Chapter 77: #SEVENTY-SEVEN

NICHOLAS’S POV

I wanted to keep talking to Elijah because I had barely managed to tell him anything, and I needed him to understand that I was still in danger.

He was asking me questions about the warehouse, telling me to stay where I was and trying to work out what he could do from his end, but before I could answer, I heard the handle of the bedroom door move. I stopped breathing for a second.

Oh shit.

The sound came again, followed by the unmistakable rattle of someone trying to open it. Jayden had returned. I immediately ended the call because I didn’t know how close he was or whether he had already realized I’d escaped from the chair, dropped the phone where I’d found it and rushed out of the bedroom.

I didn’t have time to think about whether Elijah had understood what was happening. I only knew that if Jayden found me standing there with his phone in my hand, I would lose whatever small advantage I’d managed to create.

I ran into the main warehouse and looked around desperately. The place suddenly seemed much larger than it had before, and I realized how little attention I’d paid to the exits when I’d first been brought there. I couldn’t use the main door because that was the direction Jayden would expect me to run, so I started checking the walls and doors around the room.

One door caught my attention because it looked different from the others. It was partly concealed by some of the equipment, and I hadn’t noticed it before.

I hurried toward it, pulled it open and found a staircase leading downward. For one brief second, I thought I’d found a way out. I rushed down the stairs without stopping to consider where they led, but when I reached the bottom, I froze.

The room below was enormous and almost completely separate from the warehouse above. There were shelves, crates, locked cabinets and equipment arranged throughout the space, but it was the contents of the storage areas that made me stop. There were weapons everywhere.

Oh?

I stood there, staring at everything, trying to make sense of what I was seeing, and my first thought was Jayden was a dealer. Had he been involved in something like this the entire time? Was this his operation? Was he working for somebody else?

I heard footsteps above me and I cursed and I immediately moved.

I searched for somewhere to hide and found a section of the basement where several large storage units created a narrow space behind them. I slipped into it and crouched down, trying to control my breathing.

The footsteps became louder as Jayden came down the stairs. He wasn’t rushing anymore. He sounded completely calm, which immediately set off warning bells in my head.

He seemed almost confident. Like he knew I was still there and had nowhere to run.

"Nicholas, come out. I’m not going to search every corner of this place if you simply come out when I’m asking you to. I know you’re frightened, but running around here isn’t going to help you, especially now that you’ve wandered into a part of the building you were never supposed to see. You don’t understand what you’re looking at, and you certainly don’t understand the kind of trouble you can cause by moving around without knowing where you’re going. Come out now and we can deal with this without making it worse." His voice carried across the space.

I stayed where I was, trying to control my breathing as he continued walking through the room.

"I know you found the phone. I know you called someone. I also know you were looking for an exit, which means you’re probably thinking that someone is coming to rescue you. Maybe they are. Maybe they aren’t. Either way, you should understand that the longer you keep fighting me, the harder I’m going to make things for you." He drawled.

I could hear him getting closer.

I looked around the small space where I was hiding, searching for anything that might help me if he found me.

My eyes moved across the shelves behind me until they landed on a weapon. I hesitated. I didn’t want to touch it, but I also knew I couldn’t simply wait for Jayden to drag me back upstairs. My hand shook as I reached for it.

Jayden’s footsteps stopped. "Nicholas?"

I gripped the weapon tighter as he appeared around the storage units.

Oh no.

I panicked and fired.

The sound filled the basement, and I barely had time to understand what I’d done before Jayden moved out of the way. I fired again, but he avoided that shot too. I dropped the weapon and ran before he could reach me.

"Nicholas!" He yelled.

I sprinted toward the stairs. My body was already weak, but fear gave me enough strength to move faster than I thought I could. I made it several steps before I heard Jayden behind me. He was coming after me quickly, and I knew I wasn’t going to outrun him if I stayed inside the building. I pushed myself harder, trying to reach the upper level, but another shot suddenly rang out.

A sharp pain tore through my thigh and my leg gave out.

I hit the floor and cried out, grabbing my leg as I tried to understand what had happened. I couldn’t get back up. Before I could even crawl away, Jayden reached me and grabbed the back of my hoodie, pulling me away from the stairs. "Have you completely lost your mind?"

I tried to push his hands away. "Get off me!"

There was a certain kind of anger that crossed his features. "You found a weapon and fired at me."

"You kidnapped me!" I yelled, body shaking with uncontrollable sobs.

His grip on me didn’t tighten and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to numb the pain spreading through my leg. "I know exactly what I did. That doesn’t explain why you thought shooting your way out was going to work."

"You were going to find me anyway. So what?" I forced the words out through clenched teeth.

"Of course I was.". He pulled me upright, and I struggled to stand because of my injured leg. He didn’t give me much choice about moving, and I had to limp alongside him as he dragged me back toward the main warehouse. I kept looking around for another opportunity to escape, but my leg hurt too much and my strength was gone.

Every few steps, I stumbled, and each time Jayden caught my arm and forced me forward.

When we reached the main room, he pushed me back into the chair.. "Sit down."

I didn’t move. He grabbed me and forced me down before securing the restraints again. This time I didn’t fight him. I was exhausted, my leg was hurting badly and I knew that if I wasted whatever strength I had left, I wouldn’t have enough to try anything again.

Jayden looked at the wound and walked away for a moment. When he returned, he had supplies with him. He crouched down and treated the injury, working quietly, like he had done something like this countless times.

I watched him without speaking. After he finished, he checked the restraints and made sure I couldn’t move enough to reach them.. "You should have stayed in the chair."

I looked away, ignoring his words.

"If you’d listened to me from the beginning, none of this would have happened."

I finally looked at him. "You kidnapped me and locked me in this place. You poisoned me. You kept me tied to a chair. Don’t stand there and act like I caused all of this because I tried to escape."

He stared at me for a moment.. "I’m telling you that you made things worse for yourself."

My voice came out ragged. "And you’re the reason I had to escape in the first place."

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked toward the basement entrance.. "You shouldn’t have gone down there."

My breath hitched. "What is this place?"

He crossed his hands. "That’s not your concern."

"Then why are you keeping me here?" I hated the way my voice cracked.

He ignored the question and I kept looking at him. "Are you involved in whatever is down there?"

His expression hardened. "Stop asking questions."

I didn’t listen. "Is someone else involved?"

"Enough." He raised a hand to shut me up.

"Who are you working for?" I asked.

He stood and put the supplies away. "You don’t need to know."

I knew then that I had touched something he didn’t want to discuss.

I leaned back against the chair, trying to keep my voice steady despite the fear and pain. "You know they’re looking for me."

Jayden turned. "Who?"

"The brothers." I forced the words. He gave me a long look and I adjusted. "They know you’re gone."

His expression changed slightly. "How?"

I remembered the phone call. "Because I called Elijah."

Jayden’s face became unreadable and he looked genuinely concerned. "You called him?"

I didn’t answer.

He walked toward me, but I kept my eyes on him. "How long did you speak?"

"Long enough for you to know that they will find you." I hissed at him.

He stared at me before turning away.

That piece of information had rattled him. Because now, Elijah knew.

Even if he hadn’t heard everything, he knew Jayden had me. He would tell the others. They would search. They would look at Jayden’s house again. They would check every place connected to him. They would keep following the evidence until they found where I was.

Jayden returned to the other side of the warehouse, leaving me tied to the chair again.

I sat there quietly, watching him move around the room while my injured leg throbbed.

Maybe I was back to where I had started. But there was a slight change now. Someone outside knew I was alive.