Page 92 of Hide From Me

Maybe the detective was right. She was too good for the likes of me, but she’d chosen me. I’d tried to let her go, and she’d come back to me.

Maybe I wasn’t the man that walked through the front door of a building, but I was the man that would rip out the heart of anyone that would ever hurt her.

“What are you doing?”

The panic threaded in those words had me ripping the door open. I knew where the elevators were. She should almost be down. I knew everything had happened on the eighth floor. It wouldn’t take long.

“Stop,” she said over the phone.

“Rylee? Answer me,” I said as I flipped off the security guard and hopped over the rather useless turnstiles.

The elevator bank was two on one side and two on the other. But only one was slowly ticking off the floors.

“Stop, please. We work together. Back up and I’ll forget all of this.”

All I could hear was Rylee and bile rose in my throat. What did she have to say stop to? I dropped the phone in my pocket as something I hadn’t felt ever slithered its hold around my throat. Fear.

I fucking pounded on the elevator door like that was going to get the damn thing down faster. Instead of it helping my nerves or even making me think I was doing anything to help, the loud sound of the elevator started to ring. What the fuck?

The elevator was stopped on the second floor.

“You, what the fuck is happening?”

The guard was pathetic and old. I doubted he knew me, but by the way he looked at me, I knew he at least understood that Iwasn’t to be fucked with. He fumbled over the computer, pulling up the camera in the elevator.

“They pushed the button to stop the elevator.”

My stomach churned.

“They didn’t do shit. He did. How do I access the elevator from here?”

The fucker was white as a sheet, and it was pissing me off.

“Call the fucking fire department, do whatever. But I will find that elevator.”

He nodded towards a door I hadn’t seen earlier.

I reached over the counter and grabbed his badge.

“Thanks for your cooperation. Keep your mouth shut and I’ll reward you.”

I scanned the ID and tossed it to the ground as I ripped open the door to a stairwell. I couldn’t have told you how long it took me to reach the second floor, but I burst through the stairwell into a bank similar to the downstairs.

I was certain that this was what a bull felt when he saw that big red flag. I charged the doors and grabbed the knife I carried against my ribcage, next to the gun.

I wedged the tip between the doors and put my fucking weight behind it. The first set of doors protested as I forced them open. The elevator wasn’t exactly at the floor, but it was only a few inches off, making this too fucking easy. I had the knife wedged between the second set of doors. These protested less, as if they sensed someone needed to be rescued. Or maybe it was some kind of failsafe. I didn’t fucking care.

As the doors opened, I heard Rylee scream.

“Stop it.”

No one had time to see what was coming as I reached in and grabbed him by the neck and yanked him out of the elevator and slammed him to the floor.

“She said no,” was all I could say as I raised my fist and slammed it into his face.

“Cas?”

I could hear her cries. I knew she was near, but the beat of my rage filled my ears and all I could see was the target.

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