Page 106 of The Dark Before Light

I spin, lunging for the keypad. My fingers shake so hard I get the code wrong. Gabe’s spine presses to my back.

“Focus, Talia. You can do it.”

I punch my code in again and the light turns green. With a sob of relief, I grab the handle. As I pull the steel door open, Gabe grunts and jerks backward, the impact of his body knocking my head against the door and slamming it closed. I’m dragged downward by his weight, barely managing to turn and catch him as he collapses.

A rough voice growls, “You could have hit her, asshole!”

Gabe blinks up at me, expression twisted in pain. “Run.”

Spectral cold consumes me. My hand lifts from his chest. In the orange glow of Crossroad’s security light, my palm looks black.

I glance up to see Bo and Elian sprinting toward us across the parking lot. Their mouths are open and moving—they’re yelling at me, but I can’t hear them. My head is a maelstrom of white noise. There are small flashes around them and they dive behind cars. My gaze swings to the right, finding one of the masked men pointing a gun in their direction. As I watch, his head snaps backward, a geyser of dark matter exploding from the back. He drops like a puppet with severed strings.

A powerful force wrenches me away from Gabe and drags me to my feet. My scream is choked off by an arm wrapping around my neck and squeezing. Something hard knocks into my temple. My ears ring. Ten feet away, Bo and Elian skid to a stop.

“Drop them,” snarls the man behind me.

Their guns clatter to the asphalt, empty hands lifting.

“Aren’t they good listeners?” The voice in my ear drips with venom. “Tell them, Mistress. Tell them how proud you are.”

In a flash of sickening comprehension, I know exactly who’s holding me. The same man whose article set flames to my career. The same man who was photographed stalking my house. But for the first time, my memory fails me. I can’t fucking remember his name.

“Please, don’t do this.”

The gun knocks against my head hard enough for me to see stars. “Shut your fucking mouth.”

He begins shuffling us sideways, away from the door and toward the street. My vision dims as I gasp for air. I can’t remember a thing from the self-defense classes I took in college. All I can see is Gabe’s unmoving body. All I can think is that he wasn’t armed or wearing Kevlar, that he was defenseless because of me. All I can feel is the crushing pressure on my throat and cool metal prodding my cheek.

“Hey, man, why don’t you let her go?” asks Bo loudly. “There are cameras all over this place. The club’s security will be here any second, and the cops are on their way. Get out of here while you still can.”

The man dragging me laughs. He aims his gun at them and fires, the repeated concussion scorching my ears despite the attached silencer. Elian dives out of sight. Bo lunges for his dropped gun, then shouts and falls, clutching his leg.

The pressure on my throat lessens. In a flash, I remember the man’s name.

I scream it as loud as I can.

The gun cracks against my temple and darkness swallows me whole.

Chapter 31

Kieran

Sven’s footsteps approach me from behind. I don’t turn my gaze from the darkness—the infinite black of the night-shrouded Pacific. On the beach below, Talia’s and my footsteps have been long washed away.

“Gabe is headed into surgery. Outlook is good.”

Somewhere inside me there’s a flicker of relief, but everything else is numb and cold. I’m pinned beneath miles of ice.

“Tom’s team has wrapped up at Crossroads. He should be here any minute. Security footage is in line with Bo’s and Elian’s accounts. Talia was moved into an alley without surveillance, but someone’s reviewing cameras in the area to see if they can narrow down the car she left in.”

“She didn’t leave,” I rasp.

He takes a step closer. “What?”

I turn on my heel and snarl, “She didn’t leave, Sven. She was abducted.”

He nods, dark eyes full of compassion. “You’re right, Kier. That’s what I meant. But we’re going to find her, okay? Talia did us a huge favor yelling the bastard’s name. Tom has people tearing apart Bradley Mills’s life right now. His physical description also matches the man we saw stalking her house.”

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