Larkin stayed on the balls of her feet, eliminating the clack of the slim stilettos she’d worn to give her confidence in front of the crowd. The obnoxious shoes weren’t crafted for stealthy moves or traction. Her gaze remained fixed on Lucas’s back. Anticipation of his reaction to her escape attempt knotted her intestines. Fear cycled through her limbs. They jerked and stuttered in response to her demands, slicing her effort in half.

No. If she focused on him, she was defeated before she began. Larkin drove her knees high. Her arms pumped. The knob. She focused every cell in her body on the small round metal piece. Adrenaline streamed through her veins. It went head to head with fear. The knob. The knob. Get there.

Four long strides toward the door and adrenaline took the lead. The knob was three strides away. His back was still toward her. She hinged her arms, pumping them harder. Her legs stretched farther, eating the concrete.

The back of her shoe slipped off her right heel. Lose the shoe or let the spiky stiletto hit the floor. Larkin’s legs churned so quickly she didn’t have time to make the decision.

Clack. It rattled above the low mechanical rumble.

The knob. The knob.

Her right hand wrapped around the cold metal. The left hit the concrete wall, breaking her crash into it. She twisted the knob and wrenched, pushing off the wall to help open the heavy door. It opened. The double paneled metal door flung wide. Freedom. It smelled like oil and sounded like machines. She loved it.

“No!” Lucas’s voice boomed behind her.

Fuck him.

Larkin crouched low to maintain her balance. Her legs powered forward. Both feet chopped at the floor, propelling her through the opening.

The hallway was deserted. A coffin of concrete. Fear fought for top billing. She looked to the right. At the end was one turn to light and help. Her feet paddled toward freedom. The sole of her left shoe slipped out from under her. She reached for the doorframe to steady herself. It was too far away. The right sole followed suit.

Her world tilted once more.

Lucas’s frame blotted the light. His hand came at her, big and grabbing.

She scrambled away on knees and elbows.

His hand sank into her hair. Moisture filled her eyes. Not tears. He pulled so hard hairs ripped from her skin. The entire thing stretched to its limits. She reached for his hand. Both hers bracketed it.

Larkin pulled herself to him to keep from losing her scalp. The fabric of her suit whined and ripped against the uneven floor. They switched direction without her permission.

“No!” Larkin bellowed with everything she had. “Lucas, no!”

The doorframe she’d worked so hard to get past entered her periphery.

“Help! Please! No!” She hooked a leg around the frame and yanked against Lucas’s grip.

His boot connected with her ribs. Pain blinded her, stealing her breath. Fuck, it stole her lungs. The damn things refused to operate. They convulsed. Her body spasmed. A shoe fell off in the mayhem.

Larkin rolled onto her side and cocooned, shielding her sides with her elbows. He latched onto the collar of her suit and hauled her farther into the room.

If he closed the door with her inside, she was dead.

She rolled onto her belly and shoved to her hands and knees, still fighting for a single molecule of oxygen. Just one would do.

Douglas was a few feet away. He carried a gun. Why hadn’t she thought to look for it earlier? Before she could use it, she had to get to him.

“Why did you do that? You ruined everything,” Lucas bellowed. It sounded like he was at the far end of an echo chamber, but he was so close. She saw a tiny scuff on the side of his shoe.

Larkin lunged at his leg. Both arms wrapped around it. She held it tight. Her mouth opened wide. She sank teeth onto his inner thigh and bit with everything she had.

“Fuc …”

He struck her head. Once. Twice. The hits were hollow. Maybe it was adrenaline. Maybe oxygen was a bigger priority. Maybe her head was numb. She shook from side to side like a rabid animal.

Blood warmed her cheeks. Hers or his? She didn’t know until the metallic tang hit her tongue. A gag caught her unaware. Oxygen returned in wicked, wet gulps. She choked but held tight and shook again.

His bellow turned into a whimper.

It fueled her drive. She released the bite and lunged for another. Blood spread wide on his pant leg, creating a soggy palette. Her teeth sank deep again.

Lucas whined and jerked back.

Her jaw shook with fatigue. Blood made her fingers slip.

His finger hooked around her nose and lifted. Flesh tore from her gums. He flipped her backward into the doorway.

Blood pooled at his foot and clung to her face. Rage contorted his into an ugly snarl. Gone was the kind, handsome hero she’d known and in his place was a monster.

She gasped and spat blood from her mouth. It created a hideous masterpiece. With the back of her arm, she swiped her face.

Indecision tormented her. Gun or run?

Lucas barreled at her before she could make up her mind. She shuffled back on her hands and feet, scraping her bare heel against the floor. The stiletto slipped. He was on top of her before she could blink. His hands wrapped around her neck and lifted.

In an instant, the floor seemed so far away. Her toes reached for it and found nothing. Her hands instinctually grabbed at his. She pinched and clawed at his thumbs.

His smug grin filled Larkin’s view. Oxygen once again abandoned her.

“You’ll die like your pretty friend.”

Larkin tried to say Reagan as though they were having a civilized conversation. It didn’t matter. The word came out as a wheeze.

“She poked her nose where it didn’t belong.” Red stained his cheeks. He snarled. A monster. Not a man.

Black clouded the edges of her periphery. Her slashing nails made no difference to the madman’s skin. Larkin spat with the last of the air in her lungs. Blood and spit speckled his angry face. His grip doubled.

Darkness cut in and out like a strobe.

Larkin lifted her heel and rammed the point at his inner thigh.

“Ahhhhh!” His grip released.

She fell to the floor, landing hard on her bottom. The heel stuck out of his flesh, still attached. Using her hands, she shuffled back as far as she could before her lungs took priority, demanding filling.

Her body heaved and hacked. Everything shook.

So she’d staved off that attack. There was no way she could win against him, but she’d die trying.

Lucas bent over and yanked the stiletto from his leg.

A roar, brittle and gruff, lit her ears. It wasn’t Lucas. It wasn’t her.

Douglas jumped onto Lucas’s back. His bent arm hooked around Lucas’s neck, wrenching him back. Douglas’s elbow formed a V around Lucas’s throat.

A cry of relief lodged in her throat. He was alive. He was taking this fucker down.

Lucas’s hand slipped from inside his coat. The gun glinted silver in the light.

“No!” Her scream was drowned out by two shots.

Douglas slid from Lucas’s back and fell to the floor. His hands flew to his right side where red seeped from two holes.

Lucas turned on the older man.

Larkin moved without thought. She launched herself onto Lucas’s back. The thing that just got Douglas shot.

Lucas’s hands were up, the gun clutched tight, the barrel aimed toward Douglas.

She wrapped both legs around his middle. Her fingers found his eye sockets and dug. The gun flew across the room and clattered to the floor. Lucas’s scream filled her ears. A maniac’s yell ricocheted around the room, and she realized it poured from her raw throat.

He yanked her left hand. It slipped from the warm, meaty hole. She couldn’t lose hold of the other one. If he got her off his back, all was lost.

Larkin twisted and pulled her hand time and again in a desperate fight for life. The blood on their hands made his hold slip but not free.

His feet moved, spinning the room.

Her back slammed into the concrete. “Uh.” He stepped out and rammed backward again. It forced the air from her lungs again and again.

No. No.

Her fingers slipped from his face and latched onto his shoulder, trying to hold with her legs. He turned and battered her knee into the wall. It cracked her hold. She slid down his body and landed on her hip.

“No!” Larkin bellowed.

Lucas dropped to his hands and knees and scrambled toward the gun.

“No!” She shoved to her feet, but her knee gave out, slamming her back to the ground.

Everything hurt. Blood covered her head to toe. But this was it. This race would mean life or death.

Larkin rolled to her belly and army crawled.

“Larkin!” The voice was the only one she wanted to hear in that moment. Beckett’s deep rumbling base gave her the burst of energy she needed to crawl harder, faster for the gun. She reached it at the same time as Lucas and slung the barrel out of his reach just in time.

Lucas growled and grabbed the back of her neck, pinching tight. Instantly, stars danced in her field of vision.

A roar rippled through the room unlike any she’d ever heard.

The grip at her neck slipped, setting her free. She crawled away, desperate for any distance between them.

Sickening sounds of flesh meeting flesh filled the room. The impacts didn’t find her, though. It didn’t make sense unless she was parting with her body. She rolled onto her bruised bottom.

“Beckett.” He stood toe to toe with the man who wanted to kill her, who was moments away from killing her. “No.” She didn’t want him hurt. So many people had already paid the price for her.

Larkin used the wall and pushed to her feet. Well, foot. Her right leg refused to function. She shuffled forward toward the gun. What would she do with it when she got it? No way could she chance hitting Beckett.

She reached for it and fell to the floor, trying to pick up the blood-covered weapon. The room tilted and wobbled with every move she made.

In the center of the room, the two men tangled. Too close. She hated Beckett being so close to danger. Lucas swung an angry fist. Beckett bobbed easily out of reach. His dark gaze jumped side to side, calculating everything.

Then she realized Beckett was danger.

He didn’t blink. He didn’t sweat. He stepped in, grabbed Lucas’s head, and jerked it in an unnatural angle.

The monster that used to be a man, the one who’d tormented her and killed her friend, dropped as though his skeleton had dissolved.

Without a second glance, Beckett rushed to Douglas’s side. “Larkin, talk to me. Tell me you’re okay.” He moved Douglas’s weak hands to the side and ripped the old man’s shirt wide.

Douglas’s groan hit her between the eyes.

“Larkin!” Beckett barked.

“Yes.” Her head shook in contraction. “I’m fine.”

“Good girl.” Beckett’s fingers moved skillfully over Douglas’s bloody belly. “Can you come over here and help me?”

“Yes.” She left the gun and levered herself up the wall slowly. One inch at a time. “Is he …?”

“Hear all his whining? He’s going to be just fine.” Beckett slipped from his jacket and pulled the long sleeve over his head with one hand. Blood from his hands stained the edge of the short sleeve clinging to his torso. He used his teeth and ripped the long sleeve into two strips.

The closer she got to Lucas’s body, the slower her steps became.

“Don’t look. He’s never going to hurt you again.” His gaze found hers. “Do you hear me?”

She nodded, locking on his steady gaze, and shuffled to him. He stood, offered his hands, and helped her to the floor.

“What do I do?” Her voice quaked.

Douglas looked so … pale. Blood covered the floor under him.

“When I get these in place, you’ll hold them there. Front and back, okay?”

“Okay.” She used the back of her only clean sleeve and wiped the blood from her face.

Beckett placed the square strips over the two holes that were so damn close they seemed to make one big hole. “Here.” He moved his hands and guided hers to the cloths. His hands pressed hard against hers. “Hold as tight as you can. I’ll be back.”

“Back?” Panic filled her.

He sighed. His forehead pressed to hers. He held both her shoulders and hugged her close. “You’re so fucking brave, Larkin. You can do this. I’m going to get an ambulance. I will be back with help.”

“Promise?” She hated how pathetic she sounded. Lucas syphoned all the strength from her.

“I’ve never promised anything more, sweetheart.”

He stood and ran, leaving her alone with her dying friend and the man who tried his best to kill her.