“I’m here,” I interrupted him, trying to pull myself together, trying to suppress my fear and sorrow, trying not to think of the dead, and instead focusing on the fact that he was with me. The one person I could get through this with—if only, if only I had known what was coming, if only I had known how long I would have to wait for another chance like this one.
“Thiago, we’ve got to get out of here. They’re going to kill us all.”
Had Taylor managed to escape? I didn’t know. Had one of the guys in the library gotten to him? Had Julian?
“Taylor helped us,” I said, hearing a change in Thiago’s breathing. “We were in the library, these guys wanted to hand us over, they thought that way they could save themselves. It was horrible. And Taylor told us to run. And then Ellie— I don’t know if he made it out. I only looked back once.”
“Taylor’s alive?” Thiago asked.
“He was. A minute ago he was. Now…”
I fell silent. Not just because Thiago covered my mouth with his massive hand, but because I, too, heard voices outside. Thiago lowered his hand but gestured for me to remain silent.
“I want them alive, you hear me? I want those three alive and kicking,” Julian commanded, and I shuddered at the sound of his voice.
I remembered the last time we’d talked before I learned that he was stalking me, before I learned that our friendship, his whole persona, everything, was a lie… He was sick, he was crazy—but what he said next pushed me over the edge.
“We can’t find the kid, Jules,” one of his goons said.
“Well, he’s got to be somewhere. Find him, dammit! He’s seven fucking years old. He can’t have gone far!”
Thiago held me tight, pushed me against the wall and pressed his hand to my lips so I wouldn’t scream. My little brother. My poor little brother. Cameron.
Once they were gone, Thiago held my face in his hands. “Listen,” he said, “your brother’s fine. He’s safe.”
“You saw him?” My voice was quivering and I wanted to cry, but the tears didn’t come. This moment was too critical; I had to block off all my fears if I wanted to make it out alive. There would be time enough later to break down and cry. For now, I needed to get a grip.
“Yeah,” Thiago said. “He’s hiding.”
“Hiding? Where?” I couldn’t believe it. I thought he’d made it out. The poor little kid, he was still inside, and it was a death trap for anyone I loved or cared about. “Take me to see him,” I went on. “I need to see him.”
I tried to open the door, but Thiago grabbed my hand and said, “Kam, he’s safe. I promise you. Now focus. I’m going to get us out of here. We’ll go out through the roof. Once we’re there, the helicopters will see us and they’ll rescue us.”
Taylor had said the same thing to Ellie and me. Get to the roof. But how?
I asked him, and he responded, “There’s a skylight in thecafeteria. It’s big enough to squeeze through. And your brother’s there, in the kitchen. He’s hiding. They won’t see him.”
“Take me to him,” I said. I needed out, now. I needed to see with my own eyes that my brother was all right, that he was alive.
“We need a ladder first,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
He looked so tired. So tired, and so afraid.
“There’s one ladder in the utility room. If we can get there and take it to the cafeteria—”
“We can get out,” I finished for him.
“That’s right,” he confirmed.
Our eyes met. I looked into those beautiful green eyes, eyes that had once made me tremble but now felt soothing because I knew with him, I was safe, I knew he would help me escape this hell. All the emotions inside me surged together. “Thiago,” I said. But there were no more words to express what I was feeling. I saw something in his eyes: not just terror, but love, promises that couldn’t be spoken now. And that’s when it happened.
Our lips met, and it was nothing like any other kiss we’d shared before. This kiss was special because I knew it might be our last. My back was against the wall, his hands sought me out desperately; it was as if he needed to feel every inch of me, treasure the heat of my body, remind himself that I was his.
For that brief moment, there was nothing in the world but the two of us. The horror outside ceased to exist.
His hands touched my face, tracing my every feature. His mouth drank my tears, and we kissed until we ran out of breath. I knew then it was him—my heart belonged to him alone.
“I love you,” he said. “Don’t ever forget that, OK?”
