Page 101 of Tough Justice

“Wait!” Brett whispered harshly, grabbing his arm. “This isn’t a building.”

“Then what is it?” Right now, he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was that Tori was here, and she didn’t come of her own free will.

“It’s the entry to an old underground explosives bunker,” Brett said, still keeping his voice low. “Back in the day, this was where mining companies and co-ops that sold explosives had to store dynamite, TNT, and det cord. Blaze is hitting like crazy on something. Could be remnants, could be live material. Just saying we need to keep that in mind.”

“Noted.” Deck gave his friend a quick nod, thankful for his expertise. Again, he reached for the handle.

Footsteps filtered through the crack in the door.

“Get back,” he whispered.

Not wanting them to get caught in a barrage of bullets, they quickly downed their dogs, who flattened their bodies to the ground.

Three shotguns leveled at the door as it slowly swung open.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Voices cut through Tori’s misery. She rolled off the cot and went to the gate. Wil still lay motionless next to the open hole in the dirt floor. His chest rose and fell. Most likely, he had a concussion, possibly a fractured skull.

T-Lo and another man were talking outside the lab. The other guy headed around a corner, slinging a backpack over his shoulder before disappearing from her view. They were packing up.

She pressed her forehead against the bars and shut her eyes. Soon, they’d leave, but not before setting fire to the place.

“Deck, please,” she whispered. Find me. But how could he?

Still gripping the wrought-iron bars, she sank to her knees, staring at the dirt floor. A whisper of sound caught her attention.

Wil’s leg twitched.

Tori straightened, flicking her eyes to the lab to see T-Lo and the other man go back through the plastic curtain.

“Wil,” she whispered, reaching through the bars to grab the tip of his boot, shaking it. “Wil, wake up!” Given that T-Lo planned to let Wil die down here with her, maybe if he woke up, he’d change his mind and help them both escape. She doubted it, but it was her only shot of getting out of this alive.

She shook him again. He didn’t budge, but her efforts had shifted his leg to reveal something half buried in the dirt beside his left hip.

The key.

It must have slipped from his pocket.

Keeping one eye on the lab, she stretched her arm through the bars, straining to reach it, but it was too far away. Taking a deep breath, she all but rammed her shoulder through the bars, shimmying to extend her reach enough to grab the key.

When the other man came from the lab, she yanked back her arm, hoping he hadn’t seen what she was trying to do. After he’d disappeared in the direction of the first guy, she took an even deeper breath and closed her eyes as she shoved her arm even farther through the bars.

“Nice try.” T-Lo slammed his boot on top of her hand.

She winced, trying to yank her hand back, but he ground his boot down harder on her fingers. She gritted her teeth, refusing to give him the satisfaction of crying out.

T-Lo picked up the key then lifted his boot from her hand. As she sat there, cradling her crushed fingers, he smiled, revealing uneven, yellowing teeth. “Enjoy your stay in Hotel Gray Death.” He held his arm over the opening in the floor.

“No!” she cried then watched helplessly as he dropped the key into the hole.

Another man came over and grabbed T-Lo’s shoulder. “We gotta go. Now. Once we light the fuse and it hits the gas tanks, we need to be somewhere else. Know what I’m saying?”

They were going to blow the place up. With me in it. “Wait!” She rushed to the cell door, grabbing the bars.

“Sorry, sweetheart. But don’t worry. As soon as the tanks blow, you won’t feel a thing.” He winked, then he and the other man disappeared around the corner.

“No, wait!” Tori shouted. “Take me with you!” Anything was preferable to being blown to bits. “Wil!” She grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at his face. “Wake up! You got me into this, you asshole, so you damn well better get me out of it!”