She didn’t make a sound when Saverio cleaned the wound. A needle was going in and out of her head, and she still didn’t move.
“Rio,” I barely got out.
“Her pulse is not strong, but it hasn’t gone any lower either,” he said. “She’s going to be okay. I can feel it in my bones. Let’s just get this bleeding under control, and then we’re going to talk about a plan.”
Saverio wasn’t blowing smoke up my ass, but I could tell his plan never included a slamming stone door. The temperature was dropping, and I could hear some of the men’s teeth chattering. It was like a fucking meat locker. And it seemed to be sending the rats in a panic, or maybe it was the scent of blood. The ones who’d escaped from the wall were fighting with the men as they tried to keep them away from us. I’d hear a grunt and then a squeal.
Saverio sighed. “That should stop the bleeding, at least.”
I opened my eyes and looked down. She had at least fifty stitches, starting from the crown of her head and making a jagged, crescent-like wound from her forehead to her temple. Her nose was swollen. Her eyes were black and blue. Her entire body, it seemed, was covered in blood.
My body started to tremble with rage when I thought of how that had happened. She had boot marks on her flimsy clothes. She started to tremble in my arms. Saverio reached inside his backpack and grabbed a blanket. I took it from him and, awkwardly, tried to cover her. He helped me without a word, and we tucked it in tight so the cold air would have a harder time sneaking in. I’d warm her with my body heat too.
One of the men told Saverio something was on the wall. He’d felt it when he was pushing against it to see if more of it would crumble. Saverio pointed the flashlight in his direction. A torch. Saverio got closer to it and sniffed around it. “I don’t trust it,” he said almost to himself. “If we light it, it might blow up. I’m not sure if they laced the torch with something.”
“The other teams knew we were coming in this far,” I said.
Saverio nodded. “But before I could tell them our exact coordinates, Boris and friends must have severed our line.”
“Which means it might be hours before they get to us.”
He nodded, a solemn look on his face.
I wasn’t sure if Stella had hours. Or if the temperature would drop so low that we all might die. I wasn’t sure about oxygen either. I was finding it hard to take an easy breath. That could have been from the amount of dust, or my general state too. Everything inside of me wanted to get Stella out of here, but we were trapped. Saverio had even ordered the men to dig to the other side of the wall, but it was nothing but hard stone once they reached it. No pushing that stone barrier out of the way. A few men tried lifting the door, but that was a waste of time and energy.
An hour had gone by, and all we could do was wait. The men huddled around me, closer together for warmth, and fought the rats. They were insistent, almost rabid, and I’d never seen one of our men cry until one took a bite out of his pants and had refused to let go. Another man was about to shoot it, but Saverio ordered him to stand down. Another man grabbed his taser, and that was the only reason therattohad let go. A thin line of smoke purled from its body, and its mouth was open in a snarl.
“It got me,” the man almost rasped out, holding his leg. “I will die from some horrible disease. My mamma will not even recognize me in death.” He screamed out when Saverio poured alcohol over the wound.
Saverio snapped at him in Italian not to be so dramatic, though I could see the look in Saverio’s eyes. He might contract something from the rat. If the rat had something, hopefully the alcohol would clean it out before it got in his bloodstream.
Two hours, and we were all huddling closer together. Our warm breath clashed with the frigid air and made smoke in the meager light of the flashlight. Saverio checked Stella’s pulseevery so often, and a few times, the look in his eyes made my heart fight through the dull beats—panic. I could tell he didn’t like what the machine was telling him, even though he never spoke his thoughts aloud.
A few times I stood, making sure to keep her steady, as I paced the length of the room. My body was moving slower, and we all had to keep moving to keep our temperatures up. She didn’t stir in my arms or make a sound.
“Fuck!” I yelled, and again, the sound of my voice seemed to ricochet off the stones and reverberate.
For a second, the pounding from the other side seemed like it had come from my voice too, but when Saverio jumped up and got to the door, he yelled, “Dentro!”
Mac, Saverio’s old man, was on the other side of the door. It took about an hour, but the trap door opened just enough for us to roll underneath it. As much as I fucking hated it, I set Stella down gently, and it was my father who took her in his arms and cradled her to his chest until I made it to the other side. He handed her back so gently, it almost felt like she had been floating on air.
As we raced toward the closest escape hatch, an explosion made the floor tremble beneath my feet. I assumed it was in the underground club.
Stella moaned in my arms, and it was so unexpected, all I did was stare at her for a second. My father pushed against my back, and I started to move again.
“Lev and his men,” my father said, using sign language.
That might have been, but for the first time in hours, she’d finally made a sound. This time the noise that came from my throat was half inhuman and half mortal man. It was a sound between a wounded animal and a man who couldn’t contain the beating of his heart.
Mac went up the stairs first. I was right behind him, followed by my father. The air outside was frigid, but so clean and fresh I almost gulped it down. And as a crisp wind blew, Stella shivered in my arms. The blanket had fallen down, and her chest was exposed. I pulled her tighter against me, and she moaned again. When I looked down, her eyes were barely open.
“Stella,” I barely got out.
She tried to speak, but no words came out. Her lips were swollen and busted. Then, with a sound like sandpaper grating against something soft, she whispered, “What took you so long?”
Then she was out again, a trickle of blood running from the side of her mouth.
Chapter 13
