Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
The end of my story.
“Where’s Sienna?” Gavin asked. “My mom?” His nerves were strung tight, stomach muscles clenched in preparation for the worst. Mirabelle in a chair, a cord around her lifeless neck. Sienna . . . no. Those thoughts won’t help.
But if that was the case, he would attack Danny with his bare hands. Because then, he’d have nothing left to lose.
Oh! Doo-dah day!
“Your mom. Ha. Don’t worry,” Danny said, taking a few steps to his left, where he flicked a switch. “They’re right over there.” Gavin’s head swiveled, and he saw the two women, sitting on the floor, their hands tied behind their backs, gags in their mouths, but their eyes wide. His gaze flew over them. They appeared scared but okay. Alive.
“What do you want with them?” Gavin asked. “What do you want with me, and why?” It was clear now that he’d targeted them both from the beginning. But what goal was he moving toward? And how were they part of it?
“Oh, I already told you that Violet would answer all your questions,” he said, looking over at the women. “You were always a loud little shit,” Danny said as he began backing away. “Loud and happy. You got to stay that way. Good for you, Big Winner.” Gavin’s muscles tensed, primed to both run to the women and react to whatever Danny might be doing, whatever nonsensical things he was saying. But Danny simply backed away toward a door Gavin could see behind him now that his eyes had adjusted. Danny opened the door and then pulled it closed behind him, and Gavin heard the flip of a lock and what sounded like the loud clanking of chains.
He moved then, rushing toward Sienna and his mom, going down on his knees when he got to where they sat, pulling the gag from Sienna’s mouth and then Mirabelle’s, his fingers flying quickly to untie their bound hands. Their breath released on loud exhales, Mirabelle leaning her head forward as she sucked in big mouthfuls of air. “Gavin,” Sienna said, tipping her chin, her eyes cast over his shoulder.
He turned quickly. The door he’d used to enter had closed behind him, but now he could see a red light flashing on a panel on the wall. He turned back to Sienna, who was finishing the job of removing the ropes from her hands. “Help her,” he said, gesturing to Mirabelle. Sienna nodded, and he jogged back over to the door to look at the flashing light and the words beneath the panel:
You will only have one chance to input the correct code. If the incorrect code is entered, the system will be permanently disabled, and the door will remain locked. The blast is set for 5:00 a.m. on the dot. Good luck.
The blast.
He tried to turn the door handle, but it just rattled in his hand. He followed the wires from the alarm-looking box upward, but they disappeared into the darkness overhead. Goddamn, it’s tall. At one point there might have been an escalator in this large, open space, but now, from what he’d seen when he was talking to Danny, it was just a massive empty room. He couldn’t see a damn thing up above, nor did he have any form of light. He lowered his head, looking from one corner of the door to the other. Reinforced steel. Just like every casino. They’d need a bulldozer to get through it.
Or the unknown code they had one chance to enter.
Or a technician who knew how to dismantle whatever system this was and a light by which to work.
They had none of those things.
He ran to the exit Danny had gone through—another damn steel door—and found it locked as well, and when he shook it, he could hear the chink of the chain moving against itself on the other side. It was locked, and it was chained.
They were well and truly trapped.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Sienna watched as Gavin returned to them, holding his hand out to his mother. Mirabelle took it before standing and embracing him. “Oh, Gavin. I’m so sorry. So very, very sorry.” Her voice was choked with tears, and though Sienna’s adrenaline was rushing with the fear of having woken bound and gagged, her heart clenched for Mirabelle.
Gavin let go of his mother and turned to her. God, she didn’t think she should be so glad to see him, because it meant he was in danger, too, but she was. She was. “Are you okay?” he asked, his gaze moving over her face and down her body, quickly assessing.
“Physically, I’m fine,” she said. “I just want to get out of here.”
“We will.” He pulled her to him quickly, giving her a tight squeeze and then letting her go. “There’s some kind of system hooked up to the outer door that requires a code,” he said. “The door over there”—he nodded to the place Danny had disappeared through—“is locked and chained from the other side.”