Page 75 of Fractured Hearts

I’m holding Noelle up and slightly behind me, pressed against the wall by the door. I don’t think she has the strength to stand on her own, and judging from the amount of time it’s taken since I first heard Jo’s voice to now, they’re using a dangerous method to get the door open. Jo said there were deadbolts and padlocks, but also another mechanism inside the door that the cops couldn’t figure out. Whoever built this place really didn’t want anyone getting in. Or out.

They’re using a bulldozer to take out the far wall. We could be risking the ceiling collapsing on us, but both Noelle and I agreed that we had to risk it. She knows she’s sick and running out of time. And Maverick could be, too. Jo didn’t like it, but Harrison took our word over hers. I’m sure she’s out there glaring at him right now. The thought brings a smile to my face as the earth around me rumbles. I can’t tell if Noelle is trembling or if it’s just the ground shaking from the machinery.

Dirt rains down on our heads as the bulldozer digs its way to us. So far, the ceiling is holding. I held Noelle up, and she said it felt like wooden boards. Kai and I both thought that digging from the top made the most sense, but the ground is practically frozen, and they would need the bulldozer. There’s no way the boards can hold that weight. Jo wanted to blow the door off the hinges until she realized that you can only get dynamite that easily in movies.

“Wait!” Jo screams loud enough that even we can hear her over the bulldozer and through the walls. The bulldozer turns off, the sudden silence jarring. “I think I know how to open the door!”

“And you couldn’t have figured that out two hours ago?” Willa yells. I don’t think she needs to be yelling, but the bulldozer must have been close to her ears.

“This Midnightmare5650 person that I’ve been talking to sent me a blueprint of the lock he thinks it is.”

“What?” Harrison screeches. “You asked a stranger on the internet about a lock? How did you explain that? It could be anyone! Patrick is probably on his way.”

“He knew Noelle was alive!” she argues back. I know I’m not at my best right now, but I cannot see how those two things go together. Or lock picking. Noelle gasps from behind me.

“What? What’s wrong?” I turn my head to look at her, even though I can’t see a damn thing still. “Noelle?”

“Only one person knows I’m alive.”

“Who?” I demand. “Jo, get this door open or the bulldozer back on!”

“Working on it! Give me thirty seconds! I think I’ve almost got it!” I can hear the grinding of metal on metal, so she’s doing something.

“Who, Noelle? Who knows you’re alive?”

Noelle takes in a wet, wheezing breath. “Your mom.”

seventy-nine

JO

“It’s not Patrick!” I shout at Harrison. I understand and appreciate his concern for me. But I can’t keep listening to him lecture me about online predators while I’m trying to get Ezra and Noelle out of a fucking bunker. We can go over the whole Noelle being alive thing as well as who this person is who knew that and how to break open this stupid door. “Patrick wouldn’t tell me how to break out his prisoners. That doesn’t even make sense.”

The locks and handle to the door are all on the left, but apparently they’re for show because Midnightmare5650 has me messing with the hinges. Which also makes it look like the door swings outward. That really should have been the first hint that the door wasn’t right. There’s no way it would open with the cement stairs in front of it. I’m not exactly a door expert, so I didn’t pick up on it.

Midnightmare5650: Hinge 1 needs two full spins clockwise.

Midnightmare5650: Hinge 2 needs one full spin and one half spin counterclockwise.

Midnightmare5650: Hinge 3 is the most complicated. One half spin counterclockwise, one full spin clockwise, three full spins counterclockwise, and one more half spin clockwise.

The metal squeals and protests as I do as I was instructed, not having taken kindly to the elements. I get to the last half-spin and hear a click. The door must be unlocked, but pushing and pulling on it is doing nothing.

Me: Now what?

Midnightmare5650: Slide to the left.

Kai is next to me, practically breathing down my neck while he waits to get to his brother. It’s clear by his clenched fists and wide, panicked eyes that he’s holding back and letting me try this before trying to dig through the frozen dirt with his bare hands. It’s the only reason I haven’t snapped at him yet.

“Grab on and pull,” I tell him. The door has grooved indentations, giving it a wavy look that’s just enough for me to get my fingers into. Kai grunts and pulls along with me. The metal groans and scrapes, but the door moves. Declan rushes down the stairs to help and, with the three of us, it still takes too long to get it wide enough to fit a person.

“Ezra!” Kai shouts, shoving himself sideways into the open space as he pushes on the door and Declan and I keep pulling. Judging from the amount of dirt falling on Kai’s head and the grinding sound, I think the bulldozer may have knocked dirt and rocks onto the door’s track.

“Get the medic down here! She’s not waking up!” Ezra yells. Everything happens quickly after that. Declan and I move out of the way so the medics can take Noelle from Kai. I know what she should look like. I’ve seen pictures of her with Gianna. Studied them. The raven hair that was so smooth and shiny in those photos is now matted and covered in dirt. Her skin is a sickly gray color, and her cheeks are hollow. She doesn’t move as the medics get her up the stairs and onto a stretcher. Her breathing is ragged and wet. I can see why Ezra was so insistent on getting her out of there.

I hear him before I see him. A hiss of pain as his brother crushes him in his arms. The desire to run to him, throw my arms around him, and never let him out of my sight again surges through my body like an electric shock. I don’t, though. That’s not my role in his life. Not who I am to him. It’s something I need to be better at remembering.

I check him over with my eyes. He’s covered in dirt but seems unharmed. His jeans have seen better days, and his dark blue Henley is more brown than blue. I feel my whole body stiffen when I get to his feet. He’s wearing Maverick’s boots. He must have just grabbed whatever pair was closest to the door when he went out to speak to Jasper on the phone that morning. I’m grateful, because there’s no way we would have found him without that tracker, but now we have no lead on Maverick.