Page 107 of Rescued Dreams

She couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Walking down the stairs was dicey, her hands tied behind her back. The spiral wood staircase was steep and seemed to descend into darkness. She stumbled a couple of times but kept her balance by leaning against the side wall all the way down. Amelia was pretty sure she got a few splinters in her arm, but right now, that was the least of her worries.

His breath on the back of her neck.

The gun pointed at her.

Others in danger, and there was nothing she could do about it.

This was a nightmare she couldn’t escape from.

Making everything she’d had with Ridge feel like a dream she would never have. It wasn’t real. Not now that things had gone so wrong and she was certain they were all going to die in this house.

She stumbled off the bottom step and let out a relieved breath.What are we doing, Nicholas?She had a hundred questions she wanted to ask, but he’d silenced her ability to do that with this cloth cutting into the sides of her mouth. They were going somewhere. Leaving the others behind.

Nicholas dragged her by the elbow, through a set of doors and into a garage, empty except for one car, a mid-size Toyota with the engine running. Their footsteps echoed on the concrete.

Amelia shivered. The air down here was frigid. She looked around but saw only a ramp that led up, which had to be how cars got in and out. Nothing else. Just a place to store cars.

There was something on the wall at intervals. She didn’t quite understand what she was seeing, but it looked like what she’d seen in a training textbook.

About bomb disposal.

Amelia cried out behind the cloth and tried to get her arm from his grasp. He didn’t let go.

Nicholas was going to blow the house.

He would detonate those charges he’d bought from someone in the military and collapse the building—destroy it all—and kill everyone inside.

She struggled more, blinded by the fear for her friends.

Nicholas held her arm with that punishing grip and shifted. Before she realized what he was doing, he kicked her in the thigh.

Pain exploded in her quad muscle. She collapsed to the floor, crying.

Across the concrete, she heard footsteps.

“Took you long enough.” Cherry set a hand on her hip, one knee cocked in attitude and her other hand on her baby bump. “I was about to leave without you.” She tipped her head back and laughed.

Amelia breathed hard behind the cloth. He dragged her up, and they stumbled toward the pregnant woman. The one Amelia had believed.

Felt sorry for when she’d shown up in town, on the run and destitute.

Grieved over when she thought Cherry had been killed.

Cherry glared. “Why is she here?”

Nicholas whipped around to her. “Shut up and get in the car. She’s coming with us.”

“I didn’t sign up for that. She ain’t part of the plan.” Cherry huffed. “You get in the back and I leave, and no one knows you’re in the car. That’s what you said.”

“Plans change.” He pointed the gun at Cherry. “Do you want to die for real this time?”

Amelia could only stand there with no power and no idea what was happening to her friends upstairs. She didn’t think the plan had changed at all. More likely, Nicholas had a number of ways this could go down and had prepared for every eventuality.

With the amount of time he’d had to plan, there was no way this wasn’t exactly what he wanted.

“Fine.” Cherry huffed a breath. She turned and sauntered to the driver’s door, pulling it open so she could get in. “Just as long as I get paid.”