Page 48 of Relentless Oath

He had smiled warmly at me, “Well, maybe that will be a good reminder to be extra careful when the unexpected presents itself.

My thoughts returned to the present. The unexpected had presented itself now.

I could either stay and kill them all, or I could get Mya safely out of the house.

I heard more cars pull up. Exactly how many of them were there? It was then that I smelled it. Gas. They were going to try to burn us out. That was unexpected.

Change of plans, I thought to myself, making my way toward the basement.

Her first shot went wide of me, but the sound echoed loudly in the hallway. Fuck. That hurt.

“Move again, and I’ll kill you,” came Mya’s voice from the darkness, the sound muffled by the ringing in my ears.

“It’s me, Mya.”

She came out then with the gun still trained on me.

“Oh shit,” she said dropping the gun to her side. “Sorry!” She rushed to my side and grabbed my shoulders, looking at me closely.

“Did I hurt you?”

“Just my hearing,” I said, ignoring the ringing in my ears and looking around. “We need to get out of here. They’re about to set the house on fire.”

Her eyes grew wide with panic. “Oh God, no. How are we going to get out of here?”

She began to pace.

“What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to have to make a run for it.”

“Through a fire? Are you kidding me?”

I walked toward the back wall of the basement, looking for something I hadn’t thought of in ages. I found it and pulled the handle.

“Where does that door lead?” she asked, grabbing me by my arm.

“The original owner of the home had escape tunnels added to the compound,” I replied. “I never asked much about what he did for a living. I figured I didn’t really want to know. Come on, let’s go.”

I grabbed her arm, and together we went through the door. I could smell the smoke already The house was going to burn to the ground. They would pay for this.

In silence, I led her down the tunnel that I had only explored once, right after taking possession of the house.

“Where does this lead to?” she asked, breaking me away from my thoughts. She held onto my hand for dear life.

“It should lead to a natural cave some distance from the house.”

“Should?”

“It’s been a while. I don’t know if the tunnel has caved in.”

She stopped abruptly and said, “Maybe we should go back.”

“Into a house that’s burning down?”

I pulled at her hand but could feel her digging her heels in.

“We could get stuck down here. What if we run out of oxygen? We could die.”

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