Chapter 9 · Red Line Lock

"Put the gun down, Evelyn." Nolan caught her wrist before she could pull the trigger.

His palm closed around her hard enough to hurt. The muzzle stayed between his eyes, but his thumb pressed against the inside of her wrist, right over her pulse.

"Take your hand off me."

"Not while you're aiming at my head."

"You admitted you were there. You admitted you might have ordered the disaster. What part of that sounds like a reason to trust you?"

"None of it." His face was pale under the grime and blood on his temple. "But if you shoot me, Mika dies."

The maintenance tunnel shuddered around them. Dust dropped from the ceiling. Somewhere behind the sealed blast door, boots slammed against metal.

Evelyn's finger tightened against the trigger.

Nolan leaned closer. His breath brushed her cheek, warm and uneven. "You want answers? Keep me alive long enough to get them."

"You want me alive because the contract won't let you get too far from me."

"That too."

"At least you finally admit it."

"I admitted the part that's trying to kill us.