Page 120 of Resolve
There’s a low, flatline beep that makes all three of us pause to listen.
The green light is now a solid red light.
Dane’s deactivated them.
A heads up that it would make noise would have been nice, Dane.
“What in the hell—” The guard pulls a radio from his hip.
Fuck a duck.
Sam lightly pulls my arm, dragging my attention from the other man to see where he’s trying to get me to go. He brings us around the back of the potted plants while the guard starts talking on the radio.
“Hey, I might’ve got something here. Meet me on floor eleven. Yeah. The place with all the plants.”
The guard strolls up to the potted tree just as Sam’s hand covers the box. He doesn’t grab it or move it, just holds his hand there as the guard leans forward to inspect the pot.
“I swear I saw something,” he mutters, moving branches aside and looking at the other pots around it.
Sam carefully extracts the box—slower than a sloth, it feels like—until it’s free from the dirt. He makes it just in time before the guard starts rooting around the dirt, mumbling to himself. The guard stares right through us to the wall and floor, looking around.
He brings his radio back to his face. “Never mind, I—”
Crashing echoes from the hallway. Where the offices are and...
...the infirmary.
Dane!
The security guard takes off running. I pull Sam up and grab his hand, taking him with me as I race after him. He taps my arm repeatedly. I ignore it at first, the worry for Dane taking over, before I finally realize he’s trying to say something. Looking at him, he puts a finger to his lips, then points to my feet.
Right.
I slow enough that I can better control my steps. Heel to toe. Fast, but quiet.
We turn the corner down the hallway and nearly crash into a running Dane and Alice. I grab his shirt and push his chest at the same time as he grips my shoulder. Then he points behind us. Go back?
A text message alert rings between us.
“What was that?” a guard asks another, who grunts back.
Dane shoots a glare at Alice. She’s trying to get her phone out of her pocket with the hand that’s already holding the controller device while still holding Dane. It dings again. And again.
The sound of heavy footsteps picks up to a jog.
“Fuck’s sake,” Dane mutters under his breath. I can only hear himbecause we’re nearly standing on top of one another. He pushes my shoulder to turn me around and get us moving. I do, holding Sam tight as we quietly run to the kitchen and storage room to wait for the others. Dane and Alice have their device, and we have ours, so we need to get the fuck away from the guards before something else tells them we’re here.
I close the doors to the kitchen and the storage room, then turn on Alice. She’s given the controller to Dane as she taps on her cell phone, her eyes scanning the message there.
“How could you have left the volume on?” Dane hisses.
She shoves the screen in his face for him to read. I shift against him to read it, too. The sender’s name says Tobias. The first text is a date and time. The second, a string of numbers I’m guessing are coordinates. And the last text...
You forgot one.
“Dad,” she whispers as the door to the storage room flies open.
Chapter thirty-eight
