Page 43 of Knot All Is Ruined: Part 2

“What? Wait, we can't leave him behind,” I panicked.

“Shh, Wildflower, he will be right behind us as soon as he gets the chance,” Petru assured me.

“Yeah, he just needs to keep the asshole from looking for us or investigating the fact we now have an Omega, thanks to that drunken shithead. I should have hit him harder, then his ass would be knocked out and no one would have been the wiser,” Victor muttered as he pulled on a duffle, then shouldered a pack.

“That’s everything. Let’s head over to the back door,” Toma urged. “Once we get there, I’ll need you guys to hang back just a little so it doesn’t look weird that I’m messing with the controls.”

Moving in as silently as we could in the shadow of the night since the sky was conveniently lacking a moon. We waited behind a supply shed as Toma darted forward to a large metal door. I watched as he pulled a small handheld computer and plugged in some wires into something I couldn’t see very well from this far away. Waiting for him to give us the signal to join him was torture. It felt like it took hours when I’m sure it was only minutes. Yet knowing that everything we wanted to accomplish could be destroyed in one single moment had my anxiety clawing at my throat.

Is this what missions are really like for them, or is this a unique situation?

A sharp whistle had the guys moving before my brain even registered the sound. Shaking my head to focus on the here and now, I kept low as we followed along the wall until we reached Toma. He motioned for us to wait and carefully turned the large wheel that seemed to lock the door. A loud thunk echoed around us, sounding like a bomb had gone off. Even though I’m reasonably sure it wasn’t that loud in reality. We all waited to see if anyone was going to sound the alarm or come running, but nothing happened. Slowly, Toma pulled the two-foot thick metal door open, revealing the wide-open field that surrounded the base.

“Head to the east. There is a grove of trees that should keep us hidden until Sorin meets up with us,” Toma instructed. “I’ll be right behind you guys. I just need to make sure it won’t lock when I close it.”

I didn’t like this. I didn’t like it at all, but I dutifully followed the others as they slipped out into the night. There was no time to question anything as Petru led the way with Victor and Lucian corralling Cris and me in the middle. Each of them had a gun at the ready, and I was surprised to see they were willing to shoot one of their fellow men. I suppose this was a moment where you saw a line drawn in the sand. You’re either part of the pack or not—those outside the pack were considered the enemy.

Ducking behind a clump of bushes, we waited.

I swear I could hear my heart beating in my ears, and it was pounding like a fucking drum. What if something happened to Sorin? Did the door stay unlocked? Could we really pull this off? Why in the world did it have to be Cris’s father leading those men? The torrent of questions that whirled around in my brain kept spinning faster and faster, like a whirlpool trying to suck me under.

Then there was the sound of a twig snapping close by, followed up by a bird call that had me letting out the breath I’d been holding. Shooting to my feet, I flung myself at Sorin burying my nose in his wintergreen and eucalyptus scent.

He held me tightly, nuzzling my head. “I’m here, Dani-girl. We all made it out just fine.” Sorin soothed.

Lifting my head, I pressed a kiss to his lips needing to know he was alive and here. He kissed me back but didn’t deepen it before setting me down and taking a pack from Victor. “We need to move, I don’t know how long we have before that asshole reaches out to the Commandant. For some reason, he was unjustly pissed that we bonded with Dani. He didn’t give a shit that we were out here chasing Northerners, but fuck if we did something impulsive like falling in love.”

“I agree his reaction was quite odd when he learned about Dani,” Petru agreed. “At least the stop was worth it and we have the majority of supplies we need. It would be worse if we left empty-handed.”

“Agreed,” Sorin said with a nod. “Let’s get a few miles away from here at least, it would be better still if we could make it to the edge of the badlands. That would be pushing it, but it’s the opposite direction than they’d be looking for us since it’s not close to the bridge at all.”

“Lead the way, boss, we’ll follow,” Victor stated.

Sorin took one last toward the base as if he wasn’t sure he trusted to put his back to it. Unfortunately, that was a feeling I was well acquainted with, especially knowing there was a threat we’d left behind. His face fell into a determined expression and he marched forward knowing this was the point we couldn’t turn back from. We either pulled off this mission, or we'd be killed for treason by one country or the other. Yet off we went with a dream and a heart full of hope. If we could pull this off, it would all be worth it.

***

We managed to make it to the badlands that night and found a cave to sleep in and get ourselves organized. While we had an idea of where we were going, the maps we’d been basing this off of were old and certain landmarks had changed or been altered over the course of time. It took us two days before we found a place to cross the river and even then it was a terrifying situation.

“You are not fucking throwing me across that,” I snapped, pointing at the gap between two mountain outcroppings.

It looked as if once upon a time, they had been connected, but the middle of it crumbled away. The test to see if we could make the gap was for Victor to literally hurl Toma across. The scream that came out of me shocked everyone and almost made Victor stumble at a crucial point. That’s when Lucian slapped a hand over my mouth until Toma had safely landed on the other side.

“Little Spark, do you think I would even be considering this if I didn’t think I’d get you across just fine? Why do you think we started with Toma?” Victor questioned.

“Because he’s fucking crazy,” I shot back, hands on my hips. “How is the last person, aka you, going to manage, Vicky?”

He shrugged and grabbed a coil of rope. “I’ll have one of the others hold one end, carry it over, then find a place to anchor it so if I fall short, I’m not splattered on the ground below.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” I muttered, rubbing my forehead. “You know I’m all for the daring option, but that’s when there’s no other choice. How do we know this is the place to do this? What if the river gets smaller further upstream?”

“Dani-girl,” Sorin interjected, grabbing my shoulders to look at him. “We can’t keep heading in the wrong direction. If we keep going, we’ll head west as the river curves and head into the opposite mountain range than we need. I realize this isn’t anyone’s first choice, but we need to make a choice and this is where it’s going to happen.”

“You guys coming?” Toma yelled from the other side. “If you leave me over here, I’m gonna be pissed. He didn’t even ask me if I wanted to go first.”

Victor chuckled at that and flipped Toma off. “You weren’t going to just leave him over there, were you, Little Spark?”

I let out a groan as my head fell to Sorin’s chest. “Okay, I get it. This is how it has to be.”