“I left my phone upstairs.Leo’s there.”
He looked torn, but he trusted Leo to watch out for her.
She hurried to get it, taking the back stairwell, the familiar concrete steps echoing softly under her shoes.The emergency lights glowed dimly, painting the walls in a sickly amber that made everything feel slightly unreal.
It was eerily dark when she reached the second floor.“Leo?Are you up here?”
No answer.He must’ve gone down the main stairs when the power went off.She swiped her phone from his desk and headed back toward the way she came.Halfway down, unease slid down her spine, cold and sudden, raising the fine hairs on her arms.
She turned, and the world exploded sideways.
A brutal shove slammed into her back, hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs.She cried out as her body pitched forward, legs tangling as her palms scraped violently against the railing while she clawed for purchase, foranythingthat would stop the fall.
She gasped, choking on panic, clinging to the rail as her vision blurred and stars burst behind her eyes.Above her, a shape bolted upward.Footsteps pounded and a door slammed.
“Kayne!”she screamed.
He was there seconds later, skidding to his knees beside her, hands everywhere at once—her shoulders, her arms, her face—gentle despite the urgency.
“Chloe,” he said softly.“Look at me.Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, breath hitching, even as blood slicked her palms.“Someone pushed me.”
His gaze flicked upward, tracking the empty stairwell.Something in his face went absolutely still.He pressed his forehead briefly to hers, grounding her, or himself, she wasn’t sure which.Then he was gone, moving like a shadow up the stairs, lethal and silent.
Leo arrived looking as frantic as Kayne as he also checked her for injuries.Anja appeared with towels, wrapping them around Chloe’s hands, her touch brisk but reassuring.
Kayne returned moments later, his face a mask carved from stone.He and Anja exchanged a look, some silent security specialist shorthand Chloe couldn’t read, and Anja took off up the stairs.
Chloe couldn’t hold it in any longer.“I don’t want to die in this building,” she said, her voice breaking despite her best efforts.“I don’t want this place to be the thing that kills me.”
Kayne pulled her into his embrace, holding her so the world couldn’t steal her away.
“You won’t,” he promised.“I won’t let it happen.”
But as he lifted his head, his eyes burned with something beyond fear.Resolve.
Whoever was doing this had crossed a line and she could tell Kayne was done waiting.
