Page 191 of Damián

The door slams shut right in my face, and I stay there in shock.

Did he just fucking wink at me?!

“Damián!” I scream, throwing my weight against the door, pounding my fists against the steel. “Open this door! Open it right now!”

But there’s silence.

Absolute silence.

Annoyed, I spin around and take in the room. There’s a surveillance desk with three monitors showing disabled security feeds, a huge leather couch, a TV with a gaming console, a ping-pong table, a first aid kit, a bar, and a mini-fridge in the corner.

I am going to murder him.

I am going to find a way out of this super cool man cave, and I am going to skin him alive.

I pace back and forth like a caged animal, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps. The sheer frustration is suffocating. They are out there right now, packing into the SUVs, driving toward their possible deaths, and I’m locked in a box like a helpless child.

BZZT! BZZT!

I take out my phone to see who is calling, and I see Zara’s name on the screen.

I glance at the top corner of the screen. Five full bars of cellular service.

Oh, thank God. I have a signal here.

I swipe the screen and press the phone to my ear. “Zara!”

“Ollie!” Her voice crackles through the speaker, panicked and breathless. “Oh, thank God you picked up. I just heard about your father on the news. Ollie, I am so, so sorry. What the hell is happening? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Zara, but everything is going to hell,” I say, my eyes scanning the room as I talk. “Rafael killed him. He’s taking over the entire operation at the Hamptons estate, and the Harknetts are on their way there right now to a freaking shoot-out.”

“What?! Where are you?”

“I’m at the Harknetts’ HQ.”

“Why do you sound like you’re inside a tin can?”

“Because Damián is an overprotective lunatic who threw me inside a secret security bunker!”

As I pace, my eyes track up the wall, stopping near the ceiling layout. High up in the top right corner, right at the left of the surveillance desk, is a small rectangular ventilation grate.

I burst out laughing.

“Don’t tell me you’re losing your marbles?”

“My marbles are fine.” I climb onto the desk and check the vent; it has flat-headed screws with a dented line in the middle. “And I think I just found a way out.”

“How?”

“There is an air vent.” I climb down and start looking everywhere to get something I can use to remove those screws.

“An air vent? You are kidding, right?” Zara laughs sarcastically. “Ollie, your boyfriend is a professional spy. You really think the escape route from their bunker is an air vent?”

“Yes.”

“That’s dumb.”

“It’s perfect because it is dumb.” I look around the TV for anything that could fit into the screw, but there is nothing.