He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 302

Chapter 302

Archer navigated with the kind of certainty that only came from actually researching a place, cutting through a narrow service passage, past a storage room stacked with crates, along a stretch of wall lined with old portraits that watched us pass like they disapproved of the whole endeavor.

He clearly understood the architecture of this base far better than any of us, and right now, that was the only reason any of this felt survivable.

I still didn’t know where Aria had gone. I still had no idea whether DeLuca was safe, whether he’d even made it inside yet, whether any of tonight had gone according to whatever plan he’d built for himself. Those worries sat heavy in my chest, unresolved and aching.

But my mother was out of that cell. That much, at least, I could hold onto.

I glanced at her again, still cradled carefully against Archer’s shoulder, and the small flicker of hope dimmed slightly at what I saw. Her breathing was shallow, her face pale in a way that went beyond simple exhaustion.

She’d never been strong, not really, not since before I could remember- some quiet, chronic thing she never talked about in detail, just managed, day by day, with medication and rest and routines I’d taken entirely for granted until tonight ripped every single one of them away. All of this, the fear, the cold floor, the hours lock hat cell, had cost her more than her body had left to spare.

I just

ed her somewhere warm, somewhere safe, somewhere I could finally take care of her the way she deserved.

iding us toward a narrow gap in the wall that didn’t look like a doorway so much as an afterthought, something built to be

ough it, into darkness so complete I had to trail one hand along the wall just to keep my bearings. The passage sloped gently downward, cool g past us, carrying the faint mineral smell of somewhere underground.

ahead, a thin seam of light.

Relief bloomed in my chest so fast it nearly buckled my knees.

the

Archer’s teammate leading now with Archer close behind him, my mother still steady in his arms, and me bringing up We picked up the pace, all four of us,

rear with h my utterly useless curtain still somehow clutched in one hand.

The light widened as we approached, warm and golden, and I could have wept at the sight of it.

We burst through into open air.

Daylight-actual, blinding wonderful daylight hit me full in the face, and the tension that had lived in my chest for what felt like my entire life finally, blessedly, began to loosen.

Then I nearly collided with

Everyone had stopped.

the

back of Archer’s teammate.

I blinked against the brightness, confusion catching up half a second before dread did, and looked past him to see exactly why.

Men. A dozen of them, easily, spread out across the open ground ahead of us. Cars parked in a wide, deliberate arc. And standing at the center of it all,

I’d never once laid eyes on him before tonight, was a man whose presence alone seemed to press the air flat.

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12:03 Fri, Sep 4 A

Chapter 302

I didn’t need an introduction,

man Volkov…

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