I ran to him. “Hex? Are you okay, you crazy bastard?”

“I fell on my head. . . I think. . . I banged it at least. . . Fuck, that hurts!”

I grabbed the sides of his face. “Where are we? How can I get you help?”

“I’m fine.” His eyes rolled to the back of his head before coming back forward. “I just. . . need a minute to rest.”

“You don’t know that. You might have a concussion or even worse. Is there a phone down here or a way to get in touch with someone to get help?”

“The door. The silver one over there.” He pointed up to the ceiling and let his head fall back, which told me he was barely with me. “Don’t tell Al. We only have a little bit more time. Don’t say anything.”

“I won’t say anything. I promise, just stay with me.” I laid him down and raced to the wall, sliding my hands over the cool, smooth surface to see if there was a hidden door like Hex had said. When I got to the second corner, rough edges pressed against my fingertips. The wall clicked. The door opened a few inches. I pulled at the edges, straining with all my might, until it opened completely.

A big room appeared, packed with ten TV screens on the wall, an electronic control display, two chairs, a shelf with canned goods and boxed items, several stacks of bottled water, as well as a few bottles of wine.

I stepped inside and glanced over my shoulder at Hex. “What is this room?”

“This was just in case. . . Al found out.” Hex rolled over to his side. His chest rose and fell as if he’d been running for miles. “My plan was to run to my private room near the studio and get Al to chase me in there. Then I would press the button, we would all fall in here and remain until everything was over.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I was hoping to never use the plan. . . but it sounded reasonable at the time.”

“Can we even breathe down here?”

“Yes. It’s an old bomb shelter.”

“And these cameras and screens? Are they taping everything above us?” I limped over to the other side of the electronic display. It looked like it had a phone next to it.

“Yes. The feeds are coming from all of my mini cameras in the trees. Sometimes I come down to check on them. There’s a ladder next to the same way we came in, but you were too busy falling to see it.”

I turned and noticed him dragging himself my way. “Can we climb up the ladder?”

“It can be accessed from the studio.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Just trust me on this.”

“You have me trapped in an old bomb shelter with cameras waiting to record five future suicides, excuse me if I don’t feel like trusting you right now.” I picked up the phone. It was one of the old phones with the big receiver that people held to their ears.

“That phone doesn’t work.” Hex took his time standing up and then did some sort of odd hop, walking to the first chair before collapsing into it. “I planned for Al and me to be down here until the last person dies. That’s why there’s all this food and water down here. The phone isn’t programmed to work until tomorrow evening.”

“The women are going to commit suicide tonight?”

“Yes. All five.”

“My guards will know that we dropped down here. It’s the most logical conclusion. They watched us go into the room. They’ll search the ceiling and all the walls around it. Plus, with the loud noise they’ll know something opened up.”

“I’m fine with that. Without the code or knowing what buttons to pick, they’ll have to wrench the floor up. It will take hours.” He checked his watch, then leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Gloria and the others will be hiding behind the trees near the garden soon. When it gets dark, I have the security cameras showing an old feed to the guards. Gloria and them will take the pills, walk out to the garden, and wait to slowly die.”

Chapter 28

Alvarez

“Then there was this big crashing sound.” Elle’s guard did frantic hand movements as he described what happened. “We ran into the room right as the floor was closing. We could hear her screaming. I tried to keep it open, but I didn’t know how to do it and then it just snapped back together.”

It took everything in me to not strangle the guard and make him pay for whatever Hex had done. What the fuck, Hex? What the hell have you done? Three maintenance men hammered and drilled away at the metal floor. I called the police and more handymen to deal with the trap door. Somewhere Elle lay under the floor, scared out of her mind, while my brother, motivated by whatever stupid, idiotic thing that incited him to have the trap door built in the first place, stood with an air of bloated confidence.

Tags: Kenya Wright Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net