Page 106 of High Seduction
Ken motioned him toward the large set of storage lockers, and Tim went willingly. He opened one set of doors at a time, pushing aside the front items. Taking things down carefully and putting them back into place.
John was still missing, and from the sounds in the background, he was still in the staff room causing chaos.
“There. What’s that?” Ken asked as Tim swung open the doors on the transport bag cabinet.
“This is where the large bags are kept,” Tim explained. “It might have been misplaced in here.” It was also the location for his medical bag. One step forward, and he pulled aside the front couple of bags, a huge sense of relief sweeping in as the brilliant red of the cross on the label shone at him—
Then vanished as the room flashed into darkness.
Tim ignored the shouts behind him and focused on dragging open the zippered compartment under his fingers.
***
Erin slipped her hands off the master power switch, turning without a pause toward the main area of HQ.
She’d seen Tim and Ken in storage, leaving John as the one now fumbling in the dark in the staff area. With the set of night vision goggles she’d pulled off the shelf, she had a definite advantage, adding to her knowledge of the building layout.
Before Ken’s shout of dismay had faded, she was at the staff room door, the glowing green form of a body shuffling toward her with his arms extended to the sides.
Erin gave in to her frustrations and lashed out with a rapid kick to his chest. With no advance warning to brace himself, John went flying backward, a loud crash sounding as he hit the floor.
She grabbed the door and slammed it shut, engaging the lock. Two steps put her at the side of the tall metal filing cabinet.
With mental apologies to Marcus for making a mess, she put her shoulder to the top. It took two rocks to set the heavy object in motion, but once it started, it didn’t stop until it, too, hit the floor with an enormous clang that echoed off the walls.
“Don’t move,” Ken ordered, his shout ringing in the storage area.
Bullshit on that. Her heart might be about to pound out of her chest, but she wasn’t done.
Erin grabbed a spray can from the shelf as she stepped carefully down the hall. The open door to the storage area was up ahead on the right. She walked with her arm extended in front of her, finger on the top of the plastic plunger. Her hand was steady, and she forced herself to breathe slowly, calming herself as she took the final steps forward.
The ghostly images of two bodies appeared, one close to her, one by the shelves. All three of them silent, only the pounding of John’s fists on the staff door drifting down to them.
Staccato. Harsh.
Ken adjusted his hand to the side, as if trying to track Tim in the dark.
Tim remained silent. The glow of his outline decreased in size as he got down on the floor. Smart man—smaller target for Ken if he did take a shot.
Only Ken was backing up, one hand running along the wall. Was he looking for the exit? Trying to escape? Erin pressed herself back against the hall, waiting until the moment was right...
The keys stored on the wall jingled under Ken’s fingers. Tim was on his feet, body doubling in size, arm rising.
As if observing a slow-motion video, Erin spotted her mistake. With her move forward, and Tim’s adjustment along the floor, it wasn’t only Ken who stood in the potential line of fire. If that was a gun in Tim’s hand, she was hooped. She had only an instant to react. She shouted the first thing that came to mind.
“Spider.”
Layered on top of each other came the responses.
Ken whirled toward her. A shot rang out. Erin pressed the top of the can.
Chaos broke.
CHAPTER29
Tim had been in soul-shredding spots before. He’d leapt off cliffs, for fun and for work. He’d made the occasional wrong decision that had left him seconds from potential death. None of those situations compared to the nightmare unfolding in the darkness before him.
High-pitched screams sounded, one after the other. A tortured, skin-crawling sound that had his heart in his throat as he lowered his unfired weapon to his hip.
