“Who were those men?” I asked, my voice trembling despite my efforts to keep it steady.

“My father’s scouts,” Adrian said, keeping a hand on my shoulder as we walked.

“Salvatore doesn’t leave anything to chance,” Isabella added without turning around.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and unlocked a heavy wooden door.

Beyond it lay a narrow hallway lit by bare bulbs hanging from a tangled mess of wires on the ceiling.

It looked like an old maintenance tunnel from the early half of the century.

“This leads to the old freight tunnels,” Adrian whispered to me. “They run under the entire Loop.”

Lena started to whimper, her small face puckering in the dim light.

“Shh, sweetie,” I whispered, kissing her cold forehead. “We’re almost there.”

Isabella stopped at a metal security door halfway down the hall.

She pressed her thumb against a digital scanner mounted on the brick wall.

The scanner beeped, and a heavy lock slid back with a loud thud.

She pushed the door open, revealing a small, functional room.

There were two green military cots, a scarred wooden table, and several folding chairs.