His muscles were clenched so tightly they ached.His SIG Sauer was in his grip, ready to fire.Anja was right behind him, and probably Leo, too, despite explicit instructions to stay back since he didn’t have the training.Yeah, Leo followed orders about as well as Kayne did.
The air down here clung to his skin like something that didn’t want to let go.He saw the movement ahead just as Chloe did.
“Evan?”Chloe said.
Kayne’s gut dropped straight through the floor.
Evan Calder turned, and in the half-light, Kayne clocked the fear instantly, not guilt.The way his eyes went wide and frantic.The sharp shake of his head.
A warning that came too late.
Kayne opened his mouth to shout as a gunshot exploded through the tunnel.
Evan’s body snapped forward, the sound of impact sickeningly solid as he hit the ground.Blood bloomed fast, dark and spreading, and Kayne surged forward, rage detonating inside him.
“Chloe!”
He was too late.
Aiden Kerr stepped out from behind Evan’s falling body.He was calm and focused, the gun still warm in his hand.He wasn’t shaking, nor remorseful about what he’d done.
Kayne raised his weapon, finger tightening, but Chloe was in his line of fire.
Aiden spotted him and moved fast.He grabbed Chloe and yanked her sideways into a narrow opening Kayne hadn’t clocked until it swallowed her whole.The wall slid shut behind them with a soft, final sound that was worse than any slam.
“No!”Kayne roared.
He hit the wall at a dead run, smashing into it with brutal force, bruising the hell out of his shoulder and possibly dislocating it.He ignored the pain to shove and search for a handle, a latch, anything.Smooth concrete stared back at him.It was seamless.An invisible door designed not just to close, but to disappear.
“Chloe!”He pounded it with his fist, pain flaring up his arm.“Chloe, answer me!”
No vibration or give.It was as if she’d been erased.
The tunnel rang with the echo of his harsh breathing and the distant drip of water.Kayne forced himself to step back and think.Panic was useless.It got people killed.
But God help him, it clawed at him anyway.
He glanced once at Evan’s body, fury burning hot and focused now.Anja and Leo rushed to him.
“He’s got her,” Kayne said.“She’s behind a hidden door with no visible release.He planned this.”
Anja sucked in a breath.Leo shook with rage, mirroring Kayne’s feelings.
Kayne pressed his forehead to the wall for one brutal second, letting the fear cut clean and deep, and then he straightened.
“I’m coming through this wall,” he said quietly.“One way or another.”
It wasn’t a threat.It was a statement of fact.Aiden Kerr had just made the worst mistake of his life.He’d taken Chloe.
Kayne was done playing by anyone else’s rules.
