Left For Dead (The Guarded Secrets Series Book 3) (13 page)

Chapter 22

I managed to find a place to lay low while I got oriented to the warehouse and Volodya talked to a few of the guards he had come in with. I could hear his voice bouncing off the walls. They were mostly concrete with a few metal doors to secure whatever they kept in the rooms, but it didn’t save me any trouble. I couldn’t understand anything Volodya said, one guard constantly hovered over Natasha, and if I lost them I knew the concrete walls lined hallways upon hallways, either leading to dead ends or office spaces. I would have to follow them closely and pray that I didn’t get caught up in trying to stay out of sight and lose them.

I managed to do just that as I tried to keep up with Natasha and Volodya, but they walked easily through the compound, following hallways, climbing stairs, and appearing before other people without a care in the world. My approach had to be a little more subtle. I couldn’t show myself, so I was constantly darting through the halls looking for another place to hide so I could tail after them.

A few extraneous guards moved past them while I followed, but it seemed as if Volodya was surrounded by who he needed and the others were elsewhere. Too bad that small favor he provided would vanish the second I stepped out of his shadow. I’d be on my own, all while trying to control someone else’s actions. That never went well. It was impossible to control another person fully, no matter if they knew you were helping them or not. Everyone reacted differently, and I couldn’t tell how Natasha would act when it came time to run. Without Katya, I wasn’t sure if she would even trust me enough to come with me.

I silently cursed Katya again. She just had to make my job more difficult than it already was.

Volodya turned around, causing me to slide back behind a corner. I was out of his sight, but now I was in the open for others to discover me. I could hear him question his guards, whether to see if they had seen anything or not I couldn’t be sure, but it became clear as I heard footsteps approaching. From the sound of the voices bouncing off the walls, it had to be two young men. Their footsteps edged closer, and I glanced around for a better place to hide. They would soon turn the corner and find me. I hadn’t even made it to Natasha yet, I was
not
about to fail now.

The welcome sight of storage rack across the hall and a little behind me gave me a new hope. I took off at a run and quickly slid under the metal rack, concealed from view due to the boxes and equipment on the top shelves. They would have to look down and under to find me, and I had learned early on while young workers had a lot to prove, they were the easiest to avoid. They weren’t as thorough as the older men. They didn’t have experience to tell them where to look or what to watch out for.

I’d be their first lesson,
I thought, letting a mischievous smile curve onto my lips as they came around the corner.

I couldn’t see above the waist on them from my hiding spot so I watched their feet. They split up, one coming down the hall I was in and the other continuing the search further down. Whoever came down this hall walked right past me. His deep voice filled my ears as he called to his friend, most likely to say that he had found nothing. I glanced over my shoulder to see his pace had slowed, he was idly tapping his hand on his leg. He seemed to be counting, as if there was an acceptable amount of time for him to look before returning back to Volodya.

He counted upwards of one hundred, according to my count, before he turned to walk back from where he had come. I took soft breath of relief, each second that had passed while he counted had let the anticipation build up until it had become almost unbearable. My pulse was still racing as he once again met up with his friend and they turned back to see Volodya.

I waited a few moments before I slowly moved out from my hiding spot and crouched down behind the wall again. Peeking around the corner, I could see the two men who had been sent to look for me, but not Volodya or Natasha. Gritting my teeth to prevent a growl of annoyance to escape my lips, I raced after the two men as quietly as I could. Quickening my pace as they rounded another corner—they were heading right to the drop off room where I would meet Demon should I need him. At least I knew where I was, it would save me a lot of trouble should I need a quick place to hide besides behind walls and boxes or under racks and tables.

Once again I glanced around the corner cautiously to see Volodya and Natasha with the same men from before.
At least I hadn’t lost them or anyone else in the group.
I stayed as low to the ground as I could to prevent being seen. Everyone would look at their eye level, rarely up or down. If I stayed below their natural gaze, I should be safe. I couldn’t make out what was being said, and grew annoyed that I hadn’t spent more time studying Russian before coming here in the first place. Maybe then I wouldn’t be so useless when I could be eavesdropping. All I understood from the short exchange was that Volodya became upset as one guard reported news, eased slightly when the two men I had followed reported back to most likely say they didn’t see anything, and then once again become furious when someone interrupted the conversation.

He pushed Natasha into one of the rooms and quickly gestured for the men to follow him. I wasn’t sure what happened, but I was pleased that it had gotten Natasha away from her father. I could grab her and be out of here before he came back to retrieve her. Waiting for the guards to move out of sight, I took a glance back. No one was behind me. Now would be the only time I had to get her, I couldn’t be sure she’d ever be alone again. I stood up and slowly made my way to the room. I took a deep breath and pushed open the door, praying that she would be alone. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

A gun was quickly shoved into my face. I glanced down the barrel into a pair of green eyes that gave away the person’s true feeling; fear. He tried to seem powerful, in control, but his eyes said differently. He spoke to me in Russian, his voice shaking slightly, but what he said I couldn’t be sure. When I didn’t answer he pushed the barrel a little closer, too close. He should have known better. I grabbed the barrel of the gun and ripped it from his hands before turning his own weapon on him. It was heavy in my hands, and while I wasn’t a gun expert I knew this one was similar to the submachine gun Renegade had once showed me. I could do some real damage with it given a chance.

“Hands up,” I ordered. Like a good soldier he did as he was told. I motioned for him to back up and he reluctantly did so. Once fully into the room, I could see he was alone except for Natasha, who looked unaffected by my presence.

“So you’ve actually come,” she said, ignoring the guard I held at gunpoint. “Where is Katya? She said she would come with you.”

“I wouldn’t let her,” I stated, refusing to let my gaze linger far from the man. I had been trained that if I raised a weapon to someone, I better intend to shoot if needed, and I would do just that if he forced me to. “I wasn’t sure I would make it this far on my own, to be honest. I didn’t want to bring someone else with me and we all get killed.”

Natasha didn’t reply right away, but I heard her move toward me. I didn’t react until she was right beside me, and then I cast her a curious glance. She glanced between me and the guard, as if waiting for something to happen, whether him to take the gun back or me to shoot him. My assumption was only validated when she spoke up next. “If you want to leave, you’ll have to kill him. Otherwise he’ll sound the alarm, and I’m not sure how much time we have before Father comes back.”

“And the gunshot won’t do the same thing?” I questioned.

“It may, but at least at that point you have a gun,” she pointed out.

“I’d still have the gun, and less attention drawn to me if I did this.” I slung the gun onto my shoulder with the shoulder strap and landed a quick jab to the man’s throat. From experience I knew it hurt. Raider had done it to me in a training session and I’d learned how to knock someone out with a few well-placed hits. I threw a punch, landing on the man’s jaw, before forcing my leg up and hitting him in the side of the head.

He fell to the ground in a heap, and didn’t move a muscle once he collided with the floor. I pulled the gun off of my shoulder and smiled down at Natasha. She looked unimpressed, and I tried not to be insulted. Though it stung a little, normally I was at least complimented on the effort, not repaid with a blank stare and stoic expression.

“You’ve done this before,” Natasha stated. Her tone held nothing other than fact, she didn’t question the insight I had in my field nor did she seem surprised by it.

“You could say that.” I didn’t say much else as I moved toward the door and slowly opened it. Glancing around the corner, I noticed there were no people. I could move now and get her to the drop off location without any problems if I moved quickly enough. “Let’s go.” I grabbed her wrist and pulled her along behind me, every nerve in me alert as we made our way through the halls.

I hated bringing someone who wasn’t trained with me. It had bad idea written all over it, but it was the only way I could be sure of her safety and mine—even if it meant taking more time than I would have liked to. I had to be cautious for the both of us, as Natasha was just blindly following me. She offered a few pieces of information, like where the cameras were and how to avoid them, but other than that she didn’t know much.

“Wait,” she said. “There are two cameras down there—you won’t be able to avoid them. Go straight, then turn left, you’ll end up in the same spot.”

I nodded and followed her directions. We were close to the drop off point, but just before I turned into the hallway I heard voices heading straight for us.

“What are they saying?” I questioned when I believed they had stopped.

“Father wanted them to continue looking for someone, I’m assuming that’s you. They are taking a break. They don’t think anyone could have gotten in here without being caught early on.”

“Is there another way into that hallway?”

Natasha shook her head. “I’m not sure where you wanted to go, but it may be best just to leave the building. If Father is ordering people to look for you it’s only a matter of time before all the hallways are covered and we are found.”

I tried to hide my disappointment, but she was right. It would be better to get her out. I just hadn’t been planning on somehow getting two of us out. It would be hard enough to get just me out; two people would be pure luck.

“Okay, tell me how to get out and I’ll lead the way. Just follow my orders; don’t be like your sister.”

Natasha smiled, but nodded eventually, before pointing me in the right direction. I followed her directions, keeping us well hidden from anyone who passed by. We made it close to the exit when someone came over the intercom. The speaker only spoke in Russian, but from what I could understand they had an intruder and a command went out.

“What are they saying?” I asked, looking to Natasha for a translation as the speaker continued. She held up a finger to tell me to wait a moment. I waited until the announcement ended and asked her again. “What did they say?”

“We need to get out of here now,” she said, her eyes wide with fear. Her pupils covered most of her green irises, and her breathing had picked up. Whatever the order had been, it terrified her. “They’re going to kill us. They know you have my sister, and my father has called us traitors for working with you. We need to leave.”

I nodded, grabbed her wrist, and immediately starting racing toward the first exit I could think of, unfortunately away from the drop off point I had set up with Demon in case something went wrong. Well, something had certainly gone wrong, and by now Demon would know about it. I could hear the commands exchanged between the guards, their footsteps racing through the compound, and at times their breath when they got too close to us for my comfort. They were all trying to find me, converging on a single point and determined to eliminate the threat.

My heart was pounding, sweat forming on my forehead, fear pulsing through my veins. If I didn’t know any better I would say I felt scared, trapped, on the verge of death, but I refused to think like that. Though I couldn’t fight the chills that went down my spine every time I felt Natasha breath down my neck, fearing we had been found and caught.

I could see the door, similar to the one I had followed them through. The only problem, besides being hunted by guards, was I couldn’t see through metal. I had no way of knowing who or how many were out there waiting for us.

At least I have a gun
, I thought. If needed I could go out fighting, maybe somehow still save Natasha if I got really lucky.

“They are coming,” Natasha whispered as voices once again met my ears. “We don’t have much time.”

“I know. I’m trying to think.”

“You don’t have time for that either.”

I glared at her, but once again she remained stoic. “Fine, let’s go.” I pushed her toward the door, guarding her back as we made our way. I could hear the other guards racing around us, but so far didn’t see one.

Once at the door, I took the lead again. I pushed it open as quietly as possible so as to not alert anyone close by and let Natasha out. She slipped out easily and I followed after her, letting a smile take over my features. Though the celebration was premature; I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.