Chapter 31

THIRTY-ONE

Itug out the earpiece for a moment, laying my hands on the cool, jagged metal of the hole our girl blew. I need to breathe through the panic because I don’t want them to hear and make it a problem. There is no one else who can do this, only me, so I need to fucking get over it. I peer back into the black hole. It is a small, tight space.

It’s the very fucking thing I fear more than anything.

It’s another fucking scar, thanks to her dad, only this one is internal. If the others knew, they would try to figure another way out, but there is no other way. I need to do this for her and my family. Without giving myself time to overthink it, I cram myself into the hole, grunting and groaning as I contort my body into a weird angle until I finally fit. Closing my eyes for a moment, I slow my breathing like Isaac taught me. He has been working with me on triggers and how to control them, and although it hasn’t worked, I wish I had tried harder now. I know I need to get moving, but I’m stuck, hesitating in the darkness. My body locks up with fear.

It’s a stupid, irrational fear, but it doesn’t stop me from sweating or my breaths from picking up even as I try to control it. Squeezing my eyes shut, I manage to lift a shaky hand and put the earpiece back in. “I need her.”

I can’t do this without her. I know she’s with Louis, and I know she can’t get here, but it doesn’t matter.

“What?” Jonas asks, but Isaac is faster.

“Nico, why do you need Nova?”

“Tunnel is small,” is all I can grit out. “I need her voice.”

“Okay, that we can do,” Dimitri responds, not questioning if I can do this. They simply hear my need and respond. My family, my brothers, always try to give me what I need. “So, it’s a recording, but it’s the best I have. Ignore the shit she’s saying, since it is from when we were in the lab, but it’s her, big guy. It’s your Nova.”

Her voice mercifully fills my ear then, the familiar cadence making my locked-up muscles relax as my shaking slows to a stop and I can finally suck in a lungful of clean, unpanicked air.

“How boring, yet another day—” She’s talking. I don’t even know about what, but it doesn’t matter. She’s here with me, and she needs me.

It gets me moving.

My panic over saving her takes precedence over my own fear.

“You want me to solve the problem? Fine.” Even her sass translates, urging me on. Her anger becomes my own, and it’s another reminder that I cannot leave her down here, not even for another day. I move faster, sliding my hands up the metal tubing, my back to the other side as I climb. I don’t give myself time to think about where I am.

Instead, I focus on the motions of my body and her voice in my ear. It’s an arduous process, and I don’t know how much time passes until I reach a dead end. I turn to face what I presume is the outside world and blow out a breath.

“There, I’m done. Are you happy?” she snaps.

“I’ll be happy when you’re home, baby,” I respond without meaning to and have to clear my throat. “Jonas, I’m here.”

“Okay, the GPS signal in the earpiece should let us find you now that you are above ground. Here, Jonas, I have sent it to your phone. Go. Nico, you are going to have to wait there while he locates it, is that okay?”

Nodding, I close my eyes, realising he can’t see me. “Yeah, just keep her voice in my ear.”

“Got it, brother, hold on. You are doing amazing.”

Her voice starts in a different clip this time. She’s laughing, and then I hear Ana. “Annie, no, you’ll get us in trouble.”

“You are always in trouble anyway.” Annie laughs, and then there’s a bang.

“What is the meaning of this?” It’s her father. “Well, who did this? Ana, was this you?”

“No, it was me.” I can almost see my girl’s defensive stance in front of her sister as she takes the blame. It switches again, this time to random clips of my girl’s life from the labs and house footage. It’s always her voice, and she’s always calm or angry, never sad or screaming, thank God.

“One day, I’m going to get my revenge on you. You know that, right?”

I smile at that. That’s my girl.

“There will come a day when there is nothing else you can do to me. You will look into my eyes as I make sure you can never hurt me again. One day, Father, you will regret your choices, and that’s a promise.”

That’s my girl, and I intend to keep that promise with her. Before this week is through, this place will be dust, we will be home, and she will be in my arms where she belongs.

“Okay, drawing closer. Sorry, brother, I keep having to stop to avoid guards,” Jonas mutters, no doubt moving through the base in the dark. I’m guessing D cut the alarms and turned the cameras away from him, or maybe Jonas just took it as a game and broke in—it wouldn’t be the first time. “Question, if I blow you up by mistake, will you be mad?”

“Yes,” I grumble.

He hesitates. “Okay.”

“Jonas, you measured the explosives, right?” I demand.

“Sure, sure, totally measured them. This is the correct amount. I’m positive. Hundred percent. Okay, maybe like sixty percent, but it should be okay.”

“Fucking hell.” My eyes close once more. “If you kill me, Nova will kick your ass.”

“Then she will kiss it better. I’m like forty percent sure this is the right amount. Maybe you should leave once I place it if you don’t want to die because you’re boring.”

“I’m boring because I don’t want to die in a fiery explosion?” I retort.

“Yep, exactly, think how exciting it would be—”

“I don’t know if you’re being serious or trying to distract me,” I grumble.

“Maybe a bit of both. Me, personally, I’d like to die in a shark attack. I very much like being eaten, and those grey bastards are cute, so when I’m old and grey, feed me to the sharks.”

Isaac sighs. “We are not feeding you to the sharks.”

“I will,” D adds.

“It’s my dying wish!” Jonas snaps.

“You aren’t dying!” I practically yell.

“Not yet, but one day, and when I die, I want to be surrounded by sharks. I want to die how I lived—with madness.”

“You’re mad, that’s for sure,” I mutter as something hits the side of the vent.

“See? All set. Oh, I forgot the timer. I better run, you too, Nico!”

Fuck!

I hear him sprinting away, so I release my hands from the side and let myself plummet, knowing it’s the fastest way. At the bottom, I grab the side with a grunt and slide out of the hole, catching my shoulder and almost ripping the uniform. I’ve barely made it out of the hole when the base shakes.

It goes quiet for a moment. “Nico, tell me you’re alive,” Isaac demands.

“I’m good. Did it work?”

Coughing, Jonas replies, “Oh, it worked. There’s a hole big enough even for your fat ass. Okay, let me cover it quickly before the guards get here. You better get back to work, soldier boy.”

“Fucking idiot,” I snap, even as I cover the hole but leave it loose enough for them to break through and slip out of the cupboard. The alarms up top are screaming, and I blend into the soldiers passing by.

“What was that?” I ask.

“Who knows? Someone said it was an attack, but it is probably just those idiot scientists experimenting again.”

“Nothing to worry about then?” I question.

“Probably not. Better get back to your station. They will send up an alert if anything is wrong.”

Nodding, I slip away. I don’t want to just lie low in case they find the hole and realise we are close, but I have to trust that my brothers know what they are doing. “That’s a good idea. Jonas, set another explosion in a bin and make it look like one of the scientists threw out chemicals.”

I hear him moving to do just that, and after patrolling the corridor like I’m supposed to be doing, I see the guards heading back down and relax. It looks like they bought our ruse, and we are one step closer to getting our girl out of here.

“I’m fully in the system. I probably need twelve hours to plan, and then we’ll make our move.”

“Got it,” I mutter.

Twelve hours until my girl is mine again.

Twelve hours until all this is over.