The Pearl of Penang by Clare Flynn (best mobile ebook reader txt) 📕

Which made sense, but she hated staying on the roof all alone. Still, they had no way of assessing how much the rusty ladder could handle. So she nodded and stayed where she was.

The next half hour was nerve-racking. She sat close to the trapdoor, peering into the darkness below without seeing anything, listening for the slightest noise from below.

She didn’t dare shout down to check on him for fear that she would give away what they were doing. And she didn’t dare go after him until he gave a signal, but no signal was coming.

Then, when she was squirming in desperation, and contemplating what she would have to do if he got hurt somehow and there would be no signal coming at all, a gentle tap reverberated up the metal ladder. She offered a quick prayer toward the starlit sky before she grabbed the top of the ladder and climbed after Akeem.

Going over the edge and putting her feet on the top rung was even scarier than she had expected, her step unsure all of a sudden. She could see nothing below. There could be anything down there. She could grab onto a poisonous spider on any of the rungs, or get knocked off by a swarm of bats.

She moved fast, eager to be done with this part and be closer to Akeem, ignoring the pain when the skin pulled around the bullet graze on her shoulder. She didn’t care much about her existing injuries at this point. She was focused on not acquiring any new ones. She was halfway down when something banged above her, and her only source of light was suddenly shut off.

Somebody had climbed up after them, figured out where they had gone, and had shut the trapdoor.

The enemy knew where they were, and they were trapped once again. And whether there were any combustible materials left over down below or not, she had a feeling that the fumes alone in this place were enough to send it exploding all over creation if someone tossed as much as a single match their way.

She was frozen to the spot where she’d stopped, her fingers fused to the ladder as she gasped for air in the dark. Tense moments passed as she hung on for dear life with white-knuckled hands.

A few seconds passed.

Then a soft whisper came from not too far below. “It’s okay, Taylor. I’m waiting for you down here.”

And she hung on to that voice, trusting it to lead her. She made her limbs obey her once again. An eternity seemed to pass before she made it down all the way and found herself in Akeem’s arms.

“This way.” He pulled her forward.

His night vision must have been much better than hers, as she could barely see his back, but he apparently could tell where they were going since he kept a good pace. She had no choice but to trust herself completely to him, believe his promises at last that he would help her get her son back.

“Do you think they’re waiting for us somewhere ahead?” she whispered.

“I’m sure there is more than one door on this tower.”

A small noise came from the far side of the structure. They stopped to listen, but couldn’t hear anything more.

“Could be just a possum or whatever other animal nests in here.” Akeem resumed walking, drawing her with him, not letting her hand go for a moment.

“Why aren’t they doing more to find us?” They’d taken their sweet time coming after them.

“They probably know who we are and what we want. They know we’ll be coming to them.”

“Then why come after us at all?”

“Could be one of them got antsy waiting. Wanted to play around a little.”

“So you definitely think they’re waiting for us now?”

“Yes.”

She drew a deep breath from the dank, fume-filled air. “Do you think there are only two of them? There were only two pickups at that loading dock. And when we last saw them, there was only one guy in each.”

“Doesn’t mean they didn’t have more here in reserve. It’s always best to be prepared for the worst.”

He sounded calm and collected, reasonable. A far cry from her own state of mind. “How bad do you think it’s going to get?”

Again, she felt a pang of regret that she had dragged him into this, and profound relief that he was here with her.

He stopped and she bumped against his wide back. “What is it?”

“The door.”

“They could be waiting behind it.”

“We’ll know in a minute.” He nudged her to the side. The knob scraped as he turned it.

Fresh air hit her in the face, a sliver of moonlight falling in. He moved forward. She held her breath.

“All clear,” he said.

They moved outside with caution, but it seemed that if the men were waiting for them, they waited at another exit. Akeem said nothing, but pulled a serious-looking handgun from the back of his waistband—the weapon they had found in the dead guy’s pickup—and handed it to her.

She took it and checked it. She had half a magazine’s worth of bullets. She had no trouble with guns. When she rode out to the farthest corners of the ranch, she always carried one for protection from the wildlife.

She was painfully aware that when she fired this piece, she would be shooting at people, and that was a new, disturbing thought.

She turned the gun over in her hand, and thought of the guy Akeem had killed. For her. For Christopher. The full impact hadn’t hit her until now when she had a weapon in her own hands and was preparing to use it if necessary. Akeem had killed for her and was willing to die for her. To save her son. There was no way in the universe she would ever be able to come close to repaying him for all he was doing.

He wasn’t a callous man. What he had done would cost him. She had always