“Good. Let them kill each other.”
He shakes his head while tapping his forehead with his fist, searching his brain for options. “I need Salinger alive, or I won’t get my life back. Salinger has definitely corrupted my file—unless he thinks I’m already dead. I can’t risk it. And you need Lugazzi to own up to what he did to you. We already heard one gunshot so one of Lugazzi’s men must have gone down. Salinger doesn’t have much time.”
“There has to be a back door. A way out of here.” I grab his face and pull it toward me. “The important thing is, we get out of here together.”
He kisses my forehead. “You’re right.”
“What the hell do we have here?” one of the thugs booms from behind us.
I look just in time to see him lift his gun. With an instinct I didn’t know I had, I raise my own and fire, hitting him in the chest.
“Oh my God!” I gasp and drop the weapon. My hands are shaking. I’ve never fired a gun before.
“What the hell was that?” Carlo says from inside, and the men in the warehouse seem to have forgotten what their own personal standoff was about.
Jesse and I run as fast as we can down hallways, trying to get as far away from the pounding footsteps of the men following us.
“Davenport!” Salinger yells.
“They escaped!” a thug shouts.
Now, there are more feet coming for us.
We ditch and swerve, taking any random way we can find. This place is like a maze that leads to nowhere. No matter how far we travel, we seem to be running toward the voices.
Jesse slips, and I grab his hand, helping him to his feet. He’s only working with one eye, so it must be hard for him to navigate these halls. Everything is a gray with panels and an industrialized ceiling. With no markings, it’s impossible to tell where we are or where we’ve been.
Some areas smell like motor oil, which makes me think we’re closer to the garage. Others stink like natural gas. Those must mean we’re getting further from the outside walls.
I drop his hand, so we can move quicker. I’m trailing, but he always looks to make sure I’m not too far behind.
I lose my footing and hit a wall, making my shoulder shoot in pain in the spot where Carlo threw me to the floor earlier. I ignore the wound and move.
Pow, pow, bang!
We’re running as fast and as hard as we can, away from the carnage and violence. It feels like we’re getting a lead. The taste of freedom is on the tip of my tongue as we hang a sharp left. I’m positive this is the way out until we slam into a brick wall.
“Shit!” Jesse gripes as I turn around, only to come face-to-face with Salinger.
“Where are you going?” He ambles toward us with fake concern on his face.
Jesse draws his gun making Salinger put his arms up in surrender.
“We need to get out of here. The plan worked, and now, I can get you two to safety.”
My scalp prickles as fear and adrenaline course through my body. “You’re working with them,” I say back.
His dark gaze narrows. “Of course that’s what you think. I’m playing both sides, pretending I’m in on this with them. I was just about to take out Lugazzi when you showed up. The Feds are about to chopper in here.”
I look at Jesse, watching as his brows curve in. Salinger is a man he trusted with his life. For Salinger to have given that kind of oath, too, must make it hard for him to see through the lie he’s telling.
“Don’t believe him, Jesse. He drugged me,” I plea with him.
His eyes are glassy as he tries to make up his mind.
“You heard what he said to Lugazzi. He wanted us dead.”
“It was undercover work. Jesse knows that as well as I do.”
He takes a step toward us, and I back myself against the wall. I don’t have a gun. If I could, I’d shoot the man myself.
“Lower your gun, and let’s walk out of here together.”
Jesse tightens his jaw. I can see the pain of the situation weighing heavily on him.
“Don’t trust him. He’s not good. Not like you!” I cry.
“I know,” Jesse says and fires a bullet at Salinger but not before the unrespectable director raises his own firearm at Jesse.
“No!” I scream and throw myself over the man I love.
The bullet pierces my skin, and I arch back at the burn it leaves.
A series of shots echoes in the small space as I fall to the ground.
Jesse is quickly at my side, dropping to his knees and grabbing my cheeks. “Amelia!”
My shoulder is throbbing, but surprisingly, I don’t feel as bad as I thought I would after being shot. Looking up into his tortured face, I can see he’s okay. Salinger, on the other hand, is lying on the floor, gasping in pain.
“I’m okay, I think.” I slowly stand up, and Jesse quickly assesses my injury.
“You’re one lucky girl, you know that?”
“Sure, I guess you could say that.” I point over at Salinger, who is flinching like a man who’s been electrocuted. “I thought you didn’t want him dead.”
“He’s not. Shot him in the leg. He’ll live if we get out of here in time to call a bus.”
He takes the hand of my uninjured side, and we race out of the tunnel with Jesse kicking Salinger’s gun out of reach.
“We have to go back to that room. It was the only way out that we found. Maybe they’re gone, looking for us,” I suggest.
“Stay close.”
It takes a while, but we manage to make our way back to where we saw Salinger in a standoff with Lugazzi.
“It’s empty,” I whisper.
Jesse lifts his gun. “Never trust an empty room.”
We walk further, passing the grate where we can see into the room and come upon an opening. The closed garage doors line the other side
