Reyna knew this whole thing had been too easy. Elle wasn’t worried about anyone getting out of their room, because there was no way out of the bunker. They were as good as trapped.
She tried to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth. She felt sick at the very thought. She couldn’t be trapped again. She needed to get out. She needed a moment to live again. Reyna put her arms around her stomach and backed away from the door. Her back hit the wall. She was still trying to get herself under control when the door behind them opened.
Shit! She hadn’t anticipated getting caught before they even made it outside.
Then the person walked into the room and she nearly groaned. Trouble was in the building.
Gabe smiled. “What do we have here?”
“Who the hell are you?” Jodie asked.
Reyna cringed. “This is Gabe. We met at my meeting with Sydney.”
“And you must be Jodie,” Gabe said, offering her his hand.
Jodie stared down at it and crossed her arms. “We weren’t doing anything.”
“That so?” His eyes crawled back over to Reyna’s, and he arched an eyebrow. “Tired of being cooped up?”
“Amen to that,” Jodie said.
Gabe grinned at them both. “How did you get up here, anyway?”
Neither of them responded. He just laughed.
“Pick the lock in your room? Yeah, I did that, too, when I first got here. Got me in some real trouble with the higher-ups, but they kept me around. They need people like me.” He eyed them both. “Like you two, as far as I can tell.”
“I don’t want to be used,” Reyna said.
“That’s all life does. Chews you up and spits you out. Get used to it.”
“Not something I plan to get used to,” Jodie told him.
“How about this,” Gabe said, holding a hand up. “I have somewhere I need to be. I’ll be gone two, maybe three hours tops. Why don’t you two come with me? Then when you come back, we can talk about howyoucan benefit from Elle by working with them. How does that sound?”
“Did someone send you to do this?” Jodie demanded. “Because if this is a trick…”
“It’s no trick. I’m doing you a favor.”
“No one does favors for free,” Reyna told him.
“And I’m not doing it for free. It’s a deal. I help you out for a bit, and you come back and try to help our rebellion. Deal?”
Reyna’s eyes swept to Jodie. She lifted one shoulder. They probably shouldn’t be leaving the premises for a couple of hours, but they would be with Gabe. He was probably lying about this not being sanctioned by the higher-ups, but she might as well take advantage of the opportunity if she could.
“Deal.”
Chapter Fifteen
Piled into Gabe’s heavily tinted black SUV, they zipped out of an underground garage and onto the road leading into the city. Reyna drank in the sights around her. It had been so long since she had seen much of anything of interest. The sensation was like being dunked into a cold pool.
Her eyes flitted over the large building they had just exited from, and she nearly choked when she realized where she was. Her hand flew to her chest as she all but craned her head out the window to get a better look.
Gabe glanced at her. “What’s up?”
“That building,” she breathed.
“Yeah? Didn’t you see it on your way in?”
