Forbidden (Blood Ties #7)

I jerked my gaze to the fire extinguisher hanging on the wall as a low, deafening roar came.

Move!I lunged forward, slowing just enough to grasp the heavy metal canister and yanked it from the wall.

An ache tore through my side. The wounds from the bomb blast were still healing. But I didn’t care about that now, just lifted the heavy steel canister over my head as I raced for the door.

I could hear his steps and his jagged breathing bearing down on me.

A mewl ripped free, my elbows trembling, still weak with the drugs as I smashed the extinguisher down with all my weight…snapping the lock.

Boom!

The canister hit the floor as I yanked the now busted lock, tearing it free, and the door swung open. Darkness waited, darkness and an empty stairwell.

I didn’t look back, just plunged inside.

And prayed.

FOUR

Riven

A roar rippedfree as I surfaced. Bloody, searing…and terrifying.

Crack!

The hollow sound ripped through my head like the blow of a fist kissed with steel. I shoved against the floor, the white tiles blurring before they sharpened. Blood. Bodies.Her.

Reality slammed into me hard.

I rose to my feet, looking past the dead cleaner splayed out on my floor, then I moved, snatching my cell from the end table before stumbling to the doorway. At the far end of the hallway, she dropped the extinguisher with a deafeningCLANGand tore the broken lock from the stairwell door.Then she was gone, hurtling into the darkness, leaving me behind.

No…

NO!

I stumbled, slamming my hand against the doorframe of my apartment, and charged after her. There was no room for thinking anymore. Now some other sick need was in control.

All I saw was that open stairwell door as I ran past the dead body of the second cleaner. Still, reality pushed in…and with it came the text from an unknown number. One initialed with an H.

It was Hale.

It had to be.

Calling me to heel.

But there were never just two guys sent to wipe someone and their records from existence, were there? No. There wereneverjust two.

There were more coming.

I flinched as the rage brought blinding clarity.

No…there were more here.

They’ll kill her.

They’ll kill…Helene Montgomery.

I threw the door wider and plunged into the gloom, throwing my hand out to grasp the railing. The faint, frantic slaps of her bare feet only seemed to incite that strange hunger. I plunged down the stairs as below me the spill of light followed the howl of hinges.