Pieces of the Night

Prologue

A crack. A jolt. A metallic tang in the air.

And then—

Pain.

Fire tears through my thigh, shockwaves splintering down my leg. Fluorescent lights smear into shelving units, and the whole room tilts.

A panicked voice cuts through the static. “No… Oh, no—shit…”

My gaze drops when something clatters at my feet.

Then it pans lower: a bloom of red, seeping through my jeans, dark and spreading.

Heat pulses down my leg. My body teeters, but adrenaline holds me upright. I glance over my shoulder through the glass door.

An engine hums. A getaway, waiting.

All the best mistakes have names.

This one?

Stupidity.