Chapter 94
– AIDEN
The metal was colder than he expected.
Aiden crawled forward on his elbows and knees, trying not to let the duct rattle too much beneath him. The air inside smelled like dust and old hotel rooms–mixed with the
chlorine still clinging to his skin from the pool.
That was probably good. He didn’t smell like himself. He smelled like the water.
And the rogues hadn’t caught his scent yet.
He turned a corner, breathing as quietly as he could, listening carefully before moving. He paused at the first grate he reached and peeked through.
Below, a small room. Empty. Just crates and a folded table.
He kept moving.
The next vent was harder to reach. He had to belly crawl over a tangle of insulation and wires. But when he got to it and looked down, he froze.
Four men sat in the room, hunched over a table. One had a scar running from his temple down into his beard. Another cleaned a gun. A third sniffed the air.
Aiden’s heart stopped.
They’re wolves.
He could tell by their scent. Too sharp. Too wild. And definitely not pack wolves.
Rogues.
He held perfectly still, barely breathing. One of them cocked his head, as if listening.
“Did you hear that?” the scarred one asked.
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“Just the air conditioning kicking on. Would you calm the hell down?”
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But the guy kept sniffing. Aiden tried not to move. The air wasn’t flowing–nothing was ‘blowing through. That was lucky. Really lucky.
He counted to ten. Then twenty. Slowly–inch by inch–he crawled past the vent and kept
going.
His arms were starting to ache. His knees too. But he didn’t stop.
Be brave, he told himself. Like Mom.
The next grate opened into a quiet room. Smaller than the others. The air was cooler here, and it didn’t smell like sweat or smoke–just dust and old paper.
He pressed his face to the metal slats and peered through.
A desk. File cabinets. A single overhead light humming faintly. The carpet below was worn but clean. There were no people, no voices, no flickering monitors or open food wrappers like the other rooms he’d passed.
But the best part?
A phone. Sitting right on the desk. One of those clunky corded ones with a blinking red light and a keypad built into the base. It was plugged in.
Aiden’s breath caught.
Okay. Okay. You can do this.
He tried the grate–holding his breath as he twisted the latch. It creaked faintly, but didn’t
resist. Not locked.
He pushed it open slowly, lowering the panel until it hung downward like a tiny trapdoor. The desk sat almost directly below him, maybe a few inches to the side.
He adjusted his position and eased forward, letting his legs dangle out first. He had to grip the edge of the vent opening with his fingertips, lowering himself carefully so he didn’t just
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Chapter 94
drop.
His sneakers brushed the carpet.
Then-
Thump.
The sound echoed louder than he expected in the quiet room. His stomach twisted.
He froze.
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Nothing. No alarm. No voices. Just the low hum of the light above and the distant creak of building pipes.
Still okay. Just move fast.
He stepped toward the desk, heart hammering in his chest, reaching for the phone with trembling fingers.
That’s when he heard it.
Footsteps.
Heavy. Approaching fast.
Right outside the door.
His hand jerked back from the phone. He didn’t even think–he launched himself toward the desk, diving into the open leg space just as the handle turned with a sharp metallic click.
The door creaked open.
Aiden squeezed himself tight beneath the desk, hands pressed flat against the carpet, body curled as small as it could go.
His breath caught in his throat.
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Chapter 94
The sound of footsteps on the carpet. Slow. Measured.
Someone was inside the room.
And he was trapped.
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