Page 109 of Undone

Adrenalin pumps through me. I’ll be dammed if this is how my story was going to end.

I turn to Shanna. “You need to stay here and protect your baby.” Crawling across the carpet, I pull the gun holstered at Duke’s ankle, check the clip, and position myself behind him.

“Get back,” Smith hisses.

“No. Rog taught me. You need me. I’m fighting for all of us.” More pops of gunfire erupt from the other part of the house.

Duke cracks open the door. “We’re sitting ducks. We need to move—we need to get out.”

“We can’t. They’ll block us from getting to the cars.” My man replies.

“There must be a way out. Rog taught me that. He thinks of everything…,” I stammer.

“Of course, I did,” his voice drawls from the darkness down the hall. “There’s a saferoom in the basement, attached to an underground tunnel. I never told a soul about it either. That dumb shit, Trent, sure as shit doesn’t know. That asshat is mine.”

“Paranoid much?” Duke quips.

“Yep, and my paranoia is about to save our asses.” Rog pants coming toward us with Dev in tow.

The men gather at the door just as the sound of more glass breaking comes from another part of the house. Rog heads out first, followed by Smith. Duke ushers us forward taking the rear. I keep Shanna behind me as I aim at the men outside and pull the trigger. We take cover behind furniture as we move through.

I’m not sure if I hit anyone, but the shots don’t tear through the house like before. We make it to the basement door and hurry down. Duke bolts the door from the inside as I follow Rog and Smith into the dark.

Rog flicks a switch. “Over here. Help me move this.”

The men help Rog move an armoire that was against the back wall. It looked old and full of nothing but junk, but behind it is a steel door. Rog punches in a code and the door swings open. Heavy footsteps come from above. “They’re inside! Quick!” Duke urges us all in as bullets spray through the locked door at the top of the stairs.

“The deadbolt will hold.” Rog assures, as he waves us all inside the safe room.

Smith paces like a caged animal. The veins on his forearms and neck pop in agitation as he checks the screens hooked up to security cameras. “Mother-fucker! Trent’s a mole forThe Felons!HELL! I vetted him myself. This is on me.” We all turn, staring at the men with Felon patches on their cuts, surrounding the house.

“Nah, brother… we all took a vote on him. He slipped under my radar, too. We’ll get that bitch,” Rog replies.

I turn my gaze from them. Something smells like… burning plastic? “Do you smell that?” I sniff the air.

Rog fiddles with the feed on the monitor. “They’ve set the house on fire.”

Shanna’s face pales as she cradles her bump.

Rog grabs extra weapons and hands each of us more guns. “We’re going through the tunnels. The room will hold, but there’s no telling how hot the fire might get. We’re in a metal box.”

Shanna’s barefoot and only wearing one of Duke’s flannel shirts. At least, I have clothes on. Dev has pants but no shoes. “Here.” I started unlacing my boots, giving them to Shanna. “Take them for the baby’s sake.” I also take off my yoga pants and hand those over.

“Thank you,” she bites her lip, holding back tears.

Smith frowns as he stares at me. I take his hand, going up on my toes to brush my lips against his ear, “It’s the right thing to do.”

“I know. I’m just pissed to hell that I’ve put you in this situation. But I’m so fuckin’ impressed by you, Luce. I think you hit more Felons than I did.” I look away, not wanting to think about that.

“You didn’t do this, Luce. I did,” Shanna’s bottom lip trembles, “this is all my fault. I dragged Luce and Dev here.”

“Stop. We can point fingers later. Right now, we need to get the hell out of here.” Rog opens another door in the wall and clicks on a flashlight.

One by one, we follow him through a dirt tunnel that smells of packed earth and stale water. It’s cold, so cold, as we silently travel further underground.

Finally, we come to a ladder. Rog climbs up first, unlocks a door in the dirt ceiling, and uses his shoulder to bang against it several times before the frozen hinges give.

Starlight greets us with the rush of cold air as we climb out one by one. Each of us stare at the flames licking up to the sky from a half-mile away, where we hide behind dense trees. I shudder as Smith wraps his arms around me.

---