Page 64 of Fragile Facade

I duck when security comes around the corner, grabbing at members of the gathered crowd. Most of them are staff with badges and reasons to be in the building. All except Riot.

“Riot!”

He looks over at me, his grey eyes as stormy as they’ve always been. He’s telling me something I don’t want to hear, so I fucking tune him out and demand him with my eyes. Goddammit, Riot, if you’ve ever given a single fuck about anything, give it now.

“Let’s go. Now. Riot, please.”

Panic creeps into my whisper, grating at my throat and burning my eyes. It worsens when three guards step up to him, pulling his hands behind his back.

“Where’s your staff identification?”

“In my pocket,” he says calmly. “Let my hands go and I’ll gladly grab it for you.”

“Someone in a black suit jacket and dark grey pants left the main console. Male. Dark blond to light brown hair. Six foot two or three. Suspect is considered armed and dangerous.” The guards’ radios all echo my description.

We fucking planned for this! But he’s not here. We’re not side by side, ready to dip into the ventilation system for our quickest escape. My heart picks up its pace, barking in my chest while my mind whirls through our plans, merging every strategy together to get him out of this mess.

“Don’t,” Glitch says in my ear, but I ignore him.

I crawl around the desk, ready to take Riot out of here by force. We’re outnumbered and overpowered, but like hell I’m leaving him here while I run to safety—the selfish part of me would, but my ego can’t handle leaving my partner behind.

Peeking around the side of the desk, I see him with his hands behind his back, guards all around him and more coming. He looks at me again, eyes full of confessions and a grin fighting its way through his fear. But Killian Hallows is too cocky to admit to fear, let alone show it, so he smiles at me fully, and in my ear, I hear his voice.

“I’ll hold your hand when you meet me in Hell, sweetheart. Race ya there.” He smiles at me as I start to stand, but he ruins it by shouting, “Fuck Reaper Corp! I’ve got a bomb!”

I rush out, but Glitch, Ransom, and Director are in my ear. “Don’t! If you go after him, you’re both dead and Reaper Corp will know for sure it was us. Get out of there, Ghost. Now. That’s a fucking order.”

I grit my teeth, my brain warring with my heart, and my morals coming to life in a way they never have before. Anger is the easiest way to feel my feelings, so I allow rage to consume me, filling me with power and adrenaline that convinces me I can still get us out of this. I fucking refuse to let him sacrifice himself for me. Not a fucking chance. He doesn’t get that right, and he sure as fuck doesn’t have the right to put his death on my conscience.

My jaw aches and my eyes sting, refusing to look away from him. He’s grabbed from all directions, thrown to the ground and pinned down. When multiple guns point at his head, I barely contain myself from stepping out of cover.

“Ghost!” Director yells at me. “Go!”

“I can’t fucking leave him!”

“You can,” Riot says. “Tell Krypt?—”

“Fuck you, Riot. Fight harder. We can get out of this.” I watch him as he’s cuffed and restrained, knowing it’ll only be a few seconds before his comms are discovered and ripped out. “Please, Killian.”

He laughs, struggling to look backwards at me. “I blink, sweetheart. You win. Now go.”

“Killian!”

His earpiece is taken out, and he’s forced to his feet, my anger building as I track every man who touches him, vowing their death by my hands.

“Ghost, you have to move. Right fucking now,” Ransom shouts. “Now. Think of Remi and Selena. Get moving before they lock every other floor down.”

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

“No.” I’m stuck, rooted to the damn floor behind a desk, watching Riot’s body be dragged down the hall as he laughs ominously for my benefit. “No. I’m not leaving without him. They’ll kill him.”

“Then get out of there so we can make a plan before they do,” Ransom says. “I fucking promise you, Ghost. We will go back for him. I need you to trust me.”

I silently scream in a fit of rage. Ransom said the same thing to Krypt the night Remi took the suicide pill. He asked Krypt to trust him, and now I’m the one who needs to put my faith in him. I loathe myself for it, but I slip into the vent, pull the grate against the opening, and force myself not to feel a single fucking thing but redemption as I escape Reaper City with the stolen devices.

But not my partner.