The Hunt for Summer (NSC Industries) (26 page)

Where the hell were they?

“Lucas” I tried to
get the words out but they were stuck in my throat, my terror holding them
hostage inside me and I closed my eyes and forced them through. “Lucas!”

He turned to me with
a confused expression then his eyes narrowed and he scanned the space with me.
He knew without me having to utter a word that he was here.

“Fuck!” he hissed as
he grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him.

Nate took stance
behind Ava… what the hell? If our situation wasn’t so dire I would have laughed
at him.

“Where the fuck is
Neo and Gerry?” Nate growled and I shrugged.

Ava moved forward
and took position in front of me and beside Lucas, and they both backed up,
moving me slowly backwards until I was sited at the wall. “You both need to get
behind me, you’re sitting fucking ducks.” I cautioned.

Ava shook her head
and pulled out her phone and pressed an icon on it. It rang back immediately
and she put it on speaker. “Where the fuck are your guy’s, Elijah?”

A voice barked
through the speaker and I jumped at the volume in my frazzled state. “I dunno,
Ava. Neo and Gerry have lost connection but I see Accosi. He’s accompanied by
four men, two through the door to your left and two with Accosi outside the
main door to your room. I can’t understand why they’re waiting, doesn’t make
sense.”

“Fuck!” Lucas
barked.

We all swung our
eyes to the main door and a shudder racked my body. “Shit, you all need to get
out of here… now! He’ll come for me first.”

Ava turned to me
slowly and glared. “If I have to lay you out again, Lay, then I fucking will.”
I just nodded at her fury and decided to shut my mouth. Nobody should ever
cross Ava; she was the only person that had ever knocked Mason out, and out
cold she knocked him.

“Mason’s on his way,
Ava. I’ve got men en route to you but listen to me carefully. Look to your
right and up.”

We all did as he
asked and each head in that room swung right and up. “You see it?”

“Yep.” Ava answered
and without waiting for further instructions she was making her way across the
room and Nate was pulling a chair quietly behind her.

She climbed on it
and pushed at the heavy grid but it wouldn’t shift. Lucas gestured for her to
climb down and he had a go but squinted at it then sighed heavily.

“Not a chance. It
needs leverage. No way is that moving.”

We all cast an eye over
the room and Nate smiled and approached a table before yanking off a leg then
bounced his feet on one end of the metal pole to squash it. “Cheap airport
furniture!” he tutted.

He passed the
makeshift tool to Lucas who stabbed it into on side of the grid and pried the
metal grating open.

It squealed loudly
and we all flinched and looked at the door but Elijah told us we were safe.
Diablo was still stood. What the hell was he waiting for? It didn’t make sense.
He knew I was in here so why didn’t he just come in and get me?

Lucas popped his
head through the hole in the ceiling and then grabbed my waist and pushed me up
and through.

It was a metal
passageway and I shuffled forward on my hands and knees to make room for the
next person to climb in.

Ava clambered in
behind me and I kept moving forward. Nate was next and my heart didn’t beat
until I saw Lucas scramble in lastly.

“Go right at the
junction.” Elijah’s voice came through Ava’s phone so I took a right and my
heart stopped when we had to pass over another grid. It was directly above
Diablo and I took a calming breath when Ava slapped my arse quietly.

“Don’t look, Hun,
just keep going forward” She whispered.

I lifted my face so
I couldn’t see him and made my way to the end of the corridor, “Left.”

We took a left and I
noticed we were now directly above the main departure lounge.

“Right.”

We carried on until
Elijah told us to hang on.

“You okay, baby?”
Lucas’s voice came from the back of the line and I whispered back a
confirmation.

The grid in front of
me suddenly opened and a bloke I’d never seen before popped his head through
and gestured silently for me to follow him.

I slipped my legs
through the hole and he caught me as I dropped through, then grasped Ava and
helped her down.

We seemed to be in a
caretaker’s room of some sorts. Mason entered through a small door, flanked my
Greg and Sam and another man I didn’t know.

“Oh fuck!” I heard
Elijah say through Ava’s phone and I frowned and turned towards Ava who was
also frowning.

“I’ve found out why
he was waiting.” Elijah declared and I closed my eyes in preparation.

“Why?” Ava asked
apprehensively.

The line was silent
for a while before he took a deep breath, “You there, Mason?”

“Yeah” Mason
answered.

“Keep hold of her.”

I frowned deeply now
as Mason stood beside me and grabbed both my arms and held them behind me.
“What the hell? Get off, Mase!”

Lucas appeared at
the other side of me and now I started to panic. “What is going on?” I spat.

Elijah pulled in
another breath and I was beginning to get irate.

“He has Sara.”

The words didn’t
register at first, and then they did; with force, like a wrecking ball through
a glass house and I shattered around myself.

My breath came out
in short sharp gusts and I struggled to breathe. My whole body was shutting
down and my lungs were squealing for oxygen as a sob wedged in my throat.

It suddenly erupted
with vigour and I sagged in Mason’s arms as my knees gave way. He scooped me up
and lifted me in his arms. “It’s okay Lay, we’ll get her. I promise, I promise.”

“You have to let me
go Mason, please,” I begged him “Let me go to him and he’ll let Sara go.”

He gave me a pained
look but shook his head “Can’t do that, little Willow. I need you safe. I
promise I’ll get her out.”

My rage surfaced and
I punched him in the chest “Mason. Let me go. She’ll be terrified.”

He shook his head
again as he passed me to Lucas who cradled me to his chest. “Lucas, please…”

He also shook his
head and the feeling of utter defeat surged through me.

I could take
whatever Diablo threw at me but Sara, she wouldn’t cope with it. I knew she
wouldn’t, he would massacre her spirit and her gentleness. He would take it all
from her. He would demand everything from her, even her soul would be lost to
him and I had to get her out of his hold.

Mason nodded to each
of his men and then he cradled Ava’s face. “Stay with Willow baby, she needs
you with her.”

“Mason, I think
right now, you need me more.” She narrowed her eyes on him.

“Not this time, my
little warrior. You stay and protect Lay.”

She relented and
nodded before he kissed her forehead then disappeared back through the door he
came in by, dialling someone on his phone as he went.

“Stay in there until
my men come for you, Ava.” Elijah told us and she nodded even though he
couldn’t hear her.

I had to do
something; I couldn’t just sit her with these. I had to help Sara; I had to get
her out fast.

“I need the loo.” I
said, adding a false grimace to my lie.

Lucas rolled his
eyes and looked around the small room. “If you think I’m pissing in a bucket in
front of you lot, you can think again.”

“I’ll take her” Ava,
as I’d hoped, said.

Lucas looked
conflicted but eventually nodded.

He poked his head
around the door and scanned our vicinity then turned and nodded.

We emerged in a
small corridor that was full of doors. Mop buckets and ladders and tool kits
spanned the length of one wall and I smiled when we scuttled up the corridor
and Ava tried each door to see if one held a toilet.

She smiled and
nodded as she opened a door to reveal a staff restroom. “I’ll stay here and
keep a look out” she whispered.

Good Girl.

I nodded as I headed
inside the room and locked the door behind me.

I took a quick scope
of the small room and relief coursed through me when I spotted a small window.

Prising it open as
quietly as I could, I shimmied my small body through the tiny gap. It was times
like this I was glad my pole dancing kept me trim and in shape.

I landed on the
other side to find myself in an alleyway behind the airport. It was full of
industrial bins, massive air vents and a few large drums of something and I
rapidly scanned for another way in.

Everyone was going
to hate me for doing this but I couldn’t risk Sara. I needed to make sure I got
to her before Diablo figured out we had gone. He would hurt her greatly when he
found out I wasn’t any longer behind the door he guarded.

I spotted a metal
door further down and cursed when it was locked but I wouldn’t give up. There
must be a way out if bin men had to get access to the alley and I scurried up
the passage until I found another door.

“Thank God” I
breathed in relief as I let myself in.

I rolled my eyes and
shook my head when I found myself in yet another bloody corridor but my eyes
narrowed on a door at the end.

I hesitated and
readied my mind to what I was about to do and rested my hand on the handle.

Deep breath, Lay.

I pushed open the
door and walked straight into the centre of Hell.

Chapter 30

Lucas

“What’s taking them
so long?” I grumbled to Nate who had now flopped down onto the floor and I
grimaced at the dirt that would now be affixing itself to his arse.

He shrugged and
pursed his lips, jumping a mile when the door flew opened and a breathless Ava
stormed back in “She’s fucking gone!”

I rolled my eyes and
growled at Ava. “For God’s sake woman, couldn’t you keep your eye on her for
two minutes?”

Her face contorted
in rage and she glared at me “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be in this
fucking mess!”

I reared back and
stared at her “What the hell did I do?”

“She’s doing all this
to protect you, arsehole.”

I scoffed but didn’t
answer her. She was right, well half right; at the moment Red’s determination
was on Sara not me, but I knew I was in there somewhere so I left it alone,
admitting defeat.

Nate shot up and
glanced around the room before he picked up a mop and studied it. “What the
hell are you gonna do with that, wash them to death?”

He glared at me then
broke the handle over his knee and I really had trouble holding back the
laughter at his actions. “We’re not filming a new Bond movie, Nate.”

He rose both brows
at me “Fine Hunt, you go in empty handed then. Won’t be my problem when you
have a chance to swipe at the bastards but then find out you didn’t go in
equipped.”

I contemplated his
words then looked around for my own weapon and settled on a can of industrial
oven cleaner. “And I suppose you’re gonna polish them after I’ve washed them!”

I shook my head and
curled my lip at him. “For God’s sake, come on.” Ava huffed out and departed the
room in front of us, as if to guard us both.

I was so chivalrous,
I let her.

We shuffled along
the corridor quietly as Ava connected with Elijah on her phone. “Can you get a
trace on Layla?” She asked him as soon as he answered.

“Oh Shit. She gone?”
he said and Ava mumbled a shamed reply.

“Hang on. I need to
alert Mason” he said and I noticed Ava stiffen. Yes, he would go ballistic at
her.

I shrugged to
myself; her problem, not mine.

“Oh holy Fuck”
Elijah stuttered and I tensed immediately.

“What?”

I heard him groan
again and my blood was just about ready to project through my ears if he didn’t
answer me shortly.

“She’s just about to
walk into the lions den.”