“Jaime! Come get her!”

“Already here.” Jaime’s voice came from behind Trent, and I watched as Trent straightened and raised his hands in surrender, gun still in hand. “Go take her to the room, I’ll be there as soon as I finish this.”

Carson didn’t wait for anything else; he turned and started walking me away from Trent. I bucked against him and bit down on his fingers, and when he began cursing, three gunshots went off in the hallway. I cried out, not from the loud echo in the hall, but because I knew Trent was dead. And it was my fault.

Before I could try to turn away from Carson and run back to Trent’s body, another shot rang out, and Carson and I fell forward. Landing with my hands behind me hurt like a bitch; and with Carson’s weight on me, I knew I was going to be bruised all over. But still I didn’t move, and I didn’t make a sound as I waited to see what Jaime was going to do.

Loud, running footsteps pounded down the hall and suddenly Carson’s weight was off me, and another, much louder, shot went off aimed directly next to me. I couldn’t force myself to look at Carson; I didn’t want to see what he looked like after those.

“Rachel, get up, we need to get back to the room. Now. Let’s go, come on.”

I looked up at Trent and sat there in shock until I heard distant yells echoing down the hall. I jumped up and, when Trent took my hand, sprinted back with him to the room with the mattress on the floor.

“I’ll be back,” Trent whispered and I grabbed his arm.

“No, Trent, don’t!”

“Trust me, I’ll be back. If anyone else comes in here—”

“I know, I know, I have to scream.” I sobbed and scrambled to the mattress when he rushed out the door.

Over a dozen shots went off and my hands clamped down over my mouth as I waited for what happened next. I now understood why all those stupid girls in horror movies couldn’t shut up. Though I tried to hold back my sobs, I was still making a choking noise, and my breathing was rough and heavy. A minute that felt like hours after I’d heard the last shot dragged by before the door slammed open.

I screamed.

“Rachel, it’s me!”

I’d never been so happy to hear Trent’s voice, and I ran toward him to help take the heavy chairs from his hands.

“Move back,” he ordered and went about putting both under the lever handle of the door until he was sure it would hold.

“My room locks, but they can shoot through it. They don’t have the ammo to shoot through these walls. My magazine is almost empty, and the rest of it is in my room, but I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe.”

“I know you will,” I cried and wrapped my arms around him, fitting myself to his body. “God, Trent, I thought Jaime killed you!”

His big arms tightened around my waist and he led us over to the mattress. When we were sitting, he pulled me onto his lap and held me there like a child. “I’m okay.” His labored breathing was all that filled the room for a torturous amount of time before he admitted, “I killed three others in the kitchen.”

That should terrify me, but right now, I was just so happy that he was okay. My hands gripped his shoulders, and I looked at his blurry face when his hand went under my chin.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt from falling? I’m sorry, I didn’t have any other option, I had to shoot him.”

“I hurt, but I’m okay. I’ve had worse. How did—how did you know it wouldn’t go through to me? I was right in front of him.”

“I have hollow point bullets, it was highly unlikely it would go through him to you. Where are you hurting?”

I sat up and looked him in the eye through the dark room. “How are you worried about me right now? Did any of them get you? Oh God, Trent, did they?” I started to get off his lap, but he quickly pulled me back down.

“No, they didn’t. Tell me where you’re hurt.”

“I’m fine, it was just a lot of weight to fall on me when I couldn’t stop the fall. I’ll be fine—”

There was a loud banging coming from the metal door and I cringed into Trent’s chest. I felt his right arm go up and stay there as he waited for something to happen. But the chairs held under the handle, for now.

“You’re out, Trent! You’re out, you hear me? You will pay for every one of our brothers! I’ll f**king kill you, you son of a bitch!”

The screaming and pounding continued for countless minutes until it eventually slowed, and then stopped completely.

Trent and I sat there, gripping each other as we waited to see if it would start up again. When nothing happened for a long time, my eyes started drooping as the exhaustion set in. Trent gently removed me from his body and laid me down on the mattress before dropping to his side next to me, so his body was closest to the door, and pulled me into his chest.

“I’m sorry you had to kill them,” I murmured before I fell asleep.

His breathing suddenly halted, and the hand around my waist curled tighter. “I’d do it again if it meant keeping you away from them.”

I nodded into his chest and blew out a shaky breath. “I’m so glad you weren’t hurt, Trent. Thank you for protecting me. I don’t know how close you used to be with them . . . so just, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, Rachel. Just know that I’ll do whatever it takes for you.”

My chances of escaping were rapidly weakening, and it was hard to keep hope that I had a chance of getting out of here. But if by some miracle the department found me, I knew I would do whatever it took to keep them from hurting Trent or blaming him for this.