There were no stairs or exterior way to enter whatever room her mark had fallen into. At least not that she could see.
Lana turned toward the fence and the woods just beyond it. Would there be an access point there, or would she have to go in the other direction?
Maybe there wasn’t an access point at all.
The mill was old, most of it repurposed instead of replaced as far as she had seen. They weren’t in the working part either. Maybe they had closed up whatever they hadn’t needed in order to skirt any liability issues.
Not that she cared.
She shouldn’t have accepted the job to come to a place like Seven Roads.
Lana gave up her search for an easier way into whatever pit had formed beneath the detective’s feet and instead looped back to the front door. When she went back inside, she holstered her gun and took a more conclusive look at her obstacle. She pulledher cell phone out and turned the flashlight function on. It didn’t do much, but she could now guess the drop was about eight feet down. There didn’t seem to be anything to help with that descent either, at least not from its concrete floor up to her.
Lana glanced around the dorm room around her. An industrial complex surely had something she could use to get down there without having to scale around like an acrobatic. Rope or a ladder or maybe if she could push one of the bunk-bed frames over the edge she could use it to drop onto and then climb back out of. Or maybe—
Lana had moved her gaze back to the hole as she went through potential plans.
The beam of light that was faint but clear enough was still empty. However, all thoughts stuttered to a stop when she realized that just outside of its scope was something she hadn’t seen before.
At first, she thought it was the detective, but the shape was all wrong. Smaller.
The woman, she realized.
Not only had the woman survived a potential shot from Rafe and the fall, she had managed to collect a gun in the process.
And that gun was aimed up and right at Lana.
Her words carried with absolute clarity despite the open floor between them.
“Throw me your clip and then your gun or I’ll shoot,” she yelled up. “You’ve got ten seconds.”
The woman was covered in dirt and blood. Her clothes were torn. Her hair a mess.
Her words were stone.
Despite herself, Lana was impressed.
But she was no fool.
The woman was at a disadvantage no matter how determined her voice sounded.
However, Lana wasn’t going to test her patience.
She threw herself backward as far as she could.
No sooner than she lost sight of the hole than three gunshots shot out from it.
Lana might have stayed to see if she could run out the woman’s clip, but another sound had entered the area.
Someone was coming. Their footfalls were loud in the silence that followed the last gunfire.
If there was someone other than her and Rafe, Lana hadn’t been told about them. Which meant she wasn’t going to take her chances that the detective or his woman had had the chance to call in backup.
Lana didn’t sigh as she backtracked with quiet speed. She only handled problems that were listed in her contract. Whoever that woman was hadn’t been on that list.
Though, as she disappeared into the woods behind the mill, she bet she would be soon.
Until then, Lana did what she did best.
