Chapter 21: Hunted in the Dark
The alarms were blaring now. A piercing, rhythmic wail that meant the entire building was on lockdown. Jane dragged herself into the service stairwell. She couldn't use the elevator; they would cut the power and trap her in a steel box.
She had to walk up four flights of stairs to reach the ground-level parking garage, bleeding from her shoulder and exhausted to her core. Every step was agony. Her crimson dress was ruined, soaked in her blood and Marcus’s.
By the time she reached the ground floor, she heard the heavy, synchronized boots of the Vanguard tactical response teams sweeping the garage. She hid behind a concrete pillar, clutching the hard drive to her chest.
She had the data. She could ruin her father. But she was trapped.
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Through the gaps in the parked luxury cars, she saw the tactical teams moving. And leading them, barking orders into a radio, was Elias’s replacement. A hulking man named Graves.
I'm not going to make it out of here, Jane realized. The thought didn't bring fear. It brought a strange, twisted clarity. If she was going down, she was taking the whole tower with her.
