“As ever.” I leaned closer, so the others couldn’t hear me. “Claudius, as soon as we see the girls, give them to Pa and Raphael and tell them to get the hell out of here.”
“Absolutely. Raphael’s struggling to keep up.”
We both glanced behind us and saw that he’d stopped and Pa was talking to him.
Fuck, if he died down here, I’d never forgive myself. I should have insisted more on him staying behind. I understood why he’d come, but damn.
“Don’t worry. We got this.” I didn’t know how Claudius could sound so positive, but I appreciated it.
“You better hope we got this,” Sinclaire cut in.
Claudius and I both looked at him.
“Or else what, cop boy?” Claudius glared.
Sinclaire narrowed his eyes and said nothing.
“That’s what I thought.” Claudius stopped walking. “Do me a favor and stop pissing me off. My brother is an angel compared to me. I won’t think twice about cutting your face off and wearing it as a hat.”
Maurice laughed, and Claudius glared at him, stopping his laugher instantly.
“Come on, guys, now’s not the time,” Max offered and gave Sinclaire a hard look.
I didn’t say anything. I just kept walking. I didn’t care about Sinclaire or whatever shit he had to say.
He could continue talking out of his ass, for all I cared. It was water on a duck’s back.
We weren’t far.
Twenty minutes later proved me right. The tunnel went on, but we were right at the spot that would lead to the ground floor toilets. Above us was a large metal drain cover with the wordsPeyton Prisonengraved in it.
Claudius and The Four got their tools out and got to work on unscrewing the bolts that held the cover in place.
It took a little bit longer than anticipated because of the rust that had formed around the bolts, but they did it.
Next order of business was going up.
Claudius and I helped everyone get inside and left ourselves for last.
He got me in, then I pulled him inside.
Sure enough, we were indeed in the toilets. The toilets that smelled stale like old piss and mold mixed together. Although the place was dark, daylight that snuck in from the frosted glass windows showed enough. Cobwebs cascaded over the ceiling, and the floor was covered in dirt and dust.
It was so dusty that the particles wafted off the ground in clouds as we moved.
I guess as bad as the place looked and smelled, it showed one thing.
No one had been down here in a very long time.
“What now?” Max asked me.
“Amelia and Gigi are on the fifth floor. We can get to the cell she’s in from this side. The surveillance stops just beyond the corridor she’s being kept, so we have to be ready to party when we come up on camera.” At least it would be a lot of us. The strongest team.
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
We moved through the toilet and went out to the corridor which kept that dank smell about it. Dank and mold. It instantly made me feel like taking a bath.
The place reeked of uncleanliness, but more than dirt. It was the evil done by the prisoners that had been held here and died here. This place was one of the facilities that conducted the death penalty by both poison and electrocution. They did other things too, of the inhumane variety.
