“Who’s Penny?” the man asked.
“Everly!” Valen’s voice came calling out for me. “Wait for us, Ev!”
“Hang on!” Archer joined in, his voice edged with anxiousness. “Wait!”
I looked back into the lounge area and saw the two of them running towards us. I tensed up and Ryker mumbled, “What do these fuckers want from us?”
They came pushing through the confused guards, and stood in front of us, breathless.
“We’re here for you,” Valen said. “We want to get you guys out of here.”
“Where’s Penny? Let’s go get her,” Archer exhaled in a rush of words.
The moment I looked into their eyes, I only wanted to know one thing from them. It wasn’t about their betrayal, or what felt like betrayal. It wasn’t even to ask them how they’d found me, or how they’d gotten here.
“Is Kingston alive?” I blurted and hung on the seconds between my answer and their reply, like I was gripping the edge of a cliff. Depending on their answer, I was going to climb back onto the safety and stability of the earth. Or I was going to release my grip and drop into the abyss of insanity.
“Yes!” Valen replied. “He is. He’s hurt, but he made it.”
“Oh thank god,” I said and everything felt good again in the world. It felt like we were going to make it out of this place, after all. “I was worried sick that he died. I wouldn’t believe it but I worried.”
“We’ll take you to see him,” Archer said. “He’s at my place recovering. I have security and a full medical team on site for him.”
“I want that,” I said. “I need to see him.”
“I’m getting them out,” the man said, his voice bristling with displeasure as he held his hand up, preventing Valen and Archer from getting close to me. “Your help is not needed here.”
“Who are you?” Archer demanded, looking at the man. He tore off his mask and narrowed his eyes as he assessed the stranger with us.
Valen followed, dropping his mask to the floor. “If you want to help her, then help us. We brought a car.”
“I have a helicopter arranged,” the man said. “It will be waiting for us in the prison yard. But we have to move now.”
“Can we trust him?” I asked Valen and Archer, my eyes flitting from one to the next. I was still processing the shock I felt at seeing them in the bedroom, knowing they’d watched us. I still felt betrayed, even as they declared their plan to help us escape.
“We probably have to,” Valen said and Archer agreed. The commotion in the lounge was getting louder and more of the Organization’s members were catching on that we were escaping. “It would be easier than driving, faster, too. We’re in the middle of nowhere here, out in the desert. It took us days to find you.”
“Okay,” I told the unknown man. “Get us out of here.”
Ryker turned and jogged down the hallway towards our cells. We followed, and I was glad for his memory. I was so lost amidst the twists and turns of the corridors it was tough to figure out when to turn left or right.
I was moving in the middle of the group and all seemed clear until I heard yelling behind us. Ryker took my hand and said, “Keep moving, princess.”
I did, but turned slightly to see the man from the Organization fall behind and yell, “Stop! That is an order in the name of Bellua!”
I kept running, Archer and Valen behind me, encouraging me to keep going. I wanted to look around and see what kind of control he could exert by summoning that name, but we didn’t have time.
And I finally recognized the area. We were approaching the shower area and through that, we’d be back with Penny.
My heart was fluttering and my stomach clenched the closer we got. I had a sixth sense that something was wrong. It was like Penny was pinging me, a radar of urgency that kept my legs pumping.
Archer and Valen were completely silent behind us. They moved ahead and flanked me as we reached our cells. We slowed down as we got to the end, to where Penny was curled on the bed, and I finally stopped.
“Penny! We came back for you! We’re getting out of here!”
She didn’t move, and I couldn’t even see the rise and fall of her breathing. Ice gripped my heart and froze the blood in my veins. I couldn’t handle the mere thought of Penny dying. If she did, my world would collapse. I would be crushed beneath the guilt and grief of it all.
“What is this place?” Archer asked. His hand was on my back, trying to comfort me but not fully succeeding. I was still too wound up and still unsure why they’d waited until after seeing me with Ryker to make their move.