Page 127 of The Beast

“Ms. Hart.” His voice is almost polite. “Your father would like a word.”

My blood goes cold. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“I’m afraid that’s not optional.” He gestures toward a black SUV idling near the exit, its windows tinted dark. “We can do this quietly, or we can do it loud. Your choice. But you’re coming either way.”

I think about screaming. About running. About the self-defense moves Gabriel tried to teach me, back when the most dangerous thing in my life was a handsy investor at a gallery opening.

But this guy’s a professional, and even if I screamed, who would hear me? It’s not yet five in the morning in an empty parking garage. By the time anyone responded, I’d already be gone. I need to buy time to make a plan.

“My father sent you?” I ask, stalling. “Sterling Hart?”

“Please come with us.”

It’s the us, that catches my attention, and that’s when I feel something hard press against my lower back.

There’s a second man. And he has the barrel of a gun pressed right against my spine.

“Like I said.” The tall man’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes. “Not optional.”

The gunman guides me toward the SUV, one hand on my elbow, the gun still pressed to my back. My mind races—looking for options, looking for escape routes, looking for anything that might give me an advantage.

There’s nothing.

The SUV door slides open. Gun Guy pushes me inside. The other one zip-ties my wrists before I can even think about fighting back. As if I would. Gun.

“Hand over your phone,” Gun Guy says.

I consider saying I left it upstairs. But they’ll search me anyway, and the punishment for lying will be worse than the punishment for compliance. “Back pocket.”

He roughly pushes me forward, pulls it out, then drops it on the garage floor. Then he stomps on it. Hard. After that, he shuts the door, circles around to the driver’s seat, and starts the car.

The engine roars to life, and I fight the urge to vomit.

But as we pull out of the garage into the gray morning light, I hold tight to one absolute certainty—Gabriel Grimm is going to burn the world down looking for me.

I just have to stay alive long enough for him to find me.