Chapter 2 - The Man in the Darkness
Before I could scream, Nathaniel grabbed me and pulled me against his chest.
More gunshots exploded through the lobby.
People dropped behind marble counters.
The darkness filled with shouting.
“East entrance breached.”
“Protect Graves.”
“Find the child.”
Nathaniel pushed me behind a thick stone column.
“Stay behind me.”
His voice was calm.
His hand was not.
I could feel it trembling against my shoulder.
Dante appeared from the darkness carrying a handgun.
“Emergency systems were sabotaged.”
“Inside job?”
“Has to be.”
Red security lights flickered on.
I saw three guards running toward a service corridor.
One collapsed when another shot echoed.
I covered my ears.
Nathaniel immediately turned my face into his jacket.
“Don’t look.”
The terrifying man from every whispered story suddenly sounded like a father trying to keep a child from seeing a nightmare.
Dante pointed toward a side elevator.
“We need to move.”
Nathaniel lifted me into his arms.
“I can walk.”
“Not today.”
We rushed through a hidden steel door behind the reception area.
Several guards followed.
The corridor beyond looked nothing like the beautiful lobby.
Concrete walls.
Security cameras.
Steel doors.
Emergency lighting.
Nathaniel carried me quickly.
I finally managed to ask the question pounding inside my head.
“Is my mom okay?”
Nathaniel did not lie to me.
“I don’t know.”
That answer frightened me more than anything.
Dante’s phone rang.
He answered immediately.
“Talk.”
His expression changed.
“What?”
Nathaniel stopped walking.
Dante lowered the phone slowly.
“The team reached the apartment.”
My stomach twisted.
“And?”
Nathaniel asked the question for me.
Dante looked at me.
Then at Nathaniel.
“The door was open.”
I felt suddenly cold.
“Where’s my mom?”
Dante continued carefully.
“No one was inside.”
I jumped out of Nathaniel’s arms.
“She’s at work.”
Dante shook his head.
“We called the restaurant.”
My mouth went dry.
“She never arrived.”
Nathaniel turned away for half a second.
His jaw tightened.
Then he punched a code into another door.
A private underground command room opened before us.
Computer screens covered the walls.
A map of the city glowed across a giant display.
Nathaniel placed both hands on a table.
“Find Elena.”
Dozens of people immediately began searching traffic cameras, phone records, hospital admissions, and security footage.
I stood beside the table feeling very small.
Then one screen changed.
A camera image appeared.
It showed my apartment building.
The timestamp was from forty-three minutes earlier.
My mother stepped outside wearing her blue restaurant uniform.
A dark SUV pulled beside the curb.
A man got out.
Even in the blurry footage, I recognized the scar on his chin.
Marcus Calder.
My mother tried to run.
Two men grabbed her.
I screamed.
Nathaniel stared at the screen with a look I would remember forever.
Not fear anymore.
Rage.
He turned toward Dante.
“Find that vehicle.”
Then another guard rushed into the room.
“Sir, we found something on one of the attackers upstairs.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
It was old.
The edges were burned.
In the picture stood a much younger Nathaniel Graves.
Beside him was my mother.
She was smiling.
May you like
Nathaniel’s arm was around her waist.
And she was wearing my silver bracelet.
