Chapter 46
KIRA
The walls feel like they’re closing in on me, no matter how many times I tell myself it isn’t true.
After the safe room door was sealed, the thud echoed in my head like a nightmare. When the radio communication starts up, it makes me wish I were only hearing the ghostly thud.
“… det charge … multiple targets …”
Channel three crackles, the words broken by static, but clear enough to create horrible scenes in my mind with each communication.
When the radio goes quiet, I stand in the center of the room, listening to the sound of my own breathing, counting the seconds until I hear one of their voices again. Until I know they’re okay.
I rest my palm on my stomach and try to focus on my breathing, but it doesn’t do a thing for my racing pulse.
There are no windows for distraction. No corners deep enough to crawl into. Only solid walls that remind me that nothing here is meant to fail.
Nothing.
I’m still wearing Atlas’s sweatshirt, and I bring a handful of it up to my face so I can breathe in the scent of him. Please let them be okay.
Something hits the structure with enough impact to send a vibration through the floor.
The urge to do something, to run, nearly overwhelms me, but I won’t let myself act on it. My men were incredibly clear on that point, and I trust them.
Silence doesn’t mean safety, and noise doesn’t mean danger.
My gaze flicks to the shelf beside the door, where the pistol waits exactly where they told me to put it. I leave it there.
I sit. I stand again. I pace.
A distant rumble rolls through the mountain. Is that Grizz’s work?
I sit again and drop my head into my hands, trying to blot out the pictures that keep filling my mind without my permission.
I can’t lose these men when I’ve only just found them.
The radio crackles again. “…still holding …”
I’m dizzy with relief.
I slide down onto the floor and draw my knees in as close as my changing body allows. I whisper promises to my daughter that I don’t realize I’m making until they pass my lips.
You’re safe.
They’re coming back.
We’re not alone.
Time stretches and compresses until I lose track of it entirely.
Much later—who knows?—a voice comes over the radio that sounds like Grizz, except it's nearly breathless. “…don’t wait for me—”
My heart pounds as my skin turns to ice. Don't wait for him? What the hell's going on?
“…if we lose the perimeter—fallback protocol—”
Atlas? But he doesn't sound the same, either.
There's a crack of gunfire before the radio cuts out, and a sob tears out of my throat.
I’m clinging to the comm like a lifeline, but it goes quiet again for far too long.
Then come unfamiliar voices making loud commands. Next, the wail of sirens. Even muffled, they’re unmistakable.
I don’t move.
I don’t even breathe.
The radio goes silent.