“What about the rooms they kept you in?”
She visibly cringed, “They’re awful, cold and dank, always dark. There aren’t any windows.”
“You couldn't have been on the upper levels anyway, or someone would have noticed. The basement is this way.” I pointed toward it, waiting for Vick and Mason to tighten the protective formation around Mila and me.
The door to the basement sat precisely as it did in the library: slightly offset from the entrance before you entered the atrium. I walked them back to it, moving along the wall. Being in the open made me jumpy despite Mila's assurance that we were alone.
I swallowed in relief when I saw the keypad on the door was the same as it had once been. That meant there was a chance I could still open it. Mason stepped forward, presumably to break it.
“Let me try first,” I interrupted.
I wasn't supposed to, but I had a good head for remembering numbers, and more than once, I'd watched my old boss Anthony use his code to access this basement. Undoubtedly, they removed the one I used from the system long ago, but not his. I typed in the code, and the light blinked green.
“How'd you know that code?” one of Hector's men spoke directly to me for the first time. His suspicion was evident.
“I used to work here,” I answered a bit lamely. “I remembered my boss' code.”
He grunted a distrustful sound, and the two exchanged guarded looks.
“Do we have a problem?” Mason asked with a predatory tilt to his head.
“No. Not yet, “ the man answered solemnly.
After a tense stand-off, we descended the stairs. I twitched with the tension coming from just about everyone. Even Hector's men, who always projected unflappable cool, acted as if we were luring them into a trap.
The basement was dark, but I reached out, flipping on the switch easily from muscle memory. I almost cried at the sight of my little workstation and a folding chair in the same spot I had left them. I had tidied the place up on my last day, and it seemed as if no one had thought of it since. But that couldn't be true, not with Mila trailing her hand across the wall as if she knew it well.
“I was here. There's another room on the other side of this. I'm sure of it.” She walked around slowly, taking her time looking over every inch. She stood against a wall and faced the stairs. “It has to be here somewhere. I know the exit came out on this wall.”
The men helped her shove aside a series of the same filing cabinets I used to rummage through as I scanned in the old records. One of Hector's men shoved a larger unit roughly out of the way, surprising us all when he revealed a door with a more complicated coded keypad.
“Enter your old boss' code, Claire.” I didn’t like the steel in the man's voice as he suggested my old boss was David Sharp and not Anthony, the simple man who liked corduroy a bit too much.
“Mind your tone with my fiancée, Carlos.” Mason left no room for argument, but Carlos bristled.
I held up my hands, stepping forward to do exactly that. My hand shook violently as I typed in the code, and when the light turned green again, my knees nearly gave out. Mason pulled me back instantly, worried about who might be standing on the other side. He took a surreptitious look inside before insisting that Mila and I remain sandwiched between him and Victor.
Hector's men stared at each other confident we were about to kill them, and their hands moved toward their guns. When the tension thickened to a painful point, Mila shoved her way forward.
“I remember all of this. They keep the girls this way, and the auction house is further down. It's weird that Claire knows the code, and that shit is suspicious, but I checked into her when I first started staying with them. She did work here, and if my boss entered his code in front of me, I would remember it too. So get over whatever dramatic shit you two are cooking up, and let's do this.”
“Why would you remember something like that for so long?” the one whose name I still didn't know asked.
I sighed heavily. “I used to consider this job, this place, the happiest time of my life. Unfortunately, my life was pretty sad, so don't look so skeptical.” I narrowed my eyes at them because they looked like they couldn't possibly imagine a lifethatsad. “When theyrelievedme of my duties, I obsessed over it, and many of the little details stuck because of that.”
“Sounds like complete and utter bullshit if you ask me,” Carlos answered. “If shit goes sideways, we're taking you with us. We already let Hector know we don't trust you or your bullshit.”
Well, fuck me for telling the truth, I guess. Mason began to say something, but I held up my hands to stop him. “I told you the truth. What you do with it is your business. I do not know what we'll find back there, but if you think I'm lying and this is a trap, I suggest you leave and avoid the trouble.”
“We can’t. Hector gave us an order,” he answered with supreme bitterness.
“Then kindly shut the fuck up and let Mila show us what's behind that door.” Maybe it wasn't the best idea to pick at them when they were already angry and distrustful, but since the day I found the auction house, something inside me snapped, and I couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore.
If looks could kill, I’d be less than ash, but they turned away from me and gestured for us to go first. The four of us stepped through in a tight little formation. We were in darkness for only a moment before the lights flipped on.
“Motion detectors,” Mila murmured in explanation.
The walls were all stone and cement, like an old unfinished basement. Eight doors lined the wall. The first one Mila brought us to held a gynecological table and a series of cabinets. A harsh dome light hung from the ceiling. She flipped the switch, pausing for a moment before walking to the steel slop sink. There was still a bloodied medical instrument lying carelessly in the basin. A dark stain pooled on the floor, thick and drying. That girl most likely died.