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His mouth twisted then he opened it to reply, but an alarm blared loudly out in the corridor. It was loud and deep and honking and unlike anything I’d heard here before.

The other men in suits began to move immediately, and Coop sprang to his feet and started barking orders about checking on guests and securing the perimeter.

“What’s going on?” I looked to Coop for an answer as the other men ran out of the door to scatter in the facility.

“Security breach.” He took my upper arm gently and began to draw me from what I thought of as the control room. “We need to get you somewhere secure.”

I didn’t try to shake him off. I liked his touch. It reassured me, and I knew he’d keep me safe. He’d promised it and tried to keep his word.

We ran down hallways and corridors that Coop seemed to take at random until he pushed open a door at the end of a long hallway. He shoved me inside the small closet.

“What? No!” I tried to push my way back out, but he tried to block me. I pressed my palms against his jacket and tried to make him move.

He hadn’t expected my shove, and he stumbled back. His glasses slipped, revealing his eyes to me for the first time in I didn’t know how long. Since the cot?

I’d lost track of how many days I’d been in “the facility,” but now I didn’t care as I met his bright blue gaze. His irises were edged in a lilac color as he watched me, and the shade seemed to slowly bleed inward.

“I have to come with you. You can’t just leave me in a closet.”

He didn’t reply.

“Please.”

Instead of responding, his gaze didn’t waver from mine as he slowly lowered his head until our lips touched. It was soft and fleeting, barely a kiss, but my whole world hung on that half-a-second. Then Coop laced his fingers through mine, and we were running again, my hand grasped firmly in his. Down more hallways until he pulled me into a room with screens all over the walls and computers on every desk. And each desk had an agent.

“Coop! What are you doing?” somebody barked.

I glanced up to see Locke glaring at Coop from behind one of the monitors. The rest of the agents observed as though trying to decide whether to react or remain stationary.

Locke frowned. “Why have you brought Meira here? She needs securing.”

But Coop merely shrugged. “She stays with me,” he said. “I will keep her secure.”

Locke shook his head and returned his attention to his computer screen as he scrolled through various security feeds. “We haven’t located the source of the breech yet. We’re guessing blind.”

The agents peered at their computers. Each one seemed to be rolling through video footage from throughout the facility.

Coop huffed out a sigh and approached one of the big screens on the wall. They showed images of the cells, and I was able to see the people inside them. “Full lockdown?” Coop called the question over his shoulder. He crossed his arms and peered at the images.

“Full lockdown.” Locke’s repetition of his words was confirmatory.

But a patch of light in the corner of the room caught my attention, and I frowned. There was something wrong with it. Like it was bendy. The angles were wrong. Cautiously, I stepped closer to it and reached out my hand as if I could explore inside it, but it moved at the last moment and the sudden blur revealed a figure clad all in black.

Not even a patch of skin showed. The figure looked like a shadow. It held a gun, and as Coop stepped toward it, already reaching for his own weapon, the being in front of me fired. The crack of the bullet echoed around the room, and I whirled.

I cried out as Coop fell, agony twisting his face.

He watched me from the floor, his brows drawn down, the corners of his eyes creased. He gripped his knee, and blood spurted between his fingers.

Everything happened so fast I didn’t even have time to process it. Every agent in the room had their guns drawn, but darkness fell as a hood was pulled over my head, and I thrashed against the sudden arms in a vise-like grip around my chest.

I was pulled back against a hard body, and my breath left me in a whoosh. A rumble worked through the building. Was it an explosion? Or was it the sound of hundreds of boots marching en masse? What was happening?

Boom!The floor vibrated. Could it be an earthquake? Who could make an earthquake during an invasion? I blinked, trying to figure out what was going on. A wave of exhaustion slammed into me, and my eyelids fluttered.Sleep.

“I have the target,” the shadow’s deep voice boomed. “Repeat, the target has been captured.”

It was the last thing I heard…