Page 136 of Deadfall

“It’s Kalena—” My voice choked off, and I had to take a deep breath and try again. “She was taken.”

“On my way,” he said. “Stay there.”

The same hallway yawned dark and threatening in front of me. My stomach seized. I was going to be sick. Not again. I couldn’t go through this again, but my boots moved on their own accord and carried me forward. Past steel doors and concrete walls that muffled cries of suffering. I couldn’t stop, even if I’d wanted to. I had to see. And some sick part of me hoped I wouldn’t be too late again.

I was on a plane to Paris. I was numb. The turbulence was violent—I don’t think it had been like that, but I hardly remember anything from the flight. The guys forced water and food down my throat to get me sober. I didn’t want to be sober. I wanted to drown in alcohol and act like this wasn’t happening.

“I haven’t been able to reach his older sister,” Kyllion’s voice filtered through the haze.

“I wouldn’t tell him that right now,” Seven said quietly. “Let’s get on the ground and we can try again.”

We were at the safe house. Kyllion grabbed me by the shoulders.

“Griff—Gabriel—look at me,” he demanded. “I need you. Get it the fuck together. I need you focused. Kally needs you focused.”

Months went by. Leads that lead nowhere. Too many dead ends. I’d raged and torn through trafficking dens like I was the fucking reaper, like I was the Angel of Death himself.

Death on wings. Deathwing.

I stopped in front of the door that haunted my nightmares. Same rust around the handle and a dent pushed out toward the hallway, like whoever was on the other side had fought to escape. My lungs stopped working. I could hear my heart as it thrashed in my chest. I knew what I’d find, but I still grabbed onto the handle with hope anyway.

We pushed into the den and the smell assaulted me through my face covering. I heard the crying and sounds of pain, sex—the smell of drugs and worse.

It took us two rooms to find her.

Kyllion was at point and froze so fast I nearly ran into him. He signaled for the men to continue clearing the place, but stopped me at the doorway.

“Gabriel,” he said, worry shone in his eyes, but I shoved past him.

No. No. No. No—

Kalena. Kally. My Kally. My baby sister.

I heard Seven and Kyllion’s voices as they told me not to go in.

I could hear my thoughts as I hoped and prayed to a God I didn’t worship that she would be alive.

I pulled open the door—

A cry fell from my lips as I took in the broken human before me. I collapsed to the ground next to her and dragged her into my arms. She was dead, blood ran from a gruesome gash on her head. One of her eyes was gone, her teeth broken, her body an abused canvas of bruises, cuts and track lines from drugs.

But, the worst part was, she was still warm.

That’s how it had happened, but when I pulled open the door this time, she was alive.

I froze in shock. She stood in front of me—whole and smiling, like she was a moment ago in the forest. Relief and hope warred with the cruel voice of reality in my head that said none of this was real. It was only the desperate yearning of a man who wished for a different outcome.

“Kally,” I said, my voice broken and weak.

“I knew you’d come.”

The words destroyed me. I choked on a sob. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to live here—in this warped world where she was whole and alive. The version where I wasn’t too late. Where I got to her in time to save her. Kalena’s arms went around me, and I felt them. I hugged her fiercely to me—

“I tried—” I gasped.

“I know. I waited as long as I could.”

“I’m so sorry.” I kept repeating it, even as the vision warped.