Page 55 of Consume Me

“This way.” I pointed back to the corridor that led to where they’d kept me and Rachel.

“We need to leave.”

I pulled out of his grasp, prayed another contraction was a long way off, and started toward the other end. Rachel’s life had been stolen from her. She’d been an unwitting pawn in this bizarre game and I wasn’t about to sacrifice her now.

She had answers whether she knew it or not. And she deserved better than being left to die.

Norris came up beside me, shaking his head. “It’s dangerous.”

“I know, but I have you now.” I would not have dared to go back for her until he showed up.

When we reached the door that led back to the rooms I’d been kept in, Norris scanned David’s badge. It clicked open.

The smoke was thicker in the corridor and I coughed, crouching as low as I could, where the air was clearer. I pointed to the end of the hall, where Rachel’s room was. It would be the farthest from the eastern exit, if I had my bearings. Norris held up a hand as if wanting me to wait here. I watched as he raced down the hall. A moment passed. When he didn’t reappear, I hobbled down the hall, trying to ignore the first pangs of the next contraction. When I got to her room, I found him hunched over the bed. Moving inside, I realized he was performing CPR.

But there was no use. Rachel’s eyes were turned up to the ceiling, her hand splayed across the bed, and on the floor lay an apple.

When Norris turned and shook his head, I already knew. This time they’d put something deadly in her food. I choked back an angry sob as the contraction robbed me of my grief.

Norris didn’t wait for it to pass. Instead, he lifted me in his arms, abandoning the gun and started down the hall. I turned my face into his shoulder, trying to block out the smoke. His heart was beating fast and I could hear his lungs struggling to keep up with the polluted air.

He stopped at the door we’d come through, but there was no scanner here. It could only be opened manually. That meant we had to find the exit David had told us about.

“I can walk,” I told him, squirming in his arms. It would be faster, barring any more contractions.

Once we reached the far end of the hall. We began opening doors. Then I remembered where I’d woken up. Opening that door, we walked into an empty room. I’d looked for windows that day, but I’d never bothered to look up.

Norris had the same thought. He pointed to the ceiling where a thin line formed a barely visible circle. This was the eastern exit? No wonder David had warned us the other way.

Norris disappeared into the hall and came back carrying a chair from Rachel’s room. He stood on it and reached for the circle, pushing against it. But before he got it to budge, a cold voice sliced through the air.

“I wouldn’t do that.”

I whipped around to find myself staring at a ghost.

Norris stopped and slowly got off the chair, looking unsurprised to find himself in the same room as Jack Hammond.

“You’re dead,” I said, still staring at him.

“Only as dead as you, my dear.” He brandished a pistol in our direction. “Which is to say very if you keep trying to force your way out this exit. It’s wired to explode.”

“Hammond.” Norris nodded. “If you know that, you know the way out.”

“You mistake why I’m here. Like your darling queen, you assumed this section was empty, but some of the doors were locked.”

“But then…” He had been here the whole time? I shivered, remembering how I’d found myself here, naked and alone. But I hadn’t been alone. The man who had conspired to kill Alexander’s father had been here the whole time. “But June said there were no more prisoners.”

“Prison means different things to different people, especially June.” Hammond motioned for us to move away from the chair. “For some people, it might mean being stuck overseeing a nearly empty prison block because you pissed off the higher ups. I’ve wasted years here, doing nothing, waiting for a second chance to prove myself. But I was stuck after your husband tried to kill me.”

My mouth fell open. Almost immediately I began to cough as too much smoke got past the cloth barrier.

“Careful now,” Hammond drawled, “don’t get worked up and have that baby on the floor. You’re surprised to hear your husband killed a man? Well, tried to kill a man.”

I looked to Norris and realized his eyes were still hard. This news hadn’t surprised him, which meant it was true.

“That’s the thing about our little organization, isn’t it, Mr. Norris? They can save just about anyone when they want to.”

“I don’t understand.” I took a few steps away from both of them. “Your organization?”