Chapter 11 · Run With the Man Who Killed You

Charlotte's gun was already up when Marcus hit the kill switch on the feed.

The screen went black. Lisa's cry cut off mid-breath. The market's emergency lights kicked on, bathing the corridor in strips of red that made every shadow a threat.

"Move." Marcus didn't wait. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her left, away from the main hall where Ivy's people were screaming. Something whistled past Charlotte's ear and punched a hole through the concrete behind her head.

She twisted free. "You just showed me—"

"I showed you she's alive." He was already halfway down the corridor, checking corners like he'd done this route a hundred times. Maybe he had. "You want her back or you want to die here arguing?"

Charlotte's legs moved before her brain caught up. The vest she'd pulled off Ivy's guard dug into her ribs. Her boots hit metal grating and she registered they were heading down, not out. Wrong direction. But Marcus moved like he knew where the shooters weren't, and three seconds later she heard boots thunder past the junction they'd just left.

He took a hard right into a storage bay. Crates stacked to the ceiling, most of them empty.