The Illusion

Twenty Eight

"FREYA?"

"Down here James." I sniffed, sitting back on the heels of my boots. Leo groaned. "Rey, baby-" I took my gun back out of his hand, making sure the end had cooled down before tucking it into the back of my jeans. "I don't know what to say."

"There's nothing to say. Alara's dead and you've been shot, Zane is fuck knows where. All this planning for literally nothing. Not a damn fucking thing."

"Why are you guys sa- Who's blood is that?" James' steps slowed and I stood up, wiping my nose across the back of my arm, trying to keep the blood off my face before I started panicking. I walked down to the end of the corridor where I watched Zane disappear and turned back to James.

"Is everyone else okay?" He looked down at Alara's lifeless body up at me and my hands. "James. Focus."

"Yeah."

"Good. Get Leo home."

"Where are you going?"

"Fuck knows but he went down here."

"Freya don't you da-" I ignored Leo's demands. What was he going to do? Stop me? He can't walk. "James, I'm fine. Go."

"Freya!" I looked at my hands as I walked, lifting my head to looked around at the closed doors, Poking my head inside like I was lost. "Fre-"

"James. Be fucking quiet. As far as we know, it's a dead end down here." I whispered. I doubted it. There was most likely an emergency exit for situations just like this. He obviously knew we were coming and had been camping out down here so he could act out his little plan.

This was supposed to be easy. In and out. Grab Alara, get out unharmed. This feud they'd had going of constant back and forth for years had gone too far now. It ends with me. He is going to pay.

"Did you find Zara and Elizabeth?"

"Yeah. Unharmed, Lili is driving them up there with Heath, Xav and Drew." I nodded. "Freya, you need to stop a second. You- she-"

"She's dead." I stopped turning to him in the hallway. James grabbed my wrists, looking at them and then up to me. "He killed her and -"

"I know. You want to do this right now but you just lost your best friend Freya. He's obviously gone."

"We don't know that."

"Freya, he can't get far. We have his family, we have his house, his money, his cars. He's travelling on foot in the middle of nowhere. He isn't going to want to go far."

"He has to have a safe house right? Like we have The Box?" James nodded. "So- so we find that"

"Freya." He looked around and sighed. "Don't move." He moved away from me, checking the last 3 rooms on the corridor sighing at the last one before coming back. "A ladder in the back corner." I nodded. "Look at me. I know how much this hurts Freya. I know its stinging in your chest and it feels like it's never going to stop and I know you want him to pay for it. But this wasn't for nothing. We made more progress tonight in getting rid of the Bauer's for good. He cannot do anything without the things we now have control of Freya. He will have to act and when he does, he can't take all of us out. He knows that. He knows he's losing, that's why he's running, that's why he shot her. Because he's desperate. Let's go home, get you cleaned up. Leo's not bleeding but he still needs some help or it's going to get bad."

"Oh my god, Leo." I turned around. "James-"

"I know Freya. It's okay. He gets it."

"I didn't even ask him-"

"Your best friend was dying in your arms. He'll understand." I wiped my hands on my jeans quickly, skin tingling with anxiety. "Ready to go? People are coming to clean up the mess and watch this place. I'll have this exit blocked off. I'll have dad and Pip go see Alara's family."