leave.”
Phil nodded. “And you’re going to stay.”
She figured she missed the part where they shot her. “And?”
“We want the authorities to find your bodies intact. Otherwise, your boyfriend would be dead.” Phil frowned. “Not that he’s all that alive anymore, anyway.”
She shifted her weight onto her sore leg. The throbbing started immediately, but she didn’t move. She wanted to block any shot Phil might take at Luke.
“The police will find the evidence they need to figure out you died while planning your escape, and we’ll be far away. Safe,” Steve added.
Phil’s smile turned feral. “With all the money.”
They could not be dumb enough to leave her alive. She knew there had to be something else. Despite that, hope flickered inside her. If she could rouse Luke, they might be able to break down the door or crash through the wall.
As if he read her mind, Steve started shaking his head. “You will not be able to weasel out of here. It is not fully outfitted, but the room was built for security. And I assure you it is very secure.”
“Unfortunately for you, it will function to keep you in, instead of keeping other people out,” Phil said.
For guys who needed to leave, they sure were doing a lot of talking. But every second they stood there gave Luke another second to heal, so she didn’t question it.
“Why would you even need a room like this?” she asked.
“You never know.” Steve pointed his gun at the monitor again. “Just watch this and you’ll see when you’re about to die.”
Phil took a step toward her. “Death will come racing down the hall in a few minutes. I want you to know it, breathe it in and be unable to escape it. Think of it as part of our divorce settlement.”
“Not being married to you is gift enough.”
“Now, don’t be like that.” Phil dropped his head to the side in that annoying way only he could do. “How about a farewell kiss?”
“If you come within a foot of me, I will bite you. And there’s no telling where I’ll aim.”
Phil barked out a laugh. “If you had been that feisty during the marriage, I might have cut you in on the deal.”
“I don’t want anything to do with you.”
Phil took another step. “So be it.”
“Enough.” Steve grabbed his brother by the arm and pulled him back. He nodded his head toward the door. “It’s time.”
After some silent message passed between them, both men backed out.
“Enjoy your final minutes with Mr. Hathaway,” Steve said with a dramatic bow.
She heard their demented laughter as they shut the door, locking Luke and her tight inside. When she turned back to Luke, his head popped up and he smiled.
“Sounds like we need to move fast,” he said in a clear voice. “Not sure what this racing-death thing is all about, but I don’t really want to find out.”
Her stomach dropped heavy and hollow to her knees. “I thought you were so hurt that you couldn’t move.”
“All an act to get my hands on this.” He held up a gun.
“Where did that come from?”
“One of the guards.”
The confusion and fear bottled up inside her morphed into fury. “You mean you were fine the whole time?”
“I was pretending.” His voice suggested she should just get over it. “I needed to buy time and grab a weapon. I figure those two would feel more manly and be less likely to attack again if they thought I was subdued. Also gave me time to get in position in the event I had to fire off a shot.”
Luke made it sound so simple. She thought it was the exact opposite. “Well, genius, what if they had tried to shoot me?”
“Yeah, that’s where I thought they were going.”
She took one step, got close enough to smell his earthy scent, and then shoved with all her might against his uninjured shoulder. “You jerk!”
His chest absorbed her hit. “Hey!”
“What?”
He frowned at her and had the nerve to look offended. “What is wrong with you?”
“I thought you were…”
“Asleep?”
“Destroyed, Luke. I thought they’d broken you.” The words tumbled out of her. “When you curled up on the floor, a piece of me dropped there with you. I didn’t think you could function.”
Instead of being reassured, he looked appalled. “Why would you think that?”
Clearly she had struck a blow against his manliness. While she was at it she decided to level one more verbal shot. “You all but wept like a baby in there.”
“It’s called acting.”
“I could shoot you myself right now.” She turned away from him because she didn’t want to see his smug face. Not when tears pushed against her eyelids and her body trembled with relief.
“Claire.” He wrapped his arm around her from behind. “I was ready to kill them both. I would have if they made one move in your direction.”
She brushed her fingers over the back of his hand and settled into his warmth. Even through the red haze of her anger, being next to him filled her with comfort. In the middle of complete madness she experienced a second of calm.
But she wasn’t ready to forgive. “Why didn’t you use the gun and end this?”
“You were right in the middle. I refuse to risk your life even further. The chance of me getting two rounds off before they fired was not a sure thing.” He kissed the side of her neck.
She tilted her head to the side to give him a better angle. “You had the advantage. You’re in law enforcement. They’re just two crooked businessmen.”
“With a shooting range at the back of the property.”
Her heart fell to her knees. “Oh, I missed that.”
“I saw it when I was hanging off the balcony earlier. Either way, I still didn’t like the odds.”
“Why?” She glanced up at him and slumped in relief at seeing clear eyes gaze back at her.
“Because without the absolute guarantee that you’d be safe, I wasn’t going there.”
Her heart tripped and fell. Love. The nothing-else-matters kind. The sure sort of love that ignored small slights and reveled in being together. She loved him before, but this was so much more. She didn’t need him to complete her. She needed him for life to make sense.
Right now she also needed him to get her out of there. “I don’t mean to be negative, but we’re stuck.”
“Not really.”
She broke out of his grasp and turned around to face him. “You plan to shoot our way out?”
“I plan to open this lock like I do every other lock.” He held up his wrist and shook his watch at her.
“It can’t be that easy.”
“They should have smashed the monitor.”
“They were pretty clear that there’s something out there they want us to see.”
Luke stalked over to the monitor and stared. “There’s nothing out there.” Then he started punching numbers.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure it’s not booby-trapped.”
“Fabulous.” She walked over to the safe and yanked on the door. It wouldn’t budge. “Wonder what’s in here.”
“Probably whatever it is they think will implicate you.”
“Then why have me sign all of those other
papers?”
“Insurance.” He slipped a small knife out of his waistband and started undoing the panel covering the keypad. “The idea was to leave a significant paper trail.”
“How enterprising.” She slouched down on top of the safe. “If Phil had put half this effort into his company, he wouldn’t have had to steal from his employees.”
“It doesn’t work that way.”
“Meaning?”
“The bad guys always go for the easy solution. Usually they can’t handle the hard one.”
She threw out her arms. “This was easy? They had this elaborate setup. They hired these men, so that means paying people. And this house is ridiculous.”
Luke snorted. “Expendable.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” He set the panel on the floor. “They were buying time as they looted the funds.”
For a guy she thought was near death just minutes ago, he sure did sound chipper. “What are you doing now?”
“Seeing if I can blow this thing.”
“I thought you planned to use your watch.”
“I don’t know where the Samson boys are. If they’re still downstairs, I don’t want to tip them off. Not if I can just open this the usual way.”
“Usual?”
“By figuring out the code.” He poked around, then made a clicking sound with his tongue. “Forget it. We’ll take the chance.”
“Works for me. I just want out of here.” Even with Phil and Steve gone, her stomach kept jumping with nerves. She couldn’t settle the feeling of anxiety that moved through her and gained speed with every circle.
“Two seconds.” He pulled a wire out of the side of his watch and connected it to the panel.
“We don’t have that much time.”
It was more like a minute, but his shoulders finally relaxed. “There.”
The door clicked open.
Neither of them rushed into the hall. Heeding Steve’s warning, they waited for something to rise up and attack. But nothing came.
Luke held up a finger. “Wait here.”
“No.” She slid off the safe and walked over to him. “We do this together.”
“I don’t know what’s out there,” he said in a whisper.
“I know what’s in here and it’s not freedom, so I’ll take my chances so long as I’m going in the direction of an exit.”
“Well said.”
He leaned down and treated her to a quick, hard kiss. Just enough to get her wanting more.
She held on to his shirt, keeping him close for a few precious seconds. “Besides, I watched you collapse once. I will not wait around and then stumble over your body at the bottom of the stairs.”
Something sparked to life in his green eyes. “Have some faith.”
“In you? Completely.”
He winked at her. “Then let’s do this.”
They got into the hall before she smelled it. She coughed when she tasted the acrid scent on her tongue. It was a mix of chemicals and hot metal.
Her gaze went to the soaring ceiling. Gray smoke hovered along the sloped walls. She was afraid to lean over the balcony to the floor below. “I think I know what Steve wanted us to see.”
Luke nodded. “They set the house on fire.”
Chapter Fifteen
Luke tried to figure out what else could go wrong. Short of killer bees, they’d survived everything. So far.
The flames licking up the banister could be the final shot. Bright orange filled the downstairs and began the slow walk up the stairs. There was no way through it. They’d have to go around it.
Claire covered her mouth with the back of her hand as a coughing fit overtook her. “I can’t breathe.”
And it was only going to get worse.
He covered his mouth with his shirt and grabbed her hand. The fire hadn’t reached the landing where they stood. He debated crossing to the other wing, the one where he could call up a floor plan and pray for a set of back stairs. But once they were over there, they’d be trapped.
“Do you know if there’s another way down?” she asked through her sleeve, which was now wadded up and covering her mouth.
He tried to call up the layout from memory. Nothing came to him. The only sure thing was the long balcony that extended from the bedrooms where he hid earlier.
“Must be, but I don’t know where.”
She buried her face in his arm. “What do we do?”
Whatever choice they made, they had to do it now. Thick gray smoked swelled, floating higher to surround them. Intense heat cut off the oxygen until every breath burned down his throat and into his lungs.
He grabbed her hand. “This way.”
They crouched down, trying to find a pocket of clean air, but smoke covered everything now. The space grew thick and black. Every step dragged as his vision clouded.
He dragged his hand along the wall, counting doors as he went. He depended on his memory to guide him. At the fourth door, they ducked inside.
He slammed the door shut behind them and inhaled the cleaner air. “We should have a few minutes.”
“Here.” She stripped a blanket off the bed and handed it to him.
As he shoved it under the door, tucking in the corners to block as much of the seam as possible, he gestured to her to open the entrance to the balcony. “We need fresh air.”
Since she continued to wheeze, he knew she understood the importance of moving fast. Problem was, the smoke and heat brought on exhaustion. Every gesture and step seemed to take forever. It was as if they moved in slow motion.
With the small space stuffed as tight as possible, he joined her at the open double doors. A sweep of cool air hit their faces, refreshing them. He inhaled as deeply as possible, trying to draw oxygen into his body to feed his muscles and brain. He needed all his strength and wits for the next few minutes. He could not afford to have a weak arm and a stilted mind.
He also needed Claire to trust him. “Listen to me.”
“We’re trapped in here.”
“No, we’re not. We can get out.”
“How?”
“We’re going over the side.”
She walked to the front of the balcony and looked at the ground below. “It’s a long way down.”
“It’s fine.”
She checked the distance again. “Probably twenty feet.”
From what he could tell, more like thirty.
“We’ll make it.” He used his most assured tone.
If she sensed his fear, they’d never make it. He knew from her reactions of the past that heights made her nervous. Add in the fire and choking smoke and she’d venture into full panic mode.
Besides, he was already worried about how he would support his weight with one good arm. There was no way he could balance both of them and get them to safety. No, she had to do her part.
The two of them. Together.
“I’m afraid of heights.” She shook her head so hard that he waited for her to fall over. “Deathly afraid.”
“You’re more afraid of dying. Trust me.”
“I can’t jump.” Her mouth flattened. “Don’t ask me to do this. I can’t.”
“Stop.” He stepped in front of her.
“Please, Luke.”
His palm cupped her cheek. With his thumb he rubbed a bit of soot off the tip of her nose. “We can do this. We’ll lower our bodies down.”
“The fire is down there.”
That was his biggest fear. That he’d coax her off the side only to watch the fire steal her away from him. They could choke, miscalculate, fall. The chances for failure were too significant to contemplate. But the probability of death if they stayed in that room was a hundred percent. Even now, small curls of smoke seeped through the blanket and trickled into the room.
The sight revived his stubbornness. He would not die today. She would live to see this through.
“When we get low enough, we’ll swing out and jump,” he said.
“L
uke, I can’t…”
He pressed his forehead against hers. “There is nothing you can’t do. I’ve never known a woman with more spirit or heart.”
Her eyes turned misty as her lips moved against his.
“And I can’t do this without you, Claire. If you stay, I stay. We’ll face the fire together, but we will not survive.”
She nibbled on her lower lip as she turned her head and glanced nervously over the side. “How do we do this?”
A thunderous roar filled the background. It sounded like ten thousand trains bearing down on them. Luke knew the sound. It meant the flames were growing and devouring. The foundation beneath would soon sway, then crumble into the killing heat.
He ran back into the room and stripped the sheets off the bed. When she saw him struggling with the elastic, she rushed over and helped. They worked in tandem, grabbing the cotton and dragging it back out with them to the balcony.
“Help me with this.” He slipped his hand under the heavy bed and pulled.
“What are you doing?”
“We need to anchor the sheets on something.”
Together they moved the bed, wedging it in the doorway with one end sticking out into the balcony. He took one last look around the room and decided to try one more thing. “The mattress.”
“What about it?”
“We’ll throw it on the ground as a precaution.” He doubted it would help, but if they fell from ten feet, the padding should help.
“I’ll trust you.”
He hoped that wouldn’t be the biggest mistake of her life. “Good.”
They picked up opposite ends. Once more the slice to his shoulder made his one hand useless. But she had enough strength for both of them. She wrapped her fingers around the handles on the side of the mattress and tugged until it almost rolled on top of her. He finished the job by chucking it over the side. It bounced, but was still within aiming distance.
“Do you know how to tie a strong knot?” she asked.
He had to smile at her attempts to stay positive in the face of doom. “I thought we’d use the sheets as parachutes and fly down.”
Her hands stopped working. “That’s a joke, right?”
“I’m the son of an army man. Spent my youth camping and my twenties in the military. The one thing I can do without trouble is tie a knot.”
Under the Gun Page 12