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As soon as I’m free, he pulls htly against hi in his powerful body, and then he releasesaze hard and fiercely possessive A moment of wordless communication passes between us, and I know I knohat he can’t say right now

I knoould always come for me

I knoould kill forhis aro," he says quietly, still looking at htly, letting him lead me toward the darkened area near the wall on the opposite side of where theThe maze of shelves and boxes in the middle of the warehouse quickly hides us froain and letting go offor so the floor, and then there is a quiet creak as he lifts a board off the floor and places it to the side

On the floor in front of us is a large square opening

I kneel down beside it, peering into the darkness below

"Cli his hand on htly The familiar touch calms me a bit "There is a ladder"

I s, reaching out with my hand to find said ladder How does he know this?

"I hacked into their co," he explains quietly, as though reading e area below that has a drainpipe leading outside Find it and crawl through it" His hand leaves er of our situation hitting rab it,and cautiously begin to descend It’s pitch-black down there, and under noro into an unknown baseht now than the s, then look up, seeing Julian still sitting there The expression on his face is tense and alert, like he’s listening for so

And then I hear it--a murmur of voices, followed by shouts in Arabic

My absence had been discovered

Julian rises to his feet with one s the un "Go," he orders, his voice low and hard "Now, Nora Get to the drainpipe and outside I’ll hold them back"

"What? No!" I stare at hiives lare "Go," he hisses "Now, or we’re both dead I can’t worry about you and fight the torn I don’t want to leave him behind, but I don’t want to stand in his way either "I love you," I say quietly, looking up at him, and see a quick flash of white teeth in response

"Go, baby," he says, his tone , I do as he says, clirowing louder, and I know thewith the et to the darkened area along this wall My entire body is shaking with a co as I descend further into the darkness

Rat-tat-tat! The burst of gunfire above startleshard and erratic As soon as my feet touch the floor, I stretch out rope in the darkness, searching for the ith the drain pipe

More gunfire Yells Screa so hard, it sounds like a dru squeaks underneath nore it, frantically searching for that drainpipe Rats are nothing to er I don’t know if he’s by hiht of hi that I can’t focus on it now Not if I want to survive

My hands touch the wall, but I can’t find an opening It’s too dark Panting, Imy hands up and down the sister the pain I need to find a way out If they catch unfire, followed by ,with every moment Julian Julian is up there I try not to think about it, but I can’t There’s nothing I can do to help hiically, I know that I’oithout so much as a fork to defend myself with In thea bulletproof vest

Of course, logic has nothing to do with the agonizing fear I feel at the thought of losing hi for the drainpipe Julian knohat he’s doing This is his world, his area of expertise This is the part of his life he was shieldinghard on the wall near

The drainpipe I found it

There is another high-pitched squeak, and so scrambles out of the pipe toward et on all fours and deter myself for more potential rodent encounters