“Whine later.”
He lifted up but kept bent forward somewhat, dragging her along as she struggled to breathe. His hand moved as he ran, just enough for her to drag in air through her nose. They rounded the house on the right side of the yard where it was darkest.
“Right over here,” the other one whispered. “It’s hidden under the fake grass they laid over the grate.”
What grate?
The guy holding her froze and hissed against her ear. “One sound and I leave your corpse.”
She believed him. Her eyes adjusted enough to watch as the other man bent and pulled back a section of the artificial grass near the air-conditioning unit. She saw concrete there and what appeared to be some kind of drainage grille. The man lifted it and set it aside.
“Take her down first and I’ll make sure I put it back. They won’t find it.”
Jeanie was worried they were right. She’d walked around the backyard once and never would have known it was there. The man holding her crouched again, forcing her to do the same as his heavy body folded against hers. He pinned her with his legs and released her middle. The hand left her face and she sucked in a good amount of air to fill her lungs. She didn’t get the chance to scream.
Something was painfully shoved into her mouth and her hair was pulled as he tied the gag with a vicious yank. Tears of pain blinded her as she blinked them back and then he was pushing her, forcing her to crawl toward the open hole.
Her hands hurt, reminding her that she’d scraped them. It was almost natural to try to protect her injured palms but then she remembered what True had said about her blood. She hoped they were injured enough to bleed but it was too dark to see. She slid them across the fake grass to make sure she left as much scent as possible, then on the concrete until the jerk behind her shoved hard against her lower back. She tumbled headfirst into the dark hole.
The fall was terrifying and she tensed, believing she’d slam into more concrete. All she could do was throw her arms up and try to protect her face and head. It came as a shock when she landed in cold water. Her head went under and she hit something hard a few feet down. Pain stunned her, rendering her immobile.
The man fisted her hair and she was yanked upward until air hit her face. An arm wrapped around her waist and lifted, digging into her middle. She couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black. She was soaking wet, coughing and choking on the gag and had water in her nose.
The guy holding her shook her hard and it stopped the fit of coughing. He moved in a way that told her he was about thigh-deep in water and her legs were in it up to her hips.
“Stay quiet,” he demanded, out of breath.
She tried to scream but the gag made it come out muffled and closer to a whimper. He freed a hand from her waist and grabbed her throat.
“I can still snap your neck.”
Something splashed behind them and the guy carrying her stopped walking.
In seconds someone gasped in air. “Fuck. We aren’t getting paid enough,” the other male whispered.
“Tell me,” the one holding her grumbled. “Did you cover up our escape route?”
“Yeah. They should have no clue how we got out of there.”
The one holding her trudged on through the high water. It was too dark to see anything and Jeanie could only feel terror and misery. She was soaking wet and almost everything hurt. She didn’t fight, just tried to keep breathing. The gag was so wet it kept threatening to choke her since she couldn’t even spit out the water.
They paused and she was lifted, her bare legs scraping more concrete. It got her out of the cold water though. The guy who’d taken her climbed up beside her, his body bumping hers and he grabbed her hair.
“Stand.”
She couldn’t see anything, unsure of how he could. She struggled to her feet and his arm wrapped around her to lift her off her feet again. He walked with her in front of him, their legs bumping with every step. He stopped and it sounded as if a metal hinge squeaked before he advanced. Seconds later it squeaked again, as if he closed a gate or door. It was so dark she couldn’t tell which it was.
“How much longer?” It was the second man and he was close behind them.
“We’re somewhere under the street. Keep your damn voice down. The stairs are ahead and there’s a seal on it. We won’t have to worry after that. We’ll be free and clear.”
“Are you sure they don’t know about this place?”
“No. That’s what the boss said. He said he stole the building plans and they have no clue or they’d have installed security. We were able to get this far without coming up against anything but some padlocks. Do you want to carry her? She’s getting heavy.”
“I breached the house because you’re too big so you can make sure she doesn’t slow us down.”
They stopped and the one holding her eased her down onto her bare feet. He didn’t let go though. He bent enough to put his lips near her ear.
“Listen to me. There’s a hole two feet in front of you. There’s a ladder. If you don’t do exactly what I say, you’ll plunge about thirty feet to your death. Do you understand me?”
Jeanie managed to nod.
“If you run, you’ll fall right in the damn hole. You have a chance of surviving this so be good and don’t get stupid. I’m going to let go of you but steer you with my arm. Just turn and face me.”
“Should we give her a light?” The other one was close.
“Nah. This is funnier. Maybe she’ll fall. We get paid for her whether she’s dead or alive.”
“The boss prefers her alive. He wants to know what she told the NSO.”
“But dead is good too.”
“You’re mean.”
The guy gripping her snorted. “Tell me something I don’t know. Turn around, princess. You better be real smart and listen close.”
She turned when he let her go, very careful not to move her feet much. The floor was cold and she was pretty sure they were in some kind of tunnel system since they’d said they were under the streets. A drainage system? Why wouldn’t the NSO know about it? It wasn’t a mystery who would hire them to kidnap her. She really wanted to live because that meant coming face-to-face with the man who’d lied to her and used her.
Her kidnapper fisted her upper arm. “Take one step back and remember it’s a hole. You want to step down about ten inches and you’ll feel the first rung.”
The next few minutes were terrifying as she blindly took instructions from a man she didn’t trust. The metal ladder was rough, the rungs spaced apart the way he said they would be. Each one dug into her bare feet in the center when she carefully placed them as she lowered into the unknown. It was so dark she couldn’t make out a thing.
Her foot finally landed against solid ground and she stepped down, stood still, too terrified to move. Was she on a ledge? The air was colder but she couldn’t smell anything but dirty water from the gag. It tasted bad too. Composing a list of diseases she could catch from stagnant water helped distract her from the danger she was in.
“Move two feet to the left,” her captor demanded from above. “Otherwise I’ll step on you.”
She inched to the left, her feet carefully dragging on the surface she stood on to make sure she didn’t step into a void. The bastard laughed as if it amused him. His boots echoed loudly when he brushed against her. He must have jumped the remaining distance and landed next to her. He grabbed her arm again.
“Make sure you seal that good, up there.”
“Got it.” Something metal protested before thumping loudly high above her head.
The one steering her shoved her again, forcing her to walk ahead of him until he reached up and planted his hand on the top of her head.
“Duck. Keep bent a bit. Otherwise you’re going to slam your head on the tunnel. It gets narrow here until the next chamber.”