I paused, trying to focus.
I couldn’t just run up there.
I’d wasted too much time already.
Jack was probably about to be (if not already) inside the clubhouse.
I needed to help, not make myself another liability they had to worry about.
A whimper caught at my throat as I flew toward the tall metal cabinets where a previous tour of the basement showed me how prepared these biker guys were for the kind of emergencylockdown that meant they would be trapped downstairs for extended periods.
They had stocks of nonperishable food, medical supplies, clothes, extra linens, board games, lanterns, and even water purification tablets.
Those weren’t the only highlights from my tour, though.
Up on top of one of the cabinets, stored high enough that no club kid could ever get to it, but low enough for a reasonably tall adult to reach, was a gun.
The club had them stashed in several places around the clubhouse in case of emergencies.
This, I was sure, constituted an emergency.
I flew at the locker, reaching up and feeling around until my fingers met cold metal.
My heart fluttered as I pulled it down.
I knew it was loaded. Rune told me they all were. And there was no safety to worry about. Which was good. Because the only gun I knew about was my own.
Holding it in my shaky hand, I rushed back toward the stairs, trying to feel comforted that there were no loud bangs coming from upstairs. No yelling, either.
Were my cousins still trying to find a way in?
Or was this basement just more soundproofed than I realized?
Unease pooled in my chest as my stomach lurched.
I felt like I was choking on my own heart as I inched up the stairs, cursing myself for not having paid attention before to which stairs groaned.
I swear my bare feet on the step sounded like thunderclaps, my breath like hurricane-force winds.
Logically, I knew no one could hear it but me. But nothing about me was being particularly logical right then as I reached the top step.
I was going into this blind. I had no way of knowing where my cousins might be, if they would see me before I saw them, if they were lying in wait for me.
But Rune was up there. Unaware. Unarmed.
I couldn’t let anything happen to him.
Sucking in a deep breath, I reached for the knob and turned it, pushing the door open only enough to peek out into the hall.
Seeing no one, I pushed it open far enough for me to creep out, pressing my back against the wall.
I lifted my braced hand, pressing it over my mouth to quiet my frantic breaths as I inched down the wall.
And thank God I was muffling myself.
Or I would have given myself away before I even moved into the doorway. Because there was a loud bang in the common room. Then another.
I cried out against my hand, my heart crumbling, not knowing who was shot, who might be bleeding out, who might be dead.