Page 149 of When She Tempts (The Fallen)
“I counted twelve,” Ras says when the house is in sight. It’s surprisingly modest by Sal’s standards—the man likes to show off his money—but I suppose that’s the kind of sacrifice you have to make when you’re fighting for your life. A one-story concrete building, bulletproof windows, armored doors.
“Fourteen,” I correct him. “You missed two lying by the trees.”
“They’re clearing the back of the property now. We should wait until we get the green light.”
De Rossi shakes his head. “Let’s go. If he’s got an escape tunnel in there, I don’t want to give him enough time to crawl through it.”
We hop back out, our weapons pointed and ready. The crew did a good job here, so we reach the front door without getting into any scuffles.
Ras and De Rossi step aside for me to take a look at the mechanism on the door. I frown. We’ve got a problem on our hands.
“Get back.Now.”
To their credit, they move without a word, trusting me to know what I’m doing. When we’re a safe distance away, I turn to them. “Door is rigged with explosives. It’ll blow if we tamper with it without disengaging the mechanism first.”
“Tell me you know how to do that,” Ras says.
“I know how to detect them, but I’m not an explosives expert. We need to look for another way in.”
De Rossi nods. “I’ll call Calisto. He might know of a weak point.”
“I’m going to check the perimeter to see if there’s anything I couldn’t see on the camera feed.” There has to be another way in.
I keep my gun close as I round the house and make it to the backyard. De Rossi’s guys are all over it, but they’re too busy with Sal’s men to help. I press my back against the wall and take it all in. There’s no back door, and the windows aren’t big enough to squeeze through even if we could get through the glass.
That’s when I see it. A patch of grass just ahead of me that’s got a slightly different hue than the rest.
I run to it, get down on my haunches, and drag my hand around the perimeter. The handle is hidden, but the bite of its cold metal surface is impossible to miss. I jerk on it a few times until I feel it shift. On the next tug, it swings open.
Below is a dark tunnel that disappears into the ground.
I send a message to Ras and De Rossi, telling them where to go. Then I climb down into the shaft.
It’s not deep, and my shoes hit what feels like packed dirt only moments later. The tunnel splits in two directions, and it’s easy enough to work out which one leads to the house.
I move aside to let De Rossi and Ras descend the ladder. “If Sal ran as soon as he heard the shots, he would have passed this point by now,” I say. “We should follow the tunnel out.” I’m sure that’s where he went. He doesn’t want to die, even if he’s rapidly running out of options.
“Let’s go,” De Rossi says.
We move as fast as we can, given this thing is fucking tiny and we all have to run crouched over. Thank God, it doesn’t take too long for light to appear ahead. Judging by the length of the tunnel, its purpose is simply to get Sal to a vehicle hidden nearby, so that he can use it to escape.
When we burst out into the woods, my hunch is confirmed.
“He’s there!”
Sal’s barrel-shaped form is just ahead and he’s running for his life. We book it after him, but fall back when a shot rings out.
“He can’t have many men with him,” Ras says from behind a tree. “Nearly all of his guys were back at the house.”
“Fuck it,” De Rossi snarls. “I’m ending this.”
He runs low to the ground even as shots sound through the air. It’s reckless, but I can imagine how he feels being so close to victory.
Ras and I follow.
There’s shout. Another shot.
We burst into a clearing and finally find our target.
