Chapter 10 Cassie
CASSIE
I tried to move away from the murmur of male voices, but they only seemed to get closer, and I thought about what Julia had said about sound bouncing around in the tunnels.
I needed a place to hide.
I found it thirty seconds later in three stacks of chairs pushed against the tunnel wall. Not ideal, but there wasn’t much else to work with, just a pile of boxes that might conceal me behind the chairs.
If I was lucky.
I hurried to pull two of the stacks away from the wall and wedged myself between them and the tunnel, then pulled the boxes in front of my hiding spot. I was drenched in sweat by the time I was finished, the heat lamps still baking the tunnels from the ceiling.
I felt ridiculous. Exposed. Like an elephant trying to hide behind a teacup.
But I didn’t have time to think more about it because less than ten seconds later, the murmur of voices grew louder.
And this time they were accompanied by heavy footsteps on the rocky ground.
I tried to breathe quietly, but it was easier said than done when I was scared and felt like I was about to die of heat stroke.
“I know I heard her,” one of the men said.
“You don’t know shit,” said someone else. “You know how sound works down here.”
I peered out from behind my hiding spot and caught flashes of the bare skin and tattoos, knives sheathed to the waists of big men wearing masks that might have been devils or demons.
“Yeah, and that’s how I know it was one of the girls,” the first voice said. “One person, lighter footsteps.”
One of the other men came closer to my hiding spot. “Actually, you might be on to something.”
Closer.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” He hesitated in front of my hiding spot, then started to walk away. “Oh well. I guess she’s not here.”
I started to breathe a sigh of relief when the man pivoted on his heels.
“Just kidding.” He kicked aside the boxes I’d positioned in front of the chairs, then grabbed my arm. “You can’t hide from us, angel.”
I barely had time to register what was happening as he dragged me to my feet and onto the tunnel floor.
“I do love a redhead,” one of the other masked men said.
I struggled, trying to break free, but the man had an iron grip on my wrist.
“Ow! You’re hurting me!”
“The pain is part of the fun, angel.” The man hauled me a few feet forward in the tunnel. “And we’re just getting started.”
I didn’t know what was happening, where they were taking me.
Until I saw the chains on the wall.
“Fuck, yeah.” One of the other men moved closer to help his friend. “Let’s string her up, get off her clothes.”
Panic rose in my throat like bile. I’d known this was possible, had even thought it might be a good thing.
Now I realized how completely powerless I was.
What had I been thinking?
The first man lifted my wrist. “Get the cuffs so we can mark her.”
And then, out of nowhere, another thunk sounded from inside the tunnel walls.
The heat lamps overhead stopped glowing orange, the heat easing off as a hissing sounded from somewhere inside the tunnel.
“What the— ”
It was all the guy holding my wrist managed to say before the tunnel started filling with smoke.
It was another obstacle, like the water and the heat lamps, and I braced myself to cough, to hold my breath as the smoke surrounded us.
But it wasn’t smoke at all. It was fog.
“Fucking Hawks,” one of the demons said as they disappeared in the fog.
Their temporary distraction was like a jump start to my brain.
I stepped on his foot as hard as I could in my sneaker, heard him grunt, if not in pain then at least in surprise.
His grip on my arm loosened just enough that I managed to pull free in the fog.
And then I was running, flying through the tunnels as fast as my feet would carry me, praying I didn’t slam full speed into a wall or stumble over stray junk or slide on the rocky ground.
I heard the demons shout in surprise behind me but it didn’t matter.
I’d done it. I was free.
Adrenaline pushed me forward, buoyed by the elation of knowing I’d escaped.
Except less than a minute later I slammed into a steel wall that rose up out of the fog.
A shudder traveled through my body, and I would have gone down if not for the hands that closed around my upper arms like twin vises.
I looked up, tracing the wall of inked granite to the hawk mask, glittering amber eyes staring down at me.
“Got you, little mouse.”