Page 35
Fear rushes through me, but I force myself not to move. “Where is he?”
The man laughs. It is a horrible sound. “You’re a stupid girl.”
My stomach drops. “Where is he?”
“Give me the drive!”
I jerk hard in fear and quickly reach into my purse. My fingers close around it. Then I pull out the drive and toss it toward him. He catches it easily.
“There.”
“Where is my father?”
He looks down at the drive. Then back at me. “Safe for now.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means your father was stupid enough to collect evidence against people who are far more powerful than he realized.”
My heart pounds. “You said you would let him go.”
“I said a lot of things.”
“You have the drive now.”
The man laughs again. “Oh, sweetheart. Once this is destroyed, your father is still going to die.”
My blood turns to ice. “No. You promised.”
“And now I have to clean up another problem.”
My breathing becomes shallow. “You were going to kill him anyway?”
“That was always the plan.”
Tears burn my eyes. I take a step backward. The man raises the gun. “But first, I have to deal with you.”
My entire body freezes. I look toward the entrance of the tunnel. “Someone will hear the gunshot.”
The man laughs. “Look around, sweetheart. There’s no one close enough to help you.”
He raises the weapon. “No one is coming.”
A sound comes from behind him. He starts to turn.
A body slams into him from behind. The gun goes off. I scream and drop to the ground as the sound explodes through the tunnel.
“Cora!”
Roman. I look up. Roman is attacking the man. The gun skids across the ground. Before I can move toward him, another pair of hands grabs me.
“Come on.” Raiden.
Raiden pulls me away from the tunnel. And even though I fight him for the first few steps, he is stronger than me and practically drags me toward the open area. “Let me go!”
“You need to get out of there.”
I twist around. I catch one last glimpse before Raiden pulls me farther away. Roman has the man on the ground. River is there now too. I don’t know when he arrived, and I don’t see what happens next. Raiden keeps moving until we reach a bench far enough away that the tunnel is partially hidden behind trees.
