What about Reagan?
“Reagan isn’t going to die. I won’t let her.”
Autumn nudged the front door open when she put her finger on it. There was no squeak as she pushed it open. She looked to the left, where a fireplace roared to life. A glance above showed it was gas. The knob set to the medium setting.
Autumn narrowed her gaze. How did Elijah get the money to pay for this place? Did Scarlett buy it? She glanced all around. Everything about it reminded her of elegance. It reminded her exactly of Scarlet and what she came from.
She walked down the hallway to a spiral staircase. It went both up and down.
There was a piece of paper with a red arrow pointed downwards with the words:Come down the rabbit hole, Alice.
Autumn grimaced. She stood before the stairs. She didn’t know what she was going to find, but she had to get Reagan.
She took a step, then another. As she got further to the bottom of the staircase, she heard the song, “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals. It was the same song Fox would play on repeat during his pseudo surgical eye extractions.
Bile moved up Autumn’s throat, but she swallowed it down. Her fear would not get to her. She wouldn’t allow it to control her.
You can do this. You will not fail.
She stepped down onto a concrete floor.
Screams from the past, along with the music, echoed around her. She let it guide her to an opened metal door. A camera sat on the wall above the molding where a green light flickered.
He was recording everything.
Elijah Winters stood just inside the open doorway, his hand on the red painted doorknob. A smile full of teeth greeted her. “Come in, Autumn. The party is about to start.”
Chapter 22
“So,howisthisgoing down?” The words came from Mario, who put a cartridge in his Beretta.
Nico watched him from the corner of his eye as he drove them to Pleasantville. They were finally out of the city, so he’d pushed the gas on the rented Maserati. One hundred miles an hour wasn’t fast enough to suit him, but anything more and he would likely cause the attention of police as he weaved in and out of traffic.
“Fuck if I know,” Nico muttered.
The only plan they’d been able to hash out was getting Autumn in a cab to their current destination. They would wait an hour and then follow. Winters didn’t need to know help was on the way. After that, they were going to wing it.
“You have no plan of how to get them out of this shitfest?” Hererra spoke the question in a sharp tone, “My plan would have definitely been better.”
Ben Hererra had a pinched expression, and his lips curled up in a sneer. At first Hererra wanted to go in, guns blazing while police swarmed the place. Nico told him that wasn’t a good idea if they wanted to get Autumn and Reagan out alive.
Nico looked at the detective through the rearview mirror, “As I have no fucking clue what we’re walking into, it wouldn’t have worked.” He changed lanes after getting on the highway. “Autumn didn’t want anyone else involved.”
“Yeah, well, my team would have handled this a hell of a lot better.”
“Yes, go in with guns blazing. That’s a great idea, cowboy.” Nico rolled his eyes.
“Do you have a better idea?” Hererra asked through clenched teeth.
“Shut the fuck up. Both of you.”
Nico let out the breath he was holding and loosened his grip on the steering wheel. He blinked a couple times, then glanced at Gregory. If Luna’s lover hadn’t spoken, Nico was liable to pull over and shoot Hererra in the fucking face.
Why did he agree to let the bastard come with them again?
“We know where we’re going, yes?” Gregory asked in his thick Italian accent.
“Yeah,” Nico muttered. “We have to wait ‘til we get there to learn the layout of the house.”
