Lynell struggles against his grip and turns just enough to catch Zach run past them, gun raised.

“Stand down!” he yells. A few more gunshots before they stop, and silence enters the stairwell. Lynell hears her breath like a beacon.

“Zach?” Daniel asks, quietly.

“Clear,” he replies.

Daniel lets out a deep sigh and pushes off the wall. He climbs two more flights before Zach opens a door and shepherds them through.

“Go right and stay close to the wall,” he says.

Daniel obeys, and as he moves, his grip loosening, Lynell is able to lean out enough to watch their progress. She doesn’t recognize the hallway they’re running down. It’s small and bleak. They pass a door and Lynell flinches, half expecting someone to burst out and start shooting. She cradles her left hand between her body and Daniel’s, gritting her teeth together. Daniel’s deep breaths brush her forehead and her short dream about their morning in Chicago passes through her mind.

“Danny . . .” she mutters.

“Shh. Don’t talk. We’re almost there.” His voice is filled with anxiety and fear. It hurts Lynell to hear it and she wonders how she ever made it three years without him. “Stay with me.”

He’s sweating. Lynell lifts her right hand up and gently places it around the back of his neck, holding herself close.

“Okay,” Zach says. “The gym is through this door. The exit should only have one guard.” Lynell blinks over at her cousin and watches him slowly open a door, revealing a dark gym beyond. Zach enters before Daniel, his gun extended. “Clear,” he says after circling the room. He motions Daniel to run forward. “Through that door,” he says, pointing to the other side of the room.

“Almost there,” Daniel says.

The walk across the room is never-ending. Lynell doesn’t know how her heart doesn’t run out of steam or fail from fright.

Then Daniel is pushing open the door without waiting for Zach and Lynell feels the sun on her face. The relief she feels is so intense she’s breathless.

“Hello, Daniel, is it?”

Lynell gasps at the sound of Eric’s voice. She looks at her uncle standing in front of them in the garden. His arms are crossed behind him and he’s flanked by four men, all of whom have massive guns trained on her and Daniel. She’s distantly aware that she’s still naked and now under the eyes of her cousin, her uncle, her ex, and four strangers.

Lynell swallows, breath evading her. She tries to find Zach but fails. There’s a flicker of anger in her chest when she realizes he’s probably still inside, maybe running away. Then she remembers his words. “I have a plan.”

This must have been it. Some plan.

“I would ask how you got in undetected,” Eric says, taking a step forward. “But I assume it was my defiant son. You wouldn’t have made it this far without him. So, where is he?”

Daniel shakes his head and steps back but pauses when a guard shouts and aims his guns more forcibly. His arms shake with the strain of holding her for so long and she wants to tell him to put her down, but she doesn’t trust that her legs won’t fall out from under her.