A collage of softer images followed. Them snuggling in a bed with sheets and blankets all tousled as the early morning sunlight broke through the blinds. Them walking hand-in-hand through the crowded streets of the Dallas historic district. Carter standing at an altar as she walked toward him while wearing a long white dress.
Okay…wow…that one had come out of nowhere. But shockingly—or maybe not so shockingly—Hadley realized she wasn’t amazed. In fact, the idea of marrying Carter some day was very appealing to her.
After another few minutes of letting her mind wander to places she’d never imagined visiting anytime soon—including kids and minivans—Hadley decided she wasn’t going to get anything done tonight.
“Hey, Carter. You ready to get out of here?” she asked, raising her voice a little even though she knew he could hear her easily regardless of the heavy door in between them.
Hadley walked over to the filing cabinet, put the file away, then locked everything up. Glancing at her desk to make sure she didn’t leave anything behind, she grabbed her purse and headed for the door. To her surprise, Carter wasn’t in the waiting area.
In fact, it was eerily empty.
A momentary sense of dread welled up inside her, but then she saw the open outer office door and realized that Carter had probably just gone into the lobby to get the takeout from the delivery driver. Having spent more than a few late nights here herself, Hadley knew the people delivering food hated coming into the office complex at night. The place was dimly lit, with a warren of confusing hallways, and a room numbering system that defied any reasonable logic. When your paycheck depended on making deliveries as quickly as possible, you didn’t want to walk around a creepy building searching for a particular office.
Turning off the lights, Hadley walked out and locked the door.
She’d walked through the hallways hundreds of times, but tonight, her heart was beating a little faster than usual. Fear tended to put a person on edge.
She wasn’t even halfway to the front door when she heard the thud of footsteps on tile, coming from somewhere around the next corner. She froze in mid-step, heart in her throat, then quickly hurried forward. It was obviously Carter coming her way.
“I’m done,” Hadley said as she closed the distance between them. “Let’s just take dinner home and eat there.”
Smiling, Hadley rounded the corner, only to freeze when she realized it wasn’t Carter at all. It was one of the men who’d escaped with Strickland, and he was headed toward her with a menacing look on his face.
She lashed out at the spawn instinctively. Her fist glanced off the guy’s jaw like it was made of stone, pain radiating through her knuckles and up her arms. The blow made the man blink a few times but barely backed him up an inch. It was enough to give her time to get away though.
Turning, she raced back down the hall toward her office, screaming for Carter and praying she could get the door unlocked and opened before the spawn caught her. But with the rapidly approaching sound of footsteps behind her, she doubted there was much chance of getting that far.
Giving up on her original plan, Hadley took the first left turn she reached, darting down two intersections before heading toward the financial investment firm that occupied that side of the complex. Behind her, the footsteps faded, making her think she’d lost the guy.
Hadley slowed, taking turns at random now, wanting to scream for Carter again but terrified it would alert the spawn to where she was.
She slowed down, trying to find a place to hide when movement just ahead of her caught her attention. Her heart seized in her chest, sure that she’d taken so many twists and turns that she’d run right back into the spawn chasing her.
Hadley barely stopped the shriek that threatened to slip out, darting to the side and crouching down behind a water faucet mounted on the wall. It wasn’t much, but it was better than standing in the middle of the hallway.
When she got a look at the man’s face, she realized it wasn’t the one who’d been chasing her earlier. It was another one of Strickland’s spawns.
The moment the man crossed the intersecting hallways ahead of her and disappeared from sight, she was up and moving, heading back the way she’d come, hoping against hope that she didn’t stumble across another one of Strickland’s spawns.
The sound of footsteps around the next darkened corner sent her heart careening out of control again, and her eyes darted left and right, looking for somewhere—anywhere—to hide.
She darted for the nearest door, praying it wasn’t locked. It took her a moment to realize there wasn’t even a doorknob, only a stainless-steel push plate. It was a bathroom. She pushed the door open as quietly as she could, stepping inside, then letting the door swing closed silently behind her.
The room was a nearly pitch-black hole of darkness, with the only illumination coming from an orange LED sitting on top of a set of emergency lights attached to the far wall. Hadley shuffled forward, desperate to find a place to hide.
But she’d barely made it a few feet across the tile floor when the door opened, flooding the bathroom with the dim light from the hallway, revealing a large man silhouetted there, face shrouded in darkness. Hadley couldn’t stop the scream that slipped out, the pitch climbing as the figure stepped forward.
“It’s okay,” a deep, familiar voice said. “It’s me.”
Relief surging through her, Hadley rushed over to throw herself into Carter’s strong arms.
He pulled her in for a quick second, but then immediately grabbed her hand, heading for the door. “We need to get out of here.”
Carter practically yanked Hadley off her feet he was moving so fast, but she couldn’t be bothered to care. He was here and she was safe. And that was all that mattered.
* * * * *
Carter lay paralyzed on the floor of the supply closet, staring up at the dark ceiling as something hard dug into his back. Based on the size and shape, he was pretty sure it was a mop handle. Or a toilet brush. Whatever it was, the thing was starting to hurt like hell. Not that he was complaining since the pain gave him something to focus on in his effort to fight through the drug that Strickland injected into him not more than ten minutes ago.
