I almost pulled the gun out, but the timing didn’t feel right. Hopefully his partner had been anticipating him getting to Summer and was focused on her cell.
Adolphe peered at me. “Did you just take something from me?” His voice sounded almost hurt. His partner had seen me do something. Adolphe moved his hand toward his pocket. Like my hands knew what to do before my brain told them, one grabbed the keys and one grabbed the gun. I crouched quickly and slid the keys across the floor to Summer, who snatched them up and immediately shoved them into the keyhole. At the same time, I whipped the gun out and shot Adolphe in the chest. He sank to his knees as Summer kicked him from behind, sending his face into the cold cement floor with a thud. I heard a hiss and looked up to see a hazy gas leaking out around the sock I’d shoved into the ceiling. I covered my mouth and nose with my shirt and moved as far from the spout as possible.
Two seconds later, Summer had my cell open, and we were fleeing toward the door. I calmed my thudding heart and reached out with my senses. Cardwell was not far. I could hear the slight echo of feet hitting stairs in the house. We ran up the stairs to the garage, and I motioned for Summer to go to the left of the car while I ran up three more steps that led to the house and pressed myself into the wall next to the door.
I wanted Cardwell to rush into the garage, but he didn’t. Instead I heard a click and an almost silent whoosh. Summer poked up from her spot, eyes wide. I jerked my head up and immediately closed my mouth and covered my face with my arm. Summer did too. I looked around for a garage door button, but couldn’t see one. Summer hopped into the car, shutting the door behind her, and frantically searched for something. She grimaced and then pulled her shirt off, grabbed a water bottle from a cup holder and doused her shirt, bringing it up to her mouth.
I didn’t dare open the door to the car and allow more poison to sink in. My eyes burned, and I shook my head, trying to clear it. I blinked hard several times before spotting the red emergency release pull hanging above the car.
I tried to leap down the three stairs but stumbled down them instead, my hands barely preventing me from slamming my head into the car. I pulled myself up using the car handle. I blinked several times.
Summer stared at me, mouth covered with her wet shirt. I pointed up and then slid down the side of the car, my muscles rejecting my brain’s call to move. I twisted as my body hit the garage floor. I could hear Summer opening her door, then clambering on top of the car, the metal clanging under the pressure. The next thing I knew, Summer was dragging me out into the fresh air. She threw me to the ground a few feet away and headed back into the garage. I heard gunshots and wished I could curl up and hide, but my body wouldn’t respond. The sound of squealing tires and then a door opening and shutting hit my ears.
Summer lifted me into the car, screaming out in pain as she did. She even took the time to buckle me in, then threw herself over me, into the driver’s seat and peeled out of the driveway. A part of me wanted to laugh, seeing her drive all crazy without a shirt on. The other half wanted to grab her into a hug and tell her how grateful I was for her. Of course, I couldn’t do either. She rolled the windows down, and I tried to breathe deeply. We cruised a good mile away before she pulled off the road and got out of the car. What was she doing?
Not a minute later, she was carrying me to another car and buckling me in. She growled as she moved. She threw my go bag at my feet. The kidnappers must have left it in their car when they took me to the basement. My respect for her at the moment was huge. This wasn’t the Summer I’d left behind in Belgium, just as I was not the girl I’d been. Again, she rolled the windows down, trying to get the poison to clear from my body. I wasn’t sure if that’s all it would take. She made it to the back entrance to her apartment in no time, and dashed out of the car without a word. She was only gone for forty-five seconds before she climbed back in with a go bag. She must have had it stashed somewhere.
She pulled out a phone and with the press of a button, she was in contact with Division over speaker phone. “This is Agent Barnes, requesting immediate extraction with medical assistance.” She pulled a long-sleeved T-shirt over her head.
“Extraction six minutes at PN.”
PN was Pont Neuf. Could we make it there that quickly? A sharp pain zinged through my big toe and had I been able, I would have yelled out with joy. My breathing seemed too shallow, and my lungs felt full of water. Hopefully, I hadn’t inhaled enough poison to keep me down much longer. Despite my seat belt, I was yanked side to side and forward and back as Summer raced through the streets of Paris like death itself was chasing her. The moment we pulled to the extraction point, a white van screeched up beside us. Summer unhooked my seatbelt, and someone pulled me out of the door.
My head spun as he carried me to the van and slid me inside. Summer disappeared and returned
