The first door across from the stairwell was 302. 314 would be at the other end of the hallway. As desperate as I was to rush straight for her, I made myself wait. I let Bodhi lead.
There were eighteen rooms up here. All tiny little dorm rooms, each barricaded by a locked door to keep their prisoners inside. As impatience fountained through me again, I stuck with Bodhi. When we reached a room that didn’t have an exterior lock, he motioned me back.
The knife was in his hand, tucked and hidden against his arm. He tested the door knob and then pushed the door inward. The smell hit me first. The faint odor of too much cleaning product, maybe some mildew, and soap.
So much soap.
It was a communal shower.
There were thin curtains hanging as a suggestion of privacy, but that was it. Just a suggestion. Gritting my teeth, I checked the hallway behind us as Bodhi moved again and then we were at 314.
One by one, he tried the keys from the ring he’d taken from the guard’s office. The fifth one slipped into the lock easily, then the tumblers as the deadbolt released echoed in the silence of the hall.
“Let me,” I said before Bodhi opened the door. She was in there alone and Bodhi might scare her if she woke up to him looming out of the dark with a knife in his hand.
That image sent a shiver right through me. Not the time, I reminded myself. Absolutely not the time.
He nodded and turned the handle to push the door inward. I slipped inside. The room was so tiny. There was barely room for the single bed, an old night stand with a drawer at the top and a shelf at the bottom. No other furniture decorated the room.
My entrance hadn’t woken her. Pocketing the baton, I tried to cross the wooden floor to her quietly but it creaked and groaned with every step.
Andrea let out a sudden shriek as she jerked awake.
“No, no, no,” I chanted, closing the distance. “It’s me, sweetheart. It’s Lainey.”
Panting like she’d just run a marathon, Andrea stared at me wide eyed. The pillow had left a red mark on her cheek. No, that was a bruise.
Someone had hit her in the face hard enough to leave a bruise.
“Lainey?” The half-broken, half-disbelieving whisper refocused all my attention.
“It’s me, sweetheart. Adam’s here too. We’re getting you the hell out of here.”
Then she was lunging forward, crashing into me with a hug that knocked me on my ass. Shouting came from the hallway, someone slamming their fist against a door.
Tears burned in my eyes as I glanced at Bodhi. “I’ll deal with them…”
“No,” Andrea said abruptly, pulling back. “That’s Levi. He’s my friend. Kostya is here and Theo. They aren’t the guards or the man who runs the school.”
“I won’t hurt them,” Bodhi said. “But they heard you scream and—”
There was another slam in the hallway, it sounded like someone was throwing themselves bodily at the door.
“Go,” I told him. “I’m going to get Andrea dressed so we can go.”
More shouting came from outside. It seemed a thousand miles away, but that could have something to do with the shutter barricading the single slit window. When the distinctive pop-pop of gunfire reached me, I pulled Andrea to the floor.
“Is someone shooting?”
Her eyes were wide and the whites were wild. A teenage boy was suddenly filling the doorway.
“Get away from her,” he ordered as he charged to where we were. He never made it, Bodhi hauled him backwards and Andrea waved her arms.
“Levi no, this is my sister,” she told him, tears coating every word and it made my heart jerk painfully in my chest.
“Let me go,” Levi argued with Bodhi who had him in an armlock he couldn’t break.
“I will when you calm down.”
He had pressed against the wall, one hand flat against his shoulder blades to keep him there.
“I heard her scream,” Levi argued. “After what happened—”
“They startled me,” Andrea said as I pulled her to her feet. “But I told you they would find me.”
She sniffled and Levi seemed to calm down. “You’re okay though?” He studied Andrea like he was looking for signs of injury.
“Yes,” she said. “Now get out, I gotta put clothes on.” The familiarity and the order made me snort.
Bodhi eased up and then backed off a step as he let go of Levi. The teen pivoted to face him and the light from the hallway cast across his face just like it was Bodhi’s.
Yeah, there was no mistaking the resemblance.
If I saw it, Bodhi had to, though his expression didn’t shift. He studied the kid in front of him with narrowed eyes.
“Let’s go, kid,” Bodhi said in a gruff voice darkening with emotion. I doubted anyone else would hear it but finding Levi was messing with him. “We’re gonna let the others out. Help me do a head count.”
It didn’t take long to find Andrea’s meager clothing. The thin tops and pants were not meant for colder temps outside. She also didn’t have a coat. Had they taken all of her clothes from her too?
