Chapter 3
BEAST
April.
I’m standing in another empty warehouse, and the only thing welcoming me is the lingering tendrils of my failure to save Layla.
The warehouse is a tomb of broken glass and bitter shadows. The scent of mildew clings to concrete as if the rot can’t bear to let go. My boots echo in the empty space, dust swirling in the harsh stripes of moonlight filtering through a hole in the roof.
This is the fourth place in as many weeks that’s turned up empty.
Cipher keeps feeding me possibilities—420 Pear, 420 Parker, 420 Pavilion—but each lead dries up as soon as I get there, like the city itself is hiding her from me.
I stand in the center of the room, hands loose at my sides, the colors of my tattoos stark against pale skin, scars cutting through the ink like ghosts that never left. My cut weighs on my shoulders.
“Where are you, Layla?” I breathe into the dark, voice low and rough, and every word is an ache I can't describe. I’ve never felt this way for another soul on this planet.
“Baby, I’m hunting you, but you have to give me something.
” My voice dies in the emptiness. For a long moment I stand perfectly still, waiting for an answer I know won’t come, praying for a sign, even if it’s just the faintest hint.
But there’s nothing. Just the hollow thud of my heartbeat and the certainty that I will not stop.
Not until she’s safe, not until she’s home.
Even if I have to tear this city apart brick by brick.