Chapter 49
ROMAN
We stepped inside the attic room. I’d expected low ceilings and no light, but it was the opposite of the basement, with large skylights, wood-panelled walls, and open space. It had obviously not been disturbed for a while, as the place had a musty smell to it.
That wasn’t the only difference in this room—while the basement had been stuffed full of files and paperwork, this room was empty.
“Well, I guess that answers our question,” Hana muttered, sounding as dejected as she looked.
“You don’t put that level of security on an empty room,” I said, placing my laptop on the floor out of the way and taking hold of the strap of her bag so I could lift it over her head, placing it down too.
“You think there’s something hidden in here?” she asked, her eyes darting around.
I took her hand in mine, twisting our fingers together. “I think there’s something hidden in here.” I pressed a kiss to her knuckles and pointed to the far side of the room. “Start over there. See if you can find something that feels loose or looks out of place.”
She hummed as if she thought it was a waste of time, but she went anyway, running her fingers over the wall panels as I did the same on the other side.
We worked in silence until Hana yelled my name. I spun on my heels, taking in the head-height, letterbox-sized door she’d opened in the wall.
“You need a code,” I told her as I stared at the small alarm box with a green light that flashed on top.
She paused for a second. “It will be the same as the downstairs code,” she declared before typing in the number. The green light turned red, and I knew what was about to happen before it started.
I lunged for the main door to stop it from closing, but it didn’t move. Instead, a metal sheet sprang closed, sealing the space where the door would go. And then, similar metal structures closed quickly over the skylights, plunging us into darkness.
“Ro?” Hana cried in the now pitch-black space. I dragged my hands along the walls, trying to find a light switch, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. My heart hammered, my mind running at a hundred miles an hour as panic set in.
I fumbled for my phone in my pocket, turning on the torch and using it to help me find my way to Hana. Once I was next to her, I moved the light to try and find anything to help us get out of here, but there was nothing.
“I think this might be it,” she muttered as if speaking to herself, holding up a small silver object between us that I quickly realised was a flash drive.
“Hana,” I prompted, “We need the code to be able to get out of here.”
“If it’s not the door code, I have no idea. You can just override it, right?”
I let out a sigh of relief. “Of course I can.” My anxiety eased a little. I just needed to keep a clear head, and we’d be out of here in no time. This was where I thrived. And now, I got to do it for Hana… with Hana. Exhilaration swelled inside me.
I moved across to where I’d left my laptop just as Hana turned the torch on her phone on as well, her face illuminated and her eyes locked on me.
I sat with my back against the wall, my fingers moving over the keyboard as I tried to reconnect with the house’s security system.
“Fuck,” I muttered. “Is your phone working?” I unlocked mine, trying to connect a call with my office.
Nothing.
Hana gasped. “No. Why isn’t my phone working?”
I dragged my hand down my face before trying to connect the call again, but nothing happened.
“Fuck,” I yelled louder this time.
“Ro, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
I looked up. She had the phone tilted, so it cast half her face in shadows, and I hated that I’d see the look of disappointment when I explained.
“When you unlocked that hidden box and found your key, there was another alarm in there. Obviously, as a last-ditch attempt to keep it safe. It turned this room into a dead zone. No phone signal, no internet connection, no way of communicating and,” I pointed to the now sealed door and windows, “no way in or out.”
Hana slid down the wall next to me. “But you can fix this, right?” She sounded so hopeful.
I shook my head. “Nope. My skills are in tech. We have no access to tech.”
She held out the flash drive in front of her.
“You fucking son of a bitch,” she muttered at it, as if it was the object's fault. “You couldn’t just let me walk away. You had to drag me back into all this, and now what? We have to stay stuck here forever?” She paused, and then her head snapped in my direction.
“Wait,” she cried, thrusting it into my hand before leaping up, her phone light bouncing as she moved to her bag, unzipping it and tipping it out onto the floor, the loud clatter of metal tools filling the air.
“Really?” I said with a chuckle.
“I like to be prepared.” She shrugged as she lifted a crowbar, brandishing it like she was declaring war. “Now, let’s get out of here.”
“Why the fuck can’t we get this open?” she asked, sweat dripping down her hairline.
I took the crowbar out of her hands. We’d been trying for well over an hour, and we’d got nowhere.
“Because this is meant to be a safe room… somewhere people can’t break into and therefore somewhere people can’t break out of.”
My arms burned from trying to prise the door open, but it hadn’t even shifted a tiny amount, and now my phone battery was dangerously low as Hana’s had died completely.
“So what? We just give up. No one knows we’re here, Ro. No one is looking for us, no one knows we’d come here.” I could hear the fear in her voice.
I glanced at my laptop. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“What does that mean?”
I tossed the crowbar in the direction of her bag, the room too dark to see into the far corner. “It means that my boss is a paranoid fucker, and if he doesn’t hear from me and can’t get in touch with me, he’ll come looking.”
She tutted. “How would he find you?”
I chuckled. “Trust me, that man knows everything. He’ll notice we’re missing and come looking. I’m going to turn my torch off so we save my phone battery, but it’s going to get dark in here, so go find somewhere to sit.”
“Roman, we’re stuck in what is now a metal box, we have no way of getting out, no way of communicating with anyone on the other side of this room. We have no food, no water, and I don’t even know if we have enough air.”
Confident, self-assured Hana was gone, replaced by someone who sounded desperate and scared. I pulled her to me and wrapped my arms around her, loving how she nuzzled against my chest, softening in my hold.
“We have air,” I muttered as I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You can hear it being pumped in here, and whoever built this place wanted somewhere to hide if they needed it, as well as a trap for anyone who wanted to steal whatever is on that flash drive.”
“You didn’t see the extra alarm?” she asked, as if us being stuck here was my fault.
“Nope,” I grumbled back. “It was hidden, along with your key and the fact that this place turns into a fucking locked box. You didn’t know about the alarm?
You seem to know a lot about whoever owns this place.
” Now I sounded as pissed as she did. She pushed out of my hold, and I could feel her anger despite not being able to make out more than her faint outline in the darkness.
“Are you blaming me?” she yelled.
“You just blamed me,” I bit back.
“You’re the security expert, and here we are, trapped by the security. I’m not used to getting stuck in places. If I was here on my own, I’d have found a way out.”
I stepped back, lifting my arms in frustration and letting them slap against my thighs audibly. “Fine, get yourself out. I’d love to see this.”
I held my arm out behind me, feeling for the wall and slumping down to the ground as she stomped about in the darkness.
“I should have come alone,” she mumbled.
“This is why I do life on my own. Relying on other people only gets you hurt or fucking killed.” There was rummaging and banging as if she’d taken something else from her bag and was hitting the steel door.
“I mean, surely, if you were that good, you’d have known this place was booby-trapped. ”
I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, trying desperately not to respond because this room was too small for us both to be angry.
“Fucking thing, why won’t you just give up the fight?” There was a loud bang. “Motherfucker.” I couldn’t ignore her cry, so I leapt up.
“What’s wrong? Are you hopping?” I could feel the movement in the air, even if I couldn’t really see her.
“Kicked the door,” she said through gritted teeth. “Stupid fucking door.” I took her elbow, and she rested her forehead on my chest. “Sorry, I was a bitch before. I know this isn’t your fault, but I can’t die in here, Ro.”
I took a couple of long, loud breaths, hoping she’d match her breathing to mine. “We won’t. We’re stuck here, but my team will notice I’m not about. They will look for me. For us.”
She fisted my top. “Distract me, psycho. I’m spiralling here, and I feel like my heart is going to explode.”
I traced my fingers over her jaw as my mouth found hers.
She moaned loudly as I dragged my tongue over the seam of her lips, and she opened instantly, letting me dominate the kiss.
The darkness ramped up my other senses; she smelt incredible, I could hear her soft pants and moans, my skin tingled from her touch, and I could almost taste how turned on she was right now.
“Hana,” I mumbled against her lips as she fumbled with my belt. My cock was rock hard and desperate for her touch. She didn’t reply, easing down my fly and lowering my jeans to my thighs before dropping to her knees.
“Use me,” she whispered, and my cock ached at the idea of taking her in the darkness, of fucking her mouth while she touched herself.
“Fuck…”
She wrapped her hand around the back of my legs and ran her nose along the length of my cock, her warm breath teasing me through the thin cotton. I clenched my arse, precum already leaking from me.
I tugged down my boxers, wrapping my hand around the shaft and pumping slowly a few times before dragging the tip over Hana’s lips. I couldn’t really see her, so it was a bit hit and miss, but then she took over, edging her tongue over my head and then opening her mouth wide.
I groaned as I pushed into it, and she sucked hard, her hand cupping my balls.
“Touch yourself,” I demanded, and then moments later, she let out a groan as if she’d touched her clit.
My fingers found her hair, bracing my hand so I could guide her up and down my length while she ran her tongue over the vein that pulsed needily. She hummed her own pleasure as I hit the back of her throat and she swallowed, my free hand fisting at my side as I tried to hold back my orgasm.
“Feel better?” I asked, my voice gruff with need. She nodded once before turning her attention back to my cock. The blowjob was loud, messy, her breath coming harder against my overly sensitive shaft as if the darkness stole Hana’s inhibition.
My orgasm built, curling up my spine, pulling at my balls insistently, but I tightened my grip in Hana’s hair, needing to hear her come before I spilt my load.
It didn’t take long. She let out a garbled cry, her neck stretching, letting me fuck her mouth harder and sink in deeper.
I held her firm as I found my release, knowing she’d struggle to breathe as I came down her throat and that would intensify her pleasure.
“Fucking perfect,” I muttered, my legs weak as all the blood rushed south.
I eased out of her mouth, her gasping breath making my body ache for more of her.
I tucked my cock away before holding out my hand to find hers.
She took it, groaning as she stood. “You good?” I said, my thumb dusting over her lips that were wet and swollen to the touch.
Hana surprised me when her arms wrapped around my waist, and she buried her face in my neck. “So good. How do you always know what I need?” she whispered, as if she was asking herself rather than me, but I answered anyway.
“Because you’re mine, and I know you better than you know yourself.”