Chapter 5 · Two-Meter Kill Zone

"Stop breathing so loud." Kane's hand slammed over my mouth and drove my back flat against the vent wall.

"Get off me," I tried to say against his palm. It came out muffled and pissed.

"No," he said. His voice was right against my ear, low and pissed too. "You move again and this whole pipe rings like a bell. You want that?"

His knee was jammed between my legs to keep me pinned. His other hand had my wrist locked above my head. Cold metal at my back, hot chest at my front. Two meters wide and we were taking up all of it.

I bit his hand.

He didn't even flinch. "Do it again and I tape your mouth shut. Try me, Mara."

"You think I'm scared of you taping my mouth?" I snapped, still whispering. "You're the reason we're stuck in a coffin."

"I'm the reason we're not dead yet."

Below us, boots hit the maintenance floor. Not one pair. Three. Four. The red sweep of a scanner light cut right across the vent slats under our feet.

Kane went dead still. His eyes dropped to my face. "Don't. Move."

"I'm not moving," I breathed. "You're crushing me."

"Good. Stay crushed."

The scanner beeped. A voice crackled from below, flat and bored. "Sector four clear. Check the vents. Command wants no stragglers."

Another voice. "Cleaning crew's already at the east exit. If anything's in the pipe, it comes out there."

My stomach dropped. I grabbed Kane's shirt. "East exit? That's our exit."

"I know."

"So what's the plan, genius? We just lie here and wait to get shot?"

"We wait until they pass," he said. His hand was still over my mouth, but lighter now. His thumb was right against my cheek, hot. "And you stop talking."

"You stop manhandling me and maybe I will."

He leaned in closer. So close I could feel his breath on my lip. "You stole from my company, you linked my heart to yours, and now you're complaining about personal space?"

"You linked it! I didn't ask for your freak heart to latch onto me!"

"Keep your voice down."

"Make me."

His eyes narrowed. For a second I thought he would actually do it. Then the light below us swept again, brighter this time, and his whole body tensed.

The scanner hit the metal right under us and the vent hummed.

I froze. Kane's hand slid from my mouth to the back of my neck, holding me still. Not rough now. Just firm. His forehead almost touched mine.

"Breathe through me," he whispered. "Slow. In, out. Like I do."

"I know how to breathe," I whispered back.

"Then do it. You're spiking."

He was right. I could feel it. That weird second pulse in my chest that wasn't mine. His. The contract. It had been ticking steady for four days, that low thump-thump that matched his. Now it stuttered.

Thump. Thump. Thump-thump.

Kane's jaw locked. He looked down at his chest like he could see through it.

"What was that?" I said.

"Nothing."

"That wasn't nothing. It skipped. Kane, it skipped."

"I said it's nothing."

"Bullshit." I shoved at his chest. He didn't budge. "Don't lie to me when we're literally sharing a heartbeat. What did it do?"

He grabbed my chin, forced me to look at him. "It jumped. Okay? It jumped a number. We're burning time faster in here."

"How much faster?"

"Doesn't matter."

"It matters if we're gonna die in a pipe!" My voice cracked louder than I meant to. The sound bounced.

Kane's hand covered my mouth again, hard. His eyes were blazing. "Mara. Shut. Up."

Below, the boots stopped.

"You hear that?" one of the crew said. "Up there."

Silence. Thick, awful silence. The scanner light stopped moving and locked right on our vent.

I could feel Kane's heart hammering against my ribs. Or was it mine? I couldn't tell anymore. They were beating together, too fast.

"Contact at the east exit," the radio crackled. "Hold position. We got movement in the ducts."

Kane slowly pulled his hand away from my mouth. His palm was damp. My lip was shaking.

"We have to move," I whispered. "Now."

"If we crawl, they hear us."

"If we stay, they shoot us through the floor!"

He looked toward the east end of the vent. Twenty feet of narrow metal, barely enough to crawl. At the far end, a faint square of light. Our way out. And now, shadows moving across it. Gun barrels.

"They're at the exit," he said. "Two of them. Maybe three."

"So we're trapped. Great. Perfect plan."

"We are not trapped." He shifted, and the metal groaned under his weight. He winced. "We go west."

"West is a dead end! I checked the map!"

"West is a drop to level three. It's not on your map."

"And you know this how?"

"Because I built this building," he snapped. "You think I don't know where my own vents go?"

I stared at him. "You built it and you still got us stuck in it?"

"I got us alive. You want to argue architecture or you want to live?"

Another beep from below. Louder. The scanner was climbing.

Kane's pulse spiked again. That double thump hit my chest like a fist. I gasped.

"Kane—"

"I know." His forehead pressed to mine for half a second. He was sweating. I could feel the heat coming off him. "Listen to me. When I say go, you crawl. Fast. Don't stop. Don't look back."

"What about you?"

"I'm right behind you."

"You're lying. You can't fit behind me in here."

"Then I'll be on top of you. Either way, you move."

The vent under my shoulder vibrated. Someone was climbing.

"Shit," I breathed. "Shit, they're coming up."

Kane moved. He didn't crawl. He rolled, dragging me with him, flipping us so his back hit the metal and I was sprawled across his chest. His arms locked around me. One hand over the back of my head, shoving my face into his neck.

"What are you doing?" I choked.

"Making us smaller," he hissed. "And keeping you quiet. Stay there."

I was literally lying on top of him. His shirt was damp against my cheek. I could hear his heart going crazy, that engineered thump hammering my ear. My own pulse was trying to match it and failing.

"You're insane," I whispered into his skin. "This isn't smaller, this is—"

"Do you want to breathe or do you want to argue?" His hand tightened in my hair. Not gentle. Possessive. "Pick."

"I want to not die!"

"Then breathe with me. Right now. In." He inhaled, deep, and my chest was forced to rise with his. "Out."

I tried. God, I tried. But the air in the pipe was thin and hot and smelled like rust and his cologne and fear. My lungs wouldn't fill.

"Again," he ordered, his voice rough against my hair. "With me. Come on, Mara."

I sucked in a breath and it hitched. His hand slid to my back, flat and hot between my shoulder blades, holding me down.

"That's it," he muttered. "Good girl. Again."

"Don't call me that," I gasped, but I was breathing with him now. In, out. In, out. Our chests moving together.

"I'll call you whatever keeps you alive."

Below, the climbing stopped. A hand banged against the vent, testing it. The whole pipe shook.

Kane's arms went tight around me like a vise. His lips brushed my temple. Not a kiss. A warning.

"Don't make a sound," he breathed.

I nodded against his neck, my hands fisted in his shirt. I could feel every inch of him. The hard line of his chest, the heat of his stomach under mine, his thigh pressed hard between my knees. It should have been gross. It was terrifying. And my stupid heart was pounding for a completely different reason now.

"You feel that?" he whispered.

"Feel what?"

"You. You're shaking."

"I'm not shaking, you're shaking."

"I'm not shaking." But his voice was shaking. Just a little.

The banging below stopped. The radio crackled again. "No contact in the shaft. Must be rats. Hold the east exit. Command says drop the gate in sixty seconds."

Gate.

Kane's whole body went rigid.

"What gate?" I whispered.

"The fire gate," he said, and his eyes met mine in the dark. They were too close. Too bright. "It seals the vent. If it drops while we're in here—"

"We get cut in half?"

"We get sealed in. No air."

My breath stopped. "Kane."

"I know." He was already moving, rolling us again, shoving me forward on my hands and knees. "Go. Now. Crawl!"

I scrambled. Metal screamed under my palms. Behind me, Kane was right on me, his chest hitting my heels, his hand on my ankle shoving me faster.

"Faster!" he barked.

"I'm going!" I yelled. No more whispering. Screw whispering.

Ahead, the light at the east exit got bigger. And in that light, three figures in black masks. Rifles up. Lights on.

"Stop!" one shouted, and the red dot hit my hand. "Hands where we can see them!"

Behind us, a massive hydraulic hiss. The west gate started to drop, slow and heavy, grinding down from the ceiling of the pipe.

Kane grabbed my waist and yanked me back against him, chest to back, his arm locked around my throat, his other hand flat over my heart like he could hold it in.

"Don't shoot!" he shouted toward the lights, his voice raw. "Rusk! Kane Rusk! Hold fire!"

The rifles didn't lower. One of them laughed. "Yeah? Prove it. Crawl out slow. Hands empty. Or we seal you in there and let the clock do it."

The gate behind us dropped another foot with a scream of metal. The countdown in Kane's chest skipped again, hard enough to make me choke.

Kane's mouth was at my ear, his breath hot and fast. "Mara, listen to me—"

"Hands up! Now!" the crew screamed from the exit, and the gate behind us slammed down another inch, sparks spitting across my boots as—