Page 48 of Guarded Knight

How the hell?

Someone was here. Someone planted that.

I register Lara’s hand gripping the back of a chair. She’s breathing shallowly, still coughing.

“Gabriel,” she rasps, “Are you okay?”

It takes me a second too long to nod.

Because it wasn’t her voice I heard.

It was someone else’s.Somewhere far away, buried deep. A voice through smoke. Screaming. A metal door sealed shut.

I press my fingers to my eyes, squeezing them closed, willing the memory away.You’re here, G. In Echo Valley.

But the calls won’t stop.

Screaming. I can’t get to them…

A hand wraps around my bicep, and I yank my arm away violently.

When I open my eyes, Lara is staring at me, her mouth slightly open, as if I might’ve been gone longer than I realized.

“G?” Her voice is soft. “Are you okay?”

Freya creeps back into the living room, breathing hard. “What the hell was that?”

I can’t afford to unravel.

“Get back out on the landing,” I command. “Lara, call Anton.”

I step around the table, still scanning corners, shadows, and scour every inch of this apartment. And then I find it, taped to the underside of the couch, right where the smoke bomb was. Still curling at the edges from the heat. A note.

Black marker. Block letters.

She looks better in a hospital bed than in yours.

I grind my teeth so hard they could turn to dust.

This isn’t a note. It’s his obituary. How dare he threaten her…

How the hell was this planted? Timed perfectly for Lara’s return? It’stooperfect.

My gaze drifts up to Freya, and suddenly, I see her through a different lens. How did this get here when Freya has been home? Did she head out? Or… my mind drifts back to how Cameron was able to get into their Santa Fe house without a key…

There’s no time for those questions. I need Lara out of here.

Freya’s voice cuts through the fog. “What does the note say?”

Lara snatches it from my fingers, coughing harder now. It wasn’t a true explosive, but that smoke bomb could give her an infection… or worse.

She can’t stay here tonight. Not with the air like this.

Lara coughs again, more ragged this time, her shoulders trembling. She finally manages to catch her breath, but her voice is thin when she speaks.

“That note…” She shakes her head, eyes glazed over. “Cameron? He knew I’d be here tonight? Now? It feels too precise.” She shakes her head.

I can hardly believe it either. The timing was impeccable.