The building hummed with hidden life. There were people inside—hundreds, maybe thousands. Even through the restraints, she could feel the pressure of their thoughts.
Home Field’s upper floors were encased in glass, reflecting the pale moons. The lower half had discolored by neglect. People wore scarves over their necks and faces—as if dust or disease lingered everywhere. A chain-link fence rose around the complex. It rose ten feet high, crowned with coils of dark metal. Even if she escaped the building, she would never outrun this place. Not with her wounds and not with her luck.
Still, she would try. For Cary.
They passed security checkpoints. One was outside the fence, another inside. Gloved hands searched every inch of her, rough and impersonal, while Nikos barked at the guard.
“Alright, we’re clean. Tell Number Three the Simas girl is here, plus one extra. We’re taking them down below.”
Down below.So, Ryker wasn’t waiting at the door.
Good—or worse.
Were they taking her to Ryker soon or shelving her until he decided she mattered? Either way, if she wanted any chance of survival, she needed to gather information: find out who truly ran this place, where the weak points were, and what Ryker wanted with her and Taryn. Escape would come after.
Deeper into the structure, it was cold and white under too-bright lights. Basir and Nikos had called it a processing center and, at other times, a holding facility, but inside these walls, it seemed to operate as both a prison and a laboratory.
Everyone had a task, a place to be. Still, they stared. She saw the wariness in the guards’ eyes. They studied her wrists longer than Taryn’s, careful not to meet her stare. She wasn’t like the others.
A jab of metal struck her back. Nikos’s voice was low, meant only for her. “Come on. You’re mine to handle until I hand you over. Don’t think of making this harder.”
His fingers clamped around the back of her neck, steering her ahead.
Audrey walked without speaking. She forced her face into stone. More people stared at her. She ignored them. Being afraid was a privilege she didn’t have—not here, not now.
“Well, well, well,” Nikos drawled in amusement. “Quiet at last. Good. Means you’re scared. You should be, you stupid bitch. I might even get some time alone with you before he burns this pretty body to ashes. I can’t wait to shut that smart little mouth.”
His hands sank further into her neck.
Audrey ground her teeth, fury simmering warm below her skin. If she ever found another moment as she had with Nassir, she would paint the floor with Nikos’s blood.
Where was Emerson? If he were alive, she would have walked him exactly where he wanted to go. Let him come. Even if she never forgave him, he could help her get off this shithole.
They turned into a maze of identical hallways with white walls, sealed doors, and fluorescent light. A place designed so no one inside could ever learn its shape.
Down a flight of stairs to a lower floor, they were shoved into a bare room with two beds, one bathroom, and no windows. A single overhead light burned constantly. The walls pressed in like a contracting throat.
She curled her hands into fists, fighting the shaking.
Don’t let them see. Not now.
They did not comefor Audrey that day. Or the day after. That frightened her more than an interrogation would have. It meant someone had given orders. It meant she was being saved for a reason.
Instead, men in black leather banged on the door. They marched inside and dragged Taryn away by her arms. She always came back hours later in pieces. Burns. Cuts. Clothing torn into bloody lace. Burn-marked as if someone had purposefully held her skin to the flame.
By the third morning, a rhythm took shape. Harsh lights snapped on, food trays slid in with plain water and stale bread, and silence devoured the hours. Guards arrived for Taryn after they ate, and hours later, they brought her back for bed.
Audrey started watching for patterns—which guard paused as she passed? Which footsteps brought food to her cell, not violence? When did the building seem to fall asleep around her? If this place ran on routine, routine could fail for her, too.
Audrey heard the guards in black leather whispering to each other. “Don’t mark the Simas. He wants her intact,” one said.
She pretended not to hear.
The door opened an hour later, but it wasn’t the usual guards this time. A woman in a gray detainee uniform walked in before anyone outside could stop her. Her eyes shot between Audrey and Taryn like she was weighing livestock. “Simas,” she said.
Audrey ignored her.
“They say Number One asked for you.” The woman looked down her nose at Audrey. “That makes you either very important...or very dead.”
