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I get to her in two steps. I take her face in my free hand and make her look at me instead of the door.

She's trembling under my palm. That's what does it, more than the floorboard, more than the red light on the screen. I've spent two weeks reading files about girls who ended up somewhere they never came back from, and now the fear is right here in my hands, and it's hers.

I keep my voice low and absolute. "Whatever happens, I promise I will find you. Just have faith I will find you."

"Mile…"

The door explodes inward.

Splinters of wood spray across the room. I shove Sadie hard toward the far side of the bed and rise, already firing. The first man who comes through the door takes a round center mass and drops like a puppet with cut strings. Two more push in behind him. Muzzle flash lights the room in harsh white bursts. Sadie screams, she’s terrified.

I put another round into the second man’s shoulder. He staggers but keeps coming, blood is blooming dark across his jacket. The third raises his weapon. I fire again and miss as he moves. Something hot and vicious punches into my left side just below the ribs. The impact spins me half around. Pain detonates through my torso like a red-hot iron rod driven straight through muscle and bone. I feel the wet heat of blood instantly soaking my sweatpants, the sharp, sickening grind of something torn inside me every time I try to breathe. My vision whites out for a split second. I still fire, still try to put myself between them and Sadie.

Another shot cracks. This one hits higher, just under my collarbone on the right side. The force knocks me back a step. My right arm goes instantly numb, and heavy as lead. The Glock almost slips from my fingers. Fire radiates outward from the new wound in waves, each one worse than the last. Breathing feels like inhaling broken glass. I force myself to keep shooting one-handed, my left side screaming with every movement, blood already running warm down my stomach and dripping onto the floor.

I hear Sadie screaming as one of them grabs her. She fights, kicks, screams my name. I try to lunge, but my legs buckle under the twin fires in my body. The room tilts. I put one more round into the wall near the last man’s head as a warning, but it’s not enough. They drag her out. Footsteps thunder down the stairs, and a car engine revs outside.

A man stands in front of me. “We warned you.” And he leaves.

Then there’s just silence. I can’t stand. Blood is pooling under me in a spreading dark stain. The side wound is the worse one, it’s deep, ad pumping with every frantic heartbeat. Every shallow breath sends a fresh spike of agony through my ribs. I drag myself across the floor on my elbows toward the man I shot first. He’s still breathing, barely conscious, and has blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth. I dig the handcuffs from under the bed where I keep a lot of my stuff, clamp one around his wrist, then crawl, hauling his dead weight with me, all the way into the bathroom. The effort is pure torment. My left side feels like it’s being torn open with every pull. Black spots dance at the edges of my vision. I lock the other cuff to the heavy radiator pipe under the sink. He isn’t going anywhere.

My vision is graying. Every movement feels like glass grinding inside my chest. I crawl back out, leaving a dark smear across the floorboards, until I reach the phone on the nightstand. It takes three tries to unlock it. My fingers are slippery with blood. My right arm barely works, I have to use my left hand, which sends fresh waves of nausea through me every time I shift my weight.

I dial Mason.

He picks up on the second ring.

“Hello…”

“Home.”

The word is less than a whisper. The phone slips from my hand as the room tilts and goes black.

Twenty-Eight

Sadie

I see the second bullet hit Miles.

It punches into the space just under his collarbone. His whole body jerks like someone yanked a string. Blood blooms instantly across his bare chest, dark and fast. He staggers, still trying to lift the gun, still trying to put himself between me and the men. His eyes find mine for half a second, they’re wide, furious, and he’s terrified for me, before his legs buckle and he goes down hard.

They drag me out of the bedroom by my arms, there are two of them and I’m doing everything to fight them off, but it’s hard when they’re three times your size.

“Miles!”

The scream rips out of me so loud it hurts my own throat. I fight. I kick, twist and claw at the hands holding me. My nails catch skin. Someone curses something not in English, sharp and angry. Another voice snaps an order I don’t understand. A hand clamps over my mouth. I bite down as hard as I can. The man yells and rips his hand away, then backhands me across the face so hard my vision explodes into white sparks.

They haul me down the stairs like I weigh nothing. My bare feet scrape and bang against the wood. Outside, the night air hits my skin like a slap. A dark van waits with its rear doors already open.

They throw me in.

I land hard on the metal floor, shoulder first. The impact knocks the air out of me. Rough rope is yanked around my wrists and pulled brutally tight. The fibers dig into my skin, and the doors slam shut with a heavy sound.

I can’t stop seeing the blood.

There was so much blood spreading across his chest. The way his body jerked, and the look in his eyes when he realized he couldn’t reach me.

Whatever happens, I promise I will find you. Just have faith I will find you.