Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Bella
The quad bike bounced over something large, and I snapped my eyes open as Declan drove into the mine entrance, plunging us into absolute blackness.
Declan's muscles bulged as he wrestled with the handlebars. The engine's scream turned hollow, and we bounced over debris I couldn't see.
The bike lurched sideways beneath us and slammed into a wall with a bone-jarring crack.
I flew off the seat and hit the ground hard. Pain exploded through my burned fingers as I tried to break my fall. My left temple cracked against the stone floor, and stars burst across my vision. Dust choked the air, so thick I couldn't breathe.
“Bella!” Declan's boots crunched across gravel as he raced toward me. “Bella. Shit! Are you okay?”
His hands found my arms and ran down to my wrists, like he was checking for broken bones. His breathing came ragged and panicked. “I'm sorry. I couldn't see.” His voice cracked.
“It's okay. I'm fine.” Dust filled my throat, and I coughed.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes,” I managed to croak out as I rolled onto my hands and knees. Every inch of my body hurt, but nothing felt broken.
“We have to move.” He gripped my wrist and pulled me to my feet. I swayed into him, and his arm wrapped around my back, steadying me. “I've got you.”
My throat felt like I'd swallowed gravel.
My eyes adjusted enough to make out shapes in the darkness.
The quad lay on its side. Massive wooden beams jutted from a barricade across the entrance.
Several were splintered from our impact, and warning signs hung crooked from the broken boards, their words too faded to read.
“This way.” He grabbed my hand.
Pain flared through my burned fingers, but I gripped back hard as he pulled me toward a gap in the barricade, just wide enough to squeeze through sideways. “Follow me.” He ducked his head and slipped through.
I squeezed through after him and reached for him again, gripping his palm. “Where are we?”
“The old diamond mine.” He tugged me forward. “Come on.”
On the other side of the barricade, the air tasted stale and wrong, as if it had been sealed away for decades. Smells of damp earth and rusty metal filled the air.
My sneakers crunched on debris. Broken glass, maybe. Or tiny rocks. I couldn't tell.
Behind us, an engine roared.
Light knifed through the splintered timber in the barricade. I spun around, and my heart slammed into my throat.
The black car was coming straight at us. Headlights blazing. Engine revving.
“Run!” Declan yanked me deeper into the darkness.
The car hit the barricade, just missing the quad, with a boom that shook the ground beneath my feet. The sound exploded through the mine shaft, echoing until it felt like the entire mountain was collapsing around us.
Wood splintered. Metal shrieked.
I glanced over my shoulder. Pike had rammed the car into the barricade, bursting the boards inward. The vehicle was wedged in place, the front end crumpled like an accordion, but one headlight still worked, spearing light through the cracks in the timber.
Lighting us up like startled rabbits.
Dust billowed everywhere, so thick I could taste it. Tiny flecks glittered in the headlight beams, dancing and swirling.
Through settling dust and broken planks, I saw movement.
Pike and Rocco climbed out of the wreck. Both had guns in their hands.
My stomach dropped.
“Bella, run,” Declan urged as his grip tightened on my hand, pulling me deeper into the darkness.
I stumbled after him as he yanked me into a side passage I hadn't even seen. The headlight behind us threw just enough glow to show massive shapes looming ahead. Hulking machinery loomed in the shadows. Industrial metal everywhere.
My burned fingers screamed where Declan gripped them, but I held on tighter. He was the only thing keeping me from completely falling apart.
The floor was a minefield of debris I couldn't see. My left sneaker hit a rock that rolled, and I pitched forward. Declan caught my arm, kept me upright. We kept running.
“This way!” Pike's voice bounced off the walls and came at us from every direction at once.
“I'm gonna kill that bastard.” Rocco sounded so calm. So sure. Like he knew we were trapped down here with nowhere to go.
My chest tightened. They wouldn't stop. They had guns, flashlights, and all the time in the world.
The faint glow from the car's headlight faded as we moved deeper.
My breath came too loud, too fast. My pulse hammered in my ears. Every instinct screamed to run, to hide, to pray.
But Declan kept moving. No hesitation. His hand never left mine.
He knows where he's going.
He wasn't fumbling or guessing. Even in pitch black, he moved through these tunnels like he'd walked them many times before.
How?
Flashlight beams cut through the darkness, sweeping the tunnel and getting closer.
“Here.” Declan stopped so fast that I slammed into him.
He released my hands and ran his palms along a wall. “Got it,” he said. Hinges squeaked as he shoved open a door. “Inside. Quick.”
I stumbled through after him. My thigh scraped against something, and the object shifted sideways on screechy wheels—an office chair.
Declan shut the door, and what little light we had evaporated. I couldn't tell if my eyes were open anymore. We'd stumbled into what felt like a small room. The air was even more stale here, if that was possible. Chemical smells mixed with dirt, rust, and decay.
Through the office window, flashlight beams cut through the darkness. Phone lights, probably. They swept back and forth across the main area like search beams.
“Check in there,” Pike called out. He was loud yet sounded far away.
I pressed my back against the wall, trying to control my breathing, and my heart hammered so hard it pulsed in my neck.
Declan moved away from me, and his hands brushed over surfaces as he felt around in the darkness. Metal scraped. Something clattered to the floor, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
The flashlight beams paused. Swept toward our direction.
I held my breath.
A gun boomed, and I ducked, biting down hard on a scream.
“You get her?” Pike yelled. His voice bounced around the metal like we were trapped inside a pinball machine.
“Nah, a damn rat.” Rocco sounded disgusted. “I hate those things.”
The beams moved away.
“You okay?” Declan whispered.
“Yes. Scared the shit out of me though.”
“Me, too. Just keep your head down.” Declan kept searching, more carefully now. I heard fabric rustle. A drawer slid open.
“What are you looking for?”
“Something to give us light. Matches, or a flashlight, and anything we can use as a weapon.” His breathing stayed steady and controlled while mine came in short, panicked gasps.
I felt my way along what seemed to be a desk, my fingers trailing through thick dust. Papers crinkled under my touch, brittle with age. I found a pen, shoved it into my dress pocket, and kept searching. My fingers found a strip of flat metal. A ruler, maybe. Better than nothing.
Click. Click. Click.
A tiny flame sparked to life.
After the complete darkness, the lighter seemed as bright as a spotlight, forcing me to squint. The glow flickered across Declan's face. Dust streaked his cheeks, and fresh blood trickled from a cut beside his left eyebrow.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’m okay.” Using the light, he rifled through the drawers of a desk pushed against the side wall.
Its surface was buried under decades of dust and papers yellowed with age.
The lighter flame pushed back just enough darkness to show we were inside some kind of control room with a massive panel covered in dozens of switches and knobs and one big red button.
Metal filing cabinets lined another wall, their drawers hanging open like someone had rummaged through them.
Dusty equipment I couldn't identify littered the floor.
“Found this.” He held up a rusty screwdriver. “Better than nothing.”
“I got these.” I showed him the pen and the ruler.
“Good work.”
Our gazes met, and an unspoken truth passed between us that made my chest ache. Fear. Determination. The knowledge that we might not make it out of here alive.
He snuffed the flame, plunging us back into darkness, and came to my side. Together we peered through the grimy window.
The car's headlight still speared through the entrance tunnel, its beam cutting through the massive space beyond this room.
We were perched at the top of the facility, looking down into what must have been the main processing area.
Below us, huge green machinery towered three stories high, all rust and peeling paint.
Yellow safety railings zigzagged up the sides to catwalks and platforms.
A phone light beam swept across a rickety set of metal stairs descending into the pit.
Gasping, I ducked, and my heart thundered in my ears.
Declan grabbed my hand and gripped the door handle. “We need to go.”
“We can't go back to the exit, Declan. They'll be watching it.”
“I know. There's another way, but we have to go down to the bottom level. Then we can work our way around them and get back to the entrance.”
Shit. That didn't sound good. “Okay.” My voice barely made a sound. “Okay.”
He opened the door with a creak that sounded like a scream in the silence.
My breath caught as I expected those bastards to come charging straight at us.
“Stay behind me,” Declan whispered. “Hold onto my shirt. Don't let go.”
I grabbed a handful of his T-shirt and gripped it tightly as we slipped through the door.
The space beyond was vast. I could feel it more than see it. Our footsteps echoed, telling me the ceiling was high above us, the walls far away.
Declan led me deeper into the main processing area. The car's headlight provided enough light to show the extent of the processing plant. On both sides, metal walkways hung high on the walls, like viewing platforms for foremen to watch the work being carried out three stories below.
A phone light beam bounced across the walkway on the opposite side. We froze. I gripped Declan's shirt, pressed my forehead against his back, and prayed that light didn't swing our way. The beam moved further away.
I counted the seconds. One, two… six.
Finally, the beam vanished as the assassin slipped into another room.
Declan moved forward again. The metal-grated catwalk beneath our shoes creaked and shifted as we moved slowly. He seemed to know where he was going even in the near-total darkness.
Declan shifted sideways. “Stairs,” he breathed in my ear. “Going down. Watch your step.”
I glanced over his shoulder. Metal stairs connected the different levels.
Everything was coated in thick dust that caught the light, making it look as if the whole structure was covered in dirty snow.
In front of us, metal stairs descended into the darkness below.
The stairs were industrial grating, too.
“Ready?” he whispered.
No. Not even close. But I nodded. “Yes.” I gripped the yellow safety railing on one side, sliding my hand across dust and rust bubbles.
With my breath caught in my throat, we inched down the stairs, moving so damn slowly I felt every muscle in my legs.
We reached the first landing, about the size of a dining table.
Declan glanced at me over his shoulder. His expression was a baffling mixture of hope and pure terror.
He nodded, and I nodded back. So far, so good.
He stepped down to the next step, and his leg plunged through up to his knee.
My heart stopped.
He grabbed the railing to stop from falling completely through as the broken piece of grating clattered down the stairwell, bouncing off each level with deafening metallic clangs that echoed throughout the entire mine.
Oh God. Oh God, no.
“Declan!” Lunging forward, I grabbed his arm, and my burned fingers screamed as I hauled him back. His leg scraped against the jagged metal as he yanked it out of the hole. Blood bloomed through his jeans.
Terror clawed up my throat at the thunderous, echoing noise.
“I'm okay.” He gasped. “I'm okay.”
But we both knew we weren't. The noise had given us away.
“What was that?” Pike boomed.
“Over there!” Rocco said. “They're on the stairs!”
Flashlight beams swung toward us, cutting through the darkness.
“Go!” Declan shoved me in front of him. “Go, go, go!”
I flew down the stairs, no longer testing each step.
Declan pounded behind me, and the grating clanged and shook and threatened to collapse.
But we didn't slow down. Couldn't slow down.
My hand barely touched the railing as I half-ran, half-fell down each flight.
Rust and dust filled the air, coating my tongue, but it didn't matter.
Getting away from ruthless killers mattered.
Thundering boots boomed above us as Pike and Rocco charged along the far walkway.
“There they are,” Rocco yelled.
A flashlight beam found us, pinning us on the stairs like insects.
I looked up.
Pike stood at the top of the stairs, gun raised.
“No!” I yelled.
A bullet smashed into the metal railing inches from Declan's back, and the impact shuddered through the steel.
I screamed and ducked as bullets sparked off the metal railing around us, ricocheting into the darkness.
“Run, Bella. Run!”
Metal shrieked as bullets tore into the stairs and railings.
“Go!” Declan shoved me forward.
Gripping handfuls of my skirt so I could see, I stumbled down another flight but didn't notice the gap where the next section of stairs had broken away.
My foot found only air, and screaming, I pitched forward into darkness.