Page 77 of Deserving Cora
Heknewhe shouldn’t have let Carter close the door. It went against everything he’d ever learned in his training. But he’d been trying not to rock the boat. To piss the man off before he produced Lara.
It was a mistake that could cost the woman her life, and possibly cost them their own.
“Bloody hell!” he swore, turning to Owl and Cora. “Locked,” he said unnecessarily.
Pipe hated seeing the fear on Cora’s face. He was so stupid for blindly following Grant. He should’ve known he and Michaels wouldn’t simply change their minds about letting them see Lara. He was obviously rusty if he’d been fooled so easily. And Cora and Owl might pay the price.
They’d showed their hand, and Grant and Michaels were probably right this moment hightailing it out of there. Possibly with Lara, if she was even still alive. At this point, that was looking less and less likely. His heart hurt for Cora.
Looking around, Pipe tried to get his bearings. Ran through their options in his head. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot. As a typical media room, there were no windows to let in light or, in their case, escape through. Pipe wasn’t even sure if there was an exterior wall. For all he knew, this room was in the middle of the building, so busting through a wall wouldn’t do them any good. But if there was even a remote possibility they could get out of there, he’d take it.
But first…he pulled his firearm from the holster at the small of his back. He gestured to Cora with his head, indicating the other side of the room. “Step back, love.”
Her eyes got wide. “What are you going to do?”
“Shoot out the lock,” Pipe said flatly. Discharging his weapon would not only alert Grant, Michaels, and anyone else in the vicinity that he was armed, but it would let them know that whatever their plans were, they were fucked.
Owl stepped forward and took Cora’s elbow, pulling her backward and moving so he was standing in front of her. Pipe nodded at his friend then turned back to the door. It had been a while since he’d been at the firing range, but he was a good shot, always had been. He raised the weapon and aimed it at the lock. He shot off one round…
And immediately swore when the bullet ricocheted.
He dropped into a crouch and saw Owl pulling Cora down with him. Of course, it was way too bloody late to try to dodge a bullet. But thankfully, none of them were hit by the ricocheting projectile.
“Fuck!” Owl swore.
Pipe was too pissed to respond.
“What happened?” Cora asked in bewilderment as she slowly stood.
“The door’s steel,” Pipe answered.
“Oh, shit. This was planned, wasn’t it? I wonder how many other people they’ve trapped in here.”
Pipe kind of wondered that too, but at the moment, he was more concerned with breaking the hell out. He hoped maybe one of the other employees in the house had heard the shot and would come investigate, but he doubted they’d be so lucky. Grant and Michaels had clearly thought this far ahead, so he guessed the room might also be soundproofed. It was the perfect place to put anyone you didn’t want wandering around…or that you wanted to incapacitate.
Urgency hit him hard. He went over to the first row of chairs and yanked on the leather recliner. It didn’t budge. Leaning down, Pipe realized he wasn’t going to be able to move the chair. There were huge bolts keeping it in place.
He heard Cora cough behind him, but he didn’t glance her way, too focused on looking for some sort of tool to try to break through the drywall.
Walking to the top of the tiered platforms, Pipe peered at the projector on the wall. To his disappointment, he didn’t see anything there that would be useful.
“Uh, Pipe?” Owl asked.
“Yeah,” he asked without turning around.
“Something’s wrong,” his friend said.
At that, Pipe spun to see Owl leading Cora to one of the seats. Frowning, he moved toward them. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t feel good,” Cora said, coughing again, harder.
Then Owl coughed.
Only then did Pipe realize he was breathing faster than normal himself, and his head was pounding. He’d been in plenty of stressful situations in his lifetime and hadn’t ever had this kind of reaction. Of course, he’d never been responsible for the safety of a woman he didn’t want to live without, so he could probably be forgiven for having a more extreme reaction now.
He shook his head—and immediately regretted it as he stumbled to the side. He was dizzy.
Cora moaned, and Pipe went to his knees in front of her chair, reaching for her shirt. “Pull your shirt up over your nose and mouth,” he ordered, tugging on the material, trying to help her.
