Exit Strategy (27 page)

Mason pushed against the rope, his entire body constricting. The rope began to swing back and forth.

Sabrina’s fingers tightened so hard against her forearms behind his head that she could feel her nails cutting her skin. “What are you doing?”

He pushed and pulled against the rope, swinging them over the brutally sharp rocks below, then toward the edge of the deadly waterfall.

“Rina, honey? Remember when I promised you wouldn’t have to go into the water ever again?”

She suddenly realized what he planned to do and gasped against the side of his neck. “No, no, I can’t. Please. Just let me go. Let me drop to the rocks. Don’t do this.”

“Ten seconds!”

“Take a deep breath right before we go in the water and hold it,” he said against her ear. “We’re tethered together, remember? Even if you let go, I’ll still have you. I’ll pull you to the surface.”

Her tears wet his neck. She was so scared she couldn’t even answer him.

“Rina, say it again.”

“Five seconds!” Devlin and Pierce yelled together.

“Say it,” Mason demanded.

She didn’t have to ask what he meant. She knew. “I love you.”

The rope swung toward the edge again. Sabrina closed her eyes as he reached above them and sliced through their lifeline. They dropped with a speed more frightening than any roller coaster.

“Hold your breath,” he yelled.

She gulped in air as an enormous explosion sounded from overhead. They both plunged beneath the surface of the water as fiery chunks of wood rained down from above.

Chapter Twenty-two

Day Five—­8:00 p.m.

S
abrina sat on a wooden bench, flanked by Pierce and Logan, just inside the expansive hallway of a mansion on the outskirts of Asheville. Due to considerable pressure by the Buchanan family, and threats to go national with information about EXIT’s secret mission, the infamous Council had agreed to an emergency meeting to hear the evidence against Cyprian. And they were currently holding that meeting behind a set of double doors at the end of the hall.

It was surreal to think that only six hours ago she and Mason had plunged over a waterfall just seconds before one of the zip line platforms holding their cable exploded. The strap that Mason had attached to both of them had held, and true to his word, he’d pulled her from the water before her air had run out.

And now, here she sat, with Pierce and Logan sporting pistols on their hips, keeping her safe, while Mason, Devlin, and Ramsey—­with his head bandaged—­were facing the evil of EXIT Incorporated without her. With few exceptions, the Council refused to let anyone other than enforcers inside, not even Sabrina, even though most of what had happened centered around her.

Cyprian Cardenas was also inside that room at the end of the hall. It galled Sabrina to think of him in his pristine suit sitting in a comfortable chair, when he should have been sitting in a prison cell for everything that he’d done.

“Have they found Ace yet?” she asked no one in particular.

Pierce shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Will the Council make a ruling about him too? Even if he isn’t here?”

“I don’t know.” His face was drawn with worry, probably because his brother was behind those closed doors with ­people all of them considered to be the worst kind of evil.

Sabrina curled her fingers around the edge of the bench. Even though she despised Ace, she wanted him here. He was the only one she was certain knew what had happened to her grandfather. If Grampy was even still alive. Mason had assured her that he would press the issue, insist that the Council get Cyprian to speak to what had happened to her grandfather. But there was no way to predict the outcome of the meeting.

Footsteps echoed hollowly against the wooden floors as a man with two armed escorts walked past them toward the same double doors where Mason and the others had disappeared an hour earlier. Sabrina blinked in surprise as she recognized Detective Donovan. He looked equally surprised to see her and stopped as if to talk to her. But the men with him waved him forward. As if on cue, the double doors opened and he stepped inside. But they closed before Sabrina could see any details in the room.

Logan had retrieved her spare pair of glasses from her house, and she shoved them up higher on her nose, relieved to see the world clearly once again.

“Do either of you know why that man went in there? He’s a detective, the one I spoke to the night . . . this all began.”

Pierce answered her again, while Logan remained silent. Maybe since Pierce was Devlin’s brother, he knew more about EXIT, and how it operated.

“It’s probably damage control,” Pierce said. “The Council works through many legal channels too, to oversee EXIT’s secret charter. They’ll most likely pressure the detective to drop any kind of investigation that he’s been pursuing.”

“They can do that?”

“They can. They will.”

“You aren’t optimistic about the outcome of this meeting are you?” she asked.

“Unfortunately, no. I’m not. I don’t think anything’s going to change without
us
changing it.”

She twisted her hands together. “You have to be wrong. Cyprian can’t get away with what he’s done. The body count has been enormous. Just look at all of the men who died today while trying to kill us in the mountains. Surely they can’t ignore that kind of carnage.”

His mouth twisted bitterly. “Thugs. Ex-­cons. Why would a company that does the type of work that EXIT does care about them? They’ll hide all the evidence. No one will ever know what happened today.”

She sank back against the bench. She prayed he was wrong. The Council, as Mason had explained to her, was formed to prevent any abuse of power within EXIT. How could they hear about everything that had just happened and not condemn Cyprian for his crimes?

Another hour passed. The sounds of chairs sliding back and raised voices from behind the double doors made Pierce and Logan stand up. When she would have stood with them, they both put a hand on her shoulders and shoved her down onto the bench. Then, as one, they stepped in front of her, guarding her, shielding her as the doors opened and ­people began to emerge from the other room.

Shoes echoed hollowly on the wooden floor as ­people walked by, heading outside. Sabrina tried to see who they were, but the wall of men in front of her wouldn’t budge. Finally, when the commotion had died down, they stepped aside.

Mason stood in front of her, with Ramsey and Devlin off to his sides. She jumped up and threw herself against his chest, hugging him tight. He put his arms around her and squeezed her so hard that she could barely breathe and her sore ribs protested. But she didn’t care. She was just glad to see him standing there, alive and well. No matter how many times he’d assured her that he’d be okay before he went in to see the Council, she’d been secretly terrified that he might never come back out those doors.

Mason gently pulled her arms from around his waist and took a step back as the others circled around him, Devlin, and Ramsey.

“Well?” Pierce urged. “What happened?”

“The Council ruled against us.”

Sabrina looked at the stony-­faced men surrounding her. “Wait, what does that mean?”

Mason took her hands in his. “The Council believed us about what happened, but they drew a different conclusion about the intent and who was responsible. Essentially, they blamed a dead enforcer—­Kelly Parker—­for what happened to Austin and the Buchanan family a few months ago. And they blamed another dead enforcer—­Bishop, who conveniently committed suicide—­for what happened to your family, and to you. They also blamed Ace, saying he’d orchestrated much of this with Bishop. He’s been declared rogue. He’ll be terminated once he’s found. But Cyprian was . . .”

His arms tightened around Sabrina and she could feel the anger in the tension of his body. “Cyprian was reprimanded for not keeping a tighter rein on his ­people and is basically on probation. The Council is going to appoint someone to look over his shoulder for an indefinite amount of time, to double-­check everything he does, every order, every piece of paper he signs. They’ll review the overseer’s reports monthly until it’s deemed that EXIT is back on track and all of the rotten apples have been dealt with. Cyprian won’t be able to get away with anything for at least the foreseeable future. For now, EXIT will be run like it’s supposed to be run, and innocent ­people won’t be harmed.”

“That’s a Band-­Aid. You know that.”

He nodded. “I do. I also know that EXIT can’t be allowed to continue the way it has, with so much power concentrated in one person. It’s too dangerous for everyone. You taught me that.”

“What did Cyprian say about my grandfather? Where is he?”

His mouth tightened. “Cyprian claims not to know anything about your grandfather’s disappearance.”

She sank back down onto the bench, her legs threatening to collapse beneath her. “And . . . Detective Donovan?” she whispered, determined to hear it all out before she gave in to the grief threatening to overwhelm her. “I saw him go by. What was that about?”

“He was still looking into your claims about the abduction and had followed the bread crumbs to EXIT and Cyprian. Thanks to pressure from authorities very high up in the police department who are under the influence of EXIT, he’s dropping that investigation. He wasn’t happy about it, but when his pension was threatened, he backed off. Especially since he saw you out here and realized you were okay.”

She stared down at the floor, thinking about everything he’d told her. She was vaguely aware of talking, whispering, of footsteps going down the hall, the sound of the outside door opening. But the noises faded away as she ran everything through her mind, looking at the pieces, evaluating them. Trying to think of something else she could do, some avenue she hadn’t explored.

“You’re still worrying about your grandfather, aren’t you?” Mason said, his warm hand taking hers. He knelt in front of her.

She blinked and looked around. “Where is everyone?”

“They left five minutes ago. Are you ready to leave?”

“Yes. I mean no. I don’t understand. How can the Council just do nothing?”

“This was a long shot to begin with, going through the Council. But it’s not over. I promise you that. Devlin, Ramsey, and I will continue the fight. We’ll have that long overdue rendezvous and figure out our next steps. Cyprian will be watched very carefully for a while. He won’t risk doing anything to change the Council’s mind. So you’ll be safe. You don’t have to worry about him coming after you again. He has nothing to gain, and everything to lose.” He gently swept her bangs out of her eyes. “You can go back home without worrying about looking over your shoulders. Hopefully you can return to Colorado someday, if that’s what you want. Whatever you decide, I hope you’ll be happy. You deserve that.”

He cleared his throat. “I’ll, ah, take you home now. Like I said, there’s no reason to be afraid. There isn’t an EXIT order on you anymore. If something were to happen to you now, the first person they’d look at is Cyprian, so he wouldn’t dare—­”

“What are you doing?” She narrowed her eyes.

“I’m letting you know you’re safe and I’m happy to take you home. You can forget all of this ever happened, move on with your life.” He cleared his throat.

“Seriously? That’s the way you’re going to play this? You hope I’ll be happy? I should move on?”

He looked away. “You’re a wonderful person. You deserve to be happy. What’s wrong with me saying that?” He stood and held his hand out to her. “Come on. You have to be tired and it’s a long drive to your house.”

She swatted his hand away. His eyes widened in surprise.

“Don’t suddenly treat me like a stranger and give me platitudes,” she snapped. “Just a few hours ago we were dangling from a cable, about to blow up, and you demanded that I tell you that I love you one more time. If we didn’t make it, if we died,
you wanted that to be the last thing that you heard. You wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t love me back. Don’t try to pretend that none of that happened.”

He raked a hand through his hair, then, as if resigning himself to an unpleasant task, he took her hand in his. “You’re a wonderful woman, Rina. And I will always cherish every word you’ve ever said to me, every gesture, and the way you gave yourself to me so beautifully, so completely. I’ve never met anyone like you—­”

She rolled her eyes and jerked her hand out of his. “Oh, stop it. Just stop it.”

“
Sabrina?
”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“I’m trying to—­”

“I know what you’re trying to do. And I don’t accept it. I
love
you, Mason. And I know you love me. How do I know? You could have easily made it to safety but you chose to stay with me to the end. I noticed that Logan, Pierce, and Devlin didn’t choose to stay.” She poked him in the chest with her finger, emphasizing each word. “You love me, Mason Hunt. Don’t deny it. Don’t lie to me. I deserve better.”

“Yes. You
do
deserve better. And you’re right. I do love you, Sabrina. And I didn’t think I could love anyone. Especially not this quickly. I love your sass, your strength, those sexy glasses.” He briefly closed his eyes as if he were in pain. “But you deserve a man who could never hurt you. A man who can put a damn seat belt on without breaking out into a sweat. A man who won’t wake up in the middle of the night in the throes of a nightmare and wrap his hands around your throat.”

He shuddered and pushed to his feet. “It’s
because
I love you that I can’t be with you. I couldn’t bear it if I ever hurt you again, like I did in that tunnel. I was chained to a wall like an animal and I
became
that animal. If it happened once it can—­”

“Oh my gosh!” Her eyes widened and she jumped to her feet, shoving him out of the way. “That’s it! The tunnels. That’s where he’s keeping him.” She pressed her hand against her throat as a horrible realization swept through her. “When I unlocked the door to get you out, there were two other doors. I even had my key in one, but I didn’t open it.”

His brows lowered in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“My grandfather. Ace showed me a webcam of my grandfather, sitting on a bed, chained to a wall. I can see it in my head, every detail. I thought it looked familiar, and now I remember why. It was the same type of chain, the same hook in the same gray concrete wall as when you were chained up in the tunnels. Even the floor was concrete with that same downward slope. Mason, he’s in one of those cells, like the one where you were held, in the tunnels underneath EXIT!”