Page 121 of Chained

"Okay." I lift her before she can second-guess it, one arm under her knees, the other braced across her back. She buries her face into my neck without another word, her eyes already shut, her whole body curling smaller against me like she's trying to disappear.

I carry her down the last flight and out into the lobby, stepping over what's left of the people who used to work here, blood soaking through my boots with every step.

"We're almost there, Amora," I whisper, eyes catching on each body that was laid out on the marble. Using my back, I push open one of the doors leading out into the gardens.

The cold air bites against my cheek as we step outside, the sky beginning to darken. I try to steady my breathing, which somehow seems louder now we're outside. Fuck, louder now the guns have finally stopped being unloaded. I keep moving, boots crunching over the gravel until we're tucked behind one of the hedges I used to hide in as a kid.

My arms burn, but I keep her tucked up close beside me, just long enough to make it deeper into the gardens. Finally, I slowly place her down onto her feet. She looks smaller than the last time I saw her, somehow more fragile, and that hurt. It hurt so bad that I'd been in the same walls whilst she was trapped in a fucking coffin I'd helped bring here.

"Hey. Look at me." I tilt her chin up with two fingers, checking her eyes, the swelling, the way her breathing's coming too fast and too shallow. "We're getting out, okay? I'm getting you out."

"He'll kill us, Jax. He'll kill you." Her voice cracks on my name, but her eyes find mine. Those big beautiful brown fucking eyes that I could drown in and feel satisfied.

"I should have come sooner. Fuck, I didn't know, Amora. I swear to God, I didn't know." My voice begins to shake, but I try to steady it. There will be time for apologies, there will be nothing but time once we get out.

Boots pound against gravel behind us and I spin, gun already half-raised and ready before I even get a chance to register his face.

"Adrian?" I call out, moving closer to him. He's covered in blood, more of it than should be possible for a man still standing, dark down one whole side of his shirt. A gash is above his eyebrow, bleeding freely into his lashes. He frowns at the gun, and I almost roll my eyes.

"Jax." He's breathing hard, hand braced against his knee for half a second before he straightens. "He knows. Vincent knows she's gone. He's got men searching every fucking room. You need to move, now."

"Are you hurt?" I step toward him and scan the treeline behind us.

"It's not mine." He shrugs, wiping excess onto his jeans. "Well, not all of it at least, but listen. You two gotta go, I'll hold them as long as I can."

My phone starts screaming in my pocket, vibrating hard enough I feel it in my teeth. I don't need to look to know who it is. It doesn't stop ringing, over and over.

"Jax." Adrian's voice is sharper now. "Now."

I can't get a full breath in. Everything's too loud and too fast at once, my phone still buzzing, gunfire somewhere behind us, Adrian's blood, Amora's hand gripping mine hard enough to hurt, and I can't think. I can't fucking think of a way to get out of these walls, to get her to safety, and also keep my family alive.

"The car," I manage. "Jarrod's got the car."

"Then get to it." Adrian grips the back of my neck, forces my eyes to his for one hard second. "I mean it, kid. Go."

"I can't—" I turn to look at Amora and back at Adrian, forced with an impossible decision. I can't walk away, I can't leave him to face this alone.

"Come with us." My voice shakes, the sound fucking annoying in my head. I don't sound like the man he taught me to be, I sound like the fucking eight-year-old that's haunted my dreams.

"I can't, kid, I've got to go back for Jarrod. You go. Get her out," he says, his face remaining fixed but his eyes glassing over. Releasing Amora's hand for the smallest second, I throw my arms around Adrian, pulling him to me.

"Thank you, Adrian, for everything," I whisper into his ear, my hands clapping against his back.

"You'll always be my Ace of hearts, kid. Now go." He pushes me away, turning his back as he quickly moves past us, back toward the manor, back toward the gunfire. I have half a second to hate him for it before I pull Amora forward, toward the east side. I take one last look over my shoulder as he heads through the door and in my chest, all I feel is the hollowness I felt for the months before I met him, the hollowness that came after losing the only parent I knew.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Amora

His palm sweats against mine as he pulls me through the rose gardens. His eyes set straight, the gravel scraping against the soles of my feet. With every step I take, the more I die inside. She's still in there somewhere, probably hidden away whilst I'm being walked out to freedom. I long to turn around, to run back inside and grab her. I can't leave her, not again. Not like this. Not when I forced her to go out into that corridor, when I forced her to try and save us both.

My feet root into the ground like heavy weights digging into the gravel. Jax pauses beside me, his head tilted and brows centred as he studies my face.

"What are you doing? We have to go. They're searching for you," he hisses, hand trying to tug me forward, but I don't move. I can't. It's like invisible vines have sprouted from the ground and are wrapping themselves around my legs, holding me in place.

"She's in there, Jax." I manage to say the words, even though each one is like a dagger to the heart. "Rosa, she's in there with him."

He sucks in a breath, a small hiss escaping through his teeth. "Don't do this. Not now, not when we're so close to the car."