Crack.
Glenn jerked.
His jaw dropped and his blue eyes widened as he met her gaze. The knife slipped from his fingers and embedded itself into the wood floor with athunk. “You…” He stared down at the scarlet stain spreading across his white shirt and sank to his knees.
Oh, God.
Caitlyn stumbled as the world around her tilted.
Was he…? Had she really just…?
Oh, God.The gun in her hands trembled.
Her pulse took off. She’d never… Not likethat.
She tried to jettison the shock.Get it together, Cait. She couldn’t afford to lose it now. They weren’t out of danger.
But, Jesus, she’d never shot anyone point blank before. So close. So personal. His blood on her skin. Soaked into her dress.
It was self-defense.She’d had no choice. And no doubt the world would be a better place without Glennin it, but she was no exterminator.
Her knees buckled.
“Hey.” Kurt grabbed her arm and kept her on her feet, his expression full of concern. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, trying to clear the fog in her head and the cotton in her ears. “I’m fine.” Or she would be.
“You had no choice.” He kneeled next to Glenn, who had slumped onto his side on the floor, and checked his back. “Through and through.”Then, he rolled him face up and tore open Glenn’s shirt to expose the oozing wound on his chest.
At the top of the stairs, a woman screamed.
Caitlyn swallowed against the rising bile in her throat and set the gun on the floor. “It’s okay. I’m looking for Rose.” She ran halfway up the steps on shaky legs. “And if you’d like to leave here, we can help you.”
“No.You must go.”
“But—”
“Rose isgone.”
Caitlyn’s stomach tumbled. Gone? “Do you know where she is? Did she get moved or…?” Caitlyn couldn’t bring herself to say it.
“She disappeared last week.”
The air rushed from Caitlyn’s lungs. Bile rose in her throat. If Rose had run, if she was safe, wouldn’t she have contacted Caitlyn or Shaylee?No. Oh, no.
Pulling her back to the moment, the woman shooed her away. “Guards will becoming. Go.Now.” She shuffled out of reach, hiding the fresh bruises on her face in the shadows. “I saw nothing,” she said, and flew down the hall.
“Caitlyn,” Kurt called.
On leaden feet, Caitlyn forced herself to turn away.Gone. “Rose isn’t here.” Panic beat a tattoo on her sternum. What if they were too late?
“We’ll find her.” Kurt sounded so sure, she almost believed him.
She needed sobadly to believe him.
He had fashioned a bandage for Glenn’s wound and now stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding the accomplice’s weapon in his bloody hands.
“Is he—”
