Page 66 of Kidnapped Bratva Toy

“Fuck.”

It was a security room, and it appeared that Nicholas had forgotten that someone was on duty. On the desk in the center was a massive array of screens dividing the halls. I saw the front door where I’d entered and the waiting room on the top row.

There was no sign of Billie, Nicholas, or the security guard, for that matter. Below were the halls to the east side, where I’d walked to Billie’s office. The images rotated through a few viewpoints, but I still didn’t see them. But the screen changed, and the security guard was in the hallway near Billie’s former office. He stalked through the area with his gun raised but looked far from expertly trained.

He was also in his fifties from what I could tell.

“Christ.” I searched the screens. “Come on, Billie, where are you?”

A noise behind me snapped my attention to the sound of something going down in a hallway not too far away. I tried to find it on the screens, scanning from top to bottom. Just as the second row changed to a view of the opposite end of that hallway I recognized, I caught movement.

“Dammit. Get back here.”

I reached for the mouse on the desk, seeing if I could click the feeds to get a choice of viewpoints. Thankfully, my instinct had been right, and I was able to navigate back to that image again.

It was Nicholas scuffling with that security guard. “Fuck that guy doesn’t stand a chance.”

They fought for control over the security guard’s gun, and there was certainly a part of me that wanted to help the poor fucker. But the element of surprise was too important. Nicholas shoved hard on the guy, yanking the gun from his grip. A hair of hope settled through me, thinking maybe Nicholas would just go for an injury to slow the guard down.

He didn’t.

The loud boom of the gunshot echoed from behind me as I watched him squeeze the trigger on the camera. He’d landed the bullet right between the guy’s eyes, and the security guard slumped to the ground in a heap.

“Fuck.”

Clearly, Nicholas wasn’t just brutal and willing to kill but also a good shot. That was a damn problem.

Scanning the screens for Billie, I just caught her movement as she ran from one camera frame on the bottom row to the next. She crossed down a hallway I didn’t know, but as she turned left on the screen, she reappeared on the second row coming from the top of the frame.

Shit. She’s going by the offices. She’s come this way.

“No. Fuck. He’s going to see her.”

I studied the layout that I could piece together from the cameras and then sprinted out of the room toward the east side of the buildings toward another cubicle-filled area. Ducking low to avoid being seen, I heard footsteps coming from the long hallway up ahead. The walls of the offices here were glass, and as the figure stepped forward, I knew I just had to wait to catch a glimpse of them from my location.

Palming my own weapon, I leveled it toward the person walking in my direction, finger poised near the trigger. Heavy breathing sounded from that direction, and the person stepped into the natural shadow created by the far wall behind me. They’d come into my sights in three…two…

One.

I slipped my finger down toward the trigger, readying my shot, and then, as my target stepped into the light, I reeled back.

It was Billie.

My heart slammed against my ribcage as I took in her frantic expression. She was handling herself well enough, but running for your life has a way of getting to a person.

“Billie!” I whisper-shouted at her, stretching myself a bit taller so that she’d see me.

She looked over, her eyes flaring wide as she found me hunkering down in the dark near a cubicle.

“Oh, thank God.”

Hurrying toward me, I held out my hand, ready to pull her under the cover of a desk so that we could plan a way out of here.

Pounding footsteps rushed from the other side of the room, and I shot my attention to my right. Nicholas was barreling down the hall, heading straight for Billie.

I shot up and forward, trying to beat him to her, but he was closer. Nicholas reached out for the front of Billie’s blouse, yanking her toward him before he threw her into a wall with a massive thump.

Billie yelped as the pain hit her, and I channeled every bit of speed and strength I had into getting past the damned cubicles. They blocked a straight path, and I had to climb up onto the flimsy built-in desks so that I could rush forward without losing precious seconds.

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