Page 111 of Provocation
All heads turn as he starts making a scene from the stairs to the office. He’s making sure everyone’s looking at him and not us.
'What about the others?' I ask.
'Lu's fine. I saw her cousin get her out the side.'
'But Shade and Blake.'
'They have nothing on us. They're staying to make sure they don’t find anything.'
‘We’re the only ones leaving? Why?'
'Just come on,' he says. 'I don't have time to argue with you, Tulip. We don’t want you in the middle of all that. Black’s already targeting you.'
We go down the stairs and I make double sure that the lab is closed off properly as we go past it. We hear someone opening the door at the top of the stairs and begin to descend.
'Come on,' Mav whispers, pushing me gently down one of the dark tunnels. There's a door a few feet down that he opens and closes again quietly behind us.
Using the flashlight from his phone, he leads us down it. There are puddles on the floor, and I'm glad I'm wearing sneakers as we traverse the dank passage with my hand clutching his. We get to a fork, and he takes the left one without hesitation.
'How do you know which way to go?' I ask quietly, not wanting my voice to carry.
'I've explored everything down here,' he says, 'just in case we needed more than one way to get out. This one goes down to the river and the other to the sewers.'
I shudder, already cold from the wet down here. We walk through the dark corridors for a long time before I see some light ahead. At a set of cement stairs in a small antechamber off the main tunnel, we end up in an abandoned warehouse. I follow Mav through a rotted side door and find myself on a cracked sidewalk in a derelict street.
'Where are we?' I ask.
'Dock lands by the river,' he says. 'Stay close.'
He puts his phone away. There's graffiti on all of the buildings here, and trash litters the walkways. There are broken windows and there's no one around except a couple of homeless men huddled in sleeping bags down an alleyway. Half the streetlamps have shattered bulbs, and the other half don’t work. I feel like I’m being watched although I can’t see anyone. I don’t like it here.
'When can we go back?' I ask, shivering in the cold.
He shrugs. 'The cops will be there for a while, but as far as they know, we weren’t even in the club when they raided it, so we’ll walk back slowly and by the time we get there, it should be fine.’
'What about Blake and Shade? Will they be okay?'
Mav nods, looking at me shivering. He frowns and takes off his sweatshirt, which I take gratefully and put on, breathing in the scent of him. It calms me down a little as we walk.
'They have nothing on us,’ he continues. ‘They won't find the lab, and Envy is well hidden. No one will even have one on them because the rule is they have to take it as soon as they buy it. Nothing will come of their search, like always.'
We walk back through the streets. The wind blows hard, and I huddle next to Mav. It takes longer to get back to the club than it did leaving, and when I say as much to him, he nods.
'Yeah. The tunnels extend really far under the town, but they’re pretty straight. We think they were used during Prohibition, maybe even during the Civil War too. The building is pretty old.'
When we finally make it back to Wrath, there are still some cop cars outside, but it looks like they’re about to leave.
I see Detective Black talking to some of the uniforms out front and I grip Mav’s hand tighter. I don’t like him. When he sees us, his eyes narrow. Guess the feeling is mutual.
'Just keep cool,' Mav whispers. 'They don't know anything.'
'Where have you two been?' he spits.
Mav shrugs. 'Just out for some dinner. How about you, Detective?'
His eyes narrow further. 'I heard some surprising news today, Miss Novelle. Apparently you're engaged to Joe Banderville. I bet Daddy's so proud,' he sneers.
'He's not my dad,' I say quietly. 'My dad died in a fire over ten years ago, remember?'
