Page 46 of The Keeper

“Maybe. Maybe not. But if some blue-collar worker actually did fall and sink into the wet concrete, there wouldn’t have been much they could do about it. The thing just gives me the creeps.”

“I’ll make sure you never die alone, and you will always know how much I loved you.”

“You are so not good for me,” she said, shaking her head.

“Why do you say that?”

“I used to listen to Fitz and the other guys say that to their partners and would just roll my eyes and think ‘gross.’ Now, when you say things like that, I know that you mean it and it gives me all the feels.”

“That’s a bad thing?”

“Okay, it’s not bad, but it scares me—not that I think you don’t mean them, but that you do.”

“Why is that frightening?”

“Because I’m not sure I believe I deserve it. I’ve done some terrible things in my life…”

“Terrible, perhaps, but necessary.”

“By whose definition? I mean they certainly didn’t think they needed to die…”

“You chose to act for the greater good, to save those who couldn’t save themselves. You never killed anyone who either wasn’t trying to kill you or your team first or who didn’t deserve to die.”

“You don’t know that,” she said, trying to pull away.

Damon held fast. “I do. I know you. I know Fitzwallace. I know Cerberus and the honor of those who serve there. No, Miley. I will not allow you to believe you are anything less than the heroine you are.”

She sighed. “There you go again.”

He chuckled. “Get over it.”

“Is that an order, Sir?”

“Yes. Now if we can’t find an exit in here, I think I’d rather return to the light.”

The words were no sooner out of his mouth than the grinding, creaking noise the floor above had started to make as the stairs revealed themselves began again.

“Run!” they said simultaneously to each other.

Grasping hands, they ran up for the staircase that seemed to be vanishing by pulling into itself. They had to leap up onto the first step and then ascend the staircase, taking the steps two at a time. They could feel the steps disappearing almost as fast as their feet left the level surface. The relentless groaning of the stairs kept reminding them they needed to move and move quickly. How stone steps could feel unstable and weak would be a sensation he would never forget.

As the stairs seemed to be retreating faster than he and Miley could run, they made a mad leap for the floor of the wine cellar only moments before the floor returned to its original level. Jerking their legs out of the way, they rolled to their backs, clasping hands again.

“Those things are dangerous. They could have just disappeared and left us with nothing to stand on and allowed us to fall. We could have been killed,” said Damon.

“I know. I still can’t figure out what its purpose was, but I’ll make sure the feds know. Something that sinister, that well-concealed, has to have a nefarious purpose.”

Damon sat up, looking around them. “What do you think triggered it to close?”

“My guess would be some kind of timer. Just one more support for my no-good reason for that room to exist theory. Can you imagine what it might have been like to be standing too far away to get to those stairs as they started to vanish? Seeing the meager light from this floor disappearing?” She shivered. “Just so you know, I think psycho-bitch came by her crazy genes honestly. I’d bet serious money her father or grandfather made that cell below us. I’ll bet if we’d had time to explore those walls, we’d have found manacles and shackles.”

“That is not a bet I would take. And I think you’re right about Francesca and where she got her mental instability. My guess is her childhood was no picnic, either. I have this sudden vision of her sitting on those stairs watching someone be tortured.”

“At least we know she’s dead,” said Miley. “There is some comfort in knowing her stalking days are over, but I worry that even if we get out of this alive…”

“We will get out, Miley. We will survive. I have no intention of dying before we get to be together.”

Her whole body seemed to soften as she joined him, placing her hand on his chest. “I would rather have had the short time I’ve had with you than a lifetime with anyone else. I love you, Damon. I need you to know and believe that.”

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