Trent’s arms went around me, pulling my back against his chest. “If you try to get out of here, they will catch you. They won’t let you out, don’t you understand that?”

“I need to try! Kash needs to know!”

“Rachel, no!” Spinning me around, he wrapped one arm tightly around my waist, the other hand cupping the back of my neck so I would look at him. “I can’t let you do that, you don’t understand what these guys will do to you if they get their hands on you. I can only keep you safe if you’re with me. What you saw that first time you tried to escape, and what you saw last night, is nothing compared to what they have planned for you.”

“I don’t care!” I nearly shrieked. “You can help me this time, I have to try to get back to him!”

Turning us, Trent pressed me against the wall and covered my mouth with his large hand. After a dark look, he dropped his head, and turned it slightly as he listened for anything coming from the hall. When minutes passed, and nothing happened, he removed his hand and leaned in to whisper softly in my ear, “You can’t yell things like that. If one of them heard you, they’re going to be waiting for us. There are men waiting upstairs, there’s no way for both of us to get past them without them trying to take me down . . . and take you.”

“I need Kash to know I’m alive,” I said hoarsely. “I’ll do anything, I’ll risk it, I don’t care.” I hadn’t tried to escape since those first couple days here . . . but at the time, I’d known Kash would try to find me. Knowing he’d given up had changed everything for me. “If he isn’t coming for me, then I’ll die trying to get back to him.”

A brief, choking noise left Trent, and the arm still curled around me tightened. “I can’t let you do that, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I let something happen to you now. I— Fuck. If I . . . Rachel, if I try to get in contact with him, will you please make an effort to keep yourself alive while you’re here?”

My head flew back, and my gaze rested on his pained expression.

“But know that even if I do get in touch with him without one of the others finding out, it might not end well for him. This place is full of armed men; he might not get in here, and get you out, alive. I can’t be the person responsible for that. You would hate me.”

“Trent, please! Please, anything, I’ll do anything! Just let him know where I am and that I’m okay. I know they’ll come for me.”

His dark eyes took on more hurt as he nodded his head. “I’ll try. I can’t promise anything, there’s no cell service down here, so I’d have to go up toward the top. Getting close to the outside right now with everyone against me might not be easy. They might already know if Romero wants me out, and if they think I’m trying to leave, they’ll kill me in a heartbeat. It would leave you unprotected, and without him knowing. I just . . . I don’t know. I can’t put you in that position.”

“It’ll be okay.” I tried desperately to reassure him, and just watched as the pain on his face turned to sorrow. “Everything will be okay, but we need to try!”

He watched me for a few seconds before nodding and releasing me. “I’ll do it, if that’s what you want.”

Yes, that’s what I want. I want my fiancé back. I want my life! I want to get out of here and never leave Kash’s side again.

I launched myself back into Trent’s arms and hugged his neck hard. “Thank you. I can’t say that enough, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet, let’s see if this works first.” He pushed me back and turned to move the exercise machine away from the door leading to the hall. It then hit me what he was doing for me.

“When they come for me, I’ll let them know what you’ve done for me. I’ll do everything to make sure you don’t go to jail for this, Trent.”

He dropped his head, stopped pushing the heavy equipment, slowly straightened and faced me. “For what I’ve done, I deserve to go to jail at the very least. That’s not what’s hard about doing this for you, Rachel.”

“Trent,” I whispered and reached for him, but he moved my arm away.

“Let’s go get something for us to eat, and then get back in here. All right?”

I nodded hesitantly and grabbed onto his shirt when he opened the door.

Trent hadn’t felt comfortable leaving me in his room while he’d gone to get our food during the power outage, so I’d been going with him and sticking closer than usual as we did.

We stepped into the hall and quietly made our way to the kitchen. I watched as he quickly went through the pantry and pulled enough food down to last us for a while, I guess in case the power stayed off throughout tomorrow so we wouldn’t have to come back out.

That same feeling I’d had all morning was back, and I knew we needed to hurry. Something wasn’t right, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

“Trent, we really need to go,” I whispered and turned to look around us in the dark kitchen.

“Okay, come on. Hold on to me.”

“Something bad is coming.”

“I told you, Rach, it’s the weather. It’s hurricane season, but we’re underground, we’re okay if anything happens.”

“No, I—” My scream was muffled by the hand that went around my mouth, and I immediately began thrashing against whoever was holding me.

I heard all the food drop to the ground and watched as Trent spun around to look at us.

“Carson, let her go.”

“Fuck you, Trent. They’ve completely stopped trying to get everyone out. We need her to get them out.”

“Carson, let. Her. Go.”

The hand around my mouth tightened and my eyes widened when I saw what was in Trent’s hand. “What are you going to do? Shoot at me in the dark when she’s in my arms? We need her to get them out, and when we’re done, you can have your whore back. What’s left of her anyway.”

“If you do anything to her, know that your death will be painful,” Trent said, and the sincerity in those words chilled me.

“Jaime! Come get her!”

“Already here.” Jaime’s voice came from behind Trent, and I watched as Trent straightened and raised his hands in surrender, gun still in hand. “Go take her to the room, I’ll be there as soon as I finish this.”

Carson didn’t wait for anything else; he turned and started walking me away from Trent. I bucked against him and bit down on his fingers, and when he began cursing, three gunshots went off in the hallway. I cried out, not from the loud echo in the hall, but because I knew Trent was dead. And it was my fault.

Before I could try to turn away from Carson and run back to Trent’s body, another shot rang out, and Carson and I fell forward. Landing with my hands behind me hurt like a bitch; and with Carson’s weight on me, I knew I was going to be bruised all over. But still I didn’t move, and I didn’t make a sound as I waited to see what Jaime was going to do.

Loud, running footsteps pounded down the hall and suddenly Carson’s weight was off me, and another, much louder, shot went off aimed directly next to me. I couldn’t force myself to look at Carson; I didn’t want to see what he looked like after those.

“Rachel, get up, we need to get back to the room. Now. Let’s go, come on.”

I looked up at Trent and sat there in shock until I heard distant yells echoing down the hall. I jumped up and, when Trent took my hand, sprinted back with him to the room with the mattress on the floor.

“I’ll be back,” Trent whispered and I grabbed his arm.

“No, Trent, don’t!”

“Trust me, I’ll be back. If anyone else comes in here—”

“I know, I know, I have to scream.” I sobbed and scrambled to the mattress when he rushed out the door.

Over a dozen shots went off and my hands clamped down over my mouth as I waited for what happened next. I now understood why all those stupid girls in horror movies couldn’t shut up. Though I tried to hold back my sobs, I was still making a choking noise, and my breathing was rough and heavy. A minute that felt like hours after I’d heard the last shot dragged by before the door slammed open.

I screamed.

“Rachel, it’s me!”

I’d never been so happy to hear Trent’s voice, and I ran toward him to help take the heavy chairs from his hands.

“Move back,” he ordered and went about putting both under the lever handle of the door until he was sure it would hold.

“My room locks, but they can shoot through it. They don’t have the ammo to shoot through these walls. My magazine is almost empty, and the rest of it is in my room, but I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe.”

“I know you will,” I cried and wrapped my arms around him, fitting myself to his body. “God, Trent, I thought Jaime killed you!”

His big arms tightened around my waist and he led us over to the mattress. When we were sitting, he pulled me onto his lap and held me there like a child. “I’m okay.” His labored breathing was all that filled the room for a torturous amount of time before he admitted, “I killed three others in the kitchen.”

That should terrify me, but right now, I was just so happy that he was okay. My hands gripped his shoulders, and I looked at his blurry face when his hand went under my chin.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt from falling? I’m sorry, I didn’t have any other option, I had to shoot him.”

“I hurt, but I’m okay. I’ve had worse. How did—how did you know it wouldn’t go through to me? I was right in front of him.”

“I have hollow point bullets, it was highly unlikely it would go through him to you. Where are you hurting?”

I sat up and looked him in the eye through the dark room. “How are you worried about me right now? Did any of them get you? Oh God, Trent, did they?” I started to get off his lap, but he quickly pulled me back down.