Page 168 of Hidden

My knife went into his side first.

Then his neck.

And then his eye.

He dropped twitching beside the other one, the torch rolling from his hand and casting a weak, spinning beam across the gravel before going still.

I crouched, picked it up, and switched it off.

Then I dragged both bodies behind the bins and carried on.

By the time I reached the back of the main house, my hands were slick with blood, and my pulse had settled into something unnervingly calm.

Like some dark part of me had been waiting years for a night exactly like this and had finally been given permission to breathe.

The back steps leading into the kitchen were empty, but I didn’t trust that for a second. I crouched low by the wall and listened first, knife still in hand, my breathing slow and even as I focused on the sounds inside.

Nothing obvious. There were no voices close by, or the heavy sounds of boots near the door. I glanced once over my shoulder at the compound behind me. There were so many bodies there, rotting in the dark. It wouldn’t take long before someone discovered them and raised the alarm. I had to move quickly.

My grip tightened on the knife as I walked to the door, reached for the handle, and slipped inside.

Chapter 44

Vienna

Now

The clubhouse didn’t feel the same on the inside.

I was familiar with Gabby’s home, but I’d only been here a handful of times, and always on club business. There had always been a tense, dangerous air here. But still, it had felt lived in. Busy. Now it felt hollow.

Too still. Too quiet. Like something had already happened here, and I was walking into the aftermath of it.

I moved through it anyway, slow and deliberate, every sense tuned to the slightest shift, the faintest sound, the smallest sign that I wasn’t alone. My knife stayed in my hand out of instinct, though I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to find at this point. The place felt stripped. Not empty, but… paused. Like the life had been pulled out of it, and whatever remained was just waiting for something else to finish.

“Gabby,” I called quietly, the word slipping out before I could stop it.

No answer.

“Shit,” I hissed under my breath, picking up my speed as I checked the rooms one by one.

Nothing.

There was no sign of life anywhere. No guards. No movement.

Something wasn’t right.

This wasn’t the kind of quiet you heard when people were sleeping. When things were at peace. This was the kind of quiet that greeted you right before something bad happened. When something had already ended.

When something was already dead.

My pace picked up without me meaning it to, my steps losing some of their care as I moved further into the house, checking doors faster, breathing harder, my focus narrowing down to one thing and one thing only.

Her.

“Gabriella,” I tried again, louder this time.

Still nothing.