Ever Hayes - Redemption

“But do you know why I won’t kill you?” I waited until he shook his head again. “Because my brother wouldn’t want me to. That’s all. My brother. That’s the only reason you’re still alive.” I paused for effect and glanced at Lazzo, but he wouldn’t look at me. “On the other hand.” I swung my eyes back to Brock’s. “When he finds out you were going to rape me…” I let out a cold laugh. “You’ll wish I’d shot you.”

His bewildered look surprised me. He clearly didn’t know what I was talking about. “You still don’t know who my brother is, do you?” The lieutenant shook his head again. “Huh. Well.” I gave him a sad look. “Let’s hope you never find out. Let’s hope you aren’t unlucky enough to make it back to Hawaii.”

I turned to walk away and then stopped short. “Oh, and one more thing.” I walked back to him. “This”—I kicked him hard in the nuts—“is for touching me before.” He doubled over as much as the cuffs allowed him to, eyes rolling up into his head, and groaned loudly through the gag. “And this”—I kicked him again, even harder, in the same place—“is for the next time you think about touching me.” I watched the tears of agony streak down his cheeks and, satisfied I’d made my point, I walked away. The embarrassment of being discovered like that would stay with him for life. “Let’s go, Lazzo.”

“That was you being nice?” Lazzo asked quietly as I scanned the keycard at the door and stepped out into the hall.

“And your point is?”

“Nothing.” He followed me down the hall.

That’s what I thought . I was looking for the “2112” Flynn had scribbled on the back of the keycard she’d given me. Has to be a room number .

It was. I found it right under the stairs leading up into the command tower. A guard was asleep in a chair outside the door with 2112 above it and “Armory” stenciled on it. Ah. Nice . Since I knew nothing about how to knock someone out, I directed Lazzo to do so. He snuck up on the sleeping man and rendered him even fully unconscious.

The keycard worked on that door, and then the skeleton key unlocked the cage inside. Lazzo went for a rifle and several handguns. My attention wasn’t nearly as scattered. I saw a bow—a beautiful Hoyt Spyder compound bow—and almost four dozen arrows beside it. I slung the arrows over my shoulder, loaded a backpack full of ammunition for Lazzo, and we hurried back out the door. I was surprised we hadn’t caught anyone’s attention yet. There were two cameras in the armory and a camera outside in the hall. What in the world are they watching up there? But just as I thought we were getting too lucky, the alarm sounded. People were coming out into the hallway, so Lazzo and I scrambled up the stairs and across the deck of the carrier toward our former hiding place. I heard gunshots ring out behind me, but I didn’t look back. I could hear Lazzo huffing along behind me and knew we couldn’t afford to slow down.

We ran down the stairs and almost directly into Flynn, who was holding a baseball bat. “Flynn.”

“Hey,” she responded, out of breath as well. “You brought him with you? I thought you’d let them—”

“Kill him? I wish.”

Lazzo shook his head. “Thanks.”

Flynn gave me a long puzzled look, before shrugging. “Okay, well, all the cameras on this end of the boat are smashed. I know where we need to go.”

Sweet . “Let’s go then.” Lazzo was looking behind us toward the voices we could hear scrambling in our direction. I grabbed his arm and pulled him. “Come on.”

We followed Flynn down another set of stairs and through a few dark corridors. She stopped suddenly and lifted up a grate in the floor. She dropped down inside it, and we followed suit. It was pitch-black down there. “Follow me,” she whispered and crawled through what must have been some sort of drainage tube. We crawled for several hundred yards. We could hear footsteps pounding on the metal floor directly overhead as people searched for us, but it was unlikely anyone would follow us down this drain.

When Flynn stopped to rest for a minute, I asked her, “How’d you find out about these—” What is this place? “These—whatever this is?”

“The channels? They had construction maps up in the tower. Chase snagged them and brought them to our room when I told him I was breaking you out.”

“By the way, th—”

“Don’t mention it. Seriously.”

“But are you actually a—”

“No, I’m not.” She interrupted me again. “Jesse is my actual boy friend…or…he was.”

“He—”

“He didn’t survive the attacks.” Flynn was way ahead of me.

I didn’t know what to say. I reached out and grabbed her hand in the dark. “I’m sorry.” There was no reply. “For the record though, Flynn…”

“Yeah?”

“You’re one hell of a kisser.”

I could hear the smile in her voice as she squeezed my arm and whispered, “Thanks.” We listened to more footsteps pass overhead. “Ready?”

“Is Chase—”

“He’s waiting for us.” She’d anticipated my question yet again.

“Okay then, let’s go.”

Flynn scrambled off, and I felt Lazzo pull on my foot. “What?”

“What’s with her finishing all your—”

“Sandwiches?”

“Sandwiches!?” I could hear the bewilderment in his voice. “No, sent—”

“Let it go.” I crawled off. Clearly, he’s never watched Frozen with Emily and Abbey.

It was hard to believe Flynn was putting so much on the line for us. Then again, she was a teenage girl with more than a passing hatred of her father. Thank God the captain was the prick he was. Otherwise we’d likely be dead now.

We reached the end of the channel and dropped down into a well-lit room with blankets, stacks of bottled water, and boxes of packaged food.

“What is this place?” It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the light of the room.

A tall, thin, blond-haired boy—cut from the pages of a surfer magazine—stepped out of the darkness to greet us. “A flood room, I think. Hey.” He held his hand out to me. “I’m Chase.”

“Hey, Chase.” I hugged him instead. “Hayley.”

“And?” Chase extended his hand toward Lazzo.

“You don’t need to know his name.” I stepped between the outstretched hands of Chase and Lazzo. “Pretend he isn’t here.”

“Hayley—” Lazzo didn’t appreciate that.

I spun and cut him off. “Not another word.” I shoved my finger in his face. “You and I are going to talk. Soon. But right now, I’m going to drink a bottle of water and get some sleep.”

Lazzo didn’t object. He grabbed a bottle of water for himself and found a corner of his own.

“Guys, does your dad know you’re in on this?”

They shared a smile. “You didn’t tell her about the finger—Flynn—and the cameras?” Chase held up his middle finger.

“No. I didn’t.” She turned to me. “But, yes, by now he knows we’re with you.”

The finger, huh? Nice touch. “And you’re both okay with that? Won’t he be coming for you now, too?”

Chase answered for both of them. “She told me you were worth saving. Which is more than we can say for our relationship with Dad. And let him come—he’ll never find us down here. Not without the maps.”

Got it . As Chase and Flynn discussed the situation I glanced over at Lazzo, and we stared at each other for a few minutes. Finally he bowed his head, and I turned to thank Flynn and Chase one more time before succumbing to the sandman. A few solid hours of sleep would be quite heavenly tonight. I was confident that, in a little while, all hell was going to break loose.