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We keep walking and turn a corner.
No…
A lifeless body lies on the floor. I’d recognise his long hair and signature leather jacket anywhere. A shadowy figure in a black trench coat looms over him like the Grim Reaper, holding a blade to his throat.
“Callen!” I yell.
His attacker turns to see us, caught off guard. A balaclava covers their face, leaving only a slit for eyes. They jump into action at our interruption by fleeing in the opposite direction.
My legs are already moving. I sprint after them, slamming and pushing chairs out of the way. Freddie is close behind me. He takes out his gun and starts firing, but the figure dodges the bullets effortlessly. They’re fast.
Before we get to Callen, the figure is already out another door on the far side of the floor.
“Go!” Freddie roars. I’m a better runner.
I’m a few seconds behind Callen’s attacker and run through the exit into an eerily empty foyer. The lifts are out of service because of the alarm, and there are two separate staircases. Which do I choose?
I make a split-second decision and pick the one on the right. When I peer down, office workers are still making their way outside. I race to the other one. There’s no sign of the attacker, but concerned cries float up from below.
“Was that a gun?”
“Did you hear that?”
The figure could be on any floor in the building by now. I won’t be able to find them by myself. There’s too much ground to cover, and I can’t be associated with another public scandal.
I kick the door to take out my frustration, and it bounces off the wall with a bang to mask my frustrated yell, “Fuck!”
I turn, abandoning the chase to return to Callen’s side.
Right now, he’s the priority. We’ve let him down once before. We won’t do it again. Freddie kneels at Callen’s side, holding his wrist to check his pulse. Callen’s eyes are closed.
“They got away,” I stammer. “I tried—”
“It’s a setback, but we’ll find them,” Freddie cuts me off.
“Is he…”
“He’s still alive,” Freddie confirms.
“Thank fuck for that.” I breathe a sigh of relief, then notice the cut on Callen’s neck. It’s the start of an incision right on his artery. If we arrived a split second later, we’d be finding Callen’s head spinning on a swivel chair. “It looks like we got here in time.”
“He’s survived worse,” Freddie says gruffly.
“How did you know he was here?”
“He’s been watching us for days,” Freddie says. “Callen may be the biggest pain in our arses, but he is one of us—whether we, or he, likes it or not. He’s always going to find his way back.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “The sneaky son of a bitch.”
I’ll have to think of stalker jokes to tease him about when he comes around. If Callen’s made an enemy out of someone, we can’t have him unguarded in the hospital. He’s coming with us.
Freddie nods. “Callen was watching us, but someone else was watching him.”
“Trust Callen to make another enemy,” I say. Something pink catches my eye under a nearby table. I bend to pick up a lotus flower and turn it in my hands. “Someone who likes flowers.”
“This has the Killers Club written all over it,” Freddie says. “Do you remember what they found with Doyle’s body?”
On the desk nearest, something else catches my eye. “It’s not just the flower…”
