Page 21 of Danger Close
Pain was all Ezra knew.Not just the sharp, screaming kind that stabbed through his side like heated wire—but the deeper kind.The kind that took root in marrow and wouldn’t let go.It radiated from his ribs and laced down his spine, crawling into every shallow breath like fire in reverse.
Cold.Sharp.Inevitable.
His head felt submerged, like someone had shoved his brain into a barrel of syrup.Every thought dragged.Every blink stung.Blood—he could taste it, thick and coppery on the back of his tongue.
Somewhere beyond the haze, footsteps echoed—measured, deliberate.Voices murmured, low and calculated.He couldn’t make out the words at first, not through the pounding in his ears.
But then—
“He knows too much.”The voice was calm.Emotionless.Clinical in the way someone might discuss trimming weeds.
Ezra blinked, dragging the world back into focus by sheer force of will.Blood pooled beneath him, sticky and hot.His arms were stretched wide, bound in rusted cuffs bolted into a wall of cracked concrete.Cold stone pressed into his spine like it was trying to etch itself into his bones.
Fuck.
“He’s got files,” the voice continued.“Pictures.Names.All of the kids.Even the fucking DNA profiles.One of them is highlighted in the file.”
Ezra’s breath caught.His stomach lurched as understanding slammed into him.They knew.Not just about the list—but about the girl.About her.
Van’s daughter.
He’d kept her name off every file.Scrubbed metadata.Hidden it six layers deep in encryptions only someone who thought like him—or like Van—could follow.But they had her name anyway.
His heart thundered so loud it drowned everything else.
“Don’t do this...”he rasped.His voice cracked on the words, shredded by pain and dehydration.“You don’t have to—”
A shadow loomed.The man leaned in close, breath warm and stale.“You think it matters?You’re not a hero.You’re not even a name.You’re just another ghost in the system.”
Ezra met his eyes.“Then why are you so scared of me?”
The blow came fast.A fist drove into his ribs with a sickening crack.He felt it more than heard it—bone giving way, cartilage shredding.He gasped, air turning to glass in his lungs.Another hit—lower this time.Sharp.Deep.
A blade.
He didn’t scream, he had no air for that.Just sagged in the restraints, jaw clenched, eyes screwed shut against the tide of agony.Hot blood soaked through the makeshift bandage someone had slapped on him two days ago.He barely felt it now.
“We’ll find the girl, make her pay, and the asshole you sent that email to?He’ll pay as well.”
They knew, they fuckingknewabout Ricky.How in the hell?
“You hurt either of them,” he slurred, forcing the words past split lips.“And I’ll fucking end you.”As threats went, it was pretty weak considering his current position, condition, and the fact that he was probably only minutes away from death, but, hey, it made him feel good just to say it.
The man didn’t answer.Just stepped back and wiped his hands like Ezra was already a finished job.The room emptied slowly.Boots shuffled.Metal creaked.Then silence.
Ezra hung there—arms trembling, breath hitching—bleeding and forgotten.
Determined to hold on to consciousness in the throbbing stillness, he thought of Ricky.
He remembered that night so vividly—skin warm, hands slow and careful.The way Ricky had looked at him like he mattered.Like Ezra wasn’t a ghost.Wasn’t broken.Wasn’t too far gone.He should’ve stayed.Should’ve said the words before fear drove him away.Before silence became his shield and Ricky became another regret.His biggest regret.He never should have walked away from him without talking with him first.
Now...Now he didn’t know if he’d ever get the chance.
He let his head fall forward, consciousness slipping like water through cracked fingers.The last thought that anchored him?I hope he got the message.
He had no idea how long after he passed out that the gunfire woke him.
At first, it sounded like memory—distant, blurred, half-formed.But then it built.Sharp cracks echoed down concrete corridors.Rifles.Boots thundered across the ground in waves, not panic but precision.Movement with intent.Sweep and clear.
