Page 114 of The Art of You

And we really only had one fucking minute. Any more than that, and these assholes might shoot to kill before we could get there, or set off the charge and take down the whole building.

“What’s our ROE?” someone on Echo asked, deferring to his team leader.

Echo One and Constantine swapped a quick look before the Brit answered. “They shoot first, then defend your position and open up on them. Neutralize every threat without killing them if you can, but use your best judgment.”

“Once Echo Four confirms the bomb has been defused,” Constantine said, knocking his night-vision goggles in place, “we move in for the rescue.”

“Roger that.” Echo Three patted his dog’s head, then resecured his brain bucket on him. “We’ll get them back. Don’t worry. We run these kinds of ops all the time.”

“We need to step on it,” Echo One announced, showing me the small screen on his wrist that gave him a view of Bella and Callie from our small drone.

I leaned over to look just as Keith stretched his arm out, a 9mm in hand. My body locked tight, and I went for my M4, tipping my head so my NVGs fell into place. “Move out. Now.”

Chapter 44

Isabella

Five Minutes Before

I was stuck in limbo.Lost somewhere between reality and my past with no idea how long I’d been gone. The drugs were heavy, and I kept skipping back and forth between the bleak here and now and the happy but diaphanous walks down memory lane the drugs lulled me to.

I wasn’t here. No, I couldn’t be.

I was walking in Central Park, the crunch of leaves beneath my boots on a fall day.

Or texting Hudson while sipping coffee as the sun peeked over the buildings before work.

In the Hamptons in our garden with Bianca as she laughed at something funny I’d said.

Attempting to resist the drugs again and face hell, I opened my eyes, hoping Callie wasn’t there with me, and that the last time I glimpsed her during these sandman-like hours was a hallucination.

My eyes dropped closed the moment I laid eyes on her tiedto a chair, the same as me.No, no, no. Why are you here? Alessandro will lose his mind even more, and . . .

The tears that should’ve come still didn’t spill.

What drugs did he dope me up with? Instead of fear and despair, I felt oddly numb.

Chancing one more look, I parted my eyes to catch Keith setting a camera up on a tripod inside the desolate, cold space.

“You’re awake.” Keith’s voice effectively snapped me free from the safe haven of my mind I’d been living in.

I now had to face what was happening, and the drugs lost their ability to dull my senses with every step he took my way.

He squatted before me so we were eye level. There was something dark and sinister in his eyes that had me choking back the words I wanted to hiss.

Keith cupped my chin, and a shiver bolted down my spine, winding into my arms to where my hands were cuffed behind my back. “If we had more time, I’d make you mine. Maybe you could even learn to love me.”

What. The. Fuck?My stomach protested and my words died on my tongue. I still couldn’t seem to find my voice. It was lost somewhere between that fall day in the park and summering in the Hamptons. The safe space of my past before my world had become dark when Bianca died.

“I’ve been watching you since June. I’ve been in your house a few times, actually. There was never a gas leak.” He spelled it out for me, the dark edge of his voice cutting me in half right along with the truth. He lowered his hand from my chin to my throat but didn’t squeeze. “You sleep with that bear every night, so I got a little worried when Calliope over here didn’t pack him for you when you were at the hospital.” He licked his lips slowly and deliberately while staring at me as I blinked, stunned and speechless.

He’d watched me? Been in my home? What did he do tomy freaking bear? How had I not sensed this? My stomach roiled, realizing what else he’d have seen, then. Thank God I always covered myself in bed when I touched . . .

Now the tears broke through the haze of the drugs, encouraging a smile from the sick bastard.

“You could say I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with you. I guess that’s what happens when you watch someone as beautiful as you all the time.” With his free hand, he reached around and fisted my hair, tugging the strands and demanding my attention.

His eyes dipped to my mouth before ravaging a slow, sick path of destruction down my body to my lap.

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