Waters usually patrols outside main event spaces, so he’s typically the easiest security officer to find.
Jenkins nods. “See if he has some extra comms while you’re at it. I’ll be near Ms. Hale’s table.”
Both Jenkins and Flores are uneasy since they don’t have their usual equipment, and I know they’ll both breathe a sigh of relief when they’re back up and running like normal.
“You got it.”
Jenkins and I turn from her and hurry down a long hallway, but just before we enter the ballroom, a burly security officer stops us.
“You’ll both need to step in here for a briefing,” he says in a brusque tone.
“What briefing?” Jenkins asks. “I wasn’t told of any briefings.”
“We’ve had some last-minute changes this morning.”
“Remind me of your name,” Jenkins says, eyeing the man as we follow him into a small room just off the ballroom.
“Can we hurry with this?” I snap. “I can hear the event starting. I don’t want to stroll in late and disrupt it.”
“Taylor,” the security officer says, answering Jenkins. “Mr. Langford hired extra security for the event.”
“What’s the new briefing then, Taylor?” Jenkins asks in a clipped tone.
“Nothing.”
Taylor raises a gun with a suppressor on the end of it and shoots Jenkins between the eyes before Jenkins can respond.
I scream as Jenkins’s body hits the floor.
“Scream again, and I’ll put the next bullet through you,” Taylor, if that’s really his name, says, rushing for me and shoving his gun into my side. “You do as I say and keep quiet, or you’ll regret it.”
My chest seizes and I can’t draw a full breath. Stars swim across my vision and I furiously try to blink them away. I stand frozen, disbelief swirling inside me as my eyes dart from Jenkins’s lifeless body to the man holding a gun to my side.
This can’t be happening.
This isn’t real.
That isn’t Jenkins on the ground.
Taylor pulls a cloth out of his pocket, and I flinch as he swipes it over the side of my face.
To wipe off the blood, I realize.
Jenkins’s blood.
Some survival instinct buried in the back of my mind reminds me that I need to calm down. I blink and take a long breath, choking back the scream of terror that wants nothing more than to erupt from me. I force down the panic roaring inside me just enough to function. I push all thoughts of Jenkins aside. I can’t think about him, not yet. If I do, I’ll break, and I can’t afford to do that with the hulking man gripping my arm and holding a gun to me.
Taylor yanks me to him and traps me against his chest. Again, panic threatens to overwhelm me, but Water’s voice echoes in the back of my mind about what to do if I’m held inthis exact position. I stomp down Taylor’s foot with my heel, and when he flinches, I manage to break his grip. I whirl out of his grasp and race for the door, but as soon as I’m out of the room a man holding tight to Flores blocks my escape. Taylor is behind me a second later, his gun presses to my side again, just like the man before me has a gun jutting into Flores’s ribs.
She’s not dead, I think with relief. But she’s not safe, either.
“Follow me, or she’ll be lying next to your other security guard,” Taylor growls, his disgusting breath skittering across my cheek.
If you can’t escape, comply with your attacker’s demands until we can get to you.
It’s the protocol Robert, Jenkins, Waters, and Flores all drilled into me.
With Flores’s life on the line, it’s my only option.
