WHEN I WOKE UP, THE first thing I saw was Theo’s smiling face. I gave him a smile of my own and nestled closer to him, my hand resting on his chest.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he said.

“Hey, handsome.” I trailed my finger gently over one of his bruises. It was a bit more visible and darker now. “Are you sure nothing hurts?” I pushed myself up. “I can get you some painkillers.”

“No need.” His gaze was focused on my breasts. Just as he reached toward me, a loud beeping sound pierced the air.

“What the hell is that?” I asked, and Theo immediately jumped up, grabbing his pants off the floor. I was momentarily distracted by his gorgeous ass. This had better be a false alarm because the only thing I wanted was to go back to bed with him. As he quickly got dressed, I searched for my clothes.

“Stay here,” he said, going for the door. A few moments later, just as I finished putting on my clothes, he appeared in the doorway, his face serious. “We need to get out of here. Now.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” I followed him out as he rushed toward his computer. Warning pop-ups were everywhere on the screen because someone had broken into the apartment. “They can’t get in here, can they? They don’t know you have secret rooms.” At least I hoped they couldn’t know any of that. “Maybe it’s someone random.”

“No, it’s not. Look.” He pointed at one of the camera feeds. It was the image of the dusty room just outside that was full of armed people with cobweb tattoos who were looking around and probably trying to find a way to get in here. “They figured it out somehow. It’s only a matter of time before they find us.”

“But how are we going to get out?” There was only one way out that I knew of, and it led straight to the Spiders.

Theo opened the cabinet with his weapons and grabbed some, tucking a gun in his holster. He offered two guns to me, and I took them. “We’ll have to make our way out.”

“Are you sure about that?” I glanced at the screen. The Spiders were still circling around the room and the rest of the apartment, but I didn’t think they knew how to reach the secret door. “The door’s locked. They can’t open it. They might not even find us.”

“It’s too risky to stay. They won’t leave until they figure it out. Once they check all the rooms, they’ll realize there’s something taking up too much space in the apartment that they can’t see. They wouldn’t still be here if they thought this place was empty.”

I swore as I adjusted my holster that I’d grabbed and gripped the other gun in my hand. A loud thud sounded as something hit the door, making me jump.

“They’re here. The door will hold for a few minutes, but not forever.” He quickly typed something on his computer. “Go back to the room and crouch behind the bed. Now!”

I wasn’t sure what he intended to do, but as the door started to rattle, I hurried to his room. He came a few moments later and pulled me into a tight embrace, as if trying to shield me from something.

“Please tell me you have some secret exit I know nothing about,” I said.

“Keep your head down. Things are going to get a little shaky around...” He didn’t have a chance to finish, because a loud explosion sounded somewhere in the room with the computers. The alarms went quiet. “Come.” He got hold of my hand and we ran for the door. We emerged into the room that was now full of smoke, but I could see there was a hole in one of the walls. I pulled my shirt up over my nose, my eyes burning as we made our way toward the hole. Some of the cabinets and the computer desk were on fire, and bits of plaster were falling down everywhere.

Theo was in front of me and he fired at someone as we went through the hole. I coughed as we found ourselves in the hallway, and shots rang out. He pushed me down toward the floor, and a bullet whizzed just above my head. Theo moved agilely, shielding me from our attackers and shooting at them.

But as one of them appeared out of nowhere behind his back, I lifted my gun and pulled the trigger. The guy fell down to the floor, and Theo gave me a little nod before catching my hand again and helping me up to my feet. We raced down the hallway and through the open door that led to the main hallway. As we were running for the stairway, we had to fire a few more times behind us to stop the Spiders from following us.

“Out of the way!” Theo yelled as we almost bumped into the neighbors who’d come out to check what was going on. As soon as they saw our guns, they broke into a run, some going for their apartments and some seeking a quick way out.

We rushed downstairs as fast as we could. Someone fired at us from above when we reached the lobby, and Theo shoved me aside and aimed at the attacker. A bullet embedded itself in the wall next to me, but I kept going for the door, Theo following closely behind me.

One of the Spiders appeared at the door and I had to hide behind one of the columns to avoid getting shot. Theo had dived behind one of the sofas, and I hoped he hadn’t been hit. The Spiders were everywhere, and I had no idea how we were going to get out of here. More shots were fired, and I managed to hit one of the Spiders when I peeked from around the column. My gun was empty, so I tossed it to the floor and grabbed the one that was in my holster.

My heart skipped a beat when Theo jumped to his feet and rushed one of the Spiders. I pressed myself against the column and took a quick look around. There had to be some other way to get out of here. I glanced in Theo’s direction and saw him use the man he’d tackled as a shield as more of the Spiders spilled inside.

“Chiara!” Theo yelled, and waved at me, pointing toward the other side of the building. It took me a moment to realize there was some kind of a door with a faded sticker on it that was full of all kinds of doodles and scribbles. There was tape over the door too, and I wasn’t sure if it was even safe to use it, but Theo was going in that direction as he fired at the Spiders.

He kept glancing back at me, and I knew I had to hurry. When it seemed like the Spiders were busy firing at Theo, who’d hidden behind an armchair, I took a deep breath and dashed across the room toward the door. Ducking my head as bullets flew not so far away from me, I collided with the door, which gave way. I ended up in a dark hallway that stunk like a sewer, and something icky touched my face. But having a giant spider in my hair was better than getting shot by a Spider, so I made my way forward.

“Keep going!” Theo’s voice sounded from behind me. I was sure he’d studied all the possible exits and ways out in case something went wrong, so I didn’t worry that we’d end up at a dead end. The only problem would be if more Spiders were waiting for me at the end of the hallway.

I tripped over something on the floor, so I had to catch myself on the wall, which was damp under my fingers. It was getting really dark in here, and just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to keep going, my hands found a door of some kind. A shot echoed through the hallway and it was so loud that I shuddered.

I felt for a knob or anything that could open the door, and ended up pulling some kind of a lever. The door slid open, and I burst out into the alley that was behind the building, the sunlight nearly blinding me. I squinted, my gun ready, but I couldn’t see anyone. Either the Spiders hadn’t known about this exit or they hadn’t believed we’d ever get to it.

“Run!” Theo said as he emerged, slamming the door behind him. Bullets made holes in it only a few moments later, but we were already hurrying away from there. “My bike’s nearby,” he said, and I hoped we’d get to it soon, because I could hear the Spiders shouting at each other for letting us escape.

“Over there.” Theo pointed at the bike parked just across the street. There was a lot of traffic, though, so when we rushed to get across, cars honked at us. We couldn’t stop and wait, since the Spiders were hot on our heels. Passersby stared at us, and police sirens were getting closer too. Just as we were about to reach the bike, a bullet came out of nowhere, narrowly missing Theo’s head only because he’d managed to jump aside at the last moment.

I looked up and saw a man with a sniper rifle looking through one of the windows, and he was taking aim at me. Shit. I crouched behind one of the parked cars as Theo fired toward the attacker and a few windows burst into pieces. While the attacker was out of sight, Theo hopped onto the bike and I rose to my feet, bolting toward him. I climbed behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist, and we sped out of there, zigzagging between the cars as shots rang out behind us.

My heart rate was through the roof as I held onto Theo, hoping no one would come after us. The wind whipped against my face, and I shivered, but at least we were both still alive. Where would we go now? The sniper had probably been Walter, and the Spiders had definitely seen in which direction we’d gone. The cops would be onto them soon, so they’d have to disperse, but would they still be able to follow us?

Did they have someone who could track us down working for them? And since Walter had been waiting for us right where the bike had been parked, it was possible he’d put a tracker on it. I was glad it wasn’t a bomb, but I assumed Walter needed proof he’d killed me if he wanted to take over the Rosa Nera, and collecting bits and pieces of me off the pavement wouldn’t be an easy task, especially with the cops coming.

“We have to ditch the bike,” I yelled. “They might be tracking us. If they figure out where we’re going...”

“I know,” Theo said. “Just hold on tightly.”

He weaved between cars and took a sharp left turn. I glanced behind us, but it didn’t look like anyone was following us. For now. Theo headed toward an underground garage of a shopping mall, and if we were lucky, we’d be able to confuse our enemy and disappear in the crowd.