A Whole New Crowd(105)

Then he turned, his hand touched my back, and we moved as one. We sprang forward.
We soared down the tunnel. Tray was moving at such a fast pace, I couldn’t keep up. My lungs were straining. My legs stretched to the farthest stride they could go, and I pumped my arms, propelling forward. We had to get there. We had to find Jace’s exit.
As we kept going, they were pounding on the door behind us. Gunshots sounded out, then silence for a second, and a deep thud after that.
“Don’t pay attention to them.” Tray grabbed my wrist. He was pulling me behind him now. “The more you pay attention, the more it’ll slow you down. Keep sprinting, Taryn.”
I felt his strength. I felt his calm. His hand gentled, slid to fit into mine, and he squeezed my hand. We ran side by side and then I stopped hearing the men behind us. We were getting closer to the river. The current was slamming against rocks below, but we could hear it echoing through the tunnel. It was becoming deafening and we wouldn’t have heard the guards anymore anyway.
The tunnel was becoming lighter. We were almost to the end and then the tunnel suddenly straightened and we were there.
The edge was right in front of us. Tray twisted, throwing his body to the side. A scream ripped from me. I was going over. I couldn’t stop myself, but Tray yanked me back. I fell into his body and he wrapped his arms around me, shielding my fall with his body. His shoulder slammed hard against the wall and he grunted from the impact, but we had stopped. We hadn’t hurled off the edge.
“Shit.” His voice was right next to my ear. He tightened his arms around me, holding me for a moment. “That was close.”
The drop to the river was high. The tunnel was cut off. There was no platform. It was a complete drop to the river. Even the embankment was dangerous. Boulders and rock riddled the path to the river. If we jumped, we could hit the rocks. Dead. If we jumped and avoided the rocks, we’d be pulled under from the current. Dead again.
Tray was inspecting it with me. “We’re screwed.” He put it perfectly.



CHAPTER THIRTY

“No, there has to be a door somewhere.” I began pushing on the wall. Maybe it was hidden. Maybe there was a rope they used to lower things down? I scanned the floor, but found nothing. “There has to be.”
“Taryn.”
I was shoving at the cement walls now, but there was nothing. It was a huge slab of cement. That was it. A choked sob was sitting in me, doubling in size. I started pounding harder on the wall. This couldn’t be the end.
“Taryn.”
He was calm. How the f*ck was he calm?
“Taryn.” Tray was right behind me. His hand touched mine, coming to rest on top of it. He stood there, right behind me, with that one hand stopping me. His lips grazed my skin and he whispered, “There’s no door.”
No… He was probably right. A whimper left me now. I couldn’t hold it back in. “I’m so sorry, Tray.”
His other hand wrapped around me, and he folded his body over mine, hugging me from behind. I bit down on my lip to keep more sobs from escaping.
No, no, no. It couldn’t end like this.
He turned me around, then looked down at me. His eyes were full of love, patience, kindness, and strength. I absorbed all of them, feeling them mingling with the storm of rage, fear, and gloom inside me. I choked out, “I’m sorry about Jace, about the hotel.”
He shook his head. “Shut up. You didn’t even know yourself. I get it.” He hesitated then. “Did you mean it?”
My text. I nodded. There was no hesitation on my part. “Yes.”
“That’s enough for me.” Bending down, his lips rested on top of mine. He didn’t apply pressure, he just let our lips touch each other, feeling the slight promise of more. He said, “I love you too. It’s why I came.”
I had gotten him killed. I knew without a doubt that’s what was going to happen. I looked up into his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shut up.” Then he cupped the back of my head and kissed me. I clutched at him, losing myself in the taste of him. He had come for me. He had done it because he loved me. Euphoria began to fill me. It built, climbing on top of a fevered rush. We were probably going to die, but we were together. It was the best way to go out.
Then a loud bang thundered over our heads. Tray pressed me back, using his body to protect me again. At the same second we moved, a slab of cement dropped where we had been standing. He saved my life again. Shit. We looked up to see a gun pointed right at us.
Jace.
My heart dropped.
Tray moved me back, closer to the edge of the tunnel and Jace dropped down through the hole. A rough voice called down, “Is that them? Open the other hatch.”