AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m going with the latter. Seems safer.
Hauling myself up—no easy feat because I’m not strong—I manage to make it to the first level of the fire escape, albeit, completely out of breath.
“Are you coming?”
He glares up at me but doesn’t say anything. I watch him do a little hop and reach the bottom of the ladder easily—asshole— before he’s climbing up.
“What?” he asks when he reaches the top and I just shake my head. The bastard’s not even winded. “We need to work on your stamina, little doe.”
Rude.
“My stamina was just fine this afternoon, thank you.”
He chuckles darkly but follows me as I climb the rickety stairs as quietly as I can to the third floor. We’re high up and Mason moves slower the higher we go. It’s almost sweet, seeing the big, dark, and dangerous man afraid of heights. Makes him seem more human, rather than some unobtainable god.
I crouch down in front of the busted window and work on prying the lock inside open so we can slip through. Meanwhile, Mason crouches behind me,waytoo close for me to focus.
“Can you back up? You’re clouding my judgment.”
“Little doe,” he says, voice rough. “Get the fucking lock open.”
I stare at him for a beat, and then it dawns on me.
And now, I’m softening for him. Honestly, who am I?
“Okay. It’s okay,” I start and as if it wants to spite me, the fire escape makes a quiet metallic groan.
I pry at the lock inside with all my might, hurting my fingers until finally, the old metal latch clicks, and I can slip the window open.
I climb through, hastily moving out of the way so Mason can join me. It’s amusing to me that his shoulders are so broad, he barely fits through the old window, but soon, he’s standing on the old concrete floor beside me.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
His jaw ticks.
“Just looks like an old office to me,” I whisper, keeping my voice low and aiming the flashlight in my hand around the room. Papers for a printing company lay scattered on the old desks and the floor, none of which are any help to us.
“Hannah,” Mason murmurs from across the room. He motions for me to join him, so I do, being careful to step over the stuff on the floor that could give us away.
“What?” I follow his flashlight. Stairs. He steps down and I follow him, keeping close behind him as we descend because even though we’re on the hunt for rogue people,ghostsare still a concern of mine and I don’t care who knows it. There’s more than just people who go bump in the night and while a person can be dealt with, a ghost, you can’t shoot.
The second floor leads to a rickety skywalk over what used to be the printing factory below, so I don’t even bother. I barely got Mason up the fire escape.
Finally, he stops at the doorway to the first floor, keeping his flashlight off and watching.
I peek under his arm and pause. Empty.
Well, shit.
There’s nothing here. The inside of the factory is completely devoid of anything, including equipment. Water sits on the lowparts of the ground and some debris from the crumbling walls litters the ground, but, apart from that, there’s nothing that could lead us to Missy.
“That asshole lied to us,” I whisper, but just as I do, a thud sounds from somewhere . . . else.
Mason clicks his flashlight on the dimmest setting and points it down another set of stairs, directly behind me. My foot teeters on the edge. If I would have stepped back, I would have fallen.
I scramble away, my irrational fear of the dark taking hold for a moment and sending a shot of panic through me. Mason catches me, an arm around my waist, and aims his flashlight down.
“Come on.”
