Chapter Thirty-Two
The smoke hadn’t finishedclearing before Kayne was moving.He didn’t wait for visibility or confirmation.The second there was a hole big enough to fit a man through, he bolted, boots crunching over broken concrete, gun up and leading as instinct took over.
Hesitation was a luxury for people who weren’t already too late.
Anja was right on his six with Leo behind her.
The space beyond the wall opened into a brutal warren of rooms, concrete floors, exposed wiring, and narrow hallways branching in too many directions.
It wasn’t a basement.It was a maze designed to eat time.
Kayne’s pulse slammed hard as he scanned left, then right, then straight ahead at doors and open frames that disappeared into shadow.Every instinct screamed that he was losing time with each second he stood there not choosing.
“Split up?”Leo asked, already pivoting.
“No,” Kayne snapped.“Stay together.”Getting separated was how this place won.
He moved forward fast, clearing the first room in a blink.Empty.The second was packed with construction equipment: power saws, drills, compressors, all the things that had been stolen earlier.In the next room, rusted chains lined the walls.Dozens of them.Thick links, scarred and pitted with age, bolted deep into the concrete.Some still swayed from the concussion, scraping softly, metal whispering against stone like something alive trying to settle.
They hung loose now.Unoccupied.
Rage flared, hot and blinding, threatening to override discipline.He shoved it down.Fury could wait.Chloe couldn’t.
Another empty room.Another narrow hall.This place had been built to confuse, to funnel anyone who came looking into doubt and dead ends.
Kayne turned a corner, weapon sweeping, and then he heard it.
A scream.
It was high, rough, and terrified.
“Danica,” Leo breathed.
Kayne was already running.
The sound tore through him like a blade, clean and merciless, and he followed it without hesitation, lungs burning, boots pounding, and every thought collapsing into one singular command:
Hold on, Chloe.
#
Aiden shoved Chloeinto a space without a door.It was dim except for a bulb hanging from the ceiling directly above a woman slumped in a chair, hair tangled, eyes wide and glassy with fear.
“Danica.Are you okay?”Chloe rushed the words, already moving toward her.“Are you hurt?”
Danica sucked in a shaky breath.“Chloe?”
Aiden made a strangled sound behind her that was pure fear.His eyes darted to the ceiling, to the walls, to the doorway they’d just come through.Sweat slicked his temples, his breathing uneven.The careful cadence he’d wrapped himself in earlier was gone, replaced by something feral and unraveling.
