Hotel? He’d said hotel, not apartment. He knew where she’d been staying? The door to the office opened and a man with a well-equipped shoulder holster stepped inside. Myla and Alvarez turned away and Kara’s heart lurched. “Myla, wait!”

Myla turned. “You’ll come?”

“No. Don’t go.”

“I have to go.” She walked toward the man with the gun and he held the door open.

Kara took a step forward, but the man stepped in front of Myla and Alvarez and placed his hand on his weapon. Law Enforcement 101 replayed in her mind. Bullets didn’t believe in second chances. All Kara could do was watch the door shut and feel helpless.

Seconds turned into minutes and she didn’t move. She just stood there, staring at the man with the gun, him staring back at her. Suddenly, a roaring sound filled the room, radiating through the ceiling. A helicopter. Myla was leaving on a helicopter. Panic rushed over Kara. She could never track Myla if she left by sky. Her mind raced, seeking a solution, but before she could come up with one, the door behind her burst open. The man guarding her whirled around and pulled his gun. A second later he was on the ground and Blake was holding the gun that had put him there.

“Myla!” Kara screamed, running towards him. “The chopper!”

Blake handed her a gun and Kara gladly accepted it, and in the process he grabbed her and kissed her. “Don’t ever fucking scare me like this again.”

“I’ll try,” she promised. “My sister, Blake. She’s with Alvarez on that chopper.” She took off for the hallway of what appeared to be an office building, with Blake on her heels.

“Here!” he shouted, pointing at a stairwell entry.

The charge up the four flights of steps was eternal, and they cleared the door and made their way to the roof too late. The chopper was lifting off. Kara slumped in defeat. “No. No. No.” She turned to Blake and shouted. “Alvarez is with her. He has her. He—” A blast sounded and Kara and Blake both turned to watch the chopper go up in flames.

Shock surged through Kara and the gun fell from her hand. She began to shake, and she couldn’t catch her breath. “No. No. Nononononono.” And then her knees gave way and she was falling. Blake caught her to him and she grabbed his shirt, tears streaming down her cheeks, a waterfall she couldn’t control. “Save her. Please. I…Please. Help her, Blake. You have to help her.”

He pulled her tight against him and hugged her, and she clung to him, the only strength she had left. “I’m here, Kara. I’m here.”

But Myla was gone.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

CHAPTER

TWENTY-NINE