Now, she was being held in place by Walker while Yavuz hurried over to his desk. The man rushed to find something in one of the drawers, a smirk forming on his evil face when he found whatever it was he needed.
Gracie fully expected him to pull out a gun. Instead, his hand came back empty. Even more shocking was the fact that the wall behind the room’s antique dresser had just begun to open.
A secret passageway.
In another time and place, she would have thought it fascinating. Today, it was terrifying.
Gracie opened her mouth to scream, determined to let the men outside know about the tunnel. Unfortunately, Walker anticipated this.
With a hand pressed roughly against her mouth, he moved her toward the tunnel’s entrance, her call for help silenced behind his palm.
They followed Yavuz and Achim down a set of concrete stairs into a darkened tunnel. With a flip of a switch, Yavuz illuminated the long corridor, allowing them to see where they were going.
The tunnel stopped several yards from where it began. From what Gracie could see, there was another tunnel, leading to the left.
She tried to squirm out of Walker’s grasp, but just like in the cabin, his strength over powered her.
A musty, basement-type smell filled the damp air and, because the tunnel was dug deep below the earth’s surface, it was much cooler than the room she’d been kept in.
By the time they’d turned into the next section, Gracie was covered in goose bumps.
Must be what it feels like to be buried.
Shaking off the morbid thought, Gracie tried to remember every detail she could. If by some miracle she made it out of this alive, she wanted to be able to do everything she could to help the authorities nail these bastards to the wall.
What felt like hours later, they finally reached the end of the tunnel. Instead of another section, there was a metal door with an electronic keypad.
Gracie’s heart sank. Even if whoever was up there came this way, they’d never get past this point without the code.
Nate could have.
Despite her best efforts, a tear fell down her cheek, landing on Walker’s hand.
“Don’t cry, love,” he crooned. As if he could tell exactly what she’d been thinking, he whispered into her ear, “Looks like your boyfriend survived my bullet after all.”
What?Gracie’s heart flew into her throat. Shaking her head, she fought to break her mouth free.
Turns out, she didn’t need to fight. Walker simply lifted his hand away from her lips.
“What are you saying? Nate’s alive?”
“Alive and, from what I saw on the security monitors in this place, he’s more than a little pissed at me for taking you away from him. Of course, it might also have something to do with my having shot him.”
“Shut up,” Yavuz ordered.
Gracie noticed the man was so nervous, he kept pressing the wrong number for the door’s code. Each time he did, he had to start over.
“I can’t hear myself think.”
Like she gave a shit about that. In fact, maybe if she kept talking, it would distract him enough to buy Nate time to get to her.
Is he really alive?
“Tell me what you saw,” she begged Walker. “Was it really him? Is his team here, too?”
“Oh, yeah. Plus a few extra, from the looks of things.”
“I said shut up!” Yavuz yelled over his shoulder.
