He’d shut down the few times I’d dared to bring up the possibility that Travis Dorsey, the guy who’d been arrested for the hit-and-run that killed our parents, had done it on purpose. As far as Bram was concerned, Travis had been driving too fast, had made the mistake of running. He’d done a year for vehicular manslaughter.
The end.
But I knew better, and I knew better because I’d spent the last five years digging into the details of the accident that had changed both our lives.
Still, I was determined not to add to Bram’s pain, determined to handle Travis Dorsey myself. Which was why I was here, in the tunnels under the town that had been my home since I’d been born, trying to outrun the teams of men who would become either my captors or my avenging angels.
I turned the corner into yet another purple-lit tunnel and was considering looking for a place to rest when I heard voices again.
And this time, they were right on my heels.
10
CASSIE
I triedto move away from the murmur of male voices, but they only seemed to get closer, and I thought about what Julia had said about sound bouncing around in the tunnels.
I needed a place to hide.
I found it thirty seconds later in three stacks of chairs pushed against the tunnel wall. Not ideal, but there wasn’t much else to work with, just a pile of boxes that might conceal me behind the chairs.
If I was lucky.
I hurried to pull two of the stacks away from the wall and wedged myself between them and the tunnel, then pulled the boxes in front of my hiding spot. I was drenched in sweat by the time I was finished, the heat lamps still baking the tunnels from the ceiling.
I felt ridiculous. Exposed. Like an elephant trying to hide behind a teacup.
But I didn’t have time to think more about it because less than ten seconds later, the murmur of voices grew louder.
And this time they were accompanied by heavy footsteps on the rocky ground.
I tried to breathe quietly, but it was easier said than done when I was scared and felt like I was about to die of heat stroke.
“I know I heard her,” one of the men said.
“You don’t know shit,” said someone else. “You know how sound works down here.”
I peered out from behind my hiding spot and caught flashes of the bare skin and tattoos, knives sheathed to the waists of big men wearing masks that might have been devils or demons.
“Yeah, and that’s how I know it was one of the girls,” the first voice said. “One person, lighter footsteps.”
One of the other men came closer to my hiding spot. “Actually, you might be on to something.”
Closer.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” He hesitated in front of my hiding spot, then started to walk away. “Oh well. I guess she’s not here.”
I started to breathe a sigh of relief when the man pivoted on his heels.
“Just kidding.” He kicked aside the boxes I’d positioned in front of the chairs, then grabbed my arm. “You can’t hide from us, angel.”
I barely had time to register what was happening as he dragged me to my feet and onto the tunnel floor.
“I do love a redhead,” one of the other masked men said.
I struggled, trying to break free, but the man had an iron grip on my wrist.
“Ow! You’re hurting me!”
