Chapter 24 · Before Zero

"Forty-seven seconds." Kyle's voice came through the phone speaker, calm as a weather report. "That's how long you have before Lyla bleeds out."

Emma's hand went numb around the evidence phone. Mark was three blocks away, running red lights to get to Lyla's apartment. She could hear his engine screaming through her earpiece.

"What do you want?" Emma said.

"You know what I want." Kyle laughed. "The notebook. The real one, not the copy you've been waving around."

Emma looked down at the leather journal on the table. Her husband's handwriting covered every page. Names. Dates. Loop signatures. Three years of evidence that Kyle existed.

"Burn it," Kyle said, "and I'll tell you which artery I cut. You'll have time to save her. Maybe."

"You'll just loop back anyway."

"Not if you're smart." His tone shifted, almost friendly. "See, Emma, I've done this seventeen times. Mark always gets to Lyla's door at forty-one seconds. He always picks the wrong artery. She always dies, he always comes for me, and I always reset before he pulls the trigger. But you—" He paused. "You've never burned that notebook before."

Emma's throat locked. "What happens if I do?"

"I stop hunting you.