All those wonderful memories resurfaced. Stirring the stew in the kitchen. Sitting beside Patience in church, singing along to the hymns together. The way her neighbor had needed herassistance so many times. All of it had been pretense—Patience acting frail to get Eliana to feel sorry for her and show up all the time to help.
“W-why?” She choked out the word.
“Because I want to control the Board of Governors. No matter how many people have to die, just so long as Lydia Rosenberg goes to hell with them.”
Tears streamed down Eliana’s face. Patience thought this was about sending a bomb and then coming down here? “Carolena came here with a bomb because of you?”
Patience sneered. “Life is easier when people do as they are told.”
Raquel was beside her before she even realized the woman had regained consciousness. The knife was snatched from Eliana’s hands. She tried to grab Raquel as the woman rushed to Tony, but Patience pointed the gun at her.
Eliana gasped.
Tony roared out a cry, then slumped back on the floor. Raquel backed up, holding his finger in her hand. She turned to the vault door, and the system beeped.
“Insert for stage two.”
Patience followed after her. As soon as the older woman passed Eliana, almost dismissing her, that was her chance.
Eliana rushed to Tony, peeling back the shirt over his chest where he’d been shot. Now his finger had been cut off as well. Eliana glanced back over her shoulder at the elevator. “Hang on,” she whispered.
Bracing her weight, she grabbed him under his arms and dragged him back across the floor, leaving a wet streak of blood on the tile. She had to let go of him to hit the button on the elevator, but the doors immediately dinged and slid open.
Eliana hurried back, dragging Tony into the elevator.
“No, no!” Patience rushed to her, moving quicker than Eliana had ever seen her move. Pointing the gun at her. “Step out of that elevator, or the next bullet goes in your brain.” She slammed her hand on the door, holding it open.
Eliana stared at the gun. She let go of Tony, and he slumped to the floor of the elevator.
“Nice and easy.” Patience motioned with the gun. “Step out.”
Eliana stepped over Tony. She wasn’t going to be of any use to them in the vault. She didn’t know what was in there or how to take control of the Board of Governors.
She didn’t even know what that meant.
She stretched her hand left and hit the button for the ground floor before Patience grabbed her and pulled her out of the elevator.
Eliana stumbled, yelping at the strength of the older woman’s grip on her arm.
The elevator doors slid shut behind her, and she prayed that whoever discovered Tony upstairs when the doors opened would realize that she, too, needed help.
Eliana gritted her teeth as Patience held her by the arm, the gun pointed at her abdomen.
Ahead of them, Raquel finished entering the passcode.
“Entry authorized.”
The door mechanism whirred. Behind the metal surface of the door, a series of cogs clicked around, finally settling into place with a louder click.
Raquel twisted the wheel to the vault door and spun it, opening the door.
“I’m not part of this,” Eliana protested. “I have nothing to do with the vault or what’s inside it. Just let me go, and I’ll make sure no one disturbs you.” She tried to pull away from her neighbor.
No, not her neighbor. The Mother of the Reverence Sisters group. The reason why Luci Ryson was currently in the hospital in critical condition.
She twisted to face Patience. “I have no part in this.”
“Weren’t you telling me you were looking for adventure?”
