Chapter 32 River #2
“I don’t know! Maybe you were too scared to break your neck or something.” Pandora bangs her elbow against the glass. “Okay, that’s probably reinforced. I didn’t bring any glass cutting tools. Mostly because I don’t own them. I’m not an internationally wanted art thief.”
In all honesty, we’re poorly prepared for this whole rescue mission, something I’m increasingly aware of.
“Let’s go back the way we came,” I suggest. “We’re getting you out, Samantha, and we’ll figure out the rest later. Okay?”
Samantha’s eyes snap to me. “You’re just going to leave the others here?”
Pandora smiles even wider. “Apparently yes. Who cares about the other bitches, right? The brunettes and the Asians and—”
“It’s not that we don’t care,” I interrupt, not liking the look of that smile at all. “But what are we going to do, Pandora? Do you have a plan?” I can’t help the hope from entering my voice.
If anyone can come up with a plan, it’s Pandora.
Fuck, I really am still head over heels for her, despite everything, always having faith that she can do the impossible.
“Well, I can’t burn it all down,” Pandora says. “Otherwise that would be the plan.” She runs her hand along the wall. “The plaster looks pretty flammable though…”
“No fires,” I say firmly. “Not with who knows how many women in these rooms.” I grimace. “We’ll… figure something out. Okay? But for now, we need to get Samantha out.”
I look at Samantha, really look at her, and I notice she’s only wearing a nightgown. There are no shoes to be seen, but that’s not a surprise.
Fuck.
Pandora seems to notice at the same time. “Give her your hoodie, River.” She pulls her beanie off and hands it to Samantha.
I take my hoodie off and offer it to Samantha. She snatches it away from me and pulls it on. It’s big enough on her to where it covers more on her than it did on me, though her lower half is still mostly exposed.
I hadn’t even thought about bringing something as basic as clothes.
“Okay,” I repeat. “Let’s go.”
Pandora reaches into her pocket and pulls out her knife.
“So, y’know how I said I had a great plan for all this?” Pandora asks.
“Let me guess,” I say, my stomach sinking. “You didn’t.”
“Nope. But I know you can handle it. And I can handle it!” Pandora grins. “Sooo, I’d say it’s 60-40 on somebody waiting for us outside. What do you think the odds are, Asch?”
Asch doesn’t reply, but I can hear that Blaze is still talking to Pam.
More accurately, he’s talking at Pam, who has sounded increasingly pissed off. If Blaze wasn’t George Bouchard’s son, I’m sure her reaction would’ve been worse.
“Yeah,” I say. “I’ll go out first.”
I head to the door, only to find that it’s locked. I grimace.
“Pandora?” I ask. “I need you to get the door.”
“I could’ve told you it was locked,” Samantha mutters.
“Yep.” Pandora comes up next to me to unlock the door. “You should probably stay behind that wall until we give you the all-clear, Samantha.”
The seconds stretch out as the device works the lock, and I don’t realize how fast my heart is hammering in my chest until I hear the beep and click.
Pandora steps back while I reach for the doorknob.
I open it carefully, staying far behind it because I half-expect to hear a gun go off the second I do.
Nothing.
That doesn’t mean there’s not a man with a gun on the other side, only that someone’s being cautious if they are there.
I take a deep breath, then step out into the hallway.
There are two men standing opposite the door, both of them wearing dark suits. They’re both well-muscled, while one of them is bald and the other has a shaggy beard.
“A kid?” the bald one mutters. “A fucking kid?”
I bristle. I’m not just a fucking kid.
I glance at their hands, but neither of them is brandishing a weapon. Good.
It’s time to show off what I’ve learned in those not-entirely-legal fights. I’m outnumbered, but they’re wearing stiff suits that are going to limit their range of motion. I’m unhindered by my clothing, and while I still have the element of surprise, I lash out at the bald man.
The guy yelps when my fist collides with his jaw.
Beardy’s eyes widen. While Baldy is still reeling, I dash over to him and deliver a fist to his stomach. He has enough wherewithal to tighten his stomach muscles to absorb the blow, but he’s not exactly Harry Houdini here, able to withstand every punch.
Or maybe he is. Didn’t Houdini die from a punch?
Baldy recovers, and he comes at me. I dodge out of the way and manage to trip him, so he goes crashing into his friend.
“Get out of here!” I shout, not looking back.
“Yep! Got it! Come on!” Pandora shouts.
She and Samantha run past us. The two guards untangle themselves from each other.
“Go after the girls!” Baldy orders.
Beardy tries, but I position myself in the middle of the hall to block their path.
By now, Asch has to know everything has gone tits-up, but I can’t focus on the earpiece to find out if things are going wrong on their end, too.
“Could really use some help!” I say, hoping Asch can break free and get his ass up here.
I throw another punch at Baldy, determined to keep them distracted. As long as Pandora can get Samantha free of the building, they should be safe, right? No one will risk chasing after them into the parking lot.
My keys, I realize, are in the pocket of my hoodie.
They can get out of here.
The one advantage I have is that the hallway is narrow enough that the two of them can’t easily fight me at the same time. As long as I don’t let either of them get behind me…
Beardy lunges at me again, and I raise my arm to deflect and get an uppercut in. He grunts, but I can tell that something has changed. He’s prepared for me now, no longer dismissing me as just a kid.
While I’m distracted by Beardy, though, Baldy takes advantage of the situation to grab me. I jab my elbow back, but he’s expecting the counter, so he shifts so I barely clip him. Fuck. Beardy punches me in the face, and I’m too dazed to even try to dodge the next punch he launches at my shoulder.
He gets in another hit, but then someone’s grabbing his arm and pulling it back.
Asch.
In some ways, he’s more suited to this kind of fighting than I am, and he quickly manages to get Beardy to realize that he’s a threat as well.
I use that confusion to break free of Baldy’s hold, and I pummel him with a series of jabs. He counters a few of them, but I manage to break through his defenses.
My next punch lands on his nose. I hear the crack, smell the copper. A drop of blood lands on my cheek.
Baldy groans loudly, and his body goes limp and falls to the floor.
There are no tap outs here.
I punch Baldy again, then shove at him hard with my foot. He’s not feigning unconsciousness; if he was, he’d have gone for my foot.
So that means we only have to deal with Beardy. The second he’s out, we can bail.
Asch has him mostly handled, but I still grab Beardy from behind. Beardy grunts, but with my hold on him and the way Asch is putting pressure on him, there’s not much he can do against the two of us.
We put him down, too, and while there’s a dark part of me that wants to make sure neither of them wakes up from this, I know we’re already fucked.
“Let’s go,” I tell Asch as Beardy crumples to the floor.
He glances at the two of them, assessing them, then nods. “Yeah. Blaze should have Pam dealt with by now. We should have a few minutes before they send backup.” He jogs toward the stairwell, and I follow him down.
Asch heads for the lobby.
“Pandora?” I say. “Where are you? We’re heading out now.”
No response.
I hear something, but it’s muffled.
Asch and I both rush down even faster. My lungs burn, from adrenaline and exhaustion and so much fucking worry that I don’t know what to do with it.
She’s fine, I tell myself.
Pandora got away.
But there’s nobody on the other side of the stairwell door.
Blaze’s car has its lights on, and he drives over to us.
“Let’s get the fuck…” Blaze frowns at us. “Where’s Pandora?”
I scan the parking lot. “Samantha had my keys in the hoodie, but I don’t know if she realized,” I say. My heart sinks when I see my car still sitting there, dark and quiet. “Maybe they doubled back to wait for us?”
Then the ear piece crackles, and I hear Pandora.
“Y’know, Romano’s a shit name,” she says, her voice muted—the way Blaze had been, hearing him only through Asch’s mic. Did something happen to her earpiece? “You should consider changing it.”
Romano.
“Ezio is here,” I tell Blaze before Asch can even open his mouth. “Fuck. We have to find her.”
Before things get even worse.