The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 207

Chapter 186: The Rescue

Bella POV

The building smelled of rust and old machine oil. At 6:10 AM, the silence was heavy and thick-the kind that makes every footstep feel like a shout.

I had never worn a tactical vest before. It sat heavy on my shoulders, but I was grateful for the weight. It gave me something concrete to focus on that wasn’t the image of Tom crying my name into his knees.

Agent Reyes’s team split at the fence line. Four agents headed for the freight entrance. A single agent named Torres, who moved with the kind of silence that comes from years of training, led Caleb and me toward the west fire escape.

The old metal vibrated with every step, but Torres moved up it without making a sound. Caleb was right behind me. On the third landing, he placed his hand briefly against the small of my back-not pushing me, just letting me know he was there.

We reached the second-floor door at 6:14.

Torres checked his earpiece. He held up one finger, then two, waiting for the signal from Reyes.

I could hear my own heartbeat. I was painfully aware of the corridor beyond that door-the forty feet between us and the northeast corner, the room where Tom was sleeping or crying or waiting for me.

The earpiece crackled as Torres pushed the door open.

The corridor was grey linoleum and exposed pipes, lit by a single emergency light at the far end. Torres moved ahead in a low, controlled run. Caleb and I stayed close behind him. The rooms on either side were dark and closed, forty feet felt like a mile.

Caleb’s hand found mine in the dark for one second. Not gripping-just contact. It was there and then gone, because we both needed our hands free.

“Northeast corner,” he said, barely a breath.

“I know,” I said back.

Twenty feet.

Behind us, from somewhere below, the freight entrance exploded with sound. Reyes’s team went in hard and loud. I heard the crash of a door, voices calling out, and the heavy thud of boots on concrete.

The stairwell door at the far end burst open.

A man came through it fast-heavyset, moving toward us. Torres hit him in a single motion, controlled and efficient. The man went down hard and stayed there as Torres had him secured in seconds.

I was already at the northeast door.

“Tom.” My voice came out wrong-too tight, not the way I needed it to be-so I tried again, my hand flat on the door, my forehead dropping against it for one second. “Tom, it’s Mummy. I’m right here. I’m right

outside.”

Chapter 186 the Rescue

Silence.

Then: “Mummy?”

The sound of it split me clean in half.

Claum

“Yes, baby. It’s me. I’m here,” I looked at Torres, who nodded and moved me gently to the side. He tried the handle-locked-stepped back and hit the door once, solidly, and the frame splintered and gave.

The room was small and grey. There was a camp lantern in the corner, an empty water bottle, and Tom’s dinosaur backpack against the wall. Tom was in the far corner, knees to his chest. He was already standing up before I was even through the door. Then he was running, and he hit me so hard I had to grab the doorframe to stay upright.

I sat down on the floor with him in my arms. I didn’t plan to-my legs just gave out. I was on the floor holding my son, his face pressed into my neck, his whole body shaking. I held him as tightly as I could without hurting him and said his name over and over until the shaking slowed.

“I wasn’t scared,” he said into my collar but his voice was thick from crying. “I wasn’t very scared.”

“I know,” I told him. “You were so brave.”

“I talked to the wall,” he said. “I told them things. So it wouldn’t be bored.”

I closed my eyes. “That was a good idea.”

He pulled back slightly and looked at my face.”You’ve been crying,” he said.

“A little bit.”

“I cried too,” he said. “A lot, actually. At the end.” He looked at me steadily. “I tried to be brave, but the tears just came out.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “That’s allowed.”

“I knew you were coming,” he said. “I kept telling myself that. I said-Mummy always comes. I said it out loud so I would not be scared.” He frowned a little bit. “Was that a good thing to do?”

I pressed my forehead against his. “That was exactly the right thing to do.”

He seemed happy with that. He reached up and patted my face with one hand, the way he did when he was checking to see if I was real, and I let him.

“My backpack’s still got my crackers,” he said, looking over his shoulder at it. “They didn’t take my crackers, Mummy.”

“Do you want them?”

“No.” He turned back. “I want chips. The real ones.”

“Okay.”

“Salt and vinegar,” he said.

“Salt and vinegar,” I agreed.

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