“I didn’t steal your pain,” she said hoarsely.“And I didn’t mean to erase it.I didn’t even know about it.”
“But you did,” he replied.His voice softened again, almost gentle.“And now you’re going to understand it.”
The gun shifted in his grip as he stepped closer.
Her skin prickled with cold.
Somewhere beyond the concrete, she prayed Kayne was still searching, still moving, still tearing the world apart to find her, because Aiden wasn’t finished talking and Chloe wasn’t sure she’d survive what he planned to say next.
#
The silence on theother side of the wall was wrong.Kayne forced himself to take two steadying breaths before he moved, because panic got people killed and Chloe needed him alive, focused, and thinking.He scanned the narrow corridor once more, weapon up and senses stretched tight.Kayne stepped past Chloe’s dropped shoe and crouched beside Evan Calder’s body.
He already knew.Still, he checked with two fingers to the neck.No pulse.Eyes fixed and empty, staring at nothing.The blood pooling beneath him was dark and cooling fast.Evan hadn’t stood a chance.
“Damn it,” Kayne muttered under his breath.
Aiden Kerr had shot him without hesitation.That told Kayne everything he needed to know about what kind of fight this had become.
This wasn’t desperation.It was execution.
He rose and pivoted toward the blank wall where Chloe had vanished.There was no handle, no seam, no visible mechanism.All he saw was solid gray, as if it had never opened at all.
A magician’s trick.An illusion.
Kayne pressed his palm flat against the concrete, every instinct screaming that she was right there.Close enough to hear if she cried out.Close enough to be suffering while he stood useless on the wrong side of a blockade.
The thought scraped something violent loose inside him.
“Hang on,cher.I’m coming.”
Anja was at his shoulder instantly, already tracking the same problem.“That door didn’t open,” she said.“It slid.Internal track, maybe hydraulics.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Kayne replied.“I’m not waiting for it to open again.”
He took a step back, evaluating the thickness, the reinforced concrete, and the way the wall met the floor.It was built to keep people in and ensure no one upstairs ever knew what was happening below.
Rage burned in his chest, stripping everything down to one purpose.“I need C4,” he said.
Anja didn’t blink.She was already turning.“How much?”
“Bricks,” he said flatly.“Enough to make a door where he didn’t plan on one.”
She was gone in a flash, sprinting down the tunnel toward the SUV, boots pounding, no wasted movement.Leo hovered nearby, pale but steady.
Kayne paced once, then twice, forcing his mind to stay focused instead of spiraling into images he didn’t want to finish forming.
He’d run background checks on Aiden Kerr, Evan, and even Sandy.All had come back clean.So why had Aiden taken Chloe?
Anja returned at a run, breath controlled despite the speed, a heavy pack slung over her shoulder.She dropped it at Kayne’s feet and unzipped it, revealing the unmistakable gray blocks.
They worked fast.No discussion.No second-guessing.
He set the charges carefully along the wall, hands steady despite the fury vibrating through his bones, calculating blast radius and structural stress.Kayne wasn’t interested in subtle.He wanted access to Chloe before the damage became permanent.
When it was done, he backed them all away, shoving Leo behind him, one arm braced out.
“Cover your ears,” he ordered.“And your heads.”
