Page 78 of Run of Ruin

I grabbed Bex’s hand. “Come on.”

Running on pure adrenaline, we climbed the slick ladder up to the top of the tank. The access hatch was barely wide enough for one of us at a time.

“Go get him,” I said, cupping her cheek. Her skin was ice-cold, but she nodded, eyes gleaming with that familiar reckless fire. No hesitation.

And then we dove.

The icy water hit like a wall, but I forced myself to move, homing in on Thorne. He’d slipped under completely, face pale in the shifting light.

I reached for him, and fumbled the key into the lock on his handcuffs. It was jammed. I cursed, twisting harder. It gave. His wrists came free.

Without a word, we kicked off the side, swimming hard toward the exit. Through the murky water, I spotted Brexlyn with Ezra clutched to her, his face a mixture of fury and desperation as he dragged her upward with him.

We burst through the surface together, gasping and heaving. I climbed out first, then turned to reach for Bex.

As we climbed down from the tank, she nearly collapsed, her body giving out as she slumped into Ezra’s arms.

Ezra was murmuring to her, soft words I couldn’t make out, but I could feel the weight of them. Words thick with love and gratitude, whispered promises and desperate relief, his hand stroking her soaked hair as she clung to him like a lifeline.

Then Thorne stepped up in front of me, eyes bloodshot,water still clinging to his skin. He pulled me into a rough, shaking embrace.

“Close call, sis,” he muttered against my ear, his breath ragged. “I was starting to really doubt the whole ‘you can trust me’ speech you gave me.”

“Glad you’re okay,” I said, gripping the back of his neck and holding him there for a beat longer than either of us might have admitted we needed.

And then a scream tore through the room. “No! No, please!”

My head snapped toward the sound just as Dani Cale stumbled forward, her hands trembling as she held up her device to the guard standing by the tank.

“You’ve got the wrong configuration,” the guard said flatly, barely sparing her a glance. “You have the wrong tube.”

“No, no, please, please… Check again. Give me the key!” Her voice cracked, raw and breaking. She rushed toward the tank, slamming her palms against the glass where her son was thrashing beneath the rising water, the chains keeping him trapped as panic overtook him.

“Baby, I’m here. Momma’s here,” Dani cried, her voice shattering on every word as she tried to catch his eyes through the water-streaked glass.

“Give me the key!” She screamed again.

“You have the wrong configuration,” the guard repeated.

She screamed, slamming her fist against the tank.

“You can’t do this!” she cried. But the guard remained still and unyielding.

She turned away from the child in the tank, took a steadying, decisive breath, and then she climbed. Her hands fumbled for the ladder, soaked and shaking, but she didn’t slow. No one moved to stop her.

She didn’t have a key. Wasn’t even trying to bring one.

She wasn’t going in there to set him free. She was going in there to drown with him.

I felt the bile rise in my throat, my stomach twisting as she slipped through the hatch and disappeared into the water.

“Let’s go,” Ezra said quietly, his voice rough. He was cradling Bex’s head against his shoulder, shielding her from the unfolding nightmare. I saw the tremble in his jaw, the way his eyes refused to drift toward the tank.

None of us wanted to see what came next. We turned away as a new wave of water crashed into the chamber, as the tank began to overflow, the sound of it rushing in loud and relentless. And then we left. Left the room, left the tank, left those last terrible sounds behind us. We didn’t look back.

I closed the door behind us, locking us into one of the small holding rooms where they’d corralled us before the trial. Ezra had Bex pressed into his side, one hand fisting the fabric of her suit like he could anchor her there. Thorne sagged against the wall, sweat and water trailing down his face. And Zaffir stood stiff and pale in the corner, his camera lowered, a look of sick, soft horror on his face like the weight of what he'd filmed was finally breaking through the detachment.

He powered down the camera with trembling fingers and moved toward Bex, his whole posture shifting as he crouched in front of her.

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