Page 62 of Mafia Love

I was sure we could still be seen if they looked hard, but darkness made it possible for us to hide.

We went into the room and locked the door. In true old-school style, it had a bolt from the inside, and a lock.

The only light came from the window, and it was one of those windows that couldn’t be opened. It wasn’t surprising given the nature of the place we were in. And this room…

There was a metal chair that looked like something from one of the classic Frankenstein films.

It had metal manacles on the arms and a helmet-looking dome-shaped device that hovered above it.

“Amelia, I think it’s safe to say we’re at Peyton Prison.” Gigi looked nervously around the room.

Peyton Prison, yes I remembered seeing this place on TV. “Yeah, looks that way.”

“You know this was a heavily secured psychiatric unit?”

I didn’t know that part. “No, but look at the chair.”

She walked over to a cupboard and opened it. Inside were some bottles with the poison warning tags on it.

“Hydrogen peroxide,” she said and looked around some more. “Lots of it, and bleach. Amelia, I could make a potion with this.”

Oh Jesus. “Gigi, for God’s sake, this is not the time for that.” Maybe she hit her head.

She rolled her eyes at me. “I mean, I can make a bomb.”

“God, really?” A bomb could and would be very useful.

“Look around the room for stuff we can use. I need something to mix the stuff in. A bowl or something like that.”

More focusing.

I jumped into action and started looking. When I went to the cupboard by the window, I noticed for the first time how high up we were. I would say maybe the fifth floor. It had felt more like we’d been on the ground floor with the cafeteria, but again, it made sense for everything to be so high up. Plus, there was probably more than one cafeteria in this place.

The prison was massive.

I opened another cupboard and saw it was one of those pulley elevators. The kind you might put mail in from the ground floor and pull it up. I looked into the shaft, inspecting it. Looked sturdy enough. This could be our escape route. Outside, I could see the river. There had to be an exit from this side of the building.

“I found a bowl and some kerosene. That will help with the reaction.”

“Great.” I nodded and opened another closet. There were a few empty medicine bottles in there.

I grabbed those and went to the little table where she’d set everything up.

“Will this help?”

“Perfect. I’ll pour the liquid in, and we can have a couple each. All you need to do is drop it as hard as you can. When the glass smashes, it will blow up and release a gas that will sting their eyes.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Chemistry. I did advanced Chem in high school. I loved it, even though I loved art more. It felt like mixing potions to me.” She chuckled.

It was so like her to say that. My friend was a brilliant artist but also a practicing witch. I would be the first one to roll my eyes at her sayings, predictions, and ideas, but I was thanking my lucky stars now.

She mixed away from an assortment of bottles. Looked like she’d found more than what she’d mentioned before.

I held my breath, feeling the tension. It was too quiet, and I didn’t know when we’d get found.

We’d heard footsteps when we first broke out of the cell, and the guys must have known there was only one way we could have gone.