The red emergency lights blinked on with a dull buzz, casting a dim, bloody glow over the pitch-black office. The heavy metal shutters had completely sealed the large windows, shutting out the morning sun and trapping them inside.

Julius stood perfectly still by his desk, his heart thumping hard against his ribs as his brain tried to process the shock. Beside him, Harrison moved with a quiet, terrifying speed, his heavy gun already drawn and resting steady in his hand.

"Get down," Harrison ordered, his low voice a harsh whisper that cut through the sudden silence.

Before Julius could even slide behind the safety of the large desk, the sound of glass breaking cut through the room. Bullets ripped through the locked office door, tearing the thick wood to pieces with a deafening noise.

Harrison lunged forward, grabbing Julius by the waist and pulling him down to the floor behind the desk just as another wave of gunfire filled the air. Papers and files danced through the red light, scattered by the force of the bullets.

"Are you hit?" Harrison asked, his large body pressing Julius firmly against the floor. His dominant scent flared, thick and heavy, trying to keep Julius calm as the noise echoed off the walls.

He checked Julius’s body with a quick, rough pat of his hands, his dark eyes searching for any sign of blood.

"No," Julius breathed, his hands steadying as he pulled his own gun from his belt. He could feel the strong vibration of the bullets hitting the other side of the desk, chipping away at the heavy wood.

"They are shooting to kill."

"We need to move before they clear the doorway," Harrison said, his dark eyes scanning the red-lit room. He peeked over the edge of the desk, lining up his sight, and fired three quick shots back toward the broken entrance.

A loud groan followed, then the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor outside. "That bought us a few seconds, but more are coming."

"Who sent them?" Julius muttered, his teeth gritted in anger as he stayed low. "Sarah wouldn’t have the power to hire this many professional shooters on her own. Clearly these are the men from the past."

"We will find out later," Harrison growled, grabbing Julius’s arm and pulling him up. "Right now, we need an exit. We cannot get pinned down in this corner."

The gunfire stopped for a brief second as the attackers reloaded their weapons in the hallway. In the sudden quiet, a strange, low hiss started to echo from the ceiling vents.

Julius looked up, his eyes widening in the dim red light as a thin white mist began to pour into the office. "Gas," he said, his voice dropping as he smelled the strange chemical air.

"It’s the building’s fire emergency system. Someone bypassed the main controls from the server room to release a knockout gas." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Cover your mouth," Harrison commanded. He pulled the collar of his dark shirt up over his nose, his eyes focusing on the small private kitchen area in the back corner of the office.

"Is there another way out of here? A service elevator? Anything?"

Julius coughed slightly as the sweet, heavy smell of the gas began to fill the air, making his head feel a bit dizzy and light. He pointed toward the back wall of the small kitchen, his mind working fast despite the panic.

"Behind the refrigerator," Julius said, his voice muffled behind his hand. "There is an old maintenance passage. It leads straight down to the building’s electrical core on the lower levels."

"Sarah doesn’t know about it. I put it in myself when we built the place just in case of an emergency like a fire or a strike."

"Move. Now," Harrison said.

They ran across the office, staying low to avoid the doorway. Harrison reached the small kitchen first. With a loud grunt, he used his massive strength to shove the heavy refrigerator aside, revealing a small, square metal door set deep into the wall.

Julius reached down, his fingers fumbling with the latch. The lock was old, but with a hard twist of his wrist, it clicked open. The cool, dark air of the passage rushed out, smelling of dust.

"You go first," Harrison said, turning back toward the main office door as the sound of heavy boots grew closer in the hallway. "Go, Julius. I’m right behind you."

Julius didn’t argue. He slid into the narrow opening, his boots finding the cold metal rungs of the ladder inside. He began to climb down quickly, his breath coming in short gasps.

Above him, Harrison slid into the passage just as a fresh round of bullets slammed into the kitchen walls, missing them by inches. Harrison grabbed the hatch, slamming it shut from the inside and locking it manually.

The heavy click plunged them into total darkness once again. The air in the passage was tight and cool, away from the toxic gas.

Julius climbed down a few more rungs before stopping, his hands gripping the cold metal bars tightly. He could hear Harrison’s heavy breathing right above his head.

"Are you okay?" Julius asked into the dark, his voice echoing slightly against the metal walls.

"I’m fine," Harrison rumbled, his hand reaching down in the dark to touch Julius’s shoulder, a solid weight that instantly made Julius feel grounded and safe.

"Keep moving down. We need to reach the basement before they realize where we went. They will search the office first, then they will look for where the gas didn’t reach."

They climbed down the long ladder in silence for a few minutes, the steady sound of their boots echoing in the narrow passage. It was a long way down, passing several floors of the dark building.

When they finally reached the solid concrete floor of the lower level, Julius pulled his personal cell phone from his pocket. The screen lit up, casting a faint blue light over their tired faces.

A new notification was glowing on the screen. It was a security alert from the building’s main gate.

Julius stared at the text, his jaw tightening as a wave of pure disappointment and anger washed over him again. "Sarah’s employee card just swiped out of the basement parking garage. She’s leaving the building right now."

Harrison’s dark eyes hardened in the blue light of the phone. "Then she’s running straight to the person who gave her the money and the orders. Let’s go catch her."

They walked out of the passage door and into the dim, quiet basement garage. The air was cool, Harrison’s large SUV was parked in the distance, untouched.

They moved quickly through the shadows, keeping their eyes on the exit ramps, ready for any more men with guns. "We take my car," Harrison said, unlocking the doors with a quiet click.

"Daniel is already looking into the money trail. If Sarah is running, she won’t go far without her payout."

Julius got into the passenger seat, his fists clenched tightly in his lap as Harrison started the powerful engine. The betrayal still hurt, but the drive to find the truth was taking over.

"She won’t escape," Julius said, his voice cold and determined as the car sped up the dark ramp and out into the city streets.

"I am going to find out exactly who paid her to ruin my life."