Page 129 of Black Curtain

There was another silence where everyone thought about my words.

I didn’t want to be right.

Unfortunately, I knew I was.

From the looks exchanged between Nick and Jem, Black and Jax…

So did everyone else.

23

THE BASEMENT

“I’ll go first,” I offered.

Black gave me a dark look.

“Thefuckyou will,” he growled.

He stepped in front of me, pushing me none too gently aside. “If nothing else, I’d crush you when I came down, if you weren’t able to get out of the way.” He glanced at Jax. “Heaviest first. That means you go after me, brother.”

Jax made one of those precise seer gestures that always struck me as a combination of a salute, an acknowledgement of general understanding of what the other had said, and specific agreement to whatever they were being told to do.

“Yes,” he said, unnecessarily. “Don’t worry, boss. I’ll go next.”

Black gave me another semi-threatening stare.

“Did you hear that, doc? You go last. After Jax.Last.”

I rolled my eyes.

I didn’t argue, though. I had to admit, his logic made sense.

“Damned right it does,” my husband muttered.

He didn’t wait. He also didn’t risk getting one of his legs caught in the door mechanism in the event it opened too fast. Instead of stepping a single foot onto the spring door Nick had outlined carefully with the chalk, Blackjumpedon it with both feet. Despite his weight, and his height, he managed to jump on it relatively lightly, but solidly in the middle.

There was a bare pause, almost like the door ensured he was all the way on it.

Then, abruptly, the mechanism activated.

The door openly silent, swinging straight down.

Black plummeted straight down after it.

It was shocking.

It happened crazy fast.

Black didn’t make a sound, but I let out a little gasp.

Immediately, I tried to feel Black with my light, to assure myself he was okay, to see exactly where he was, exactly where the chute led. I couldn’t feel him. I couldn’t feel anything down there. I couldn’t get any sense of how long the tunnel went, or at how steep of an angle.

That was shocking, too.

I looked at Jax, then at Dalejem.

“Can either of you feel him?”

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