Page 240 of Things We Hide from the Light

My phone rang.

Lucian.

“Any problems getting Melissa and the kids to her parents?” I asked.

“No. They’re safe and there’s a patrol car already in the driveway. But I thought you should know KingSchlong85 just logged in toDragon Dungeon Quest,” Lucian said. “My team is running a trace on the IP address. They’ve narrowed it down to within five miles of here.”

Fuck.If Duncan Hugo was close, that couldn’t be a coincidence.

I chambered a round in my Glock and holstered it. “Let me know when you find him.”

“If we find him this way, it won’t hold up in court,” Lucian warned.

“I don’t care. I’m not building a case. I’m settling a fucking score. Find him,” I ordered.

FIFTY

BRECKLIN IS THE WORST

Lina

My first attempt at choking someone out hadn’t gone well. But I had managed to steal the headset, inflict some windpipe damage, and get out of the room before he could pull a gun on me, so it wasn’t a total fail.

I heard him yelling when I hit the stairs to the second floor and hoped that he was calling Nikos and Dilton. If the three of them were busy looking for me, they couldn’t go on a murder spree.

I burst into the foyer where Nikos and I had entered and looked around. I could make a run for it outside, but more than an escape route, I needed a phone or someway to contact Nash. I propped open the exterior door to make them think I’d made a break for it, then chose a door at random. It led to a long, dark hallway.

I was using my hands to guide me down the hall as quickly as possible when I heard something.

A faraway voice coming from…my hand.

Holy.

Shit.

Duncan’s gamer headset was still connected to the Wi-Fi signal.

I slipped it over my head, wrenched open the door closest to the office downstairs. If I could stay hidden and connected to Wi-Fi, I could call for help.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” I whispered into the microphone.

“What’s with the heavy breathing? Did someone let a creeper perve into the quest?” An unfamiliar, childlike voice said in my ear.

I heard the door I’d entered through bang open.

“Shit,” I muttered.

My hands found another wooden door just as the lights in the hallway blazed on.

I caught a glimpse of a furious Hugo running toward me before I shouldered my way through the door.

The door—thank you, lucky stars—had a dead bolt on the inside. It wouldn’t hold him long, but it would at least slow him down. I slid it in place just as the door handle jiggled.

“The longer you make me chase you, the more I’ll let Dilton hurt you,” he snarled from the other side of the wood.

I hurried away from the door, holding the microphone close to my mouth. “Hello? Is anyone there?” I said as loud as I dared.

The flooring was different in here. It felt like brick and there were windows high up on both walls. It was a dark, cavernous space with what I realized were a dozen horse stalls divided down the middle by a wide brick aisle.