Page 25 of Secret Love

A bullet pierces his head. He falls to the floor and drops his knife while a red pool spills out beneath him.

I stare at him with wide eyes, terrified to even move.

My cell phone rings. I jolt at the sound singing through my purse on the counter above my head. I reach for it with shaking hands and answer it without looking. “Hello?”

“Dani, I need you to run.”

My jaw sags. “Fox?”

“Stand up and move to the window.”

I push off the floor with quaking knees. “Are you actually out there?”

A small light flashes at me from the window across the way.

“What the hell is going on?” I ask.

“Right now, there’s two more of them running up the stairwells — one on the north side, the other south. Take the north stairs down. Do it now.”

“Fox—”

“Now, Dani.”

I move to the door and my foot slips in blood. “Which way is north?” I ask, wiping my toes on the carpet in the hall.

“Go left.”

“Should I take the elevator?” I ask, my phone trembling against my cheek.

“No,”he answers quickly. “The stairwells have windows. I can’t see in the elevators. Go, Dani! Move!”

I enter the stairwell. Boots echo toward me, charging fast. I look down to see a black mass bolting up just a few floors down.

“Just keep going, Dani,” Fox says. “I have a shot.”

“You have a what?”

The window cracks beside me and the man falls off-balance. Blood sprays my face as he tumbles to his knees and crumples back down the stairs. I look up through the broken window, too shocked and scared to move.

“Run all the way down,” Fox says in my ear, his voice sounding more distant than before. “Don’t stop. I’ll meet you there.”

My lungs jolt from lack of air. They force me to take a breath and my knees lock beneath me. I can’t stop staring at the body. Red blood rolls down the stairs, dripping softly against the linoleum.

There’s so much blood.

“Dani, listen to me. Okay. Listen to my voice.” He’s so calm and steady. It’s almost unreal. “Tell me you can hear me. I want you to say it.”

“I can hear you, Fox,” I whisper.

“I know you’re scared, but you have to keep moving.”

“I… I can’t—”

“I’ll be with you the whole time. I’m right here. I won’t let anything happen to you. Say it.”

His voice crawls over my nerves, melting into me like an ice cube in a glass of warm water. “You won’t let anything happen to me,” I repeat.

“That’s my girl.” I hear the smile on his lips. “Now, run.”

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