The girl reared back in alarm at the sound of her name. As if she hadn’t heard it in a long time. “Yeah?”
“I’m Reyna.” Reyna beckoned to her. “We’re here to get you out. Come with us.”
Jodie’s eyes widened in shock. “I don’t know who the hell you are, but—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Meghan breathed under her breath. “We’re breaking you out, and we’re on a tight schedule. Do you want to come with us or stay here?”
Jodie’s eyes darted back and forth between them quickly. “How do I know you’re not lying?”
Meghan retrieved her little gun from the bag on her shoulder. Jodie looked at her with alarm. “It’ll deactivate the tracking device in your arm.”
“You’re serious?”
Reyna nodded. “Just let her do it and then we’ll be out of here. I swear.”
Jodie narrowed her eyes before extending her arm to them. “If this is a trick…”
Meghan pressed the gun against the device, and it buzzed once. “Done. Now let’s move.”
Jodie ran her hand over the tiny knot in her arm. “Y’all are for real?”
“No one deserves this.” Reyna gestured to the prison cell.
“We have to go,” Meghan said. “We have less than three minutes to get out of this building while the cameras are down. I don’t have extra clothes for you. You’ll have to pretend to be our patient. Act docile—or better yet, pretend to be drugged on a vamp bite.”
Meghan ushered them out of the room. They backtracked through the corridors until they finally hit a stairwell. Up they went. Around and around and around. Reyna lost count of how many flights they climbed. Jodie stayed close between them. Her labored breaths made it clear that she hadn’t been exercising like Reyna had. Even with her exercises, Reyna was still panting as they climbed the stairs.
“Where…are…we?” Reyna gasped out between breaths.
“Visage headquarters. I’ll explain later,” Meghan told her.
Visage.
This whole time, she had been in the building where Beckham worked. She’d been living, eating, breathing, surviving, and also slowly dying, and she’d been doing it in this fucking place. Practically in plain sight. How could Harrington get away with this? How the hell was it even possible?
“I’m going to kill him” was her only response.
“We’d all appreciate that, but right now, keep it down,” Meghan said.
Reyna gave a tight nod and kept filing up the stairs.
“Two more flights,” Meghan said. So close.
Just as they reached the next landing, an alarm blared overhead. Reyna skidded to a halt, colliding with Jodie. Both of their eyes widened with fear as they turned to Meghan.
“What the hell is that?” Jodie asked.
“Meghan?” Reyna asked.
Meghan turned frightened eyes toward Reyna. “Shit.”
“What?” Reyna asked.
“Control your breathing. Get it under control. Both of you.” Meghan fixed Reyna’s hair, brushing more in front of her face. It was clear that she was trying to look confident, but her hands were shaking.
“Meghan, what is happening?” Reyna hissed.
“Someone knows you’re gone,” she whispered. “Our window just closed.”
