“What is this place?”Its liminal space made her dizzy.
“A data center.”
A windowless behemoth of the internet and artificial intelligence.She’d driven by the looming plain buildings that had popped up over northern Virginia.Their nondescript security presence was uniform, with fences and guards and tiny parking lots.From what she knew, few people actually worked inside the buildings that covered the size of several football fields.At least now she understood the hum.
And she knew they wouldn’t run into a soul.
How was she going to escape?
Maybe she could peel down the hall, run into a room with massive servers—or whatever was in data centers—and tear out wires and press buttons on a wild ride.If she happened to shut down the internet for half of the United States or bring global banking to a halt, someone would know where to find her.That was better than somehow stealing Dominic’s phone to call 911.She wasn’t sure that a cell phone signal would transmit beyond the strumming sound of technology churning around her.
But for all she knew, any door she pulled open would lead to a broom closet, and Dominic would be pissed.For now, he only seemed aggravated that someone else had taken her.Not that she’d pretended to be dead to hide from him.
Her stomach turned at the thought of anything related to being his wife.“When we get,” she caught herself from saying New York, “home, I need to go shopping.”
“Obviously.I don’t understand what you’re wearing.Pick what you need, like always.”
Like always, as if they hadn’t been apart for years.
Even after his bank accounts were frozen, his residences were staffed, and his lifestyle remained.As a crypto broker, he had hidden money where laws hadn’t caught up yet.Untraceable.There was no telling how wealthy he really was.
The people who worked for him were discreet and wouldn’t breathe a word if Dominic’s dead wife was suddenly in need of a personal shopper.He’d supply her with a fitness trainer, chef, stylist, and makeup artist by the end of the day now that he knew she’d chosen New York City.None of them would care that she was supposed to be dead and never left his property.
If he got her there, she would never leave.She couldn’t do this again.
Grace turned and sprinted.
“Grace.”
She kept running.The corridors blurred into a disorienting emptiness.
“Grace!”
She cut down a hallway.Then another.A red light called to her like a homing beacon.Dominic’s bellowing voice echoed around her, growing quieter, but she didn’t think for a second that she’d lost him.If he had access to this building, he might know its blank walls and featureless paths.Maybe he could pull up video footage and track her like a mouse through a maze, smiling and laughing at her ineptitude.
Her legs burned.Lightheaded, she needed to catch her breath.Don’t stop.She drew closer to the red light.An exit sign, maybe.She ached to slow down but couldn’t.She refused.Even as the sameness of the walls, the ceiling, and the floor twisted each stride into a dizzying trial.
Grace reached the end of the hallway.The exit sign directed her down another endless hall.She spotted another red sign and followed it until she reached a stairwell.
Stumbling down the stairs, she twisted around to the next flight, struggling to keep moving until the stencil-painted wordsfirst floorpromised salvation.
The first floor was the same as the other.A liminal labyrinth, but with the slight difference of exits.She assumed the front entrance, at the top of the signage, was closest and took off.
Sweat poured down her back.Her aching arms pumped.The dozens of cat scratch scabs had their own pulses.Her exhausted body couldn’t handle any more of this—then she saw Dominic dead ahead, running from the opposite direction.
She’d never seen that man run after anything in his life.
The front entrance was between them, splitting the distance evenly.
“Grace, goddamn you, stop.”
Gritting her teeth, she called upon energy she didn’t have and poured herself into escape.The world around them slowed as if she were running on the bottom of the ocean floor, pushing through a wall of water she couldn’t see.
Grace reached the exit corridor first.His footsteps pounded behind, closing the distance, but she reached the front glass door—slamming into the glass at top speed and bouncing back like she’d run into a tree.
Dazed, unable to breathe, she lay on her back and stared at the featureless ceiling.
Dominic leaned over her face.“You stupid cunt.”
