“Probably because they weren’t all together at that time. They could’ve been all over our territory looking for me. And if only one of them attempted something on the streets and he failed, we’d know what they were up to and we’d be much more careful,” I said, wondering what I was supposed to do if the assassins breached the elevator door.

Face them and try to fight them off, or run? The Desaltis hadn’t come here personally either, so it wasn’t as if I’d show great weakness if I escaped this place. But what about my men? How could I just leave them here and not even lift my gun to try to help them?

“Yeah, I would’ve tracked them down then.” Meg chewed on her bottom lip.

I turned toward James. “Do you really think the best thing to do is run?”

“I do.”

“Do you believe they’ll leave or go after me if they see I’m gone?” If I could drive the assassins away from this place, then I had to do it.

“I don’t know. Maybe. If you’re their only target, then they will,” he said.

“Whoa, wait,” Meg said. “You’re not really planning to do that, are you? Some of our communication systems just went down and I’m not sure who I can send with you to protect you.”

“I don’t need anyone. James will come with me. I’m sure we can outrun the assassins. They’re still busy with the elevator door and they probably don’t think I’m going to run.”

“But how are you going to get out of here? That might be exactly what they want you to do.” Her eyes were filled with worry.

“I don’t think they know everything about our security system or about our emergency exit. It wasn’t that hard for them to figure out that we’re underground and that we have some kind of protection, and the elevator is right there for everyone to see, so, of course, they’re attacking it. And they expected the doors would be reinforced, so they brought strong explosives. All I have to do is get to one of the cars. Is the garage still safe?” I’d have a problem if they’d slashed all the tires or done something to the cars, but they couldn’t have had that much time and the guards would’ve seen them.

“Yeah, the cameras in there are still live.” She clicked on something to get to them, and everything inside the garage looked calm. “But are you sure you...?” Her eyes flitted to James and she not so subtly wiggled her eyebrows. She didn’t believe that he’d protect me or that he wouldn’t do something to me.