Loyal Heir (The Heirs 4)

I glance around the small space, and it increases my fear and panic. Closing my eyes for a moment, I breathe through it, knowing there’s no way I can lose my shit.

God, we’re in trouble.

I’m worried about our air supply. I don’t know if air is coming into the confined space. It’s growing hotter by the minute, which is another concern. If the building’s on fire, we’ll die.

God, please don’t let this get any worse than it already is. Let a search party find us.

I check the time again and see it’s just gone past eleven pm. With it being dark out, I don’t have much faith anyone will find us soon, but I keep the thought to myself.

“Let’s get as comfortable as we can. Maybe you can try to sleep a little,” I tell Aria as I try to clean a stretch of the floor with my right hand. I lie my jacket down, then look at Aria. “I’ll stay awake.”

She gives me an incredulous look. “There’s no way I’ll be able to sleep.”

“Try. It will make the wait pass quicker for you,” I explain my reasoning.

Aria takes hold of my right arm and tugs at me. “Come sit here so we can both lean back against the panel.”

Giving up on trying to convince her to get some rest, I scoot closer to her and lean back.

I let my left arm rest against my stomach and try to take a deep breath, but the ache in my chest intensifies, forcing me to stick to shallow breaths.

Aria’s pinned between my side and the back panel, and she rests her head against my shoulder. Lifting my right arm, I wrap it around her shoulders so she can lean against me. The movement makes it hard to breathe for a moment, and I clench my jaw through the ache.

“How long do you think it will take for someone to find us?” she asks, her voice sounding tight from all the shock and fear she’s suffered.

“I’m not sure. The city won’t sleep until they’ve found everyone,” I try to reassure her.

God, I hope someone’s looking for us.

“Your parents will make sure they search here for us.” I swallow hard, my mouth bone dry from all the dust. “Our families will find us.”

“Yeah,” she murmurs, not sounding too convinced.

There’s a loud clanking above us, and both our heads snap up.

Aria cringes closer to my side, and I tighten my hold around her shoulders. “Probably just a cord falling.” I try to put her at ease.

The air continues to grow stale and muggy, and then my phone dies, and we’re plunged into darkness. A couple of seconds later, Aria turns on her device’s light.

Debris trickles in where the concrete has broken through the ceiling, and I watch until it stops, leaving a heap on the floor.

I glance up again, worried about how long the ceiling will hold.

Fuck, this is bad.

Chapter 21

FOREST

I take a shallow breath, but still, the pain in my chest is too intense, and I have to wait until it fades a little before I can exhale.

Every creaking sound and every piece of falling debris has us on edge. It feels as if I’m running on overdrive.

Feeling Aria shiver, I rub my hand up and down her arm. Seeing her so terrified is killing me. I wish I could wrap her in my arms and disappear from this place.

We’re still trying to catch our bearings when the ground begins to shake again, causing debris to fall into the elevator. Aria presses closer to me, and I hear her whisper, “Make it stop. Make it stop. God, please, make it stop.”

There’s a loud bang making both of us jump with fright. The piece of concrete by the doors makes the steel bend even more from the weight pressing down on it.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

A desperate feeling bleeds into my soul.

The tremor dies away, and we both sit frozen in the light coming from Aria’s phone while waiting for the other fucking shoe to drop.

The dust makes me cough, and it sends a wave of pain through my chest and arm. Clenching my jaw, I do my best not to make a sound, but I know it’s only a matter of time before Aria notices I got hurt worse than I let on.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers urgently. “I’m sorry I wasted the past week with my stupid insecurities. Now we’re stuck in here, and God only knows…”

I press a kiss to the top of her head. “They’ll find us soon.”

I hope.

Trying to keep Aria’s mind of our dire situation, I say, “I have nowhere to go. Want to talk to me now?”

She brings her legs up, and wrapping her arms around her shins, she rests her chin on her knees. “It’s hard to talk about it.”

Her words make me frown. “Talk about what? Us?”