Almost.
#
The gym loomed aheadof them, dark against the night.Its glass reflected streetlights and their own approaching shapes like phantoms moving toward a familiar haunting, echoes of themselves closing in.Kayne automatically scanned the rooftops, alley mouths, cars that had no business being parked that close, anything that didn’t belong.
Anything that watched back.
Anja and Leo split off as planned the second they were on-site to circle the exterior.If there was another way in, some forgotten access point or clever little secret, it would be outside.They all wore comm devices to keep in touch and standard-issue Kevlar vests.
Inside was Kayne’s responsibility, which meant assuming the worst and being ready anyway.
He stayed close to Chloe as they entered, his presence a physical barrier whether she wanted it or noticed it.The lights snapped on, bathing the open space in sterile brightness that made every shadow harder, more suspicious.
The timer ticked down in the corner of his vision.
They moved methodically.Kayne checked sightlines while Chloe searched with the intimacy of someone who knew this place the way you knew your own kitchen in the dark.They looked in offices, storage rooms, locker rooms, behind the front desk, and under stairwells.
Nothing.Too much nothing.The absence pressed in on him, louder than noise ever was.
“Clock’s still running,” Chloe murmured, glancing at her phone.
“I know,” he said.
They pushed deeper, checking spaces that made no sense to hide a person and then checking them again anyway.Kayne ran his hand along the walls, feeling for inconsistencies, hollow spots, temperature shifts, or anything that broke the illusion of solid permanence.
Still nothing.
Anja’s voice crackled softly in his ear.“Exterior’s clean so far.No obvious secondary access.”
So where the hell was he hiding Danica?
The timer dropped another minute.
Kayne stopped near the center of the gym, slowly turning, letting his instincts roam without logic getting in the way.He’d learned to trust that quiet pull in his chest, the one that didn’t explain itself or ask permission.
“Chloe,” he said quietly.
She was already watching him.“What?”
“Knowing the original owners, we have to assume this place was built to hide things,” he said.
“Yes, but we know there isn’t a basement,” she said.
Kayne stared at the floor beneath their feet, polished and perfect and lying like hell.
“Doesn’t mean there isn’t something else,” he said.
The timer kept ticking off seconds.Somewhere nearby, the building gave a soft, almost imperceptible sound, as if something shifted under pressure, settling into place.
Kayne’s hand closed around Chloe’s wrist, steady and sure.“Stay with me,” he said.
It was a command born of fear and certainty in equal measure.
Whatever waited beneath them, he intended to meet it head-on, without blinking.
#
Monsters rarely usedthe front door.
