Dante nodded.
“Where are we going?” I asked Nico as he dragged me down the hallway.
“I need to get you somewhere safe,” he repeated.
With Miguel by our side, we slipped through a quieter corridor.
When we reached the stairwell, Nico turned to me. He reached down to his ankle, pulled out a polished silver pistol from a holster, and handed it to me.
We edged down the stairs. It felt like navigating a minefield, each landing a potential ambush point.
I could feel my clothes becoming damp with sweat. The stairwell was a suffocating tomb without circulating air.
Nico suddenly pivoted when we reached the fourth landing, pressing my back against the wall and shielding me with his body. Miguel stood alert, his gun raised, scanning the area where we had just come from. Heavy footsteps could be heard, and a figure emerged from the shadows.
“Fuck, don’t shoot!” Detective Stone shouted, his hands raised while holding a gun. Something about him was unsettling, a vibe that set off alarms in my gut.
Nico tensed, his grip tightening on his weapon. “Where did you come from?”
“We came from the back,” Stone replied, glancing nervously over his shoulder as his partner materialized from the stairs, gun leveled at Nico.
“Put your gun down,” Stone ordered his partner. The man complied, keeping his eyes on Nico.
Nico pressed on. “How did you get past my guards?”
“What guards? There weren’t any posted at the back entrance,” Stone shot back.
“Maybe they were ambushed,” Miguel suggested, the creases on his forehead deepening.
“Not likely. They would’ve warned me,” Nico replied.
“Not if they were caught off guard,” Stone countered coolly.
“I don’t fucking trust you,” Nico declared.
“Likewise.”
I squeezed Nico’s hips to let him know we needed to go.
“Take us down there,” Nico ordered. But before Stone and his partner could lead us, Stone’s partner dropped to the floor with a bullet in between his eyes.
“Fuck!” Stone shouted, sprinting up the stairs. He skidded to a halt on the landing above us and aimed his gun, firing at the emptiness that surrounded us.
Nico grabbed me and pushed me up the stairwell. “Go!”
My heart raced as I dashed up each step. When we reached the next landing, the heavy steel doors swung open with a metallic clang, revealing a man with a black mask holding a machine gun. I aimed my gun and shot him right in the neck before he could pull the trigger.
Miguel swung around and snatched the guy’s machine gun before he could fall to the ground.
“We’ve drawn way too much attention!” Nico hissed.
Miguel glanced left and right of the hallway. “All clear,” he reported in a low voice.
I found myself wedged between Nico and Miguel.
“Get in the front,” Nico ordered Stone, his tone brooking no argument.
“Why should I?” Stone shot back.
