Thousands (Dollar 4)

“Pim…it’s me.”

I blinked back terror, latching onto the voice that’d been whispering sweet nothings in my dreams. “Elder?”

What the hell is he doing?

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

Could’ve fooled me.

I bounced painfully over his shoulder as he rushed from my room, down the corridor, and flew down the stairs instead of waiting for the lift. The Phantom was a blur of carpet and sconces, making me sick. “Where are you taking me?”

What the hell had gotten into him? Why was he flying around the Phantom at God knew what time in the morning?

“Almost there. The majority of staff are in position.” Selix appeared from a floor above, chasing us down another flight. “Machine gun ready at your command.”

“What?” I squeaked as Elder shoved his free shoulder through the door blocking a level I’d explored but found boring and discounted, jogging with me slung over him like a sack of sugar.

He ignored Selix entirely.

At the end of the corridor, he slammed to a stop, swung me from horizontal to vertical, and dropped me to my feet. I stumbled in place as my brain sloshed with dizziness.

I swallowed a thick mouthful of nausea.

With a clenched jaw, Elder yanked open the façade of a simple cupboard, revealing a thick bombproof door behind it.

My eyes popped wide as he pummelled the barrier with his fist. “Open up.”

It opened instantly by a girl I recognised from the kitchen staff. Her blonde hair fuzzy like a halo around her head from rubbing on a pillow in sleep. “Roster has been counted. All accounted for minus the staff manning the bridge.”

Elder swiped a hand over the sweat glistening on his forehead. “Keep them here until the all-clear is given.” Shoving me forward, he didn’t touch me, kiss me, or whisper anything kind to me. I was nothing more to him than someone to protect while his mind was in a battle elsewhere. “Keep her with you. Don’t let her out. Do you hear me?”

I bristled. I didn’t appreciate being talked about as if I wasn’t there or had any brain cells to understand simple commands. The head cleaner—an elderly woman with curlers in her hair—took my bicep, tugging me unwillingly into the room. “We’ll take good care of her, sir.”

Elder grunted in acknowledgement, already focusing on another task.

Instead of seeing me as an ally and someone who could help fight with him, he saw me as a liability to remove so he didn’t have to worry.

How dare he?

I knew I’d been weak when we first met. I knew I still had fading bruises from Harold, and I knew I still had other issues to overcome, but how dare he not trust me enough to lean on me?

After everything.

Whatever was happening, I wanted to be with him—not stuffed in some closet and forgotten about.

I grabbed his hand. “El, let me come with you. I need—”

His fingers wrapped around my wrist, tugging my grip away. “I need you to stay here, Pimlico. Got it?”

I eyed the door. Or rather the fortress entrance—it wasn’t lacquered wood like the rest of the Phantom’s entrances. This was utterly bullet-proof with thick hinges, dead bolts, and metal encasing front and back.

Shoving me once again into the hold of the cleaner, he barked, “Keep her here. Understand?”

The woman nodded. “Understood.” Grabbing my elbow again, she pulled me away from Elder.

I yanked my arm against her tugging, locking my knees. “Elder, wait. What’s going on?”

The air of apprehension and concern infected me. Every staff member on the Phantom stood worried behind me.

That could only mean one thing.

Oh, my God, they’re here.

Elder’s black eyes met mine, glowing with remorse, brutal with violence. “Nothing. And for the love of Christ, Pimlico, stay here and do as I say.” With a sharp shake of his head as if fighting the same need I had to touch him and find some sanity in this crazy wake-up scare, he stormed off down the corridor, leaving me entrapped with staff members.

The moment he vanished into the stair-well, the girl with blonde hair shut the door, and I whirled on the woman holding me. “Let me go.”

She unwound her fingers, backing into the room. “Just keeping you safe.”

“Well, don’t. My safety is not your concern.” My eyes followed her. My temper fizzled out as I took in the space. Just like the door wasn’t just a door, this wasn’t just a room. The walls had no windows, there were couches around the perimeter but narrow and uninviting compared to the luxury of other Phantom furniture. A long table to the side with buckled down crates held hundreds of water bottles and packet food ready for a famine, but it was the centre piece that caught my attention.

In the middle of the large space, hidden behind multiple milling people, sat a boat. Not just any boat but one Fort Knoxed with guns and canopies, big enough to hold everyone in the room.