Chapter 14 - The Empty Seam
Mara grabbed Adrian's wrist. “The key's gone.”
Celeste watched her with the pleased patience of someone observing a trapped insect. “You really should check your belongings.”
Adrian didn't lunge. He smiled instead. “You stole a piece of brass. Congratulations.”
“It opens something important.”
“Then you'd better use it before the police arrive.”
Celeste's eyes narrowed. “What police?”
Lucian's voice crackled in Adrian's earpiece. “Security cameras looped. Freight elevator ready. But I've got a problem.”
“What?”
“There's a second child on the monitor. A boy. Maybe six.”
Mara felt anger burn through her fear. She pushed past Celeste and headed toward the service door.
A guard blocked her. She didn't slow down. She flung a tray of champagne glasses into his chest, ducked beneath his reaching arm, and ran.
Adrian followed. Behind them, Celeste shouted for the doors to be locked.
They reached the freight elevator just as Lucian opened it remotely. Adrian punched the basement button.
“Nice throw,” he said.
“Terrible champagne.”
On the lower level, they slipped past rows of silent cars. A voice came from behind a steel door: a child counting numbers, over and over.
Mara knelt at the keypad. “Lucian?”
“I need sixty seconds.”
“We don't have sixty seconds.”
“Give me thirty-five.”
The door clicked. Inside was a bright room painted with cheerful animals. Sophie sat on a cot beside a small boy with a swollen lip.
“Mara!” Sophie ran into her arms.
Mara hugged her so tightly the child squeaked. “I've got you. We're going home.”
The boy stared. “Are you the police?”
“No,” Adrian said. “We're the people who are taking you out.”
As they guided the children toward the elevator, metal shutters crashed over the exits. Emergency lights turned red. Celeste's voice came through a speaker.
“Adrian, you were always so easy to predict.”
A timer lit above the holding room door: 02:00.
May you like
“Gas,” Lucian said over the earpiece. “She's flooding the basement.”
THE LAST DANCE AT BLACKTHORN HALL •
