AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rope.A white rope had been bound around the base of the bouquet.Just like the rope used on those three poor women who’d been murdered.
Her hand rose to her mouth.
Lilies.Hydrangeas.Peonies.
Oliver’s head snapped up.“We need to get you out of here, now.”
“But—” She didn’t get to finish because a guttural scream broke through her words.A scream that came from behind her.From the door that they’d left open.She turned around at the scream, but the movement felt oddly slow.A turn that seemed to take forever.It shouldn’t have taken so long.She knew it.But every single inch took such a long time to—
Nate.
Nate Quest stood in the doorway with his shoulders heaving and his face twisted with rage.He had a flashlight gripped in one hand and a rope in the other.Another guttural cry erupted from him even as he lunged for her.
“Lark!Get out of the way!”Oliver roared.
She didn’t have a chance to get out of the way.Nate swung the flashlight, and it clipped her on the side of the head.The powerful blow had her falling to the floor, and he was on her.She raised her hands because she thought he’d hit her again.But he came at her with the rope.He locked it around her throat and he—
Boom.
The gunshot slammed into Nate.The blast hit his shoulder, and he flew backward.
She grabbed the rope and jerked it from her neck even as she scuttled backward.Oliver locked his hands on her shoulders and pulled her up against him.
“Lark?”
Her breath heaved.Her temple pounded painfully.Nausea twisted and churned with the terror in her.
“You’re always protecting her!”A yell from Nate.
Her head swung toward him.The pounding in her head grew worse.The nausea rose.
Nate gripped his shoulder.Blood pulsed from the bullet wound and soaked his fingers.“She doesn’t get to live while my Casey is in the ground!”
“Nate, you need to calm down.”Oliver let go of Lark to fully face him.Oliver raised his weapon and pointed it at Nate.“We’re all going to keep living, you understand me?Now I want you to freeze.”
Nate didn’t freeze.He took a gliding step toward them.“I’m not living without her.Tried it.But I see her everywhere and nowhere.”
The other agents must have heard the boom of the gunshot.They would be coming.They had to come.
“What will it be like for you, Special Agent Foxx, when you seehereverywhere…and nowhere?”
Lark gripped the rope in her hand.
“You broke into Lark’s apartment,” Oliver accused.“You spray-painted the threat on her wall.”
She craned to see around him.
Fury twisted Nate’s face.“So easy to get to her.”Another gliding step.“But you came home with her.Had to rush out.”
“You were in her car.Waiting to attack her.We found the syringe in your room at the hotel.”
Nate’s brow furrowed.“What car?”
“Hands in the air!”Midas blasted as he erupted into the room.
So someone had heard the gunshot.Midas.She had thought he might be trailing them but, unlike Everett, she hadn’t been able to spot Midas no matter how hard she tried.
Until now.Now it was pretty hard to miss him.
