“Kate! Run!” Becky grabs my arm.
I’m paralyzed by the shock of seeing our captor begin to crumble down the floor, clawing desperately at the sticky red cake stuck to his skin. He looks like he’s literally dying...from cake.
“Kate! Let’s gonow!”
I finally give in to her tugging, and we sprint out of the room. Becky must have kicked off her shoes because she’s barefoot, like me.
“Should we go for the stairs or hide?”
My question is answered when gunfire rains down on us from behind. We both scream, turning the corner toward Luke’s office in the nick of time.
Becky leads us to the only place left to go—our boss’s office. We both run in, slamming the door shut and turning the lock. I doubt that will hold them out, so I run toward the desk. Luke has to keep a gun in here. He always has one on him and in his kitchen drawers, so I’m praying his desk is the same.
I frantically pull on the handles, sifting through the contents as Becky tries to shove a leather chair in front of the door. My hand is digging through the third one down when I feel the cold metal, a brief sigh of relief coursing through me.
“Thank hell.”
I pull out the steel weapon, checking the safety. I never imagined I’d benefit from Luke’s shooting lesson, but I send up a prayer of thanks for it.
“You got this, Kate Dawson.” I point the gun up at the door. “Move out of the way, Becky.”
She’s finally got the chair in front of the door, but she turns to see the weapon in my hand before clambering toward me. “Where’d you find a gun?!”
“Desk. I’m going to shoot whoever walks through that door.”
“You got this, sugar.”
“The cake thing was . . . weird.”
“You asked me to do some research. He had a profile on a porn site that was some kind of hook-up meeting place where people could discuss their sexual...preferences. He specified that he enjoyed food play but was severely allergic to cocoa.”
I remember now how he tensed up when he asked if the cake was chocolate.
“Red velvet isn’t quite the same as chocolate...but it does contain cocoa powder,” Becky explains.
I turn to face her, shocked to realize that Nikolai was incapacitated and we escaped because of this woman’s insane online stalker skills.
“How—”
My question is cut off by a heavy thud against the door. I grip the gun harder, trying to remember everything I learned through the haze of my anxious thoughts. My palms are sweaty, knees shaking. I’m struggling to keep the weapon up as the old cut in my forearm begins to hurt with the effort along with my bloody wrists.
The door shoves open, a dark shadow entering.
My finger squeezes down hard on the trigger, the loud shot echoing through the office. I hit my mark, and the man’s body collapses to the ground to reveal another shadow behind him. I raise the gun back up, ready to fire again before?—
“Kate!” Luke’s voice carries toward me as he jumps over the dead man, rushing at us. “Kate, oh baby.”
I drop the gun, a sigh escaping me as I crumple into his embrace. A sob seeps from my lungs. The relief of seeing him alive and the renewed hope that I’m going to live through this evokes a strong swell of gratitude.
“I—I’m okay. Becky is too.”
Becky starts to say something before another man breaks into the office. Luke raises his gun and takes him out with one shot to the head. His lifeless body falls to the floor.
“Let’s get out of here,” he says.
CHAPTER 32
LUKE
