Alone, I stood quietly, thinking about my options. If those active land mine thing he said was true, I'd be dead in five minutes. Woods surrounded us as far as my eye could see. I recognized that where we were was on a private property owned by the government. No one had been here for years.

They said they wouldn't kill me. But they had killed so many other people before. I was just another casualty. An inconvenience that needed to be gone. Why should I trust Cage Vickers? He was one of the most wanted criminals in the country.

Alone, I'd never survive the night. But with Cage, I had a chance. A very slim chance that might kill me in the end, but it might not as well. That's what I had to consider. And that was what I convinced myself I was doing when I sat down on the ground like Micheal had, my legs dangling into nothing but darkness. Was Cage even waiting for me down there?

There was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, I pushed myself off the ledge. For one second there was the terrifying feeling of falling, and then strong arms around me. I half-landed on Cage and half-landed on the ground. Pain shot up through my foot. It wasn't the romantic 'I will always catch you when you fall' sorta thing in movies.

Cage barely caught me.

"Ow! What the fuck?" Cage shouted angrily as he was dragged down with me. I stumbled across his leg and fell on my butt, my feet aching from the impact. Not only did we both miscalculate where the other was, we almost missed. I would have died if he wasn't there to break the fall.

"You suck at catching!" I complained loudly, my voice echoing in the tunnel. The sewer hole was the only light source. I couldn't see very much except the dirty dirt walls and the musty must smell. At least there wasn't, you know, sewer stuff anywhere. "Dumbass."

"I will shoot you.'' Cage growled, pulling himself up. He had cursed because my weight had knocked him down and he tried to break the fall with his bleeding hand, which I still hadn't figured out why it was bleeding. "I will literally throw your body into the ocean if you don't shut up."

"Jeez." I pulled myself up, using the wall for support. My ankle twisted when we landed. Fighting through the pain, I leaned against it. "Are you on your period or something? Death threats aren't very nice, you know. In fact, most people do the opposite thing when they're threatened. Just kidding, I just made that up."

Cage was brushing himself off as I said all of this. With a glare, he shoved past me. Something tickled the back of my neck. Cage turned around and grinned. "There's a spider in your hair."

And then he walked away.

"There's a spi- what?" I shrieked, violently brushing myself off. Screaming, I stumbled to catch up with Cage while trying to get the spider off me. "Help me! Cage! Oh my God! Oh God, get it off me! No! No! This is unacceptable!" I ran after him, my hair covering my eyes so much that I couldn't see. Farther up the tunnel, I heard a soft chuckle.

I suddenly stopped and frowned, my face tickled with strands of hair when realization dawned on me. All of this for nothing. There was no spider because we were so deep underground. There were no bugs that could survive in a place like this. Cage had tickled the back of my neck when he walked past. What an asshole. Fixing myself, I caught up to Cage.

"Wow, you really got me there." I frowned. "That would have been hilarious...if we were in first grade!"

He turned around, face completely expressionless. Reaching behind my head, I felt his fingers grip my back. A moment later, Cage's hands reappeared, clutching something carefully. To my utter horror, he opened his hand and let the biggest, blackest spider-tarantula thing from the depths of hell itself slip past his fingers and onto the wall.

My face paled. Cage smirked. Even though it was a mockery of a smile, his whole face changed. He began walking away. I edged closer to the opposite side of the wall from where the spider was and inched away until I rounded the corner.

There was a metal door in the end of the tunnel. Cage had his back to me and was typing something into the security system. The fluorescent light flickered overhead, threatening to give out. I stood by nervously as Cage opened the door. The whole place smelled dry and musty and I was pretty sure I saw at least ten boxes of gunpowder in one of the other rooms.

"Hey." Cage's voice was tinged with annoyance. He had opened the door and was waiting for me. "In about five feet or so from where you're standing, there's some wire strung across. It's just a few inches off the ground. Don't touch it. You'll lose your head."

My eyes widened. Trip wire, booby traps, and landmines. They sure did take extra precaution to keep people out. I stared hard at the ground, trying to find the wire. It was barely visible. I followed the string with my eyes up the wall. It was attached to a metal claw hand with razor sharp edges.

Cage watched from the distance as I made my way across, making sure to lift my feet high up when I had to step across the wire. I was about to cry. This entire night was ridiculous. First, I lose my eyebrow. And now I was about to lose my life. Everything about this was utterly wrong for me. All I wanted was to go home.

When I reached Cage, I let out a quiet sigh of relief. As much as I hated Cage Vickers, without him, I'd most definitely be dead. The one question that was eating away at me was why. Why was he keeping me alive?

We reached another door. This one had a knife replacing the doorknob. Cage kicked the door open with his boot. I peered over his shoulder curiously until my vision suddenly went away.

"You have got to be kidding." I scowled as Cage tied the blindfold around my eyes. He yanked it harder than was necessary.

"Sorry, princess. You've seen enough for one night." was his cold reply.

Taking a firm grip on my arm, I was pulled into the room. With all the booby traps I had seen around, it was a less than pleasant experience to put all of my trust into the very untrustworthy hands of Cage Vickers.

He seemed like the type of person who thought it was funny to replace the sugar with salt.

Or the vanilla pudding with mayonnaise.

Or chocolate with p- never mind, you get the idea.

Where Micheal, Nick, and Heath had gone, I had no clue. But as Cage led me through various rooms, all I heard was silence. I thought Cage would have more cronies and evil scientists creating new synthetic drugs and torturing people, but it was quiet except for the sound of our footsteps.

When I felt Cage guiding me up the fifth staircase, I began to protest. "Where are you taking me? This is ridiculous. Can you at least take the blindfold off? I'm going to fall and die and you'll have to live with a guilty conscience for the rest of your life."

His fingers on my arm tightened. "In a moment."

I was being guided by where Cage pulled me. He could probably have pushed me off a balcony and I wouldn't have figured it out until the last second. I was trusting him not to, you know, accidentally on purpose murder me. So it was more than infuriating when I walked in head first into a wall.

"Stop!" I rubbed my forehead, scowling. "What are you doing?"

"Walk faster." Cage replied. There was the sound of a door opening. I followed Cage, tripped on the threshold, and nearly stumbled into his back. He didn't say anything but I could almost see the glare he was giving me through the blindfold.

The wind picked up, ruffling through my clothes. We were back outside. The gust sent strands of my hair flying into my face. I wanted to tie it back but I didn't have a hairtie and if I even dared to move my hands, Cage would have thought I was trying to take the blindfold off. It wasn't worth the risk. I wasn't around friends. Treading lightly would save my sorry ass.

His fingers left my arm. I waited patiently as he untied the blindfold and let it fall. Blinking madly, it took a second to get my vision back. We were on a rooftop. It came as more than a surprise because I was under the assumption we were still underground. What was the point of going into the sewer line anyways?

That question was answered a few seconds later when Micheal, Heath, and Nick arrived. A couple of black duffel bags were in their hands. They only came back to pick something up, but for what?

"Did you get everything?" Cage asked.

"Yes." Nick mumbled. He was kinda cute but oldish, with light brown hair and even lighter brown eyes. Micheal was the one with the black hair and blue eyes. He looked to be in his last thirties. In the growing sunrise, I recognized their faces from the news. Micheal Vintaly, Heath Stine, and Nicolas Mantelle. They were Cage Vicker's best friends and most loyal minions.

Heath Stine was the one who scared me. Fern said that he was born here in Ivey last year but I didn't believe her. The Crows were based in Chicago. They rose to power in Europe after Cage murdered Anthony Simmons, one of the most notorious mob leaders in Italy, and took over the crime ring. Heath had a history of violence and run-ins with various law enforcement that took a few innocent lives two years ago after an arms smuggling.

"Where are you going?" I asked, my heart thudding. Maybe they would let me go now. I wasn't even supposed to be here. This was the craziest mistake of my life. Cage Vickers was the kind of person even criminals tried to avoid. The way the Crows handled business was one of the reasons why they were so well known and well feared. They had no mercy.

"Move back." Cage pushed me gently towards the balcony ledge.

"Why?"

No one answered my question. No one needed to. I found the answer myself, and it was one that sent a wave of terror through my stomach. In the distance, growing closer and closer by the second, was the loud whirring of a helicopter that was heading straight to where we stood.