Hacking Darkness

by Marissa Farrar

  We ran down the remainder of the stairs, staying low. Alex paused at the bottom to cover us with his gun as we turned the corner, heading toward the back of the house, and the rear of the staircase where the door to the cellar was located. I didn’t want to go back down there, but I didn’t want to end up dead either.

  Movement came from the back of the house, and my eyes widened as I saw Lorcan running toward us. His hazel eyes appeared darker with anger, his jaw rigid. A sudden gunshot cracked through the air, and he fell forward, crashing to the floor.

  “No!” I screamed.

  A man was behind him, armed, and Kingsley didn’t hesitate in firing off two shots, bringing the man down as well. The gunman lay face down, not moving, but my attention wasn’t on him, it was on Lorcan, who was trying to get back up. Automatically, I reached for Lorcan, but Kingsley held me back.

  “Leave him!”

  “What? No! He’s hurt. He needs help.”

  I darted for him again. Seeing someone shot right in front of me brought back so many memories of seeing my dad shot, too. I hadn’t been able to do anything to help my dad, but I sure as hell wasn’t just going to leave Lorcan to die.

  Kingsley grabbed me, held me tight, even as I fought against him. “Quit it, Darcy! Alex will help him. You’re too important to risk losing.”

  I choked back a sob. I wasn’t important. Only what was in my head.

  Alex pushed past me to help Lorcan.

  I didn’t know where gunfire would be coming from next. The men at the front of the house were bound to find a way through the smoke, and there were clearly men coming in from the rear of the property, too. I braced myself, expecting to receive a bullet at any moment. Who were these people? Why were they attacking the house?

  Alex bent to Lorcan, and Kingsley pulled me past him and turned the corner to the door of the cellar. I didn’t want to go back down there, but if it was the choice of facing my fears or being shot, I was tackling them head on.

  Kingsley yanked open the door, and then slammed his hand on the switch to light up my ex-prison cell. It looked exactly the same as I had left it—bare mattress and all. I assumed the only difference would be the empty drawers as Alex had brought most of the clothes up to his room for me last night.

  “Go!” he told me, giving me a slight shove in the middle of my back.

  There wasn’t any time to waste. I ran down the stairs as fast as I could without falling over my feet. From the thuds and vibrations on the stairs, Kingsley was right behind me.

  I risked glancing over my shoulder to see Alex with his arm around Lorcan, Lorcan’s arm slung over Alex’s neck as he helped him to follow us. I didn’t know if Alex had something pressed against the gunshot wound in Lorcan’s back, but I hoped he did. If we were going to hide out in the cellar, Lorcan might bleed to death before we got help. Yes, Alex was medically trained, but if Lorcan needed surgery, there would be nothing he could do from down here.

  “Where are Clay and Isaac?” I asked, panicked.

  “They’re coming,” Kingsley said. “They went to deal with our friends. They’ll be right behind us.”

  He went directly around the staircase, to the area I’d used as my little cubby hole, and dragged out all of the blankets, throwing them to one side. What was he doing? He reached to the top and bottom corners of the brickwork and pressed hard. I watched in shocked amazement as the wall I’d spent several nights huddled up against swung inward, revealing a darkened passage behind.

  “It’s a false wall?”

  “Yeah, front of the brick only.”

  My fear of what was happening overhead was momentarily overshadowed by my disbelief. “What if I’d found it? I might have escaped.”

  He looked over his shoulder at me. “But you didn’t, did you? Now, are we getting out of here?”

  “What about the others?”

  “They’ll follow along behind.”

  I hated the idea of running when the others might be in trouble. “No, we can’t leave them.”

  More gunshots sounded somewhere in the property, each one making me flinch.

  Kingsley’s mouth tightened, his nostrils flaring. “We don’t have a choice.”

  I glanced over my shoulder to where Alex was still holding up an injured Lorcan. “Let them go first.”

  Kingsley shook his head. “No, you’ll be faster. Now just fucking move, Darcy!”

  It wasn’t often I heard Kingsley swear, and the urgency in his tone got me moving. I didn’t like the claustrophobia of the dark tunnel, but I had to keep going. It was either that, or I waited here and probably ended up dead.

  I had to stay in a crouch, ducking my head so I didn’t smack it against the ceiling. There was no light, so I used the hand that wasn’t holding the gun to feel my way along. I dreaded the floor suddenly dropping out in front of me, or the ceiling plunging lower so I smacked my head on it in the dark, but it remained uniform.

  Scuffs and scrapes behind me signified Kingsley pursuing, followed by scrapes and heavy breathing as Alex helped Lorcan. Lorcan must have been in significant pain, but if he was, he didn’t give voice to it. Only the hissing of breath as he sucked air in over his teeth gave any indication he was hurt.

  I had no idea where I was going. How long would the tunnel go on, and where would it come out? I was terrified I would emerge somewhere, only to find men on the other side, waiting to put bullets in our heads. I worried that Clay and Isaac wouldn’t get out. They must know where we’d gone, however. This was clearly a planned escape route.

  I kept going and tried not to think of spiders as cobwebs caught at my face in the dark. Bugs should have been the least of my concern, but I still couldn’t stop the shudder wracking through me at the thought of their spindly legs crawling over my skin. The muscles in my back, neck, and thighs ached, my whole body trembling. My lungs burned from the exertion, but I pushed myself forward, knowing if I stopped I would be blocking the tunnel and trapping the guys behind me.

  “How much farther?” I gasped, my legs shaking from exertion as much as fear.

  “Not far,” came Kingsley’s deep voice. “Just keep going.”

  I hated the dark. It had never bothered me before, but this, combined with the time I’d spent in the cellar, was making me wish I lived in one of those countries where the sun never fully went down. The tunnel was pitch black, and my mind kept playing tricks on me, thinking I was about to smack straight into some unseen foe.

  But finally there was a change to the depth of the darkness, and I spotted a pinprick of daylight up ahead. I had forgotten it was morning, with bright sunshine. Somehow being stuck in the dark managed to eradicate any concept of what the outside world should be like.

  “Nearly there, Darcy,” Kingsley encouraged. “You’re doing great.”

  I wanted to turn around and yell at him that I was doing the absolute opposite of great, but instead I gritted my teeth and held back a growl of frustration. After all, I only had to move myself, and I wasn’t even hurt, whereas Lorcan still struggled on behind me, despite being shot. This must be much harder for the men. Not only was Lorcan hurt, but they were also far bigger than I was, and must be finding it more difficult to maneuver in the confined space. If they could do it, I definitely could, too.

  Focusing on that nugget of determination inside me, I headed toward the light.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Getting out of here wasn’t going to be straightforward.

  As I got closer, I realized dark lines slotted the sunlight, and I squinted, trying to figure out what I was seeing. The lines across the light turned out to be the bars of a gate, something to keep nosy people from exploring, I assumed. On the other side, green countryside dappled in the sun’s rays spread out before us. It was an almost tranquil view, and felt like a huge contrast to what we’d just experienced.

  I reached the bars and banged my palms against them. They rattled under my hands, but didn’t budge. A padlock held the gate locked to an iron bolt
embedded into the rock.

  Kingsley’s voice came from over my shoulder. “The key’s on your left, on the wall. It should be on a hook, right there.”

  I looked around, trying to spot the key, though this part of the wall was still in darkness.

  “On your left, Darcy.” His tone was a combination of frustration and amusement. “Not your right!”

  Damn, I was normally good at that kind of thing. Everything that had happened had left me flustered.

  Twisting in the correct direction, I spotted the key hanging from the hook in the rock. It was close enough that someone on the other side of the gate would have been able to reach it, but only if they knew it was there. A person would never have found it accidentally—just like the movable wall I’d slept next to night after night.

  My fingers shook as I unhooked the key. I fumbled and dropped it to the ground with a clink, and stooped to pick the key up again. I hoped I’d be able to get it in the lock without doing something stupid and flicking it out of reach or something. There wasn’t enough space for Kingsley to get past me and do it himself, so I had to get my unruly digits under control.

  “How’s Lorcan doing?” I asked, trying to think about something other than myself and the possibility I might end up getting us all trapped in here. If the men who’d been shooting at us in the house followed us down the tunnel, and I wasn’t able to get the gate open, they’d shoot us like fish in a barrel.

  Alex’s voice sounded from farther down the tunnel. “He’s okay. Just get us out of here.”

  “I’m trying!”

  I managed to get the key in the lock, turned it, and the gate swung open. There was no sign of rust or creakiness. Someone had kept the exit clear and in working order for a reason. They’d predicted something like this might happen.

  We stumbled out into the sunlight, me leading the way, my eyes streaming from the bright light as I squinted against it. Kingsley followed, and then we both turned to help Alex and Lorcan stand up out of the tunnel. Lorcan looked dangerously pale, his tattoos contrasting with the white of his skin. His dark eyes appeared sunken, as though he’d aged ten years in the last half an hour. But he was still conscious, and moving around, and so I took that as a good sign.

  With the three men out of the way, I ducked down and peered back into the tunnel. My ears strained as I listened for movement—either from the men attacking us having followed us, or more hopefully, Clay and Isaac.

  “No one is coming, Darcy,” called Alex. “I pulled the wall hiding the tunnel shut behind us. We have to go.”

  I turned my attention from the tunnel. I didn’t want to feel like I was running, but I had to think about Lorcan, too. Delaying us would only make things more dangerous for him. He needed help as quickly as possible.

  Straightening, I took in the new surroundings. Back in the direction we’d come was the house, but it was some distance away now. In the opposite direction was a rougher terrain of trees which thickened into woodland. As though they already knew exactly where they were going, the men started to run in toward the trees. Alex still had his arm around Lorcan’s waist so they moved as one. Kingsley paused and glanced back at me then gestured for me to get a move on.

  I ran to catch up with him. “What about the others?” I managed between panted breaths. “Where are they?”

  The running didn’t appear to be affecting Kingsley in the slightest. “They’ll be coming. They had something to do first.”

  “What?”

  He didn’t answer me. Was he just trying to cover up the possibility that Clay and Isaac might already be dead? I suddenly spotted what we were running toward. It wasn’t the cover of the woodland. An SUV was parked between the tree trunks—clearly intended to be our escape vehicle. I should have been relieved to see it, but instead my jaw tightened and my lower lip quivered. I blinked back tears at the thought of leaving without the others. Would they think we’d just abandoned them?

  The boom of a huge explosion smacked sound and light into the air. Even from this distance, the blast of heat struck me from behind, pitching me forward. The sky was filled with pieces of flying debris, smoke, and ash. An eerie silence settled around us, even the birds in the nearby trees stunned into momentary silence.

  Kingsley reached down and helped me back to my feet. I dared to look back. Where the house had stood there was now only a burning pile of concrete, brick and timber. Smoke billowed into the air, thick and black, the scent of it carried on a light breeze toward us. Red and orange flames licked across the remaining structure. I let out a cry of horror and clamped my hand over my mouth. Oh, God! Were Clay and Isaac still in the house? There was no way they could have survived that.

  None of the men said anything, but continued the way we were headed. Kingsley tried to help me along, but I pulled back on him.

  “Wait, stop! We have to go back.”

  He shook his head, his expression grim. “No time. They’ll be here any minute.”

  I knew who he was talking about when he said ‘they.’ The men with the guns. Though it tore me apart to think Clay and Isaac might be trapped inside the burning house, I knew there was nothing I could do to save them. Trying would mean sacrificing our lives, and there was no point in the others dying, too.

  We reached the SUV. Kingsley yanked open the unlocked door and jumped in behind the wheel. Alex helped Lorcan into the back seat, while I climbed in the passenger side. I gasped for breath, but I didn’t think it was from the running, but more the sheer terror and dismay at what had happened. My hands trembled in my lap, and I couldn’t seem to think straight.

  Beside me, Kingsley pulled down the visor, and the keys dropped out into his hand. He plunged them into the ignition, and the engine roared to life. He jammed his foot on the accelerator and pulled out from under the trees, dust bursting up from behind the wheels.

  I dared to look back at the burning mass of the house. From beside the smoldering building, a dot emerged, growing bigger by the moment. A second car.

  “Someone’s coming,” I cried. “It could be Isaac and Clay!”

  Kingsley glanced over at me, his expression tight. “It’s not Isaac and Clay.”

  I understood what that meant. If it wasn’t them, it was the men who’d attacked the house.

  Alex wound down the back window, stuck the rifle out of the gap. He fired off a couple of shots, the sound impossibly loud in the confines of the vehicle. The car got closer. I still had the gun in my hand. I could help. Kingsley was driving and Lorcan was out of action. This was an emergency.

  Not bothering to ask permission, I wound down my window and leaned out.

  “Get back in, Darcy!” Kingsley yelled.

  “No!”

  The vehicle was getting closer now. We bumped and jolted over the uneven terrain, but I held the gun in a firing-ready position, my arms straight, leaning as far out of the window as I dared, trying to balance between getting a good shot and making a target of myself.

  I aimed the gun, aligning the front sight with the rear sight, just as my dad had taught me. I focused on my target, and my heart stopped. I’d spotted who was in the passenger seat of the car. Hollan.

  Rage burst inside me, and I took a deep breath and held it, then pulled the trigger. A bullet cracked through the windshield of the other car, but I didn’t think I’d hit the son of a bitch. He was responsible for the deaths of Clay and Isaac as well as my father. No man had ever deserved to die more.

  I pulled the trigger again, and fired off another couple of shots, but my emotions had gotten the better of me, and they missed their mark.

  In the back seat, Alex also fired. His aim was better, and he shot out the front tire of the vehicle behind us, sending it skidding off to the right. Kingsley put his foot down, increasing the distance between us. I wanted to tell him to stop and go back, so we could put a bullet in Hollan’s head and end him once and for all, but a number of other dark spots were racing toward us from the burning house. More vehicles were comi
ng after us.

  A new vehicle burst out of the tree line, racing alongside us. I screamed, expecting to receive more gunfire at any moment, but then I spotted two familiar faces. Clay was driving, Isaac in the passenger seat. My eyes filled with tears of relief, and I gave a small cry. They were okay.

  We bumped off the rough terrain and onto a small track. Kingsley put his foot down, the change in road allowing him to accelerate even further and put more space between us and the approaching vehicles.

  Eventually, we lost sight of Hollan and his men, and we drove away, leaving the house burning behind us.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  In the back of the car, Alex worked on Lorcan. He tore off his shirt, leaving Lorcan bare-chested. The bullet wound was in Lorcan’s shoulder, but looked as though it had penetrated the bulk of his muscle rather than bone. There didn’t appear to be too much fresh bleeding, but dried blood that appeared almost black smeared across his numerous tattoos. The sight of it made my heart stumble in my chest.

  “There’s a bottle of water and a first aid kit in the glove box,” said Alex. “Grab it for me.”

  I did as I was asked, quickly retrieving both items and handing them back to Alex. Alex got to work cleaning up the wound using some cotton wool and the water, then hunted in the first aid box. “The bullet’s still lodged in there. I’m going to need to get it out. This is going to hurt, okay?”

  Lorcan hadn’t said a word, but I saw him grit his teeth and nod.

  Alex swabbed down the area with an antiseptic wipe. “I could do with iodine, but this is the best we have in the circumstances.”

  “Just get on with it,” Lorcan growled.

  Alex had found the tweezers. I watched Lorcan’s face, and then reached between the seats to grab his hand. He glanced up at me as my fingers laced with his. “I’ll break your fingers, princess.”